New Thoughts (8/23/03-8/24/03)
Teach only what is sound doctrine. Show your students how it applies to their own day to day lives, both by explaining it to them, and by walking out the example of your application before them. Give them cause to heed your message: God has come with salvation in His hands, offering His salvation to one and all without prejudice. He Himself has taught us to put aside our ungodly ways, and our worldly distractions, and to show self-control, to walk in righteousness, and to pursue godliness right here, right now. He has given us the greatest of reasons to do so: the certain hope of His appearing, the assurance that with His appearing our salvation will be complete. He has bought us, taken us away from our sinful ways to become His own property, pure like Himself, and seeking to do good as He seeks to do good. This is the message. Teach it. Command it of your students. Be constant in correction until they get it.
This, in a nutshell, is the message of this chapter. Paul is not giving Titus good advice here (although as advice goes, it is as good as it gets). Rather, he is declaring God's requirements for both teacher and student. Knowing that, the teacher must also make clear that, in passing it on, in inculcating these truths in his students, he also is not merely offering advice. He is declaring God's commandment.
How then is this different than the Law of Moses? What is so new about this new covenant we teach? Are not both a declaring of God's command? Indeed. And we can be certain that the command He calls us to declare has not changed. He has declared to us the foundations of morality, the only foundations upon which morality can find footing, and shall this change? Has good changed? Surely not! So what changed? The motivation. When Moses went up to the mountain to be with God, to receive God's commands, he departed from a people in fear. As much as God had done on their behalf, yet they had shown themselves sinful at every turn. They were well aware of their guilt, and had no cause for thinking the penalty could be paid. They knew full well that the sacrifices they offered could not fully cover the price of their sins. As clear as God had made His favor towards the children of Israel, He had also made His jealousy and wrath.
Now came the Law, the unmistakable declaration of God's expectations. Now came the rule of behavior, a rule so good and perfect in its demands that imperfect man could never hope to comply. Fear of reprisal was the primary motivator. But fear as a motivator works only for a time. As soon as the cause for concern is removed from our immediate view, its ability to motivate us to compliance is also removed. Look at the action of Israel while Moses was on the mountaintop. Hey, if God was with him up there, He apparently wasn't down here in the camp watching our actions. We can party until Moses gets back! The immediate threat was removed, and so was all encouragement to comply. We really need look no further than our next drive down the road to see the same effect. We will obey speed limits, so long as we see a cruiser at the side of the road. But, it's an obedience of fear. As soon as that cruiser's out of sight, we no longer feel a need to comply with the signage.
Now look at the motivation Paul gives us in this chapter. Comply with the godly rule of life, indeed. Those rules are no different than they ever were. But why ought we to comply? Not for fear of God's wrath, though that also remains very real. No. We are given the motivation of what God has done. He has brought salvation. He has bought our freedom from sinfulness. He has given us hope in a hopeless world. He has given us the right to participate in His own glory, declared us His own. And with all that, we are reminded that He has taught us. Note that Paul tells us God instructs us. It is not the judicial commandment that we are presented, it is the sound instruction of our Teacher, the Holy Spirit. Thus, our motivation is changed. Though the commands remain commands, it is our gratitude for what He has done, it is a response of love, which encourages us to comply. The motivation of fear disappears with the departure of fear's enforcer, but the motivation of love remains though the Beloved be absent.
Be freed by this! We have been under the rule of threat. The rule of sin is a fear motivated rule. The power of Satan lies in fear. It is fear which compels us to comply with his demands. But Christ has come. God's love has been made manifest to us. He has bought us out of Satan's kingdom, and restored us to His own household! He has shown Himself victorious over all the power of the enemy. Don't you see? The fear which pushed us to comply with the world is removed! It has been replaced by our own love for our Savior! Gladly can we obey the commands of One who so clearly loves us, who so clearly concerns Himself with our best welfare!
In spite of this motivation of love, we dare not lose sight of the fact that the things we have been told in this chapter are indeed God's requirements of us. Self-control, being sensible and dignified in our behavior; is not just good advice, it is God's command for us. Teaching what is good, encouraging what is good, doing what is good; these are mandates for the ambassadors of the kingdom of God. Purity of habit, purity of doctrine, purity of speech; these are the hallmarks of the Christian. It is by God's grace that we have been instructed to set aside all ungodliness and live righteously and godly in the here and now. It is by God's grace that we are empowered to comply.
In His grace, He has established for us a governance of teachers of truth, a government in which He invites us to participate. Every student is taught so as to teach others (elders, teach the youth, that they may be encouraged to righteous living, that none might bring dishonor to God by their actions). Every teacher is likewise a student. We are never so advanced in learning that we can no longer learn of God's ways. Yet, by the infilling power of the Holy Spirit, we are never so new to the walk of righteousness that we cannot offer encouragement to those who walk alongside us.
Those who teach us are appointed to the task by God, they are His providential means for our edification, for stirring within us the desire to do the good He sets before us, for training us that we might recognize His voice and heed no other. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to pay good heed to what we are taught, and to do more than here it. Shouting 'amen' is not paying heed. Congratulating the teacher on his stirring message is not paying heed. "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (Jn 14:15). If you love Me, you will learn from the teachers I have given you for your good, and you will shape your lives by that which they teach in My name.
Hear the message of this chapter! Most especially, we must hear and comprehend the message that what is taught here is for use here in this life. We dare not assume that all can continue as it has been, that Christ will make it all better when He comes. His command is to live in righteousness now, to walk in godly fashion now, to cease from our sins now. "You have become well; do not sin anymore" (Jn 5:14). "From now on sin no more" (Jn 8:11). We get all caught up in the wonder of physical healings, and these are indeed miraculous wonders, but the greater concern in God's mind is our spiritual healing. This is the healing he came to do. Every person Christ ever healed in body has still proceeded to the grave according to the normal course of life. They have proceeded in happier condition, but they have proceeded nonetheless. Ever, it is with an eye to the spirit, to the heart and soul, that He performs His works. Ten lepers were healed one day, but only one returned to worship the Healer. How many of these, then were truly helped? The nine doubtless went on through the remainder of their lives in happier state, but what of eternity?
The message to the cripple in John 5:14 is telling, and so is his reaction to that message. "You have become well; do not sin anymore." Surely, a heart of gratitude would have heard this message, and heeded its advice! But this man went straightway to those who sought his Healer's life, giving them the cause they needed to pursue His destruction. In this, the man who had received the gift of physical healing procured for himself the greater condemnation.
What of us? We have been given much by our beloved Lord and Savior. We have been given redemption. We have been given salvation. We have been given life and hope. Do we, then, hear the message of our Master? "Sin no more." He has instructed us to set it aside now, not in the day of His coming. He has instructed us to live lives of righteousness, demonstrating the ways of God who indwells us here on earth, not in some future day when we dwell in a world freed of all temptation. That's the message of this chapter. Have we heard it? Do we believe it? How often have we heard that God asks nothing of us which He will not provide us with the power to perform? How often have we said it ourselves? Do we believe it? He's asking us to live in holiness now. By faith, we know that His presence in these temples of flesh empowers us to comply to His command. By love, we know the desire to do so. We know, but do we believe it? If we believe it, do we teach it as He has told us to do? If this is indeed what we are being taught, surely we must heed our teachers, believe the clear message of Scripture, act on it ourselves, and teach it to all who will hear us!
Teachers, hear this, too! The RSV opens this final verse with "Declare these things." Allow me to accent it thusly: "Declare these things!" Paul is handing us the core of sound doctrine here in simple terms understandable by all. There is no great mystery being presented, just straightforward application of Gospel truth to our day to day lives. He is showing in plain terms what it means to walk godly in this present life. There is no other message that needs delivering to the believer. As teachers, the call is to teach sound doctrine, nothing more. The evangelist must needs speak of salvation, must make known the good news of the Gospel, but he speaks not to the believer but to those still in darkness. The teacher's mission is elsewhere, in the discipling of the children of light.
For the true disciple, salvation is already certain. There may be call now and again to teach them the reasons for their assurance, but the assurance is theirs already. What remains is training. The flesh is ever rebellious, and must needs be brought into compliance again and again. Spiritual muscle, like fleshly muscle needs the strengthening that comes from exercise, but we are not always keen to pursue the exercise we so desperately need. We need encouragement, and who better to encourage us than our brother and our friend! We all need training, lest we do ourselves more damage than good by our exercise. The one who goes at the weight machine without understanding may well do himself great injury. It is no different in matters of the spirit. We need trainers, encouragers, partners in this exercise program. That is the role of the teacher. Teach, then, only sound doctrine.
And as for us students, hear what is being declared. Shame on us if we ignore the lessons we are taught! Shame on us if we reject useful doctrine in favor of mere entertainments! What use are entertainments to the soul? Sound knowledge of sound doctrine brings sound health to the soul of a man. It is useful to a man, improving his condition and his worth. What benefit do we have from entertaining words? A momentary distraction, that, which leaves us no better when it has passed. No! Let us train our ears to listen with rejoicing to the words of Truth, that we may know what God requires of us, that we may be encouraged to pursue what He requires and corrected when our pursuits are elsewhere, and that we may labor with all diligence to do what we have been called and commanded to do.
It will take training. Never doubt that. Our nature still seeks ways to discredit and reject this message of self-control. We want to be in control, certainly, but not in that fashion. We want to have the final say in whatever we feel like doing. We don't do well with any authority being asserted over us. But that's not the self-control we are called to. Since birth we have been training ourselves for unbridled freedom. Our parents doubtless sought to instill a better way, but in our personal time, the goal was ever to be free of their constraint. Life, in many ways, feels like an unending series of imposed controls, external boundaries upon our freedom. This is evidence of a lack of self-control.
Were we to accept the training it takes to be self-controlled, were we to expend the effort required to make the self-controlled life our habit, the need for these external coercions of authority would be gone. The Law is put in place for the lawless, to bring them into correction. Authority is established to control those who won't control themselves. It is an office and a function appointed by God Himself. The Christian, far from being the model rebel, ought to be the model citizen. True, if there is conflict between God and government, God is to win, but we all too often choose to stand against the government on lesser grounds. This is not proper to a son of the chief Authority.
We are called to exemplary conduct, to live in ways that no man can find cause to condemn. Let no man disregard you. If our conduct follows upon our beliefs, if we are truly putting into practice the things God has taught us to practice in our lives, then the purity of His doctrine and the power of His presence will be seen. This is especially so in this day and age! So many claim this belief or that, but in practice do something completely foreign to that belief. "They claim to be Christians, but by their works they deny Him." We hardly have the corner on the hypocrisy market. We ought, however, to be cornering the integrity market.
If we have indeed found the Truth, the Truth which has made claims to being the unique and only Truth, then all else must be lies and subterfuge. If this system of faith, belief, and practice is the statement of the requirements of the One true God, then all other such systems must be false. Indeed, push any man hard enough on his philosophy of life and, if he has not placed God firmly at the foundation of that philosophy, his philosophy will be found to be filled with contradictions and inconsistencies. Study him closely enough, and you will assuredly find that his actions diverge from his 'beliefs.' Is it any wonder that so many today go forward with no faith in anything, no belief in anything? All other systems of belief must fail, for their founded upon false an unsupportable tenets. But, we, too, have failed to live our beliefs. We have heard that we can walk holy in this life from the very pages of Scripture. Yet, we have preferred the message that tells us it's impossible. That way we can be comfortable in our failure to live what we claim to believe.
Modern philosophy has taught us to be comfortable with this internal dichotomy, to accept the paradox of a faith that bears no resemblance to real life. God teaches no such thing. "Show yourself in all respects the model of what you teach" (Ti 2:7). "Carefully look to yourself and to your own conduct, and then none will despise you" (Matthew Henry). "Those who love Me are those who do My will" (Jesus). That is the message of Scripture. Have no paradox within yourself. Walk worthy. Show by your example that this life of holiness is indeed not only possible, but necessary to the one who would claim the salvation given by Christ. If we have been chosen, if we have been reborn, if we are daily being renewed, surely this must show. If we say we no longer sin, we make God a liar, as John writes in his letter, yet, at one and the same time, if we go on sinning constantly, we add false witness to our crimes against God, if we claim to be Christian; for to claim to be Christian is to claim to walk in the ways Christ has taught us - it is to claim that we are walking in righteousness, holiness, and godliness now, in this present life. It is to claim that we are the model that ought to be followed, as we are following the Christ in whom the perfect model of man was given.
We will assuredly make mistakes. We have not His perfection. We will continue on in faith, not in sin, for we do have His forgiveness. We dare not, however, continue in those sins, taking for granted that all will be forgiven anyway. "If they continue in sin, rebuke them publicly," Paul writes in 1Timothy 5:20. We must not lose our fear of sinning in this economy of grace and forgiveness. It is not an excuse to return to the vomit of our past. If we continue in sin, we cannot but do so publicly. Sin will not remain hidden, however hard we may try to keep it so. It will be seen. We sin publicly, and thus we shame our God publicly. We bring disgrace upon His house and His good name. Only by the public rebuke of such continued sin by His own church, His representatives here in the world, can His honor be upheld in the face of our slander.
We will assuredly make mistakes, but woe to us if we add to that the mistake of rejecting all admonition. Woe to us if we think ourselves above rejection, above confession, too far advanced for others to speak to. No man is so far advanced in the ways of God that he will not on occasion require the corrective word of one who walks beside him. No man sees the path so clearly that he will never step off in the wrong direction. Always we need to be open to the godly advice of others. Always we need to be willing to give such godly advice when the occasion demands it. If the watchman gives no warning of the impending danger, the death of the one unwarned be upon him. We are all called to be watchmen, one over the other. Let us not shrink from the task we are given. We are our brothers keepers, every one of us. Our brothers are also our keepers and our covering. Let us never fail to give godly counsel and warning to a brother at risk, nor fail to heed the warning he gives us in our times of risk.
