St. Paul’s letter to Titus Chapter 3 Verses 8 –end.

If you have been with us over the last few weeks you will know that St. Paul, in this letter of his to Titus – you can catch up on previous talks on our website; the web address is on your notice sheet - has been keen to stress the vital importance of correct belief and correct behaviour in the followers of Jesus. We arrive now at the end of the letter with Paul emphasising the importance of Christians not only believing and behaving as we ought - as those redeemed through faith by the mercy and grace of God demonstrated in the cross - but also being pro-active in good works. Such good works are the fruit of genuine conversion: we demonstrate our faith in God and our love for him best in what we do for others. If we call ourselves Christians and are not engaged in some form of charitable work or other, in something that we do for others without thought of personal gain, then this does raise a question mark over the authenticity, the genuineness, of our faith.

Just to bring you up to speed briefly: at Cafe Church a fortnight ago we discovered two very important reasons why Christians are to set an example in the way that we live and how we treat other people: it not only shows the genuineness of our faith and so honours God and what he has done for us in Jesus, it also acts as an invitation or challenge to those people who do not yet know Jesus; a challenge to question themselves about their own life and lifestyle and, we hope, to ask questions about what it is – or rather who it is – motivates you and me to make a discernible difference in our lives and lifestyle. Last week, in his talk on the verses immediately before this morning’s, verses 5,6, and 7, the truth of which Paul says here in verse 8 is ‘sure’ (or ‘trustworthy’ is another translation), Joe reminded us that ‘READ VERSES.’ This then is the motive, the reason, the joy - I hope we want to say! - that inspires us to obey the two great commandments. 

But it is something that will not make us popular with everyone when we do.

Christianity, when faithfully practised, has always been to some degree or other ‘counter-cultural’; that is to say there have always been aspects of any culture that is based not upon what God has revealed to us to be right and proper, good and healthy, for human beings and for society, that have needed to be challenged if we are to be faithful to him and to our calling as Christians. This is not always easy to do and never has been. 

Why? Well because antagonism and opposition from personal pride and social custom - not to mention commercial or financial interests! - have always been forces to be reckoned with.

Christians in the first three hundred years after the death of Jesus were actually referred to by pagan Roman writers as ‘atheists’ and often persecuted terribly because they refused to kow-tow to the authority of the pagan gods and in particular the cult of the emperor-god, with all the cultural baggage that went with that. 

They did so because of Jesus; because they knew, and were living their lives with, the one true God who had died for them, who had been raised from death, and who was now a present reality in their lives, and not just a convenient or profitable cultural superstition.  And this antagonism and opposition to Christians was not so much on account of what they believed but on account of what they did, on account of how they lived, which was not only for themselves but for others. The coming of Christianity revolutionised the way people thought about what it meant to be human, what true community is like, how the world is – spiritually, philosophically and scientifically. Above all in the living of their lives was the obligation of charity; and this was not popular with all. Here’s Julian the Apostate, the third emperor after Constantine, who tried to stem the tide of Christianity and return his empire to paganism, writing to one of his high priests. ‘The ‘Galilaeans’ – to our disgrace – support not only their poor but ours also; yet we give not even to our own’. And very interestingly, he adds, ‘We must teach our fellow Hellenes (pagans) how to serve others willingly and unstintingly.’

You see, in an empire where the majority of people were slaves, where life was cheap and short for most, where indulgence for the rich was the norm, and where fear of the gods and death combined to produce some very unhealthy social practices, Christian charity and love for your enemies were viewed not only as bizarre religious novelties but also as a threat to the status quo. But can you really ‘teach’ charity, this new religious obligation, without the motivation of genuine love for your neighbour, whoever that may be? And how can we genuinely love our neighbour – put ourselves out, that is, even for our enemies or to the cost of our own lives, if we do not love God? And how can we genuinely love God unless we are sure in our hearts that through faith in Christ we have been saved? I am not trying to be deliberately rude to anyone here; I include myself. I know what I was like before I acknowledged Jesus as my Saviour and Lord, and I am quite sure that I was in much worse a spiritual and moral condition when Jesus found me than any of you lovely people here ever were!   But if you think Paul is overstating the case, just take a look at what Jesus says about human nature in the Sermon on the Mount, that much quoted but much misunderstood central piece of teaching of his!

Being completely honest about our spiritual and moral condition is the first step to progress in the Christian life; and it is only pride that prevents our progress. I remember a man who once said to me when studying this letter, ’Campbell, I was all those things St. Paul says: to my mind and in the minds of others I was a pillar of moral rectitude; but people were confusing the veneer of social respectability with spiritual integrity; and, ashamed as I am to admit it, I was quite happy colluding in the deception.’ 

 Personally, I know there is a lot of room for improvement in me; but at least I now know Jesus and, more importantly, want to become more like Him. I trip myself up constantly; I let him down; but I know that without his help and presence I would have been lost to God forever - not because God did not love me but because I did not know and love God. And this ‘knowing’ has to be an ongoing enterprise lest the ‘world, the flesh, and the Devil’- always a real threat! – gain a foothold. We need to pray – as we do every Sunday morning at the 8a.m. service, that ‘the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, may keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.’

Do you see the connection made there in verse 8? Paul tells Titus to ‘insist’ in his teaching of the saving grace of God (just spelt out in verses 5,6, and 7) so that ‘those who have come to believe in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works’: these were not optional extras for Jesus; nor were they for Paul: rather, they are ‘excellent and profitable’, that is, they show that we are taking the two great commandments seriously. And then, having urged Titus to avoid the causes of ‘unprofitable and worthless’ divisions, verses 9 and 10, he again tells Titus, verse 14, to encourage the people to ‘devote themselves’ specifically in this instance, to ‘meet urgent needs’. So what Paul is saying here is that you and I are to be ‘productive’ in good works, demonstrating our love for God, the fruit of our belief, in what we do, selflessly, for others. And ‘devotion’ is the word he uses.   It was this selfless and willing acceptance of the obligation – we could say the ‘rule’, of charity, this new creed, that won the first Christians the renown which, slowly but surely, revolutionised and transformed an empire. I hope that we can all see the difference between the doing of good works out of love for God, and the doing of good works in order to win his favour or the favour of our peers: the motivation is completely different. I would like to end by saying just two more things about the place or role of good works or ‘charity’ in our lives, at least one of which is somewhat contentious – but then that won’t surprise you, I know!

First, it is so much easier doing our good works with Jesus rather than without him. By this I mean that not just any old good works are appropriate for the Christian. We Christians may of course do our charity in many spheres – our place is in the world as salt and light for it; but we should always endeavour to check with Jesus, through prayer, that we are in the place and doing the good works he wants us to be and to be doing. 

This is why it is important to pray about these things before we rush into them. And I would add that if there is Christian work that still needs to be done, then we ought to be praying about and prioritising this rather than just following our feelings or the fancies of others. And secondly, but related to my first point: it is true that a person does not need a religion or an ethical theory to be an upright person: but, in my experience, when it comes to caring for those who inhabit that socially and physically unpleasant world of the dregs of society, or for the disabled, or for the forsaken or those who consider almost everyone their enemy, the ranks of the godless tend to thin out markedly. Yes, there are some glowing exceptions; but the sheer numbers speak volumes. Fashionable charitable work is one thing: being where our Lord wants us may be another thing entirely.

If the Churches did not give the level of aid they do today, literally millions would go unfed, unsheltered, uneducated. And as one Jewish surgeon said to me, ’If the Christian doctors, nurses, and care-workers in the NHS were to strike because they were no longer allowed to pray for people or wear their crosses, the whole organisation would collapse overnight.’      

So let me leave you with this question. Given present needs but also the present antagonism to much Christian work and witness in society today, what does it mean to be ‘productive in good works’? What is required of us today? 

Titus 3 verses 3 to 7

Many of you will have seen makeover shows on Telly – shows like Ten Years Younger – where a person is transformed from someone looking old and tired into someone looking much younger.

At the end of the programme they show you a before and after – the amazing transformation the person has gone through, albeit after lots of surgery and dental work.

These verses of Paul to Titus really summarise the make-over that God does to those who turn to him in genuine repentance and humility. It’s not so much a physical make-over but rather a spiritual makeover.

Thus initially in verse 3 Paul summarises the human condition – the ‘before’ condition that all human beings live in prior to finding a relationship with God – and the condition we need to be saved and rescued from.

But then in the remaining 4 verses, Paul summarises the Christian gospel – which is the antidote to this condition, and which transforms us into new people.

So before telling us the good news, Paul reminds us of the predicament we were all in as unbelievers before we came to know Christ. We were in a very bad way. We were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved.

We were foolish, that is in a state of folly, because we had not yet made our peace with God, and we had failed to recognise that we were desperately in need of God’s forgiveness and mercy.

We were disobedient because we were in a state of rebellion against God and had failed to recognise His sovereignty over us.

We were deceived because our minds were blinded to truth about God and salvation. Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians that Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of Christ.

And we were enslaved by our sinful natures which caused us to sometimes to be malicious and envious and hateful, and from which we could not escape.

Many people seem to think that we are born as children of God but as Paul makes clear here, this is not what the bible teaches. For this to happen we need a spiritual makeover.

The truth is that we are born with sinful natures which rebel against God. We go our own way in life without reference to God and seek to please ourselves and to satisfy our worldly desires.

As James teaches in his letter, we therefore become enemies of God, and there is an onus on us to recognise our sinfulness and rebellion and to seek to make peace with God in order to become his children.

This is what repentance is about. It’s about changing direction in life and seeking to please God rather than ourselves.

It’s about recognising our desperate need for God’s mercy and forgiveness and really wanting him in our lives.

I like the story of the Prodigal Son as it illustrates the process of repentance very well.

The son initially rebels against his father and goes his own way in life – seeking to live for his own pleasure. 

However when times get hard he starts to reflect on how foolish he’s been and he has a change of heart. He repents.

He decides he wants to return to his Father even if it means living like a servant or a hired help. As he heads for home his loving Father spots him and goes running up to him and emabraces him and welcomes him home.

The father has been waiting anxiously for his beloved child to come back to him but before a reconciliation could take place the son had to decide he wanted to return home.

It’s the same with us and God.

Even though we are foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved, God wants more than anything for us to be reconciled to Him, so that he can save us and make us into new people.

Hence there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 people who do not need 

to.

As we genuinely repent and turn towards God he saves us from the predicament we were in, and the second part of this passage from Titus about salvation, becomes a reality in our lives as we are transformed into new people.

This salvation first of all is not because of any good deeds we’ve done but because God loves us and wants to be merciful towards us.

Good deeds, going to church, giving money to charity – none of these things can achieve salvation for us. 

None of these things will rescue us from being foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved or make us clean in God’s eyes.

There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve salvation.

Salvation is a gift from God. It’s something he gives to us when we repent and turn towards him in humility, acknowledging our sin and rebellion.

What does the bible teach about God’s gifts?

Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that they’re irrevocable. This means unchangeable.

When God gives you a gift he won’t take it away again. It’s yours. Isn’t that good news.

The whole reason that God came into the world in the person of Jesus was to save us. As Pauls says Christ 

Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

God’s greatest desire is to save human beings, because he loves us and because we are precious to him.

Our salvation is achieved through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

On the cross Jesus did everything necessary to save us completely and forever.

He bore our sins in his own body on the cross – that means every sin we will ever commit past present and future.

And where we sinned and fell short of the glory of God – as in an arrow falling short of a target – Jesus never sinned and offered his perfect life to God on our behalf. Figuratively speaking he hit the bulls eye.

When we become Christians, God therefore no longer sees us in the light of our failures but in the light of the perfect life that Jesus lead.

The punishment that brought us peace was upon him.

Jesus was punished in our place so that God would no longer have a reason to be angry with us.

On the cross Jesus dealt with everything that separated and alienated us from God.

Every sin was atoned for and every debt paid so that we can be free from condemnation and the fear of judgment.

This is the Good News – that in Christ Jesus God was reconciling the world to himself and not counting men’s sins against them.

Paul says in this passage to Titus that God saves us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

When we repent and accept Jesus into our lives, the old person we used to be, the foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved person dies, and we are re-born as children of God.

 This re-birth has a cleansing effect, and we are made clean in God’s eyes.

There’s an interesting passage in John’s gospel where Jesus washes his disciples feet.

Typically Peter asks Jesus to wash his hands and head as well, not just his feet.

Jesus replies; “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet. His whole body is clean and you are clean.”

When we accept Jesus’ sacrifice we become clean in God’s eyes.

We will still need to wash our feet as we walk in the world, but essentially we are clean.

The blood he spilt for us on the cross makes us clean.

Our sins are washed away and we are justified.

Some people define justified as ‘just as if I’d never sinned.’

We are no longer foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved. We become holy beloved children of God.

This renewal Paul says is by the Holy Spirit, whom God pours out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

The Holy Spirit – the spirit of Jesus comes to live in us and brings us alive to God.

He is the one who opens our spiritual eyes so that we can recognise who Jesus is.

And he is the one who enables us to live as children of God.

Furthermore Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.

When you intend to buy something you leave a deposit as a sign that you will return and complete the transaction.

God does the same with us,

He leaves his spirit with us as a sign to us that he will one day complete our salvation.

If the spirit of Jesus is living in you God will complete your salvation.

Isn’t that good news.

In the final part of this passage Paul says that having been justified by his Grace, we become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Grace is sometimes represented as God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense.

Grace is God’s unmerited favour. It is God showering his blessing on those who have done nothing to deserve it.

Having been put right with God through the sacrifice of Jesus, having all our sins atoned for, having been cleansed and re-born as God’s children, we become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

We become heirs of heaven with the hope one day of living eternally with God.

And this hope isn’t like human hope which often disappoints us and is no more than a dream.

Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that this hope does not disappoint us.

If you are a child of God hoping one day to get to heaven – you won’t be disappointed.

Again isn’t this good news.

So the question we need to ask today is which condition are we in?

Are we still foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures or has the 

kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared to us?

Are we because of our foolishness and disobedience still living in rebellion against God or have we made our 

peace with Him?

Have we had a spirtual make over or are we still in desperate need of one?

The good news of course is that if we haven’t yet made our peace with Him, like the Father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, God is eagerly waiting for us to return to him.

He is waiting for us to have a change of heart, to repent and to start walking towards Him.

He longs to embrace us and welcome us home.

He longs to clothe us in a robe of righteousness and to save us and make us new.

That’s why he died for us.

Let’s pray.

Perhaps you didn’t realise that to become God’s child and to receive the gift of salvation you needed to turn towards him and to say sorry for having gone your own way in life.

But perhaps you would like to turn towards him now and ask him to save and rescue you, to show you his kindness and to make you new.

In a few moments of quiet thank Jesus for dying on the cross for you and then in your own words express whatever is in your heart to God.

Amen

Titus 2:11-15

Holy Spirit take my words and speak to each of us according to our need. Amen

We’ve been hearing over the last few weeks that the main thrust of Paul’s letter to Titus is that there should be sound doctrine and sound living within the Christian church.

In today’s passage Paul urges us to say no to ungodliness and to live self controlled upright and godly lives as we await our eventual salvation.

When we read passages like this one today we know we ought live holy and godly lives but often we can feel defeated and very ungodly.

So what practical steps can we take to help bridge this gap between what Paul says we should be like but perhaps we struggle to live up to.

Well I think there are a few essential ingredients to living upright and effective Christian lives and this is what I’d like to look at this morning.

The first essential ingredient to living a Godly life is to read and study the bible particularly the New Testament and to know what it says about who we are as Chrisitians.

Did you know that the word Testament means a will. Hence we speak of someone’s last will and testament. When Jesus died on the cross for you he left you an inhertitance in the pages of the bible. As God’s child you are an heir to this inheritance and spiritual riches are waiting for you to appropraite within its pages.

Many of these spiritual riches concern your new identity as a child of God.

Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We will be transformed as people as we take on board who we are in Christ.

As we read and take in what God says about us and what Jesus’ death has secured for us and made us, it should transform the way we think about and see ourselves.

You see as Christians we have a completely new identity in Christ Jesus.

What does it mean to be in Christ Jesus? Well Jesus does have a physical body in the world today. It is made up of the millions of people in whom his spirit lives. As Christians we are part of this body. We are in him so to speak. We are now his hands and feet and mouth and eyes.

This is why Jesus said to Paul when he stopped him on the road to Damascus prior to his conversion – why are you persecuting me. By imprisoning and persecuting Christians Paul was attacking the physical body of Jesus in the world.

When we were put in to Christ Jesus, we became new people with a completely new identity. Thus Paul says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come.

We used to be cut off from God and unforgiven but that person is now dead and we have been re-born as completely new people in God’s eyes.

This new person we have become is fundamentally different to the old person we used to be.

The new person is a child of God. He or she has been adopted into God’s family. He or she has crossed over from death to life and from darkness to light.

This new person has the Holy Spirit living in them. As Christians therefore we carry God’s presence around in us wherever we go. The new person has been forgiven and redeemed. The new person is bound for heaven.

None of this was true of the old person we used to be.

The new person is controlled not by their sinful nature but by the Holy Spirit. As Paul says; You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.

You may feel your sinful nature is powerful but the truth is that the Holy Spirit within you is more powerful.

As we start to see ourselves as God sees us, as we start to realise that we are no longer just sinful weak human beings but actually glorious, holy, powerful children of God, our behaviour and attitude towards ourselves and others should start to change.

The truth is that as a Christian you are Holy and therefore you can approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that you may receive mercy and find grace to help you in your time of need.

So read the bible, particularly Paul’s letters and the New Testament and start to see yourself as God sees you and as you do this and believe what it says you will find your behaviour changes accordingly.

Understanding your new identity in Christ is absolutely central to living a godly and effective Christian life.

Some of you may say I read the bible quite a lot but I still don’t feel very Holy or Godly.

And this brings me on to the second point I want to make, which is as a Christian you should not be ruled by your feelings. Your feelings are very unreliable and potentially deceptive. God’s word however is absolutely reliable and truthful.

The writer to the Hebrews says for instance; “we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. “

Who are you going to believe – the writer to the Hebrews or your own feelings?

I was feeling quite negative and unholy in the weeks before writing this sermon. I was thinking Lord do you really want me to preach about being holy and godly as I’m not a very good example.

I was feeling spiritually out of sorts and a bit down,

But as I started to think about what I was going to say it occurred to me that most of what I was experiencing was based purely on negative feelings.

The truth about me hadn’t changed. I was still a Child of God and God was still with me. I started to remind myself of the truth about who I was in Christ and to thank God for what he’d done for 

me and then I started to feel better again.

This little episode brings me onto a couple of other ingredients that I think are necessary for a Godly and upright life.

I began to feel better when I reminded myself of the truth of who I was in Christ and thanked God for it.

Thanking or praising God is essential to a healthy upright Christian life. Praise encourages our faith and helps us to believe the truth about ourselves.

You can say in your heart thankyou God for saving me. Thankyou that I am your child and you hear my prayers. Thankyou that I can approach your throne with confidence.

I don’t know about you but I can sometimes be a bit like Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh.

Eeyore as most of you will know had a somewhat negative outlook on life. Nothing good ever seemed to happen to him and if it did it wouldn’t last long.

We mustn’t be like Eeyore and if we do feel a bit gloomy the best antitdote is to start thanking God for everything he’s done for us in Christ and for all the blessings he’s given us.

There’s a little saying that I like.

Two men stared through the self same bars. One saw mud the other saw stars.

 When you look at your life do you see the mud or stars?

Thank God for the stars and your faith will start to rise like a tyre being inflated with air.

Part of the reason I felt as I did was I’m sure because the Devil encouraged me to and this brings me onto my next ingredient for a Godly and upright life, which is that as Christians we all face spiritual opposition from the Devil, and we need to be aware of it and to fight it.

The bible calls the Devil the accuser of the brethren. He likes to make us feel weak negative hopeless useless and unholy.

He likes to whisper negative thoughts into our minds - to cast doubts in our minds about our holiness, our salvation, whether God hears our prayers and whether God would ever want to use us for anything.

He likes to disrupt our walk with God and encourage us towards unhealthy worldy pursuits.

This what CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters are about.

If you listen to these negative thoughts they will paralyse you into inactivity and keep you from being an effective Christian disciple.

As Christians we have authority to tell the Devil to get knotted and to clear off and this is what we should do. Paul tells us; “Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.”

The next ingredient for a Godly life that I want to mention is living with the help of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus.

Paul says that we are to live by the Spirit and then we will not gratify the desires of our sinful natures.

The Holy Spirit is the one who lives within us to empower us to live as Jesus did. If we are to live upright and godly lives we will need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. We will need to ask for his help every day of our lives. We will need to ask him to fill us, to strengthen us, to empower us, and to guide us.

I recently read a book about a young American boy who had an experience of heaven. His father was a pastor and while the boy was in heaven he saw his father praying before preaching a sermon.

He couldn’t hear what he was praying for but he saw that as he prayed light was coming down from heaven upon him in response to his prayer.

Some time later he told his father what he’d seen. His father remembered the occasion and was really surprised. He’d been feeling a bit grotty and really not in the mood to preach but he’d not realised that God had heard and answered his prayer so clearly.

So as you try and lead a godly and upright life remember to ask God for the help of his Spirit to empower you to strengthen you and to direct you.

If you feel spirtually flat Campbell or myself will always be very pleased to pray for you to be empowered and filled by the Holy Spirit.

Everything that I’ve spoken about so far falls under the heading of what I’d call discipleship. The word disciple has a similar origin to the word discipline. If we are to lead the lives that Paul urges us to in his letter to Titus we need to be disciplined. We need to focus our lives on following God. We need to put aside time to go to our rooms and pray, time to read our bibles, time to go to church, time to attend bible study groups and to meet with other christians.

These are all essential ingredients of a healthy Christian life.

Imagine your life as a small boat with your hand on the rudder. Where are you steering the boat. Are you listening to the one who is with you? Or are you just going wherever the fancy takes you. 

To lead a godly life involves making a determined effort to steer your life in a godly direction.

So the book of Titus urges us to live sound and godly Christian lives as we await our salvation. 

This morning I’ve tried to cover some of the ingredients I believe are necessary to do this. My list isn’t exhaustive and no doubt you may have other ingredients you’d like to add.

But just to recap, firstly we must read the bible, particularly the New Testament and recognise who we are as Christians. We must take hold of our inheritance as children of God and realise that we are holy and redeemed.

Next we mustn’t allow ourselves to be ruled by our feelings. The truth about our identity as Christians doesn’t change whereas our feelings change on a daily basis.

We must thank God and praise him for who we are and what he has done for us in Christ. Don’t be like Eeyore. Look at the stars in your life - not the mud, and thank God for them.

We must be aware that we face spiritual opposition from the Devil and we must resist his lies and tell him to depart.

We must rely on the Holy Spirit and ask him to strengthen us, empower us and guide us.

And finally all these ingredients should be part of a life that is focused on walking with God as a disciple of Jesus, a life that involves regular prayer, bible reading and meeting with other Christians.

St. Paul’s Letter to Titus Ch 1: 10 – 16

Last Sunday we began our short series on St. Paul’s letter to Titus and we were introduced to the criteria St. Paul insists on for those in positions of leadership within the Church. But we saw too that these criteria were wholly appropriate for any Christian man or woman who genuinely aspires to becoming a faithful and effective Christian.

Now I hope I did not give the impression last week that unless you meet these high standards there is no room in the local church for you. Perish the thought! Christ came into the world to save sinners. So the local church must be a place that welcomes all sinners, whatever our track records. The point here though is this; that Paul expects those in positions of leadership – and I would want to add ‘any self-respecting Christian’ – to aspire to such criteria in the faith and, I trust, growing conviction from personal experience, that not only does God forgive us our failures but also helps us every step of the way when we are humble enough and desire enough to accept his grace, his power in our lives.

It has always been the righteous, or rather the self-righteous, rather than repentant sinners, who have found difficulty with God’s offer of forgiveness and grace; which of course is why, much more often than not, they are so much less effective as Christians. 

Jesus said it would be so. And, anyway, would we rather have Paul lower his standards? Would we rather have had Jesus water down the Sermon on the Mount? Of course not! Why? Well principally, I think, because we Christians need to learn that what appears to be and is a counsel of perfection for those who want to do their religion on their own and with God at a healthy arm’s length is actually possible for those who are humble enough to do their religion with him. So often, nine times out of ten, the problem people have with Christian practice and Christian belief is the problem of their personal pride: and unless we recognise this and ask God to help us sort it out, we will find the biblical teaching hard to believe, hard to put into practice; and we will find Paul’s teaching here not only tough but even perhaps offensive to our modern liberal values that have replaced God’s perfect law of love with our indifference and tolerance.  

So, what is the issue Paul is advising on? Why is it a problem for the church there and what can we learn from this for the sake of the church in our day?

In v10 we see that the problem was one of rebellion against orthodox belief and practice on a significant scale by ‘mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group.’  ‘Mere talkers and deceivers’, means here, as we shall see, those who are not just, as we might say today, ‘all mouth and trousers’, all talk and no action, but those whose words deceive, v11 ‘ruining whole households’, and, what is more, ‘for the sake of dishonest gain’. We learn in v14 that the main substance of their false teaching on Crete, their heresy, is ‘Jewish myths’ and ‘the commands of those who reject the truth’. Such people Paul sums up in v16 ‘they claim to know God but by their actions they deny him’. And the words ‘by their actions’ must include not only how they behave but the ‘action’ of teaching what is not true. 

Now I know it would be convenient to say to ourselves, ‘Well, really, what has what was going on on Crete in the middle of the first century AD got to do with my own spiritual life and the life of our church today. Just because the Vicar says it does is no argument. I am quite content in my faith and I know what I believe and, frankly, it cannot really matter.’ You may laugh; but I have heard this all too often: we in the modern West have become so comfortable in the little islands of our own religious beliefs and practices, and so tolerant of the beliefs and practices of others, that not only do we fail to see how important sound doctrine and sound living are for the health and effectiveness of our Christian lives, we now tolerate beliefs and practices that are completely at odds with the Gospel. And not only does this ‘ruin whole households’, as it was doing on Crete in Paul’s day, it ruins whole churches. Why? Well because unsound belief and unsound living bring division and ineffectiveness with the result that either people do not know what their proper Christian calling is or they no longer think that calling matters. And of course such an insular approach to religious belief has been reinforced in this country by social taboos and, as society becomes ever more individualistic, with belief centred not in God but in oneself.

The fact is that for a Christian, what he or she believes really does matter: it matters because of the two great commandments; commandments designed to take us out of ourselves and the prisons of personal religious preference – which can so very easily and quickly lead to unsound belief and to unsound living – to put God and others firmly before us. Tolerating the erroneous beliefs and the unhealthy practices of others, be they Christians or not, may win you respect by them and by the liberal elites of the media and the Church of England for your tolerant attitude, but by doing so you are certainly not respecting God or loving your neighbour as yourself. We all have a choice.

Now I shall very probably be accused of exaggerating the case because of course most of us - and I include myself - prefer a quiet life and the avoidance of controversy: but we cannot have our cake and eat it. We cannot, on the one hand, argue for tolerance of such things whilst on the other complain or blindly wonder why the Church of England moves from crisis to crises and is haemorrhaging people, especially the young. The present crises are at root not so much about women priests or bishops but about what we believe and how we behave – in short, about sound belief and sound practice. And I am sad to say that, as Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali has said, the problem starts at the top.

V12 is one of those generalisations that people are inclined to make on the basis of their experience of the people of a particular country; you know, ‘the English are very reserved’; ‘the Welsh are very passionate’; ‘the French are – yes, well the less said about the French the better! Paul takes this unpleasant generalisation about Cretans and tells Titus that in his experience it is true.  But notice in v13, having pulled no punches with them, he tells Titus to rebuke them. Why? ‘so that they will be sound in the faith.’ 

The rebuke is to be made, it has to be, in order that they may see themselves clearly and turn from their sins. Rebuking members of the congregation is of course not a very Anglican thing to do! On the one and only occasion here a few years ago now when I said to the PCC that unless a certain member of the congregation stopped upsetting others with their spiteful behaviour I would rebuke that person publically in church, you should have seen the looks on their faces. Sadly, with some people a gentle word does not always work, and for the sake of the church a rebuke is necessary; hopefully, in order that they will repent.  

V15  tells us that people who do not hold fast to sound doctrine but who have greater regard for, here, Jewish myths or who promote false, man-made teaching, cannot tell the difference between what is right and what is wrong with respect to God because, says Paul, ‘both their minds and their consciences are corrupted’. Indeed for such people truth is very much up for grabs; they are incapable of discerning it on account either of their fascination with what is not part of God’s revelation or their obsession with the keeping of unnecessary ritual - which would be unnecessary if they were genuinely pure.

In v16 Paul’s assault on the false teachers reaches a climax with a damning contrast: those who claim to know God not only fail to match their actions to their words but by those actions actually deny him. Paul calls them ‘detestable’, a word that occurs only once in the whole of the New Testament.

Now I realise this perhaps all sounds terribly dogmatic: but is being dogmatic about God’s truth something to be ashamed of, especially when Paul’s life was characterised by totally committed love, service, and self-sacrifice? Being dogmatic about orthodox Christian faith may today be considered illiberal or even bizarre, but the pressing need for a strong, unambiguous gospel in a society like ours is just as vital as it was with the Cretans. If Paul and Titus were to have allowed the false teachers to carry on unrebuked, all manner of heresy and divisions would have resulted. So today, where the gospel, as clearly expounded by Christ and his apostles, is replaced with unsound teaching and unsound living, the Church and Christian mission will suffer as a result. In England, where social customs and conventions are allowed to determine what is said and done in church, where the gospel is replaced, undermined, or changed altogether, the health and effectiveness of those churches will suffer. And it is so easy for social convention and unbiblical teaching to do just that – undermine the health and effectiveness of a church. 

All the while we are interested solely in paying the bills, in not upsetting anyone – regardless of what they believe and how they live, in allowing unhelpful practices and passtimes to distract from the work of the gospel and unsound teaching to undermine it, then the Church cannot fulfil its calling effectively. And no matter how spiritual its leaders seem or how content its members are, we must always remember that true spirituality is a matter of the extent to which the Holy Spirit is motivating, empowering, and changing our lives. The business of the local church is not to condone but to challenge; not to tolerate but to love; and not to pander to prejudice but to teach the truth in order that through sound doctrine and sound living its members may become effective salt and light in a world that desperately needs to hear God’s truth and to experience his love. For this challenging calling he has chosen you and me.

Next week, we’ll discover what Paul instructs Titus to teach the congregation.             

Paul’s Letter to Titus Chapter 1: verses 1 – 9

As you already know, this morning we make a start on a short series of talks on Paul’s letter to Titus. It is known as one of the ‘Pastoral’ epistles because it deals with a situation in the life of certain local churches in Paul’s day. It is addressed to an individual, one Titus, commissioned by Paul to care for those churches: and as such, because human nature has changed little if at all since Paul’s day – perhaps we have become a little more sophisticated in our attempts to avoid sound doctrine and sound living – it is hugely relevant to the life and well being not only of local churches but also of the Church as a whole, as well as to those who hold positions of authority and leadership within it.

At the heart of Paul’s message we will discover this guiding truth: that there can only be healthy and effective churches where there is sound doctrine and sound living. The idea that we can have a healthy and effective church which is lacking in either of these respects is nonsense. And of course we can see this today: where sound doctrine and sound living are in some measure deficient, the church is weak; that is to say, it is both unhealthy and ineffective. It’s a plain fact of life and experience today; which is why this letter, and Paul’s letters to Timothy, the other ‘pastoral’ letters, are so important in what they have to teach us about what it really means to be ‘church’.

Titus seems to have been a kind of troubleshooter for Paul. He played an important role in representing Paul at Corinth: here we find him commissioned to sort out the Church in Crete. The pastoral letters were written at a time when the leadership structure of the Church was still in a state of development, but the Church did not lack for authority; and while there continue to be endless arguments over when it was ‘bishops’ came into being or began to be distinguished from local ‘elders’ of churches, it is clear that for Paul what constituted the grounds for holding authority in the Church was the preservation and promotion of sound, i.e. orthodox doctrine, theology, faith accompanied by sound, i.e. healthy and holy, living. 

Also, we learn very quickly that already in the early Church, Paul and his companions were having to fight against unsound doctrine and unhealthy practice. And this really was an issue; a huge problem. Why? Well because human nature being what it was, and still is, there is a strong tendency for some people to take advantage of others for their own benefit or ends and, sadly, for others to be taken in and led astray with the result that the principal purpose of the Church, which is to share in the work of the effective proclamation of the Gospel in both word and deed, is undermined, and the people whom Jesus came to save from their sins and reconcile to God to be misled in one way or another.

Now I realise that some people and even some clergy today will tell you that the holding and proclaiming of sound doctrine is really not all that important: as long as one is a reasonably good egg and believes just about enough to think that there is someone or even something somewhere up there, then that’s all that one needs to get by. But the trouble with such a minimalist view of ourselves - let alone of God! - is that it inevitably leads to errors both in belief and practice,  that very soon lead, in turn, to ineffectiveness in discipleship, which is after all our calling as Christians. It leads too to an unhealthy individualism – the belief that I know what I believe and it suits me, whatever Paul, Jesus, or even the vicar says. It leads, sadly, to tolerance of others – of what they believe and what they do with their lives, rather than to genuine love; and it leads, not surprisingly and most disturbingly, to the appearance and the rise of ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ in the Church.      

So with this in mind, let’s turn to these first nine verses of this letter to Titus and see what they have to teach us today. As I mentioned, Titus has been left by Paul on the island of Crete to organise the church there and to deal with a crisis situation of false teachers who had infiltrated the church.

Notice in verse 1 how Paul describes or defines his role and purpose in life. He is ‘a servant of God and an apostle (messenger) of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that is appropriate to godliness.’ So what he is saying here is this; that his work, his service, is to promote and preserve correct, that is orthodox, belief: the faith that the Christian is to have is not just a subjective feeling about God but, rather, one that is informed, constrained, and guided by ‘knowledge of the truth’ or ‘true knowledge’, if you like.

Vague faith is not enough; it needs to be founded on true facts, both spiritual and historical. The Christian faith is grounded in the facts of experience and in the experience of facts. Indeed, the knowledge of truth about Christianity is ‘appropriate to’, that is, leads to or brings about, ‘godliness’ – behaviour that is ‘appropriate’ to someone who genuinely loves and serves God. Genuine godliness requires a genuine foundation of truth. False teachers lack both; however attractive, spiritual, or plausible they may appear – which they often do!

In verses 2 and 3 Paul tells us that the ground or basis of this faith and knowledge rests on the hope of eternal life, a promise not only revealed, verse 3, in the ‘word’, that is, in the ‘gospel’ of Jesus, but also ‘promised before the beginning of time’.

What is of very special significance to note here is this, that we can now understand that the coming of God into the world in the person of Jesus was not some afterthought or knee-jerk reaction to mankind’s disobedience; rather, it had already been allowed for, planned, ‘promised’ before the creation. And it is clear why.

When God created mankind, because He is love and can only operate according to the law of love – that is, in accordance with His character – he had to give us free will, the capacity to respond to or to refuse His love. And because he was willing to run the risk of love, he knew that His perfect love would not be perfectly requited by us, he knew that there would have to be a redeemer, of necessity. There could not not be a redeemer built in to the plan of creation because God is love. He could not, because He is love, not do everything he possibly could – not without taking away our own free choice, that is - to win us back. Paul had fully grasped God’s dealing with Israel and mankind, God’s salvation history: first, He gives a promise to Abraham, then He gives the law to Moses; then He sends the prophets to remind them of the promise and the law; and finally He comes in person – but as one of us and in all vulnerability and humility.      

And so Paul has been entrusted with the gospel of Jesus Christ, God’s chosen method of reconciliation, which he must not only proclaim but ensure is kept to and proclaimed appropriately i.e. faithfully and in a godly manner, in the Church founded by Jesus.  

Paul greets Titus in verse 4, and in verse 5 we learn of Titus’ commission in Crete, ‘to put in order what remained to be done’ and to ‘appoint elders in every town as I directed you’. (Interestingly, before Paul goes on to remind Titus of the qualities required of an ‘elder’, we should note that he does not describe them as priests or bishops. Certainly priests are a much later invention of the Church, later even than bishops, where ‘bishop’, a Greek administrative term, was adopted as a term for co-ordinating or senior elders. It seems that priests as such gradually came into being as a result of human organisation and social custom; certainly the early Church fathers tell us that it was not a divine institution, given that Jesus’ sacrifice effectively did away with the need for a priesthood.)

Verses 6,7 & 8 go together, ‘elders’ and ‘overseers being if not synonymous, then certainly identical in terms of their responsibilities and expected characters. Not only is it a high and tough calling but notice how it extends to his family and in particular his children. Paul starts with a list of desirable negatives in verses 6 and 7, and then proceeds to a list of desirable positives in verse 8.

I think what we all need to realise here and to take to heart is that whilst this is a list of requirements for those in positions of leadership and authority in the Church and which ought – whether it does or not – to keep the House of Bishops on their toes, what Paul is advocating here is surely a model for every Christian man and woman who aspires to be a well-rounded person who will not disgrace the Lord and His Church. Let’s face it; it is not a good testimony or example for any of us of the transforming power of the Gospel if we can be accused rightly of all sorts of consistent wrong-doing, of allowing our children to run riot, of getting drunk or violent, etc, etc. Equally so, the positives of verse 8 are life-enhancing and liberating. Of course we never get it right all the time, but these are surely things worth either avoiding or aspiring to as the case may be; and we need to remember that we can avoid or accomplish none of these things without God’s help, God’s grace freely welcomed and freely operating in our lives. All the while we try to avoid or accomplish these things in our own strength we shall be disappointed: but God is able to do what you and I think is impossible; we just have to give Him some space, some time, in our lives.

But we cannot leave this excellent set of criteria for both leadership and ordinary membership without recognising the importance of verse 9 with its call to sound doctrine. The reason why holding firmly to sound doctrine is so important we see here is ‘to encourage others’ and to ‘refute those who contradict it.’  Next week we shall be looking at the heretics poor Titus is having to face but I just want to finish by stressing how important a part sound doctrine, orthodox faith, plays in encouraging faithfulness and growth in our own spiritual lives and the lives of our fellow Christians.

It may, in today’s climate, sound boring just to hold firmly to orthodox Christian teaching when there are so many imaginative, innovative, brilliant minds around, and certainly within the Church.( I remember one TV pundit telling her interviewer what her ideal bishop would be like. ‘A man with flowing grey hair who can quote Shakespeare and poetry, who never preaches for more than five minutes and who never mentions sin, especially my ones.’)

Well that quote in a way pretty much sums up why Paul has commissioned Titus to choose elders who are faithful to the faith rather than fascinating followers of fashion - or worse! Next week we shall discover the circumstances of the Church on the island of Crete. In the meanwhile, let us ask God to keep us faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, alert to unsound doctrine, and always desiring to become more like Jesus which, in His love and by His grace we indeed may through sound doctrine and sound living evidenced by effective discipleship.