This session on Titus was given at the Grace Church Guildford Big Weekend on 4-6 February 2022. An audio recording of the session can be found below along with the transcript.
‘Treat others as you would like to be treated.’ I’m sure you have come across this or similar wording at some point. It has been around for centuries. In fact, it is so famous, that it has been given the name ‘the Golden Rule.’ The earliest record of it is in the sayings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius around 500 BC. Similar statements are found in the literature of ancient Egypt, India, Greece, Persia and Rome. However, it occurs not only across different regions, but can be found in different religions. In fact, almost every religion includes some form of the Golden Rule: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism all include a reference to it. It is so pervasive that even atheists and agnostics affirm it as a good standard to live by. If you were to speak to non-believing friends or colleagues, I sure they would agree this Golden Rule is a good standard to set in our society. ‘Treat others as you would like to be treated.’
I have already hinted that the Golden Rule can be found in Christianity. In Matthew 7:12, during the Sermon of Mount, Jesus taught, ‘in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.’ The Golden Rule is God’s rule. And yet, I believe Jesus also gives us another rule to live by, an even greater rule. This Great Rule can be seen in places like John 15:12, where Jesus says, ‘My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.’
Those words clearly stuck with John, for he often repeats them. For example, in 1 John 4:10–11, he writes ‘This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.’ The Golden Rule tells us: treat others as you would like to be treated. This Greater Rule tells us: love others as God as loved you. We shall see, there is no greater way to live in society together.
While the language in Titus 3 is slightly different, Paul basically teaches us the Greater Rule. Again we could break it into two halves. In 3:1-7, Paul reminds us how God has loved us. And in 3:8-15, he tells us we should likewise love others. He explains ‘The Gospel of Goodness and Generosity’ and then ‘The Good Works of the Gospel’.
However, if we look a bit closer, we see that there is also a bit of a godliness-gospel-godliness sandwich. See in 3:1-2 that he begins to remind them of how they should treat others, before breaking off in 3:3 into giving them the ground of this, the Gospel that generates these good works, the truth that can transform them into such citizens. Before then returning to the how they ought to treat others in 3:8. Therefore, we are going to flip the headings in your handout a little, by first looking at the Good Works of the Gospel (3:1-2 and 8-15), the bread of this sandwich, before finishing by looking at the Gospel of Goodness and Generosity (3:3-7). As we do so we will see that the main point Paul makes in these paragraphs is that we ought to do good to others, because God has been so good to us.
1. THE GOOD WORKS OF THE GOSPEL (3:1-2, 8-15) – We ought to do good to others
While the Golden Rule is apparently accepted by everybody, you could be forgiven for thinking that few people believe in it today. When you look at our society, you struggle to see people treating others as they themselves would like to be treated. Just look at the news this week, our government has been rocked by wave after wave of scandal: it seems there were countless gatherings and parties held in lockdown while many in our society couldn’t even go to see their dying loved ones. Perhaps the most shocking thing about it all, is that it isn’t really that surprising. We can perhaps be angry, outraged, but are we really that surprised? We have come to expect so little of our leaders in public life, that it seems just another of many examples of hypocrisy.
And it isn’t just our leaders, is it? During lockdown we all seen how ordinary people bent, avoided or simply outright broke the rules and restrictions! And while there was a spike of public goodwill and good works towards each other for a period, that all seems a long time ago now. The clapping has stopped, the friendly smiles and considerate conversations have ended, and we have all largely got back to normal public life.
I’ve been emphasising the public aspect of our behaviour, because I believe this is what Paul primarily means here in 3:1-2. If the conduct described in Titus 2 is focused more on personal godliness, the conduct outlined here in Titus 3 is more like public godliness. In Titus 2, we seen the godliness expected from those within the church. However, in Titus 3 we largely see the godliness expected towards those outside the church, in society.
We see this external focus from the beginning, with Paul reminding us to ‘be subject to rulers and authorities’, with being ‘obedient’ likely referring to them as well. However, the scope of the behaviour widens as Paul progresses through 3:1-2. We are to be ‘ready to do whatever is good’ and by the end of 3:2 we are told ‘always to be gentle toward everyone’. Here we see that Christians have an obligation to behave a certain way towards everyone. Just as the grace of God offers salvation to all without distinction (2:12), here we are told that we are to do good to all without distinction. Psalm 145:9 speaks of how ‘The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.’ Here we see our goodness is to expand to the very same extent as his. We are to be good to all. Nobody should be beyond the bounds of our kindness.
The kind of good that is described here in 3:1-2 is comprehensive. It is hard to imagine an interaction that is not covered by the seven behaviours Paul lists. How we relate to authority (‘subject to rulers and authorities’), respond to instructions (‘be obedient’), take advantage of opportunities (‘ready to do whatever is good’), speak about others (‘slander no one’), interact with others (‘be peaceable’), think of others (‘considerate) and treat others (‘be gentile towards everyone’). Here Paul tells us that Christians should be complete models of public goodness. We are to portray what it means to be a good citizen, good subject, good employee, good friend, good neighbour or good community member. Christians are to take the lead, set the standard, blaze the trail for good behaviour in public life. Brothers and sisters, we should be the first to help others when opportunities arise in public life. Whether at a food bank or as a lollypop lady, supervising a school trip or visiting the elderly. Ask yourself how you can do good in your home, work, local community. And then go and do it!
We are later going to see again that such good works are generated by the gospel. As I have repeated again and again, it is truth that transforms us, turns us into those who devote themselves to doing good. However, before we finish Titus, I want to make sure you see that not only the gospel produces godliness, but also that godliness protects and promotes the gospel. To borrow Matt’s spiral analogy from 2 John on Sunday evening, here we see that truth leading to godliness is not a one-way street, but the gospel and godliness are locked together in an eternal spiral, as the gospel produces more and more godliness, and godliness both protects and promotes the gospel again and again.
We can see this back in Titus 2, where Paul teaches that our personal godliness has an impact on those around us. For example, in 2:5, Paul explains young women are to conduct themselves in a certain way ‘so that no one will malign the word of God.’ Again, in 2:8, he tells Titus to be sound in speech ‘so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.’ Paul teaches that godliness helps to protect the gospel.
I am sure all of you have experienced the exact opposite – perhaps you were sharing the gospel, or maybe just telling somebody you were a Christian, and immediately you are confronted with the fact that they once knew a Christian who was angry, or arrogant, or committed some kind of scandalous sin. The world around us regularly reviles the word of God because of how it has seen Christians live. That is why J C Ryle writes, ‘Sound Protestant and Evangelical doctrine is useless if it is not accompanied by a holy life. It is worse than useless: it does positive harm.’ Friends, unless we are holy, we harm God’s witness in this world. If you are not going to love as a Christian, you are better not calling yourself a Christian – for through you the name of Christ, the word of God, is being smeared, slandered. In order to defend the gospel, we must live a godly life.
However, notice in Titus 2 that godliness not only defends the gospel, but it displays it. It not only protects the truth, it promotes it. Look with me at 2:9, where Paul says that slaves are to be subject to their masters in everything. Why? In 2:10 he explains ‘so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.’ See here that godliness not only protects the gospel, it promotes it! Makes it attractive, shows it off, to the watching world.
This how it has always been. Around 360 AD, the Roman emperor Julian, who was a pagan, not a Christian, made some remarkable statements about the church in his empire. In an letter he noted, "[They] support not only their poor, but ours as well." And he went on to explain that "it is their benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the dead and the pretended holiness of their lives that have done most to increase" Christianity. While this pagan emperor rejected the doctrine of Christianity, he admired the deeds of Christians!
Friends, is that what unbelievers think when they look at your life today? Do you live a life of such evident public virtue, that even those who disagree with your beliefs find themselves admiring your behaviour? That is what Paul calls us to in Titus 3. This is the kind of life that he says in Philippians 2:15 will leave you ‘blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world’.
We ought to do good to others. This emphasis continues later in the chapter. When Paul picks up his instructions again in 3:8, he keeps repeating the same idea. For example, in 3:8, he says they are to "devote themselves to doing what is good." In 3:9-11, they are to avoid foolish arguments, wasting their time on unprofitable distractions, to distance themselves from divisive people. And in 3:14, Paul finishes the letter with this simple summary: What is the last thing he wants them to remember? ‘Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.’ Basically, Paul reminds those in Crete that there is much good to do, and calls them to get on with doing it.
Perhaps you feel a little overwhelmed by having such a great obligation: doing good to everyone in every situation. Well lest the scale of this command overcome you, see also the standard that Paul sets for it. At the end of the letter, Paul gives Titus two new tasks, as well as the standard to aim for when completing them, in 3:12 he writes: ‘As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way.’ Paul realises as much as Titus may try to get to him at Nicopolis, that may not be possible. Storms may prevent him sailing. Unexpected circumstances block his path. Similarly, Paul knows that even if Titus does do everything in his power to help Zenas and Apollos, they too may face hurdles and obstacles on their way. Paul knows Titus is finite and serves in a fallen world. And so, what does he tell Titus? He tells him to do his best. To do everything he can.
Friends, that is the standard set for us in all our service. No matter how hard we might try, there is much that we may be unable to accomplish. And so, all we are called to do is to give best. We are to devote ourselves to good works, do everything we can. We must not do less than that. And yet, how refreshing is it that we are not called to do more than that? We are to do everything within our capabilities, all within our control. And then we are to leave everything outside of our control to our sovereign God. It’s like what my Dad would tell me when I was a boy helping him out around our garden. Perhaps we were moving logs, or bricks, or bags of gravel or soil from one part of the garden to the other. Many of them I could lift, and yet there would be some I couldn’t for they were too big too heavy for me. And so he’d tell me to give them a go, but don’t worry if I couldn’t move them. He would come along and pick them up later. Surely, we serve a kind and understanding master, one who does not call us to do more than we could ever achieve. He tells us to do our best, to do as much good as we can. And then leave the rest to him.
2. THE GOSPEL OF GOODNESS AND GENEROSITY (3:3-7) – Because God has been so good to us
Why? Why ought we to do good to all? What is it that causes lives of civil good? What will drive us to do good to all? That is what Paul turns to in 3:3-7. We see the same pattern here in Titus 3 as we had yesterday in Titus 2. In 2:1-10 Paul explained in the conduct before turning to the cause in 2:11-15. Paul takes the same approach here. Having outlined the behaviour he is advocating; he explains the beliefs that will bring it about. We can also see that the explanation of the gospel in these verses is also the ground of the good works Paul goes on to call for later in the chapter. Having given us a glimpse of the gospel in 3:3-7, in 3:8 he states, ‘This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.’ Emphasising, digging into, stressing the Gospel, generates good works.
The glimpse of the gospel Paul gives us here in 3:3-7, just as was the case in 2:11-15, comes in two parts. He deploys the dual doctrines of depravity and deliverance. Of guilt and grace. First in 3:3 Paul shows us the scale of our sin, before showing us the scale of our salvation in 3:4-7.
In 3:3 he begins, ‘At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.’ There are few other places in the Bible that so plainly describe the completeness of humanity’s natural corruption. Alongside passages like Romans 3 and Ephesians 2, Titus 3 leaves us in no doubt of our deep depravity. When reading it, did you notice that here Paul lists 7 ways we are ungodly. In 3:1-2 Paul listed 7 aspects of godliness, in 3:3 he lists 7 aspects of ungodliness. Just as he has described a life of complete civility, here he describes a life of complete corruption. Nothing is missing from this list: here we see that our minds, our desires, our emotions, our actions and our relationships are all corrupted and tainted by sin. Because of our nature, nothing we do escapes sin’s stain. Even our kindest, most charitable acts have a hint of sin - whether because they are done out of a selfish motive (e.g. to make us look good) or done without the proper posture towards God (e.g to make God look good). Because of our sinful natures, even helping old ladies across the road can be an act of rebellion against a holy God!
Of the seven aspects listed, the one that would have stood out most to these Cretans was the fourth. Right in the centre of the list Paul puts: ‘enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures’. If you remember yesterday, we seen that Paul places a particular priority on self-control in this letter. It was the first thing the Cretans were to learn in the school of grace in 2:12. It was a characteristic that every generation and gender was to concentrate on cultivating in 2:1-10. And we seen in 1:12, Cretan culture was known for the exact opposite – they were ‘always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons’. Cretans were famous for being controlled by their passions and pleasures, or as Paul explains here, they were: ‘enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures’.
This kind of language not only stands out to Cretans of the first century, but Westerners of the twenty-first century? The idea of being enslaved by passions and pleasures is entirely foreign to the way the world thinks today. We are told to pursue our passions and pleasures, that true freedom is found by following our feelings, that what we want is what we need. Our world cannot understand how our passions and pleasures are actually prisons. And yet this is exactly what Paul says here. Unless we have been set free by Christ, we are ‘enslaved to all kings of passions and pleasures’. This isn’t just speaking of alcoholics and drug addicts. We all naturally desire the very things that destroy us. By nature, we are all so completely corrupt, deeply depraved, sin has so much sway over us, that the deepest desires of our hearts, our dearest dreams, drive us towards destruction. Our passions and pleasures are the prisons that prevent us from living a godly life. By nature, we are all like the character Gollum from Lord of the Rings: the things that are most precious to us are the very things that are causing us to perish. While the world may tell us to follow our hearts, pursue passions and pleasures, the Bible tells us in Jeremiah 17:9, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick…’.
The fact that Paul is talking about all of us in these verses, not merely the Cretans, is clear. In 3:3 Paul begins ‘At one time we too were foolish...’. He includes himself alongside the Cretans here. However, Paul means for his description to be even broader than that. Read from the end of 3:2 with me: ‘always to be gentle toward everyone. At one time we too were foolish…’. Pauls implies here that 3:3 is true not only of himself and the Cretans, but is also true of the everyone of 3:2. Do you see that? Paul says that we are to be gentle to everyone because at one time we too were foolish. That is: what they are now, we once were. We are to love them because at one time we were like them. Brother and sister, just as you will never meet another human being whom the grace of God could not save, you never meet another human of whom you cannot say ‘there but for the grace of God go I’. If God left us to ourselves, we would naturally hold back from no sin, even the most shocking.
That phrase originated with the puritans, and was made famous through the stories of Sherlock Holmes, yet the sentiment is clearly Pauline. It is not only found here, but it can be seen perhaps most famously in 1 Corinthians 6:9–11, where Paul asked the church in Corinth: ‘do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.’ The deep depravity Paul describes in 3:3 is the natural state of all born into this world. As Paul put it in Romans 3:9-12, ‘are all under the power of sin. As it is written:"There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."
Given that conclusion, that no one does good, do you see how necessary, how remarkable, the Gospel is? If Paul stopped here at the end of 3:3, concluded with this description of our depravity, he would be making no sense at all! He would be telling us that we ought to do good to everyone and yet also admitting that none of us can do good to anyone! You can see the strangeness of this all so clearly from comparing the two lists Paul gives us in 3:1-3. For example, in 3:1 the second things Paul tells us to be is ‘obedient’. And yet the second thing he tells us we are by nature in 3:3 is ‘disobedient’. How can we the disobedient, be obedient? Upon what basis can Paul expect this kind of behaviour from people of our background? How can the ungodly grow in good works?
This is ultimately why the Golden Rule is inferior to the Greater Rule. You see, while the idea of treating others like you yourself would like to be treated is affirmed by all, it is achieved by none. It is a good principle, but by nature we do not have the power to make it possible. All the positive aspirations in the world can’t overcome the depravity of our hearts. We don’t want to treat others as we ourselves want to be treated. As Paul explains in 3:3, we live ‘being hated and hating one another’.
The reason why the Golden Rule can be affirmed by people of all religions, and none, is because it leaves the most important piece of the puzzle out: the Golden Rule doesn’t mention God. Without the goodness of God, there is no explanation, and there can be no expectation, of good works that please God. Without God intervening in this world, we who are not good will not be good to each other. As we seen in 1 John 4, love is from God. And it is only because God has loved us that we can love each other. Or as Paul puts it here, only because the kindness and love of God has appeared that can we show kindness and love to one another. To put it simply, Christianity teaches this world can never be good without God.
O yes we can help old ladies across the street, care for each other in our communities, work together with some measure of harmony in our country, even build stable marriages that last for decades. Praise God that non-Christians can accomplish many positive things in this world. Although, ultimately even those things we trace back to what we call God’s common grace. However, without God’s saving grace in the gospel, we cannot be good. O we can do much good in the world´s eyes, but we can never be good in God’s eyes. Without the gospel, we can never have both clean hands and a pure heart, we cannot please God, we cannot achieve the whole of holiness. Without the gospel, we will never be like Jesus. We will never be adorned with that splendid radiance of holiness, that pure and undefiled goodness that our Lord live out during his life on earth. Without the gospel, we can never be good like God. Even our best efforts, the positive things we achieve in this world, are stained by sin. As we sang last night, ‘Jesus your mercy is all my plea, I have no defence, my guilt runs too deep, the best of my works pierced your hands and your feet, Jesus, your mercy is all my plea.’
Earlier in Titus 2 the grace and glory of God appeared. Here in 3:4 it is the goodness and generosity of God that appears. The NIV translates it ‘kindness and love’. However, I think the ESV more properly translates that first term ‘goodness’. It is the same word that Paul uses in Romans 3:12 when he says ‘no one does good, not even one.’ Here we see that what we are not, God is. As Jesus explained to the rich young ruler, ‘No one is good except God alone.’ (Matthew 10:18)
The second term, translated ‘love’ by the NIV and ‘loving kindness’ by the ESV, is the Greek word ‘phil-an-thro-pi-a’, from which we get our English word ‘philanthropy’ – the idea is of somebody with a lot of wealth devoting it to charitable causes. It is the concept of kind concern, affectionate interest, of generosity. The only other time it is mentioned in the New Testament is when Luke uses it in Acts 28:2 to describe the ‘unusual kindness’ of the natives on Malta, who, when they seen those shipwrecked from Paul’s boat standing in the cold and rain, kindle a fire and bring them over to it. It is a kind of pity, mercy, love, kindness, concern, generosity all rolled into one. If Titus 2 tells us of the gospel of grace and glory, Titus 3 tells us of the gospel of goodness and generosity.
What kind of impact does this appearance of goodness and generosity have? Well, what follows in 3:5-7 is one of the richest, densest statements of our salvation that can be found in Scripture. In it, Paul gives us three words, which are then followed by three explanations. Three words followed by three explainations.
Those three simple words, which summarise all that Paul is about to say are at the start of 3:5: ‘he saved us’. But not content with the three-word summary, Paul digs into three aspects, explanations, of it. (1) Why did he save us? Paul explains in 3:5: ‘ he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.’ (2) How did he save us? Paul continues: ‘He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.’ (3) For what did he save us? Paul concludes in 3:7: ‘so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.’
Friends don’t allow the density of this sentence to stop you seeing the wonder of it all. Break it up and chew over, meditate on, each phrase! Contemplate each of those questions: God saved us. (1) Why? Because of mercy not merit. (2) How? By rebirth and renewal. (3) For what? To be heirs with hope.
We could pick any one of those three aspects of the gospel and disappear down a wonderfully rich rabbit hole! I encourage you to go away and study out each of these phrases in order to gain a great understanding and appreciation of what God has done for you.
However, for now, as we close, I want to concentrate just on the first one: in 3:5 we are told that God saved us not because of our merit, but because of his mercy. I want to focus on it because we have spoken a lot about good works this morning, and yet that does not clash or contradict in any way the truth that we are saved by grace alone. Here in 3:5, Paul teaches us that we have been saved ‘not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.’ Salvation is by mercy, not merit.
Have you noticed that so often the passages that emphasis God’s grace in salvation the most are the same passages that stress the obligation Christian have to produce good works? We can see it here in Titus 3 – the whole chapter is one long call for us to be ready to do whatever is good. It literally has a list of good works that we should do. And yet, right here at the centre, the beating heart of the chapter, is the statement that God saved us by his grace.
The same is true of Ephesians 2, perhaps the most famous of Paul’s statements about grace. There he declares in 2:8-9 ‘it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.’ Could Paul be any clearer that our salvation has nothing to do with our works? And yet, in the very next verse, in 2:10, Paul continues, ‘For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works...’. Both in Titus 3 and Ephesians 2 we see that while we are not saved by good works, we are saved for good works.
Our salvation is not the result of good works, yet the result of our salvation should be good works. As is so often the case, the 19thcentury preacher Charles Spurgeon, when preaching on this passage, helpfully articulated this distinction. He said, ‘To the sinner, that he may be saved, we say not a word concerning good works, except to remind him that he has none of them. To the believer who is saved, we say ten thousand words concerning good works, beseeching him to bring forth much fruit.... There is all the difference between the living and the dead: the living we arouse to work; the dead must first receive life.’
That Paul is calling Christians, those who have been saved by mercy rather than merit, to good works here is clear from 3:8. Reflecting on this wonderful summary of the gospel of goodness and generosity in 3:3-7, Paul states in 3:8, ‘This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.’
Friends, to become a Christian is to admit that you have done nothing to deserve salvation, in fact it is to admit that all you have done is deserving of eternal death, for you have sinned against a good God and rejected his rule over your life. To become a Christian is to trust in the work of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness for your sins. Christianity teaches that Jesus died on the cross and rose again, to bear the punishment of God for our sin and defeat death, so that all who believe in him can have eternal life and receive new hearts to love and serve him. Here Paul says that to those who have done that, who have trusted in God, become Christians, to them Titus is to stress these truths, for these are the very truths that will transform them. That the gospel is what will generate godliness and good works in their life.
So I ask again, how can we achieve change? What will generate our growth in godliness? These are the questions that Titus answers. The Gospel is what leads us to godliness. It is the truth that will transform us.
Friends, do you view the gospel as something that is primarily for non-Christians? Good news that needs to be heard by those who have yet to trust in Jesus? A message to be shared so that people can come to Christ? Well the Gospel is certainly that. It is the news that we should seek to share with those who have yet to trust in Jesus. In the New Testament we see the apostles doing just that. And yet, most of the New Testament records the apostles sharing the gospel not with non-Christians, but with Christians. Most explanations of the gospel are found in letters like this one, doing what Titus is told to do here, stressing it to those who have trusted in God. The gospel is not only crucial to becoming a Christian. It is central to being a Christian. We never get beyond the gospel. We only ever get deeper into it. We never graduate from the gospel. We only grow in our understanding of it. We never get to the point where we no longer need the gospel. For it not only gives Christians life, but guides Christians through life. As we will sing together shortly, redeeming love have been our theme and shall be till we die.
Over and over again in his letters, this is what Paul does. He spends his time applying the gospel to the different situations and problems faced by Christians and churches. For example, when trying to correct the attitude of the Christians in Philippi, what transforming truth does Paul reach for? It is the truth of the gospel. ‘Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.’ Or in trying to encourage the generosity of the Corinthians he wrote, ‘For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.’ (2 Corinthians 8:9) When confronted with sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, Paul again takes them to the transforming truth of the gospel, ‘Flee from sexual immorality….Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.’ Throughout his letters, Paul insists, stresses, continually applies the gospel over and over again. The Gospel is the truth that Paul goes back again and again as he tries to bring about transformation. No wonder, he tells Titus here to stress these truths. In the gospel there seems to be a weapon for every battle, a medicine for every ailment and a map for every journey. The gospel is the multitool of the Christian life, it can fix anything. It is the truth that can transform us.
Tim Keller explains it like this, he says ‘All our problems come from a failure to apply the gospel…. The main problem… in the Christian life is that we have not thought out the deep implications of the gospel, we have not "used" the gospel in and on all parts of our life.’ The reformer Martin Luther put it slightly less delicately when he said: ‘The truth of the Gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine....[This is the most important thing:] that we know [the gospel] well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.’ Brothers and sisters, I trust as we have walked through Titus together, I have done what Paul told Titus to do: ‘stress these things’. Or as Luther said, ‘beat it into your heads continually’! This is what Paul does in all his letters. This is what he does in Titus. In the very first verse, he told us that it is truth that leads to godliness, that the gospel generates good works, and he continues with that theme until here in chapter 3, the very end. May that truth transform us.
ALEXANDER ARRELL