This sermon on Titus was given in a series at Kew Baptist Church, London.
‘Treat others as you would like to be treated.’ I’m sure you have come across this or similar wording at some point. Perhaps like me, it was one of your classroom rules in primary school. Placed up on the wall for all to see, and for the teacher to point to every now and then when she felt we weren’t being kind enough to each other. It is a common mantra today and has been around for centuries. It is so famous, that it has been given the name ‘the Golden Rule.’ The earliest record of this idea is in the sayings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius around 500 BC. When asked if for one teaching that could guide a person through their whole life, Confucius is recorded as saying it was the idea of ‘reciprocity: never impose on other what you would not choose for yourself.’ If he is the first that we know taught this lesson, he was certainly not the last. 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 at work, I am sure every one of them would agree with you that the Golden Rule is a good summary of how we should live together in this world. ‘Treat others as you would like to be treated.’
The Golden Rule is clearly a good approach to take in our relationships with others. As Christians, we can be sure of this because Jesus himself commanded the Golden Rule of us. In Matthew 7:12, during the Sermon of Mount, Jesus taught, ‘So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.’ The Golden Rule is God’s rule. And yet, I believe that Jesus also gives us an even better rule to live by. We should absolutely seek to live lives to the standard set by the Golden Rule. But we should also live in accordance with another command, and even greater instruction, a Great Rule as it were. Jesus teaches it to his disciples in John 15:12, on ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.’ I’m sure those words stuck with John, for he not only records them in his gospel account, but you can hear them echo in the passage we read together from 1 John 4:10–11, ‘In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.’ If the Golden Rule teaches us to treat others as we would like to be treated, this Greater Rule teaches us to love others just as God has loved us. As we shall see, there is no greater standard to which we can aspire to live.
While the language in our passage today is different, Paul essentially presents the very same teaching as Jesus and John. Our text breaks down into three parts: Our Behaviour (3:1-2), Our Background (3:3) and Our Basis (3:4-7). The Greater Rule, according to 1 John 4:11, is that if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. As we shall see, the central teaching of this passage is very similar. Here Paul teaches, in those three sections, that: We ought to do good to others, for we ourselves were not good and yet God has been so good to us.
1. OUR BEHAVIOUR (3:1-2) – 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 do so. When you look at public life today, you are unlikely to see people treating each others as they themselves would like to be treated. If you turned on the news this week, no doubt you seen some coverage on the US election. There we have two candidates, two parties, who appear determined to out-shout and out-accuse each other. The behaviour Paul gives in 3:2, speaking evil of no one, avoiding quarrels, being gentle and showing perfect courtesy, is nowhere to be seen. However, lest we spend our time blaming those ‘vulgar’ Americans, we must admit that here in Britain the tone of public life isn’t much better. This week, in the middle of a debate in the House of Commons, Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the Labour party, was accidently caught on microphone calling the MP she was debating ‘scum’. Such decorum would have been shocking in past decades. And yet, I’m not sure any of us are really that surprised. After all we have a PM who has previously compared women wearing Burkas to ‘post-boxes’, and that isn’t even his most uncivil comment. Submissive to authority, obedient, ready for good works, speaking evil of no one, avoiding quarrels, being gentle and showing perfect courtesy. Surely it is the very opposite that we see around us in our society.
I’ve been emphasising the public aspect of such behaviour, because I believe this is what Paul primarily means here. I don’t quite think that the conduct described in 2:1-10 is personal godliness and the conduct outlined here in 3:1-2 is public godliness. As we seen, adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour has an impact on those around us. However, I think that the focuses in Titus 2 and Titus 3 are slightly different. In Titus 2, we see the godliness that is expected from all the different groups in the church, in Titus 3 we see the godliness expected towards all the different individuals in society. There is a definite external focus on the behaviour Paul describes here. It starts off by mentioning being ‘submissive to rulers and authorities’ and presumably being obedient is also referring to them as well. However, the scope of the behaviour widens as the Paul progresses. They are to be ‘ready for every good work’ and by the end of 3:2 they are ‘to show perfect courtesy toward all people’. Here we see that Christians have an obligation to behave a certain way towards everyone. Just as the grace of God brings salvation to all without distinction (2:12), here we should do good to all without distinction. In Psalm 145:9 we seen that ‘The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.’ Our goodness is to extend to the very same. We are to be good to all. Nobody should be beyond the bounds of our kindness.
The kind of good that is described appears to be a complete picture. It is hard to imagine what kind of interaction is not covered by the seven behaviours Paul lists. How we relate to authority (‘submissive to rulers and authorities’), respond to instructions (‘be obedient’), take advantage of opportunities (‘ready for every good work’), speak about others (‘speak evil of no one’), talk with others (‘avoid quarrelling’), receive others (‘be gentle’) and treat others (‘show perfect courtesy’). Here Paul tells us that Christians should be complete models of public goodness. They 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. We should be the first to step into the gap to help others when opportunities arise. Whether it is at a food bank or a lollypop lady, supervising on a school trip or visiting an elderly relative. We should be busy with all kinds of good works. Just as we seen in Titus 2:1-10, this is the kind of godliness that silences opponents and puts those who persecute us to shame. 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. He talked about how "[They] support not only their poor, but ours as well." And explained 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, saying "I believe that we [i.e., the pagans] ought really and truly to practise every one of these virtues." Friends, is that what unbelievers looking at our lives today think? Are our lives examples of goodness and generosity? Do we live lives of such evident public virtue, submissive to authority, obedient to the law, taking every opportunity to do good, speak kindly about everyone, avoid quarrelling when we can, show such gentleness and courtesy that even those who disagree with our doctrine find themselves admiring our deeds? That is what Paul presses us towards in 3:1-2. In a moment when our Western world seems to be spiralling into greater anarchy and anger, how striking would live of public goodness be? This is the kind of behaviour that Paul says in Philippians 2:15 leaves 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.
2. OUR BACKGROUND (3:3) – For we ourselves were not good
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? Well that is exactly what Paul turns to in 3:3-7. We see the same pattern here in Titus 3 as we had last week 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. In both chapters, the movement takes place upon that word ‘for’. In 2:11 it was ‘For the grace of God has appeared…’. Here in 3:3 it is ‘For we ourselves were once…’. In both places we see that it is the truth that leads to godliness. The conduct of 2:1-10 is caused by the content of 2:11-15. The same is true here. The conduct of 3:1-2 is caused by the content of 3:3-7. Godliness is caused by the Gospel.
The glimpse of the gospel that Paul gives us here in 3:2-7, this truth that will lead them to the godliness of 3:1-2, comes in two parts. It is the dual doctrines of depravity and deliverance. Of guilt and grace. First in 3:3 Paul shows us the scale of our sin, before he moves on in 3:4-7 to showing us the scale of our salvation. ‘For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.’ There are few other places in the Bible that so plainly describes the completeness of our corruption. Alongside passages like Romans 3 and Ephesians 2, Titus 3:3 leaves us in no doubt of the depths of our depravity. When reading it, did you notice that while in 3:1-2 Paul lists 7 aspects of godliness, in 3:3 he lists 7 ways that we are ungodly. Just as he describes a life of complete civility, here he describes our complete corruption. Nothing is missing from this list: our minds, desires, emotions, actions, relationships are all corrupted and ruined by sin.
Of the seven traits listed, I think the one that would have stood out most to these Cretans was the fourth, the one right in the middle of the list: ‘slaves to various passions and pleasures’. If you remember last week, we seen that in this letter Paul places a particular priority on self-control. 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. As we seen in 1:12, Cretan culture was known for the exact opposite – ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons’. They were famous for being controlled by their passions and pleasures, or as Paul explains here: ‘slaves to various passions and pleasures’. However, I think 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 our passions and pleasures is entirely foreign to the way we are taught to think today. We are told to pursue our passions and pleasures, that true freedom is found by following our feelings, that if we want something then it cannot be wrong. The world cannot understand how our passions and pleasures could be prisons. And yet that is exactly what God says. Unless we have been set free by Christ, we are ‘slaves to various passions and pleasures’. It is not just alcoholics and drug addicts that are enslaved by their desires, we all 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 prisons preventing 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 cause us to perish. There is a helpful distinction to be made between passions and pleasures. Our passions are the things we hunger and thirst after, what we long for. Our pleasures are the things that bring us enjoyment. Paul tells us that both of them, both our desires and our delights, are depraved. O the world may tell us to follow our hearts, but the Bible tells us in Jeremiah 17:9, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick…’.
Who is it that Paul is talking about in these verses? Who’s background is this? Well it is not just the Cretans. For in 3:3 Paul writes ‘…we ourselves were …’. Paul clearly believes this is an accurate description both of his own background as well as that of the Cretan Christians. However, I think Paul means for his description to be even broader than that. Read from the end of 3:2 with me, ‘to show perfect courtesy to all people. For we ourselves were once foolish…’. Pauls implies here that 3:3 is true not only of himself and the Cretans, but is also true of the all people of 3:2. Do you see that? Paul says that we are to show perfect courtesy to all people because we ourselves were once foolish. That is: we were once what they are now. The people we are to love in 3:1-2 have the same problem as we do in 3:3. The two lists combine to show us the true scale of our task. We are to be submissive to foolish rulers and authorities, to be obedient to those who are disobedient, to be ready for every good work towards those who are led astray, to refrain from speaking evil about those who are slaves to their passions and pleasures, to avoid quarrelling with those who spend their days in malice and envy, to be gentle with those who are hated, to show perfect courtesy towards those who hate us. Why? Because we ourselves were once just like them. No matter how shocked you are at the sin of others, you can always look at them and say ‘there but for the grace of God go I’. Though that phrase originated with the puritans and was made famous through the stories of Sherlock Holmes, 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 background here in 3:3 is that of every man and women born into this world. Every son and daughter of Adam, every member of the human race, is by nature ‘foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passion and pleasures…’. Paul draws this exact conclusion in Romans 3:9-12, using quotations from the Old Testament he explains ‘all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." (Romans 3:9-12) Paul tells us that we ought to do good to others, for we ourselves were not good.
3. OUR BASIS (3:4-7) – And yet God has been so good to us
So far, I don’t think what I have said makes any sense. How is it that we are to do good to others if we by nature are not good ourselves? If in Romans 3, Paul tells us that ‘no one does good, not even one’, how then can he expect us, as he does here in 3:1, to be ready for good works? The second thing Paul tells us to be in 3:1 is to be ‘obedient’. And yet the second thing he tells us we are 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?
This is ultimately why the Golden Rule is inferior to the Greater Rule. 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 it does not point us to the power that makes it all 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, we are hated by others and hate 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. It fails to identify the power behind this principle. In short, the Golden Rule doesn’t mention God. Without the goodness of God, there is no explanation, can be no expectation, of a good life. This is why the Greater Rule is a higher, a more powerful principle. Without the God of goodness 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. It is only because God loved us that we can love each other. Or as Paul puts it here, it is only because the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, that we can be good and loving and kind to each other. This world will never be good without God.
Last week we see the appearance of the grace and glory of God. This week it is the appearance of the goodness and loving kindness of God. That word ‘goodness’ 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) It is the goodness and ‘loving kindness’ of God that intervenes. That word ‘loving kindness’ is the Greek word ‘philanthropia’, from which we get our word ‘philanthropy’ – the idea of somebody with a lot of wealth devoting it to charitable causes. It is the idea 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 on their island, they kindle a fire and welcomed them over to it. It is a kind of pity, mercy, love, kindness, concern, generosity all rolled into one. Last week we had the gospel of grace and glory. This week it is 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 found in the scriptures. Paul gives us three words, which are then followed by three explanations. The 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 of it. Why did he save us? Paul explains: ‘he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy’. How did he save us? Paul continues: ‘by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour’. For what did he save us? Paul concludes: ‘so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.’ Friends don’t let the density of this lengthy single sentence make you struggle to see the wonder of it all. Break it up! What happened when the goodness and generosity of God appeared? He saved us. Why did he save us? Because of his mercy not our merit. How did he save us? By spiritual regeneration and renewal. For what did he save us? To be heirs according to hope.
The first and last of those points largely overlap with what we seen last week. We thought then about grace, how we are saved because of his mercy not our merit. We also thought of glory, the blessed hope that we have as heirs. However, right in the middle of these Paul introduces new language you might find a bit strange: he says we are saved ‘by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour’. Here we see that as a result of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, the Spirit was poured out to apply the salvation that the Son had accomplished. The work of the Holy Spirit is described as ‘the washing of regeneration and renewal’. The central idea here is a cleaning through a creation. It is a new purity brought about by a new birth. We are no longer slaves to various passions and pleasures, for we have died to sin. Instead, we have risen again in Christ to newness of life, with new passions and pleasures, above all else loving God and others. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17 ‘if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’
This change, this washing and new birth, is the basis upon which Paul can expect us to have the new behaviour of 3:1-2. The background that he describes in 3:3 is no longer the context for our conduct. As Paul emphasises, ‘we were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures…’. But because the goodness and generosity of God has appeared, he has saved us. We have been washed and made new. Now able to respond to and imitate the love of God to us, by loving others. Here Paul teaches that: We ought to do good to others, for we ourselves were not good and yet God was so good to us.
The hymnist Isaac Watts captures this movement well when he paraphrased our passaged today into the following lines: ‘(1) How wretched was our former state, when, slaves to Satan’s sway, With hearts disordered and impure, o’erwhelmed in sin we lay! (2) But, O my soul! for ever praise, for ever love his name, Who turned thee from the fatal paths of folly, sin, and shame. (3) His Spirit, through the Saviour shed, its sacred fire imparts, Refines our dross, and Love divine rekindles in our hearts. (4) Thence raised from death, we live anew; and, justified by grace, We hope in glory to appear, and see our Father’s face. (5) Let all who hold this faith and hope in holy deeds abound; Thus faith approves itself sincere, by active virtue crowned.’
ALEXANDER ARRELL