The Radical Christian - Titus 3

Read Titus 3

Titus 3:14 (ESV)

And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.

No matter how controversial the early Christians were, no matter how many enemies they made because of their abstinence from temple worship, they still had a job to do, and it was urgent. The early Christian communities lived their just life outwardly. They gave generously to the shared purse, and used their resources to feed the poor. Acts says there were no poor among them. The radical generosity of the early communities was unheard of at the time. They grew quickly as many of the poor and marginalized came to them for aide. This was their testimony of the coming Kingdom. They preached a Saviour and Lord other than Caesar (who called himself by both titles), and showed the people that they could be provided for outside of the "Pax Romana".

The warning and command in this passage is to avoid controversies and arguments within the community. They had a purpose, to actively demonstrate the generous and just Kingdom. Arguments over minor points of doctrine would only serve to distract the community from its very important task, for which many were urgently needing them.

The radical generosity of the early church was to be distributed as universally as the gospel itself. Paul reminds Titus that they themselves were completely unworthy of the grace given by Jesus. God has been generous to them, though they were entirely corrupt. Therefore, our actions and generosity toward people are not bases on their worthiness or righteousness. We are agents of his divine unconditional love. We cannot judge. Freely we have received. Freely we give.

Titus 3:4-8 (ESV)

4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.

This generosity extends to the previous verses at the beginning of this chapter and the end of Titus 2. The Romans were persecuting the early Christians, often to the death. Many of them were enslaved by Rome. Paul himself was a political prisoner. They subverted the practices of Rome by refusing to worship the Caesar or sacrifice in the local temples. If anyone should deserve the hatred and rebellion of the early Christians, it was the government of Rome and the systems it represented. But Paul says that the generosity offered to us in forgiveness and redemption is to be offered by us freely to all.

Titus 3:1-2 (ESV)

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2  to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarrelling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy towards all people.

Instead of open rebellion in the face of a contrary empire, they were to look for opportunities to do good works. They were to generously bless the authorities that sought to kill them. This instruction echoes Jesus words in Luke about loving our enemies.

Luke 6:27-31 (ESV)

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28  bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

Many of the early Christians went to their grave at the hands of the agents of the empire they had refused to hate. This demonstrates the truly radical inclusion of the gospel. We who were enemies of God have been accepted. Therefore we will now live justly in an unjust world. We will live in unity in a world defined by self-interest. We will give generously to all without condition or reservation. We will love our enemies even to the death.

At the centre of it all is the gospel of Jesus, who sets us free and enables us to live the new world from the inside out.

Read Titus 3

The Christian Example - Titus 2 notes

Read Titus 2

Titus 2:11-14 (ESV)

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, 14  who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Followers of Jesus live in a now-but-not-yet reality. We live in the hope of the Kingdom consummated, the return of Jesus (v13), when all will be put right in justice and love. The redemption he offers is for the benefit of the entire world (v11). It is a hope that includes subversion of the present authorities (v13). Titus 2:13 calls Jesus "God and Saviour", a title used to describe Caesar, who claimed to have "saved" the colonies by assimilating them into the Roman empire. Jesus followers have a new King, a new Lord, a new Saviour. The Kingdom of God is coming, and the empire and its authorities will crumble.

Still, we live in the reality of the order as it is now, what Titus 2:12 calls the present age. We are called to be a people "zealous for good works" (v14). In the original language and context, "good works" were the practices of radical generosity and community shared in the early Jesus community. Acts says there was no poor among them. We have a passion for justice. We live contrary to the corrupt patterns of the world as they are. However, the patterns of the world are still as they are, and in this present age, we must find how we can practically live as Kingdom citizens in the midst of the reality of empire.

The early Christians were watched closely by their Roman neighbours. The Christians were significantly separated from the Roman world politically and socially by their abstinence from the temple and the party scene. Temple sacrifice was an assumed practice in Ancient Rome. Keeping the regional gods happy was a civic duty, showing that you cared for the well-being of the community. To not sacrifice was a political act, and also highly suspicious. Drunken orgies were also a common practice, and the early Christians also stopped participating in these. For these to acts alone, they had gained a bad reputation amongst some of the mainstream Romans. Suspicions led to accusations of atheism (for not worshipping the gods), incest (because they called each other "brother" and "sister", and greeted each other with kisses), and cannibalism (because of misunderstandings surrounding communion, the Eucharist). For these reasons, the early communities were watched very closely by curious neighbours and enemies alike. They wanted to know what these people were about.

Titus 2:7-8 (ESV)

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

Christians are ambassadors of the living Kingdom. The things we do and say reflect the nature of the Kingdom as it is and the Kingdom to come. By the Holy Spirit, we are "self-controlled" (v12), meaning we have within us the ability to govern our own passions, desires, and actions. We are not lawless (v14), but the law we follow is written on our hearts, not imposed by an outside authority. The Roman Empire's system was the true lawlessness, based on power and control held by the violent and corrupt few. The spirit of the empire filtered down to every citizen, each acting in the same self-interest and hedonism that led the powers to oppress them. Our lives seen by others should demonstrate the passion for justice this chapter describes, in the present age of empire as it is.

At the time this letter was written, fully one third of the population were slaves. The entire economy rested in the foundation of slavery. Romans lived in multi-generational family units, and they represented the building blocks of the empire's system. To live contrary to that system would be tantamount to a community in North America today trying to live entirely outside the country's system of capital, using no money for anything, ever. It was corrupt and unjust, but it was the reality in which the early Christians lived.

With such an understanding, the chapter gives practical advice for how to live in that present age, according to the empire's system, without compromise. Paul instructs the oldest matriarchs and patriarchs of the households to remain sober. The reputation of the oldest in the family units of ancient Rome was drunkenness that would lead to violence and control of the family. Not so for Christians. For every member of the family unit, Paul urges self-control. They were to be models of restraint and discipline, not because it was imposed upon them, but for honour to God. Slaves that would have been taught for the first time in the early Christian communities were not to use their faith as an excuse to rebel. Elsewhere in scripture are examples of slaves that are treated as free equals in the Christian community (particularly Philemon), but the principle in their relationship is to love and respect for the possibility of gaining an ally, rather than creating another enemy of the movement.

Christians and resisters today find themselves in a similar situation. We may believe that the overuse and abuse of fossil fuels is an injustice to the creation we were called to steward. Still, we live in a world that runs on oil and coal, and we must live within it even as we organize and act toward a world not dependent on oil. We may believe that the inequity of the wage system is unjust, and that an fully organized workforce is the only way workers will truly be paid what they are worth. Still, we must live and work within the world as it is. We do not have the choice to quit working, but we can organize toward a more just system even as we work in the system as it is.

Our hope is for a world that is just, loving, and good. Our lives lived now in the power of the Holy Spirit are a hint to those that watch us of how the world can be. Our lives lived in freedom and self-control witness to those that see us that the world can be different, is indeed different, and that the ideal and just world we speak of truly is coming.

Read Titus 2

The Radical Pastor - Titus 1

Read Titus 1

Titus 1:5,9 (ESV)

5  This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— 9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

The third pastoral letter begins with the same message the first two repeated. The role of a pastor is to teach teachers to teach teachers to teach. The message to teach is simple and clear and constant. Pastors are to teach the gospel centrally, the Good News of free and gracious invitation to participate in the living Kingdom of God here and now, by the power of the freely given Holy Spirit dwelling in us, received by faith in Jesus Christ. This invitation is for all people, everywhere, without restriction or payment, regardless of class, gender, ethnicity, or background. None are preferred. All are enabled to live free and freely participate in Kingdom Communities that radically share together and resist the spirit of the empire from which they are free.

The teachers (called elders, or overseers) are chosen based on integrity and character. Everything else is developed in mentoring relationships. As Paul teaches Titus and Timothy, these elders will also be taught to teach the radical and free gospel of Jesus centrally.

Titus is also warned, as Timothy was, to guard against infiltrators that would try to bind people to rules and legislation as essential elements of their citizenry in the new Kingdom. Paul finds such religious oppression abhorrent, and entirely contrary to the free message he preaches of Jesus. Citizens of the Kingdom have been set free from law, and he will not abide such legalistic ritual applied to the free demonstration of faith through people as they pursue Jesus' justice and love.

Most of the mechanics of this foundational message of the three pastoral letters are explored in the notes on the letters to Timothy.

(see notes on preaching the Gospel from 1 Timothy 1 and Qualifications of Elders in 1 Timothy 2)

Preach the gospel.

Teach others to do the same.

Teach them to teach others to teach others to do the same.

The gospel is free, an for everyone.

The description of a pastor's role is so incredibly simple in these three short letters. What is surprising is how often pastors and churches today can have far-reaching and multi faceted ministries that do a great deal of good, and still sometimes manage to not fulfill these simple instructions. It is possible to go to church for months, and hear a lot of really great, even really helpful preaching, but never hear the gospel clearly presented. It's possible today to go to church for years without forming a significant mentoring, enabling relationship. Some churches go a generation with very little change in the leadership, the same few people on the stage or behind the pulpit without anyone else equipped to replace them.

This criticism isn't meant to suggest these churches don't love God, believe the gospel, or do good things. Sermons about money management, relationships, or success aren't bad. But what is missing when we don't keep it as simple or central as Paul suggests in the pastoral letters? And for what reason would we ever fail to practice church as they describe?

The truth is that community is very hard. Diverse community is especially hard. The early church didn't exist long before their radical inclusion did begin to cause them problems. People came to the communities with all kinds of baggage, old habits and worldviews they'd learned as prisoners of the empire. The ideal of Kingdom life was practiced in faith by the early Jesus followers, but there wasn't always agreement in how a just and loving community is organized and demonstrated. Worse, even if there was agreement, many frequently failed to meet the ideal. Conflicts and consequences needed to be dealt with in mutuality and love, also in the Spirit. Every member of community was on a journey, and had to also be gracious to the unique processes of their fellow travelers.

The same is true today. Community is still hard. Community lived counter-culturally, in resistance to the world's patterns, is really hard. Sharing an *inclusive* community, always welcoming new members just starting their journeys, is even harder.

The message of grace in the gospel is so scandalously free. It can take more than a lifetime to really grasp and practice the incredible freedom offered in the Kingdom. This freedom is much greater than a lack of oppression. This is a participatory and active freedom. We rest in the grace of God. We actively participate in the justice of God.

The problem is, we're not necessarily always all that good at it. And that's scary.

The message we pastors have been commissioned to share is an invitation to *participate*, right now, by faith, in God's work on earth. In an inclusive and active community, that can be scary.

Furthermore, people enter free community with a lifetime of experience in the old order, the controlling, corrupted, oppressive empire. We have habits of selfishness, some learned, some embraced from our own dark nature of the empire within. Many come with trauma and abuse, institutionalized by the world as it is. To simply remove chains and call a former prisoner free is a sober idea. But this is why we have community. We are not left to our devices. We each and all humbly submit our journeys to one another, failing forward toward a Victory purchased and promised for us.

What a beautiful mess.

But we pastors are as fallible as anyone else in the comnunity. Many of us would prefer things neat and tidy sometimes. It's also an easy trap to fall into. People come to church expecting what they've always had, someone telling them what to do, how to live. For some, freedom to do as they will is as frightening to them as it is to the pastor. So there is a certain comfort in fulfilling that role, giving three keys each week to relationship or financial success, but failing to share the tools to discover the keys themselves.

If we fall into this pattern, we may quickly find ourselves mirroring the old order from which our communities came. The people become consumers, and the pastor becomes a distributor of religious goods and services. The church itself becomes a commodity to be marketed. At worst, people are kept infants, dependent on the pastor for their faith and worship.

Paul demonstrates something different with Timothy. He never claims to have something that Timothy himself does not already possess.

2 Timothy 1:6-7 (ESV)

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Timothy was a young, inexperienced, and timid pastor who suffered from tummyaches. Paul does not give him step by step instructions for ministry. He does not even tell him exactly how he is supposed to choose and train elders and deacons (Elected? Selected? The text does not say). What he does tell him is to preach the gospel, which he repeatedly reminds him is something he already knows. He reminds him to stir up the gift already within him by the same Holy Spirit in Paul. And then he just lets him have a go at it.

What a mess that could be.

Or what freedom.

We pastors are not on some pedestal above people, getting special access to God on their behalf. There is only one mediator, and it is not you. There are no priests necessary. The same Holy Spirit that dwells in the pastor dwells equally in every single member of God's family. We don't need to tell people what to do, or how to live, not ultimately. Our central purpose is to walk beside or behind people, lifting them up and helping them find their unique gifts and callings. We nurture people as they heal from the trauma of life lived in the empire, and demonstrate how they may each personally participate in the free life of the Kingdom.

Ephesians 4:11-14 (ESV)

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12  to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

It's the church, every member, that does the work of the ministry, not the pastor. We're the equippers. We’re not way ahead of anyone. We’re all growing up together. And they might screw it up. In fact, they will, just like you did. Just like you still do. And then we'll humbly and graciously forgive and try again, together, in love and freedom.

We teach people to know and find the truth themselves, to wrestle with faith and scripture, so that they may grow up, and freely participate with life and creativity. A diverse body growing together is stronger than a community of people all following the good advice of one man.

The warning and danger of keeping freedom and community from our congregation is at the end of Titus chapter 1. No matter how good our advice may be, even if it has good result, if it isn't planted in the soil of the gospel, it is infertile. It is dead. Without the radical freedom of the gospel, and the messy business of enabling enablers, we risk becoming like the legalists that Paul warns about. Paul mentions Jewish religious ritual, but not because of an argument with an ethnic or religious group. His warning is about the legalism of religious ritual apart from the freedom of the gospel of the Kingdom. If we preach practical keys to success every week, without preaching the truth that victory has already been won for each of us, we risk creating a new bondage for out congregations. If we talk about how to be happy, without teaching and demonstrating the fruit of true joy that can come from a life lived free, we risk building a cage of empty smiles and hallelujahs as oppressive as the empire's empty hedonism.

We are fulfilled in Jesus.

We are satisfied in Jesus.

We are made free, radically, scandalously free in Jesus.

Even free to fail.

So let's preach the gospel, and give space for people to live as free as the gospel actually allows. Let's be willing to get messy together, and let Jesus be the one with the power, not us. It's better that way.

Read Titus 1

Introducing the Pastoral Epistles – The Ideal Meets the Real

1 Timothy 1:1-2 (ESV)
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope,

2 To Timothy, my true child in the faith:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

The gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) tell the story of Jesus, his life and ministry, and his central message of the coming Kingdom of God. He taught that the Kingdom had come, was near, was indeed among the people he taught. He spoke of a Great Reversal, where the rich would be humbled, the oppressed set free, the last made first, rulers removed, sinners forgiven, and blind see. He taught people to live the truth and life of the Kingdom now, in this life. He promised that the Great Reversal would permeate the world like a yeast would dough, grow over the empire like weeds through the sidewalk, tearing it's deadness down by the life of Spirit-filled communities of justice.

In his death and resurrection, he planted the life of God in the heart of humanity, by grace offering a free invitation into this new Kingdom to everyone, everywhere, regardless of any background or origin of any kind.

Acts tells the story of the first steps of this living community. They wrestle with how to share their abundant life with the diverse crowds that joined their numbers. In their practice, the ideal of the Kingdom that Jesus taught met the reality of life lived in resistance to empire as it was around them, and the spirit of empire in which they had always lived by habit. In the collision of Jesus' universal, eternal, and highly ideal declaration of Kingdom Come with the temporal, complicated, unusual, and unexpected life lived in diverse community the members of community were changed. In both conflict and cooperation, the Holy Spirit among them used every circumstance to further grow them individually and as a community toward the fulfillment of Jesus' Kingdom promises.

The Kingdom had come. People shared everything they had with reckless generosity. Poor people were fed, taught, and equipped in community to be free. The very economy and power structures of empire and religion were confronted and sometimes dismantled by the influence of the growing communities.

But the Kingdom is also still yet to be. The teachings of Jesus are universal, but the diversity of these early Kingdom communities meant there were differences in understanding and application of these commands. The members of community still had habits and expectations from their previous lives in bondage to the spirit of empire. Selfishness and pride sometimes led to conflict. These communities still lived (and today, still live) in a world where the empires and powers have influence and control. Resistance was (and is) difficult at best. At worst, it leads to persecution by the powers of the world.

As the ideal of the promised Coming Kingdom meets the reality of practical demonstration now, every community had to wrestle with how they each would best demonstrate the gospel in their context. These communities were called churches, which means a gathering. The practice of Kingdom life was called the Way. Members of these communities were called Followers of the way, or Christians, after Christ, which means Messiah, or chosen one. Letters were written between the churches, especially by the apostles (which means sent ones), the people who travelled between the churches and beyond to plant new ones. These letters were called epistles.

The diversity in backgrounds within the churches is matched by a diversity of gifts administered by the Holy Spirit within its members. At its best, every member of the community is enabled to give according to their unique gift and calling. Every member contributes to the whole, each supplying to others the ability to all operate to their full function as parts of a body all contribute to the healthy function of a whole person.

Since every church was unique in its cultural context, membership, and gifting, the epistles (the letters to the churches) each dealt with very specific issues unique to each gathering. While Jesus' teaching were universally true and applicable, not every instruction to every church was necessarily so. What may have been assumed in one church may be a sharp controversy in another. As such, the epistles must be interpreted carefully according to their cultural context and intention.

Among the epistles, Romans and Hebrews both stand out as very broad and thorough in the scope of their messages. Romans, an epistle of Paul,  has a very thorough and complete theology of salvation (called soteriology). Paul wrote this letter to a church he'd never visited, so he started from scratch and grew a well formed story of the gospel for the Romans. Much of the New Testament is seen through the theology of Romans, once called the grand cathedral of Christian doctrine. Hebrews has a well formed Christology, a study of the person of Jesus the Messiah. It also traces the history of Covenant from the beginning of Hebrew scripture until the Kingdom age.

Most of these epistles are addressed to a church or churches of a region. Church members would read the letters to the community, probably in full, and the gatherings would then wrestle in word and deed over how to put the instructions into practice. Letters would be copied and distributed widely, so the best opportunity could be given for a wide audience to benefit. Over time and practice, certain books would be recognized by the churches as especially helpful for teaching doctrine or instructing practical community life. These are the books that remain in the New Testament today.

Along with apostles (sent ones), who taught widely and planted churches, the pastoral gift was also given to equip the church communities to function as Jesus had taught. Pastors in the early church served as community organizers and equippers of the body, seeking the best for all members and helping each member find their place in the whole. Pastors became the servants to all, giving their life to preach for, serve, and love their communities.

The communities were multiplying so quickly that many pastors were still themselves young in the faith. Three of the New Testament epistles are addressed to two specific pastors, both of whom had served with Paul, to whom the letters are attributed. 1 and 2 Timothy are addressed to Timothy, the young Greek man who served with Paul on his second missionary journey (Acts 16). Much of both of these letters encourage young Timothy to be bold in his ministry, and not to be timid though he may be young or inexperienced. Timothy pastors in a church in Ephesus, to whom Paul also wrote the highly poetic and beautiful book of Ephesians. Titus is probably more confident in his ministry, as Paul's letter to him is far more direct and to the point, and dispenses with the strong fatherly encouragements of the Timothy letters.

These three letters are commonly called the Pastoral Epistles. In them we find some of the most specific and practical instructions for the organization and administration of church community life of any of the writing of the New Testament. In them, Jesus' broad and universal promises and instructions about the Kingdom of God meet the most immediate, practical, and specific application in the present world. The ideal becomes real.

As we read the instructions of the pastoral letters, we are equipped to also practice the abundance and justice and love of Kingdom life in our communities in their cultural contexts today.

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These are the repeated messages emphasized in the pastoral epistles of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus:

1 – Preach good doctrine.
Remember what you’ve been taught.
Use the gifts you’ve been given and the tools you’ve been trained in.
Study the Bible and know it.
Preach often.
Preach Jesus.
Preach the gospel.

2 – Practice good doctrine.
Be a good example of a Jesus follower.
Have integrity.
Do not give anyone an excuse to question your teaching.
Teach people proper application of the doctrine they learn.

3 – Do not be caught up in quarrels with false teachers.
Teach the truth humbly, boldly, continuously, and gently.
Correct wrong teaching.
Warn divisive people to stop being divisive.
Do not associate with those who insist on continuing to quarrel and be divisive.

4 – Recognize, train, and help people develop their gifts.
Teach others to be teachers that teach teachers.
Do not minister alone.
Expect integrity from those who teach in church.
 

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The pastoral letters, and all the epistles, should be read as following after the book of Acts, as Acts follows the Gospels. In other words, the Gospel, the Good News of freedom and justice and love and the Kingdom of God are central. This is the most important thing. Paul himself says this many times in his letters to Timothy and Titus. In Acts, the church takes its first steps in applying the message of freedom in community. The pastoral letters give practical instruction to pastors for how to demonstrate the teachings of Jesus and the truth of the gospel in their churches. Therefore, these letters reveal as much or more about the process of discerning that practical application as it gives us practical advice today. Also, our context and culture may make some of the advice irrelevant to us. 1 Timothy 5 is mostly about taking care of widows, of which there are none in our church. So these books also reveal much about the practical concerns that faced the early church.

Our job is to discern and practice the gospel in our context. The pastoral letters teach us to keep the gospel central. The examples of instruction in the letters help us see how we too can practically demonstrate the good news of the Kingdom in our context today. Whether we find the instructions within these pages helpful or irrelevant, the principles point to Jesus, and our mandate remains the same to discover how our churches may best honour Jesus and walk in faith.