Sorry, Lord...

9/9/2012 – Evening Service - 5pm

Ready for Every Good Work

(Titus 3:1-2)

[3:1] Remind them

Paul was not giving Titus new teaching in this brief letter. He was urging him to remind the churches in Crete about the old teaching that they had received. The Word that had been preached was first and foremost a Word about the coming of the king who both saves and reigns. But if He reigns over us, we need to hear His voice and obey Him.

to be submissive to rulers and authorities,

He is the One who calls us to be submissive to rulers and authorities in this present age, even though they will not always believe in Him or be willing to submit to Him as the King of kings. We need to trust God in this and receive very discipline from His hand as He judges to be appropriate for the time and place in which we live. There are limits of course. When rulers demand that we deny God in Word or action, we have to refuse. We then need to face the consequences, or flee, protest, and in some rare cases find another lawful order under which we can resist what has become evil.

to be obedient,

But this should only be a very last resort. We set our hearts above, and we obey the Lord by obeying rulers in every way that the Lord would permit.

to be ready for every good work,

This in not merely about avoiding evil. Nor is it all about governing authorities. Most of our lives are lived with no civil authorities even aware of us. God knows. Our families may have a good idea of what is going on with us in secret. The church may have a guess. But the Board of Selectmen probably don't give any of us one thought.

We need to ready for every good work when the only one who will notice will be the Lord.

[2] to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling,

On the NO list, don't speak evil of anyone. Wow. And avoid all quarreling. Sorry again Lord for the ways I have violated this one. We need to be aware of the flash points that are temptations for us, and practice new habits to extract ourselves from unnecessary contention in a way that is honorable to the Lord and obedient to His Word.

to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

On the YES list, be like Jesus. He knew how to confront those who needed to be confronted, but He was gentle toward the weak. He was (and is) the King. How much more meek should we be? Paul is plainly telling us here how to live in a difficult world. We do need to show perfect courtesy to all people.

To do that we need to think about this commanded behavior as admirable, rather than as a pitiful sign of gutlessness. We need to see the courage of modesty and restraint. Isaiah 53 will help. But more than anything, look to the Christ of the cross that saved us from all the pains of hell. In that cross we find the power that we need for living well now and the perfect example of humility and bravery beyond compare that will lead us home.