Titus

I am a dork. I know it, my friends know it, my family doesn’t let me forget it, and to be honest I have embraced it. My dorkdom can come out in many ways, and one of the most prevalent is my love for doctrine and theology. There are many people that have this same love, I am not special in this regard. But after going to school for this passion and becoming addicted to books, my dorkdom has increased.

I was thinking this week about right doctrine and how important it is for the modern church and for Christians. If I had a soapbox this would be it. I would gladly get up and scream till I was red in the face about how people have for too long just excepted what they believe and have never truly dug down under the surface to understand what is going on. The tirade would continue with how Christians might be the worse, they we are raised on a faith and never seek to question what we were taught and so our faith remains vague and non-relevant to our lives. This could continue for a long time, even though I doubt it would reach anyone or change anyone’s actions. But as I was thinking about sound doctrine and correct teaching, it struck me that for doctrine to be sound and for teaching to be correct it has to reach into our lives and change who we are.

That is to say that correct teaching results in a changed life. Why is this? Because when we come face to face with the truth of this world and the God who saves, we have but one response. A teaching might have all the facts, it might have all the right answers and be logical, but if it doesn’t result in a change than there is something lacking. I came face to face with this when I was studying the letter of Titus. Titus is a pastoral epistle, one of the letters that Paul wrote to his fellow workers. 1 + 2 Timothy fall into this category as well. Well the letters to Timothy stress sound doctrine, Titus “stresses worthy Christian conduct and insists that Christian conduct must be based on and regulated by Christian truth.” (D. Edmond Hiebert) For even someone that loves doctrine, living it out can still fall by the wayside.

Reading through Titus can be a very sobering experience. Again and again I was reminded that our lives reflect what we believe. Titus 1:16 “They professed to know God, but they deny him by their works.” These were Paul’s opponents. But we can still learn from them. This makes me look at my life and wonder, “Do I deny God by how I live even thought I might claim to follow him?” This can be a sobering thought. Then again in Titus 2:7-8 “Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in all your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.” It is by living out what we believe that our witness is given power and speaks the truth. Paul stresses this through out the letter, Titus 3:1 “…be ready for every good work.” And Titus 3:8 “… those who believe in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.” We who claim to know Christ and God must put that faith into action.

Now if you are anything like me you can get down on yourself. You think, “man I mess up so many times, I can’t do this.” But we must remember that Paul is not saying that we can be perfect or that we will not mess ups, Paul himself said that he messed up and did the things that he did not want to do. This is our response, the trend and character of our life. We mess up, but is the general movement of our life pointed toward living out what we believe?

Also we mustn’t start to think that we earn anything through our response of obedience. Titus 3:5 “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…” Living out what we believe is our response, it is not the start of our salvation. We know what God has done for us and so we respond by being obedient.

Titus can be a sobering read, but one that we all need to take to heart. We who profess to know Christ need to live out our faith. We need to make every effort to have a strong witness that speaks the truth of who God is. Following God is not just our head, it is not just our heart, it is not just what we do. It is all we are.