Hold Onto Sound Doctrine (Titus 2:1-10)

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Titus 2:1-10
'But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behaviour, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in 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. Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour.'

The Apostle Paul has just finished telling Titus that he must look out for those who do not practice what they preach and encourages him to Hold Onto The Truth. In so doing, Titus and those he speaks to must also Hold Onto Jesus.

Now Paul implores Titus to stand apart from these false teachers and teach what is sound doctrine 'But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.'. Titus must use what he knows about Christ, about how he should live, to live. Everything he does must be based on Scripture, everything must be tested to what Scripture says and he must not deviate from it - otherwise he will become like the false teachers - those very people he has just been advised about.

There is an element of that truth for us as well - we, as today's Christians must live according to what the Bible tells us, we must ensure that our lives are in accordance with sound doctrine - based on scripture, tested against scripture, so if we are compared, people would see that what we say is true and Christ is the Saviour.

To emphasise this, Paul goes on to give instructions to all groups of people within the church that Titus is working with. There are five groups of people mentioned who cover just about everyone: Older men; older women; young women; young men; and bondservants. Each group of people are to be taught how they should be living again with sound doctrine in mind in each case.

OLDER MEN

Older men are considered the senior part of the church, they should, by the very virtue of being older and more experienced with life, be wiser and more mature. These men should be taught to be 'sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness'. These men should not be influenced by alcohol (or in terms of today, perhaps this could refer to anything that could lead the man to becoming an addict of something!) and live a life that others respect. Those in the church should live a life where people look up to them, not because of position or power, but because of how they live their life, they should be wise in life. These men should also show restraint, self-control in everything they encounter. They must think carefully before jumping in, look at every possible angle before getting involved, etc. As older men, they would be expected to be sound in everything they put their mind to, not least the three cardinal Christian virtues of faith (trusting God), love (serving others) and in steadfastness (waiting patiently for the fulfillment of their Christian hope).

OLDER WOMEN

Older women are, likewise are to be taught three virtues, given them a specific position in the church and in the Christian Family. First they must be 'reverent in behaviour' - they should live a life that is openly sound, almost priestess-like. They should have a character that no-one can judge as being bad or wrong. As if to emphasise this, Paul mentions two negative behaviours, older women should stay clear of: being slanderers and slaves to much wine. If the older women are living a Godly life, then they should not be slanderers, for if they were to be slanderers, this would negate their Godly behaviour. In a similar way to the older men, they should not be influenced by to much wine. Today, this could be translated, I guess, to any addictions. This should be so as to be able to teach the younger women.

YOUNG WOMEN

This is the only group Titus does not need teach, as this job falls to the older women who will teach them how to love their husbands and children, be self-controlled, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands. This is a tall order in today's world, particularly with more and more women needing to get a job. Although this was not the case at the time the letter was written, I believe the Bible and the words within it are appropriate for any age. Young women should be just like their mothers - caring for the family, in which ever capacity that may be, whether at home working, or in a job working. Young women who work for a living should do so for the love of their family, irrespective of whether their husbands work or not. They should be open to the teachings of the older women.

YOUNG MEN

Young men should follow suit as the young women in that they must be self-controlled. This would be in every aspect of their lives. Although not as wise and experienced as the older men, young men should be self-controlled in things that could cause them to become addicts, being influenced by other people, specifically those of a non-Christian ethos and in the same way should be influenced by Christian brothers. They should be encouraged to continue in this way of life because the world's pleasures are strong, particularly pleasures like sex, alcohol, and young women - but young men must stay in control of their minds. To this end, they must have a suitable example and Paul states here that Titus must be that example.

Titus must live his life respectfully, he must live to do good works and his teaching must be truth and consistent and he must live what he preaches. All his speech, not just his sermons and teachings, must be sound, he must give nothing that could allow anyone who is not a Christian to slander or condemn him and have nothing evil to say about us.

BOND SERVANTS

Although not many of these around today, they could be linked with those who work under us in our work place (since most of us do not have servants in our homes!), however, whatever the identity, they should be submissive to their masters. That means do what their bosses want them to do without complaint or derision. This is probably a group that most of us fall into, particularly if we work for a manager. We should not fall into the trap of grumbling when decisions are made, we should not find ourselves talking behind the management's back and we must not steal from the workplace, however small it may seem, but in everything we do, we must do in good faith. We must live like we are supposed to do, like Christians, 'so that in everything they [anyone] may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour'.

Christ died so that we may be saved. This is folly to the unbeliever. They think 'What is the point?', if there is any possibility of truth. They (non-believers) are always looking out for when we (believers) do or say things wrong. They want to put us in our places, want to point out our failures, want to prove that we are deluded to believe in a man who died 2000 years ago (if that story is true!).

Today, the false teaching is just as apparent as it was in Paul and Titus' time. People have slipped back into their natural ways, because it is easier rather than doing what Christ wants us to do. Living a life according to our own wills and wants is more pleasurable in the immediate term than to sacrifice the worldly pleasures for the sake of the Gospel and of Christ.

This is why it is extremely important to ensure that we encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ every day. We must meet regularly, pray together, read God's word to hear what he is saying to us regularly, we must encourage each other to talk, to share our weaknesses, our temptations and, yes, we must talk about our sin. Satan does not want us to talk about our sin because he wants us to ignore it, to allow it to slip through our lives until it is an integral part of it. However, as a Christian, we already know that sin is ALREADY an integral part of our lives. We are born to it. We cannot escape it. But we must not, according to Paul allow it govern our lives.

Christ died to pay the penalty of our sin. Once and for all to bring us back to God.

If he did that for us, why wouldn't we want to live that is sober-minded dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness?

Hold Onto The Truth (Titus 1:10-16)

Source: BocaWatch

Titus 1:10-16
For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Today's media is constantly telling us we must do something, or we must take up a deal before it is too late or that we desperately need the next device to make our lives easier. Using a series of key action words, producers of adverts have got the spoken and written language down to a perfect tee, in order for consumers to buy into their product (whatever it happens to be!). Likewise, people who tell you that it is OK to do things that are clearly wrong know how to encourage us to do these detestable things, whether by general 'egging-on' or through a series of perfectly timed phrases (akin to what the serpent did in Eden).

Many of our young people feel the pressure of their peers to smoke, consume alcohol or drugs or worse, to have sex. Our young people (and in some cases our adults) are strongly influenced by what they read in magazines or watch on T.V./Internet. There are lots of people out there in the world that know exactly what to say or do to get you to follow them.

Many people are lost to the wills of those who say there is no God; you can do whatever you want; life is what you make of it; its OK to explore yourself; its OK to try just one; its OK not to honour God. The list could go on - this is what people are being bombarded with constantly every day. A seemingly harmless cartoon that teaches our children it is OK to fight or a film that paints a picture of adultery being normal behaviour.

I guess we can take some encouragement, therefore, when Paul writes about this very thing here. He has just finished advising Titus on the characteristics of those he should appoint as church leaders. He tells them to be faithful by holding onto Jesus. Now, he identifies the urgency of why Titus must chose these leaders with such characteristics. This is a stark warning to Titus that he will have to deal with people who are dead against him and his teaching. In fact, people who teach other things to people, messages that are not of God, but of worldly gains and pleasures.

These people are 'insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers', they refuse to submit to the authority of God and his trustworthy message. They work to 'turn away [people] from the truth' in what they say and how they live. They 'deny him by their works'. They go out of their way to persuade you that their way of thinking is correct, and in turn, the Scripture's way of thinking is wrong.

Why?

They want you to be the centre of the universe. You are the human being, the pinnacle of the animal kingdom, the most advanced species of animal on the face of the planet and, indeed, the known universe. You are the only animal that alters the surrounding environment to suit yourself, you are the centre of all that is. God is just a figment we have created, a deity to explain something Science cannot. Even then, it is only a matter of time before Science will have the answer to everything important. They are causing problems with not just our young people, but everyone. 'they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.'. You only live once, so why bother worrying about how you live - have fun, as the Bible says, "Eat, Drink and Be Merry!"

Paul says, this is wrong. So called, 'empty talking'. We must hold onto Jesus, he says in order to silence them and 'rebuke them sharply'. He says these people are 'defiled and unbelieving'.

Society would have you believe that morality is what we, the people make of it. We are in control of our lives, we decide what is right and wrong, we decide what is acceptable and what is not. But Paul, declares that morality is not a matter of rules about things that are pure and impure by nature or decree, but a matter of the disposition of the heart.

We have forgotten the true Emperor of the Universe. We have forgotten who the creator is. We have all turned away and fallen short of the Kingdom of God and time is running out! Christ will return again, we must be ready, we must hold onto the truth, the real truth and nothing but the truth - God's truth not our perceptive truth.

There is a sense of urgency here - we must hold firmly to our faith in Christ Jesus, stand firm against the Devil's lies and love our neighbour in order to lead them to 'be sound in the faith'.

Hold Onto Jesus - (Titus 1:5-9)

Titus 1:5-9

The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer manages God's household, he must be blameless - not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy  message as it has been taught so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

Over the past several years I have held various positions of responsibilities, both in my church life and in my job. I have thrived in those positions, instigating new ideas and seeing them through to completion. But in some cases, I have had to move on before the fruits of my labour has been obvious and I had to go through the pain staking action of handing over to someone else who will fill my role.

Paul is doing that here. This letter to Titus begins with instruction to Titus, an early church leader. He had worked closely with Paul in the early days of his conversion, no doubt following one of the numerous sermons that Paul delivered to the Greeks. Paul is handing over the responsibility to Titus to ensure the church in Crete continued to thrive in the right direction, 'that you might put in order what was left unfinished...'

Paul wanted to ensure the work he begun in Crete was completed correctly. He goes on to explain that Titus could not do this himself and so must appoint elders in every church. Although we do not know how many were to be chosen, we know they should be of high calibre, upright citizens who know the Lord and have their own house in order.

But, why so perfect? Can we get that level of perfection?

Paul is quite clear here, those chosen for this high position in church communities must be 'blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.' Isn't that a tall order? Even the children of the elder's must be perfect? Who are these people that the entire family must be perfect to lead God's people?

Lets think about this a little more, these elders were to be in charge of God's household here on Earth. They were to be examples of holy living. Reproachable in the eyes of the law and approachable in the eyes of the church goers. These men (as it is written in Paul's letter) were to be good citizens in order to provide counsel to the church goers, they were to be a living example to all.

How could they be trusted to lead the church, if they themselves were imperfect? They couldn't and Paul knows this. He is not saying people must be perfect. He knows that we are all sinners. We are dishonest. We do give way to wild and disobedient lives. We are not self-controlled. He knows we are incapable of living such a perfect life, but we are called to be holy. 'holy and disciplined' You see, Paul is not just talking about the elders here, he is talking about every Christian. He wants every Christian to follow suit, with the elders as examples.

But, how can we live a holy life if we, ourselves, are incapable of living a holy life? Is Paul setting us up for a mighty fall? Is he setting the bar incredibly high so that everyone falls short and fails?

Of course, the answer is no. He is pointing us to the ultimate example of perfection. The only person who is 'self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined', Jesus Christ.

Christ lives the life he asks of us. He is holy and he wants us to be but he knows we can't on our own. We are inherent sinners who constantly do things wrong. Christ knows this yet he still gave his life for us. It is through this love that we can have that holy life. 

Christ died so we can live. Christ clothes us in his perfection and takes on our imperfect himself. The Son died so we can stand in the presence of the father, perfect. He rose again so we can be reborn in him. Therefore, he calls us to live a holy life in him. 

But we must 'hold firmly to the trustworthy message', that is in Christ Jesus and rely completely on him.