Life Lessons from Titus

Titus is a short book written by Paul to a pastor named Titus. In it he provides guidance for the pastor’s life as well as for his church. That makes the book so relevant today. It provides lessons for daily living and ministry. Here are some of those lessons.

Stewardship

We tend to favor ownership. We like to have things that belong to us. That mindset makes service in the church more likely to become humanistic rather than spiritual. However, we are not the owners of the church but stewards of it. Titus 1:7 makes this clear: that overseers (Pastors, superintendents, bishops and so on) are stewards of the gospel. We have a message of good news, the new covenant, of eternal abundant life for all. So, the Word of God is not for us to change or adapt to current social trends or cultural norms. We must not yield to the temptation to make the Word more palatable to the ears and minds of our audience, whoever they might be.

Submission

The previous lesson leads right into this one. We have a great problem with some of the instructions in this letter. The first part of Titus 3:1 says, “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient…” In American culture, individual rights are paramount so submission is not our natural posture. If we don’t like the rulers and authorities, we feel it is okay and, maybe, our responsibility to speak out against them or even engage in acts of civil disobedience to express our defiance. That is not the way of the follower of Jesus! That makes this a hard lesson to swallow for some but this is the Word of God. We submit to God’s leadership as expressed in his Word! This is his will for us.

Winsomeness

To be winsome means that we are generally attractive and appealing in nature. Our behavior and our words should never be harsh or violent. Here is the whole scripture that was partially quoted in the previous lesson.

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. Titus 3:1–2 (ESV)

I am not exaggerating when I say that we have failed miserably to uphold this standard. Everyday, on social media and often with loud voices people who claim to be Christians speak evil of others. Sadly, quarreling seems like second nature to some. What would happen in our culture if all Christians would “be gentle and show perfect courtesy toward all people”?

I have some strongly worded comments written in my journalling Bible that I have decided not to share here but my prayer is that we would truly take God’s Word seriously. Too often, we have paid lip-service to obedience and re-imagined what being a Christian in today’s culture should look like instead using God’s Word and his leadership as our standard.

Returning to a New Testament life as a follower of Jesus is essential to our work of bringing Jesus to a world that is desperate for hope, peace and love. These lessons from Titus can help us do just that!

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