Teaching Righteousness

Focus verses: Titus 2:1-15

Paul's letter to Titus sounds very much like his first letter to Timothy. In fact, both Titus and Timothy were planting churches and facing the same challenges.

In the letter to Titus, however, Paul spells out who ought to be teaching whom. You will notice that men teach men and women teach women. There is a good reason for that.

A teacher in those days spent considerable time with the pupil. Jesus taught his disciples by living with them, day in and day out, for three full years. He invested Himself in them. He gave them all He had to give, and they loved Him in return.

When a teacher invests himself in a pupil, a close relationship grows between them. Can you imagine the havoc that close teaching relationship might wreak if teaching were done between the sexes? It would be an open temptation to many and could cause much damage to the church. That's why Paul separates the teaching by gender.

In my work, I talk to many people by long-distance phone. One man has called several times and explained his problems to me. He is a man who wants to be good, but he is living out of accordance to the will of God. After our last phone conversation, I realized that he was looking at me as a teacher. So I wrote him a short note to encourage him. But in that note, I suggested he find a local man to mentor him. He needs an older and wiser man to rein him back into submission to the word of God.

You cannot claim the word of God and live against its teachings. That is self-deception at its worst. If you believe in God and want to claim His promises, your actions must conform to what He has taught.

Look at Paul's list of virtues to be taught.

Older men are to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, sound in faith, love and endurance.

Younger men are to be encouraged in self-control, integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech.

Older women are to be reverent, not gossips, nor drunkards, but teachers of what is good.

Younger women are to be taught to be loving (to husbands and children), self-controlled, pure, industrious, kind, and submissive.

We can successfully be taught all these things because the grace of God assists us. We can teach these things because the grace of God gives us that authority. Paul says "encourage and rebuke with all authority." When you have learned what God would have you teach, you can speak with boldness and authority because God is the author of what you are teaching.

Oh, and by the way, we are all called to teach.

Father, God,

Help us not to stumble when we teach what we have learned of You. Keep us on the right path so that our words are supported by our deeds. Remind us that we are what we are only by the grace You so freely gave.

In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen.

From Father To Son

Focus verses: I Timothy 6:3-21

Today's reading is the entire letter of I Timothy. Here we have a father-figure speaking to someone he loves as a son. The letter covers the gamut of Christian conduct and church structure. It contains encouragements and admonitions from Paul to Timothy.

I am sure that Timothy treasured this letter, read and re-read it over and over. And he probably shared it with the churches he was planting.

But I want to focus on the last two verses.

²⁰Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, ²¹which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith.
Grace be with you.

When Paul says "guard what has been entrusted to your care," he is talking about the gospel, the good news of Christ's redemption of sinful man. Earlier in this letter, Paul has talked about himself as the worst of sinners, recalling how he once persecuted the church.

This good news that Christ can change the vilest sinner into the serving saint will change our lives, if we but hear and believe. What we believe shapes our actions, and our actions shape our lives.

Paul admonishes Timothy not to be drawn into "godless chatter and the opposing ides of what is falsely called knowledge." We have a lot of that going on in our lives right now. We have scientific theory being taught in our schools as if it were proven fact when it is in direct opposition to the Word of God.

There is an arrogance in the intellect that wants to believe that we can "know it all," that we can wrap our puny finite minds around the knowledge and purposes of an infinite God. That's never going to happen.

Paul's concluding remark is "Grace be with you." Grace, God's endless mercy, God's righteousness at Christ's expense. Grace, you were bought with a price. You are not your own.

Father, God,

Help us to be faithful to Your word at all times. Keep us from wandering into endless philosophies and arguments about the faith. Remind us that Your word is the final word on everything.

In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen.

Relationships And Dissensions

Focus verses: Acts 15:36-16:40

Today's reading begins with an argument. Paul and Barnabas, two pillars of this new church, had such a sharp disagreement over John Mark that they parted company.

Paul seems to have been concerned with being able to rely on John Mark. Remember that Paul was a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. This is a very structured background, almost inflexible. Remember also that Paul was Saul the persecutor of the Christians before his encounter on the road to Damascus. I imagine that his rigid background helped to make him somewhat rigid in his new-found faith as well.

Barnabas seems to have been concerned about mentoring John Mark. Barnabas' name means son of encouragement. And it looks like he is the encourager wherever he goes. He was sent by the Holy Spirit to encourage Paul on the first journey.

But look at the result of this dissension. Paul goes one way, taking Silas with him. Barnabas goes a different direction, taking John Mark with him. We started with two missionaries. Now we have four. God always has a plan

Then Paul and Silas take Timothy under their wing, and he joins their company for the remainder of the journey. Here is another young man being mentored by his elders.

They find Lydia on this journey, and she opens her home to Paul and Silas. They free the slave girl from the fortune-telling spirit and are beaten and thrown into jail for their efforts. When they are freed, they return to Lydia's house.

The community of the church is all about relationships and finding and encouraging one another. It is about tending one another's wounds and growing in the Lord. It is about reconciliation and interdependence.

Father, God,

Knit us together as Your family. Help us to move through disagreements into interdependence upon one another. Help us to be patient with each other and less demanding of our brothers and sisters, extending to them Your grace for we have none of our own.

In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen.