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.

Hold A Good Thought

Focus verses: Philipians 4:2-9

There was division and dissension in the church at Philipi when Paul wrote this letter. Two of the ladies (I can see them now), probably strong-minded and willful, had disagreed on some point. The rift grew between them and started to fracture the congregation.

That happens when people focus on the differences between them and on the ugliness each of us shows.

But Paul is telling them to focus on the good things. Our minds naturally dwell upon the things that are important to us. But the reverse is also true. We begin to become the things we let our mind dwell upon.

My friend and I meet weekly, to visit, to encourage one another, to talk about the Lord. We do not always agree. She sees things from one perspective. I see them from another. But we do not argue. She allows me my focus, and I respect hers. Frequently we edify one another because between the two of us, we have a binocular vision of what the Lord is doing in our lives.

When she is in the middle of a crisis, she doesn't see the hand of the Lord working because of the stress of the crisis. I can see through her crisis to a plan that the Lord might have for her. The reverse is also true. When I'm in crisis, I see mostly the crisis, not the eternal perspective. She helps me put a different spin on the matter.

Frequently we agree to disagree - that is to hold different opinions of a matter. We are both aware that our opinions are not God's law - they are merely personal interpretations of the facts. Both of us are old enough and wise enough to know that we are not the ultimate authority.

So she thinks about the things in me that are good. And I think about her good points as well. We are, in the best sense, sisters in Christ.

But if we each focused on the short-comings of the other, we would never have become friends. I have way too many faults. And even she has her share. I recognize her failings, much as I recognize my own. But I don't labor the point either with her or myself.

Together, we have become better people, with fewer faults than we each had at the outset. Focusing on the good, the true, the praise-worthy, we have gained some of those virtues. I sincerely hope we can gain more of these virtues to swallow up our remaining faults.

Father, God,

Thank You for putting Your church together with diverse people. Help us to see the good in all the members of Your body. Keep us focused on building one another up so that the church is strengthened.

In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen.