Teach Us How To Live

Posted by Chris on January 21, 2007 under Sermons

Take a look at a nation that is at its worst:

• Its people are consumed with wealth and they will use every means legal and illegal to acquire wealth. Call it greed or stealing, it works the same.
• Relationships have very little meaning. Adultery and infidelity are taken for granted. Homosexuality and casual sex are encouraged. Children are not a blessing, but a financial liability.
• Substance abuse is widespread and overt; the virtue of self-discipline is in sharp decline.
• Criminal offenses are not dealt with in the name of justice, but in the name of financial compensation.
• Honesty is a rare commodity and one’s creativity at bending the truth is applauded.

The People on Crete are Cretans
You may assume that this is our USA, but I assure you that this is civilization on the island of Crete about 2,000 years ago. Despite the fact that there are disturbing parallels, the reputation of Crete in the first century was worse than our greatest concerns for our own nation.

1. Crete had a reputation of immorality, dishonesty and greed. Ancient writers often spoke of the decline of a once great civilization. By the first century, the island nation of Crete had become known as a degenerate, backwater cesspool of warped virtues. What was once the inspiration for Utopia and Atlantis, had become the scorn of the rest of the world.
   • Cretan courts were not interested in justice, but in financial compensation. For instance, a crime as serious as rape did not incur punishment, but a fine. On Crete, mothers could choose to leave their children to die, but only if the father did not want the child. And when a mother killed an infant without the father’s consent, she was charged a hefty fine.
   • In an attempt to control the population, Crete sanctioned sexual relationships between adult men and boys. It was so common that it was considered unusual for a man not to have a youth as a lover.
   • Crete had broken down politically so that by the first century it had become a collection of city-states that were often in conflict. Piracy was the major industry of the island.
   • Examples of dishonesty and greed …
2. Imagine having the task to bring the gospel to such a land. Imagine how you would begin to teach and encourage the believers who had to live in such an anti-culture. As if all of that weren’t enough of a problem, there were also troublemakers in the church that were causing divisions.
   • From Paul’s letter we get some sense of the problem. There was a group of troublemakers who saw an opportunity to take advantage of the church. “For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach-and that for the sake of dishonest gain.” (1:10-11)
   • Titus found himself engaged in controversies and quarrels with these troublemakers. He may have been trying to argue with them about Jewish mythology, the finer points of tradition, and other disputable matters. It makes for good debate, but it doesn’t really help anyone to live better lives. Rather, its tearing up the family of God on Crete.
3. So Paul is writing to suggest that Titus spend his time doing something different. Paul left Titus on Crete to straighten out what was unfinished. That included empowering positive leadership. And we get the sense from all of Paul’s letter that he thinks it would be better for Titus to build up the positive leadership rather than try to hopelessly bring down the negative leaders (because they just keep coming back like termites).

Titus’ Unfinished Business
Paul may have worked with the church in Crete, may have even helped establish it there, when he was there before his shipwreck in Malta. Acts 27 mentions how Paul was a prisoner being taken to Rome for trial. It makes sense that Paul, as a prisoner, would have limited time to help nurture the faithful on Crete. But he might have taken an interest in their growth and thus sent his associates, like Titus, to work with the believers in a culture that was very hostile to the virtues of faith. Paul’s strategy for Titus, his unfinished business, was to …

1. Appoint elders in every town. (1:5) There needed to be someone in that culture who could demonstrate what godly living was all about.
2. Someone who is blameless. (1:6) Here’s the generic virtue. A blameless man isn’t a perfect man, but a man who lives in such a way that no sustainable charge can be lodged against him. [In our political atmosphere, we often want to think about background checks and sins of the past. The quality of blamelessness is a present quality. Consider Peter: He denied Christ but he was considered an elder (1 Peter 5).] Paul is reminding Titus of the type of character an elder should have. So when he says that he must be a one-woman man, he means that the man has to demonstrate fidelity to his wife. Remember how loose morals are on Crete. When he notes that the man must have faithful children who aren’t open to charges of being wild and disobedient, he proposes this as a check of the man’s ability to form character in others. It’s basic to shepherding because …
3. An overseer must be blameless as the steward of “God’s house.” (1:7) Titus won’t be on Crete forever. If he spends all his time combating the troublemakers then there may be balance as long as he’s there. But what happens once Titus leaves? There’s an old saying that the best way to keep weeds out of your yard is to grow healthy grass. The elder is the steward and caretaker of the household of God. If he is blameless, then he models the virtues of Christ that need to be nurtured in all the faithful. When you look at this comparison of what an elder must be and must not be, consider that there’s not really anything in this that any of us can ignore in our own development of character: Not arrogant, not inclined to anger (short-tempered), not a drunkard, not belligerent, not greedy for money; rather hospitable, loving the good, self-controlled, righteous, devout, disciplined.

A Good Grasp on the Gospel (1:9)
The qualities mentioned are very basic. They also respond to the situation on Crete, as the people of that culture were reputed for being contentious, abusive, drunkards, excessive and greedy. Paul describes one more quality that is important for the on-going task of being an overseer. The man needs to have a good grasp on the gospel. He needs to have an integrity and depth in his understanding and use of the teaching that was passed on to him. Why? For two important, yet related, reasons …

1. So he will be able to encourage others with healthy teaching. We often translate the phrase as sound doctrine. The word we translate sound is the same word that gives us hygiene. Paul suggests that the teaching of the gospel is not just right, but it is good for us. He wants Titus and these overseers to stress the “things are excellent and profitable for everyone.” (3:8) That’s healthy teaching.
2. So he will be able to correct antagonists. (See Titus 1:16; 3:10-11.) Likewise, the faithful model of these elders will stand in opposition to the troublemakers and their unhealthy teaching. The only result of their defiant and deceptive approach is to ruin households and line their own pockets. Yet, the example and the teaching of these godly men may actually serve to correct some of these troublemakers. Here’s the goodness of the gospel: It forms in us the character and concern even for those who would become our opponents. The gospel isn’t a weapon for their destruction rather it is an invitation to healthy living.

Teach Us How To Live

1. Avoid controversies, arguments and quarrels (3:9).

2. Sound doctrine is healthy teaching (2:11-15)

3. Elders live out healthy teaching and thus teach us how to live. (2:1-6)

Chris Benjamin

West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR
Morning Sermon, 21 January 2007