20230305 Titus 1:1-4 The Bible for a Healthy Faith
Health relates to all aspects of life: emotional, relational, physical, and financial. The best news is that no one is ever too far off from enjoying the most important kind of health, which is spiritual health. We cannot fully control our finances, our relationships, or our emotions, but through faith, God guarantees our spiritual health. President Jimmy Carter, a Christian, was placed in hospice care at 98. While his doctors deemed that he would not regain his physical health, even in hospice, he will not lose his most treasured, spiritual health.
Spiritual health is the enjoyment of eternal life. It is harmony with God, others, ourselves, and creation. Spiritual health is God’s plan for our lives. Gen 1-2 portrays God’s idyllic creation. In the created order, humanity enjoyed eternal life. After the first sin, in Gen 3, each area of harmony is ruptured. The Christian message is that God has orchestrated all of history to restore harmony through Jesus. We will only fully enjoy eternal life at the return of Christ, but eternal life is already fully ours in Christ. Spiritual health is enjoying the benefits of eternal life in all spheres, despite the sufferings of this life. Spiritual health is the most important kind of health. The church’s mission is promoting spiritual health worldwide in Christ.
In Titus, Paul promotes spiritual health. Titus is one of three pastoral epistles. At the end of his life, Paul, the mentor, wrote to his beloved friends Titus and Timothy instructing them to keep the household of faith in good order. This is a passing on of the baton to the next generation of pastors. The Greek word, ὑγιαίνω stands out in Titus. It gives the English word “hygiene,” and it means “healthy.” Our translations render it “sound” in Paul’s letters. Healthy spirituality accords with the truth, but it is more than accurate doctrine. Healthy faith is wise, winsome, and blesses those around us. In Titus, Paul presents different elements that promote healthy faith. He discusses his apostleship, healthy leadership, orderly lives, and the gospel that leads to good works.
In Tit 1:1-4, Paul introduces himself and greets Titus. Paul writes that he is a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of the elect of God, the knowledge of truth which accords with godliness, and for hope of eternal life. The benefits of Paul’s apostleship in the first century were faith, knowledge, and hope.
How does Paul’s Apostleship relate to us? According to Eph 2:20, the apostles along with first-century prophets had a foundational role in establishing the new covenant community. In the first century, the Apostles ministered through their preaching and teaching. Today, their ministry remains foundational through the inspired scriptures of the New Testament. In a miraculous way, when Paul wrote some of his letters, God was at work in Paul so that he was still himself and in charge as he wrote. His words stemmed from his experience and personality and yet the words he wrote were inspired, they were breathed by God, so they were also the very words of God. We benefit from the apostolic ministry through the NT, which is inseparable from the OT. What Paul says about his apostleship to first-century Christians is true for us through the Bible. Paul’s apostleship was for the sake of Christians and so is the Bible, for our spiritual health. SIOS: The ministry of the Apostles and the Bible is for our sake, for our faith, our knowledge, and our hope.
How do we encourage the faith of Christians? Paul’s apostolic ministry kept Jesus at the center of his proclamation. His apostolic writings, and the whole Bible show how all of God’s promises find their “yes” in Jesus. God will use us to encourage the faith of others as we make Jesus the center of our lives. We do not have anything other than Jesus to offer the world, and the world needs nothing other than Jesus. Jesus is the answer to the rupture in our relationship with God. It is by him that God forgives the sins of the world. Jesus is the way we find healing in our relationships. The only reasonable response to experiencing the forgiveness of each of our sins is to turn and love our enemy. We present Christ to others and meditate on his work. When we consider our thoughts, words, and actions, we have many reasons to be ashamed. Keeping Jesus central means, we remember he takes our shame, and we can rest in knowing that we are in Him, we are clothed with his perfect life. We stay focused on Christ to promote healthy faith.
Paul taught in accordance with godliness by keeping his teachings and letters very practical. His letters often begin with theology and transition halfway through with the word, “therefore” and present all the practical implications of his teaching. We want to be practical. We want to think about theology in how it accords with godliness. Theoretical theology is not personal and does not change our character. God wants our thinking, loving, and doing to be connected. Here’s an example. Calvinism is the topic of many passionate debates. Calvinism implies that we did not choose God, but he chose us. Practical implications are you must praise God because he chose you, you cannot be proud because he chose you, you cannot judge others, because he chose you! If our goal is to have knowledge which accords with godliness, we will avoid mindless debates about theology that divides and think more about how we can practically and creatively practice what we know for the glory of God. I have found that often people, including myself, find a refuge in “proper” theology but use it to avoid having to be real and deal with issues of the heart.
For 3 years, I was in an older congregation. A big concern for the senior adults was the faith of their grandchildren, who often wanted little to do with the church or God. They complained about changes in society while reminiscing about the good old days. One of the ladies shared that her grandson went off to university and he told her that he was learning about evolution. His grandmother was alarmed and promptly shut down that conversation. She told him that he did not learn about evolution in church, so it was wrong. This is not how we want to interact with one another. We want to be a safe community where we can have different thoughts and ideas. For most things, we can agree that many topics are complicated, and we can be on different sides of a particular issue and still be a community that deeply cares for one another. This grandson was not saying he no longer believed Jesus was the Son of God who died on the cross for sin. He was learning new things and instead of being engaged with, he was dismissed. Darwinian evolution has consequences if everything is random, morality is just a human construct and so our actions do not matter. If that is what one teaches, then absolutely, we need to lovingly engage and challenge it. If a teenager or young 20 something is learning about the theory of evolution as a way God could have created all things, they do not need to be shamed or dismissed, even if we do not agree with them. What matters is knowledge in accordance with godliness.
When we named our church, we wanted to resonate with the needs of Brussels. One of her biggest needs is hope. Andrew Delbanco writes that the heart of any culture is its hope. Common to all humanity is our fear that our lives have no meaning and death will end it all. He writes that every culture tries to overcome this fear. This attempt is their hope. Brussels is so multicultural that there is not one culture. It is up to the individual to find hope. We can live satisfactorily by ignoring death altogether and being distracted by a career, family, fun, deep relationships, or another passion. The secular approach to creating meaning or ignoring death is not possible for everyone who struggles to escape despair.
In contrast, the Christian hope takes death seriously and is great news for those who cannot find meaning within themselves or ignore death. Hope is a confident expectation. God promises eternal life. It is the four-fold harmony between us and God, others, ourselves, and creation. During his ministry, Jesus showed that he was reversing the curse of sin. He healed diseases, raised the dead, forgave sins. By dying and resurrecting, he gives us eternal life to be enjoyed today and hope that death will not have the final word. We have a relationship with God when we trust in what Jesus did for us on the cross. Jesus’ death was the one-time event where all our sins are forgiven so that we can know with certainty that at death or Christ’s return, we will experience the full enjoyment of God for eternity with his people. This is the Christian hope. Like Paul, we can offer hope when we strive to know nothing except Christ crucified (2 Cor 13:4). Paul proclaimed the message that he was entrusted by God the savior. Like Paul, we must understand Christ in all things. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Christian who was arrested for treason in Nazi Germany. The morning of his execution, he preached his last sermon from Isaiah 53. He read: “From his stripes, we are made well.” Bonhoeffer said, “This is for me the end, the beginning of life.” This is the Christian hope that is centered on Christ’s work for us on the cross that deeply impacts the present.
Spiritual health is the enjoyment of eternal life. It is harmony with God, others, ourselves, and creation. Spiritual health is God’s plan for our lives. Gen 1-2 portrays God’s idyllic creation. In the created order, humanity enjoyed eternal life. After the first sin, in Gen 3, each area of harmony is ruptured. The Christian message is that God has orchestrated all of history to restore harmony through Jesus. We will only fully enjoy eternal life at the return of Christ, but eternal life is already fully ours in Christ. Spiritual health is enjoying the benefits of eternal life in all spheres, despite the sufferings of this life. Spiritual health is the most important kind of health. The church’s mission is promoting spiritual health worldwide in Christ.
In Titus, Paul promotes spiritual health. Titus is one of three pastoral epistles. At the end of his life, Paul, the mentor, wrote to his beloved friends Titus and Timothy instructing them to keep the household of faith in good order. This is a passing on of the baton to the next generation of pastors. The Greek word, ὑγιαίνω stands out in Titus. It gives the English word “hygiene,” and it means “healthy.” Our translations render it “sound” in Paul’s letters. Healthy spirituality accords with the truth, but it is more than accurate doctrine. Healthy faith is wise, winsome, and blesses those around us. In Titus, Paul presents different elements that promote healthy faith. He discusses his apostleship, healthy leadership, orderly lives, and the gospel that leads to good works.
In Tit 1:1-4, Paul introduces himself and greets Titus. Paul writes that he is a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of the elect of God, the knowledge of truth which accords with godliness, and for hope of eternal life. The benefits of Paul’s apostleship in the first century were faith, knowledge, and hope.
How does Paul’s Apostleship relate to us? According to Eph 2:20, the apostles along with first-century prophets had a foundational role in establishing the new covenant community. In the first century, the Apostles ministered through their preaching and teaching. Today, their ministry remains foundational through the inspired scriptures of the New Testament. In a miraculous way, when Paul wrote some of his letters, God was at work in Paul so that he was still himself and in charge as he wrote. His words stemmed from his experience and personality and yet the words he wrote were inspired, they were breathed by God, so they were also the very words of God. We benefit from the apostolic ministry through the NT, which is inseparable from the OT. What Paul says about his apostleship to first-century Christians is true for us through the Bible. Paul’s apostleship was for the sake of Christians and so is the Bible, for our spiritual health. SIOS: The ministry of the Apostles and the Bible is for our sake, for our faith, our knowledge, and our hope.
The first element of healthy spirituality is a healthy faith.
Paul is an apostle of Jesus for the sake of the faith of the elect. The word “elect” or “chosen” refers to Israel in the OT, so it refers to the New Covenant people of God. Faith is more than an intangible mental assent to something. Faith is trust that changes how we live. At crucial points in her history, Israel disobeyed God and God states that the people did not believe Him (Num 14:11, Num 20:12). Faith cannot be separated from works. Salvation is through faith, and it is a faith that works. The absence of work means absence of faith. Paul’s apostleship for the faith of the elect is holistic. He served their faith in that he was committed to proclaiming the gospel that people would come to faith. Then he wrote letters to churches for the sake of their faith. This time, for the outworking of their faith in all areas of life, that they would love God and their neighbor.How do we encourage the faith of Christians? Paul’s apostolic ministry kept Jesus at the center of his proclamation. His apostolic writings, and the whole Bible show how all of God’s promises find their “yes” in Jesus. God will use us to encourage the faith of others as we make Jesus the center of our lives. We do not have anything other than Jesus to offer the world, and the world needs nothing other than Jesus. Jesus is the answer to the rupture in our relationship with God. It is by him that God forgives the sins of the world. Jesus is the way we find healing in our relationships. The only reasonable response to experiencing the forgiveness of each of our sins is to turn and love our enemy. We present Christ to others and meditate on his work. When we consider our thoughts, words, and actions, we have many reasons to be ashamed. Keeping Jesus central means, we remember he takes our shame, and we can rest in knowing that we are in Him, we are clothed with his perfect life. We stay focused on Christ to promote healthy faith.
A second aspect of healthy spirituality is having knowledge which accords with godliness.
Paul writes that knowledge puffs up and love builds up (1 Cor 8:1). This is not true with knowledge which accords with godliness. Some well-meaning Christians see themselves as the protectors of the truth. This is noble because God wants to protect us from lies. However, some “protectors of the truth” give Christians a bad name. Just because people do not agree with us on everything does not make them “heretics.” We can label “heretic” one whose love for Jesus is evident by their words and actions. We would do well to protect the truth which accords with godliness and condemn teachings that promote godlessness. As a church, we have doctrine that we love and hope is accurate. However, for all the things that are not central to the gospel, teachings that do not affect God’s grace in forgiving the sins of all those who trust in Christ’s accomplished work on the cross, or that clearly leads to godlessness, we need to accept that there will be different opinions. We want people with different opinions to feel at home in our church community.Paul taught in accordance with godliness by keeping his teachings and letters very practical. His letters often begin with theology and transition halfway through with the word, “therefore” and present all the practical implications of his teaching. We want to be practical. We want to think about theology in how it accords with godliness. Theoretical theology is not personal and does not change our character. God wants our thinking, loving, and doing to be connected. Here’s an example. Calvinism is the topic of many passionate debates. Calvinism implies that we did not choose God, but he chose us. Practical implications are you must praise God because he chose you, you cannot be proud because he chose you, you cannot judge others, because he chose you! If our goal is to have knowledge which accords with godliness, we will avoid mindless debates about theology that divides and think more about how we can practically and creatively practice what we know for the glory of God. I have found that often people, including myself, find a refuge in “proper” theology but use it to avoid having to be real and deal with issues of the heart.
For 3 years, I was in an older congregation. A big concern for the senior adults was the faith of their grandchildren, who often wanted little to do with the church or God. They complained about changes in society while reminiscing about the good old days. One of the ladies shared that her grandson went off to university and he told her that he was learning about evolution. His grandmother was alarmed and promptly shut down that conversation. She told him that he did not learn about evolution in church, so it was wrong. This is not how we want to interact with one another. We want to be a safe community where we can have different thoughts and ideas. For most things, we can agree that many topics are complicated, and we can be on different sides of a particular issue and still be a community that deeply cares for one another. This grandson was not saying he no longer believed Jesus was the Son of God who died on the cross for sin. He was learning new things and instead of being engaged with, he was dismissed. Darwinian evolution has consequences if everything is random, morality is just a human construct and so our actions do not matter. If that is what one teaches, then absolutely, we need to lovingly engage and challenge it. If a teenager or young 20 something is learning about the theory of evolution as a way God could have created all things, they do not need to be shamed or dismissed, even if we do not agree with them. What matters is knowledge in accordance with godliness.
The third outcome of Paul’s apostleship was hope of eternal life.
Paul writes that the God who does not lie promised eternal life before eternity. According to v.3, in the first-century, God revealed his word at the proper time, through Paul’s preaching. This statement is a bit vague. At around the same time, Paul wrote 2 Tim 1:9-11. It is a similar statement that helps clarify Tit 1:3. Paul makes it evident that what he is proclaiming is the gospel, which he describes in 2 Tim 1:10 as “the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality.” The way Paul’s apostleship in the first century connects with the hope of Christians is through his ministry of proclamation of the good news about eternal life in Christ. This is our hope today.When we named our church, we wanted to resonate with the needs of Brussels. One of her biggest needs is hope. Andrew Delbanco writes that the heart of any culture is its hope. Common to all humanity is our fear that our lives have no meaning and death will end it all. He writes that every culture tries to overcome this fear. This attempt is their hope. Brussels is so multicultural that there is not one culture. It is up to the individual to find hope. We can live satisfactorily by ignoring death altogether and being distracted by a career, family, fun, deep relationships, or another passion. The secular approach to creating meaning or ignoring death is not possible for everyone who struggles to escape despair.
In contrast, the Christian hope takes death seriously and is great news for those who cannot find meaning within themselves or ignore death. Hope is a confident expectation. God promises eternal life. It is the four-fold harmony between us and God, others, ourselves, and creation. During his ministry, Jesus showed that he was reversing the curse of sin. He healed diseases, raised the dead, forgave sins. By dying and resurrecting, he gives us eternal life to be enjoyed today and hope that death will not have the final word. We have a relationship with God when we trust in what Jesus did for us on the cross. Jesus’ death was the one-time event where all our sins are forgiven so that we can know with certainty that at death or Christ’s return, we will experience the full enjoyment of God for eternity with his people. This is the Christian hope. Like Paul, we can offer hope when we strive to know nothing except Christ crucified (2 Cor 13:4). Paul proclaimed the message that he was entrusted by God the savior. Like Paul, we must understand Christ in all things. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Christian who was arrested for treason in Nazi Germany. The morning of his execution, he preached his last sermon from Isaiah 53. He read: “From his stripes, we are made well.” Bonhoeffer said, “This is for me the end, the beginning of life.” This is the Christian hope that is centered on Christ’s work for us on the cross that deeply impacts the present.
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