TITUS, my son, the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, training us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of the great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
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In this short Epistle to Titus, his spiritual child, Paul gives a profound teaching to this shepherd of the early church. Titus was a gentile convert who went with Paul to the Jerusalem conference in around 49 A.D. where his mentor declined to have him circumcised in accordance with the demands of the circumcision party. Titus became a companion and right hand man to Paul, assisting him in spreading the word of God.
Paul directs Titus to teach what befits sound doctrine. In other words, to apply understanding and reason to situations that may not have been specifically covered by Paul but to apply the doctrines taught to him with the right mindset so that the church might have a sure footing and an orderly development. The thrust of Paul’s concern is that there be moderation within the church in all things. In other words, there must be no manifestation of doctrine which placed the stability of the growing church in peril. The purpose of the early church was to receive the true doctrine of God the Saviour.
Paul was of the conviction that the grace of God existed for the salvation of all. Nobody was disqualified from approaching God. However, for this to occur there had to be a reasoned plan of attack developed by the pastor so that salvation became a reality for these converts. Hence the message from Paul is clear: Christians, through proper teaching, can live virtuously in the present and have hope in the world to come – through the grace of God – by believing that Christ is the son of God. In order to achieve this goal, a pastoral outreach to the secular world had to be made by Titus. The first major hurdle that Paul discerned was religious indifference or “irreligion” as he calls it. One of the hardest things to do is to overcome inertia and lack of interest – especially in something that the average person may not have had any great interest in. When you think about it, faith in Christ is a faith in trust. You trust that the Lord is in charge and everything that occurs to you happens in accordance with God’s great plan. However, if you do not believe, it would be pointless to follow Christ. To those indifferent believers, their moral code and compass is upon worldly passions – what they can see, what they can touch, what they can smell, what they can apprehend with their logic or what they can otherwise experience. This does not allow any room for trust in God. Therefore, the first thing is to instil a sense of Godliness in these indifferent and worldly-passionate people. To such people, self-interest is central to their lives. Titus is called to make these people live sober, upright and godly lives in this world. Not only that, but to instil in them the bliss of hoping to see Christ as Lord of the world in the fullness of his kingdom.
Christ gave himself up for the benefit and life of this world. His crucifixion acted as a purification of the world. Through his saving action we are now redeemed from all sin into life everlasting. This does not mean that we are automatically saved. No! Far from it. We need to understand that we have to work in the vineyard of the Lord, helping our fellow man. It is in this sense that we must be zealous for good deeds. Paul, time and time again, reminds us that the proper way of glorifying Christ is to offer service to him. And as Christ has no need of anything from us, our service necessarily must be to our fellow man who suffers from the vicissitudes and fortunes of this life. We make these offerings with glory to God and in exaltation that we are offering back what little we can of ourselves through the medium of our neighbour.
God is all good. God is all kind. God so loved the world that he entered human history to save us. Salvation is not in any sense earned or merited. Salvation is a gift from God extended to us by virtue of His own mercy and through the regeneration of washing us from all sin, through the Holy Spirit, which we then become partakers of. But, again, make no mistake. Although God wants us to be saved, we need to want ourselves to be saved as well. This is not as silly as it may sound. Today a large and ever increasing proportion of people are indifferent to the faith that saves us. They say there is no God. Or that if there is a God then he is not all-powerful, for evil exists in the world. Or that if he is all-powerful then he is not all good for evil exists in the world. In other words, for there to be a God for such people, they must be guaranteed a life free from pain, suffering, hardship or difficulty. From the cradle to the grave, they need to be cocooned like an egg in a carton to prevent any harm from the realities of life. So, they bet against themselves to attain life everlasting, ignoring the logic behind “Pascal’s Wager”, and thereby consign themselves to the outer darkness – a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Life is a test. We need to live our life in accordance with the proposition that if we wish to be saved, we need to live our life in Christ – not part-time, not when it suits us, not when we feel that we can, but totally, without pause and with full conviction. In this way we become heirs to the hope of eternal life. In this way, we may be saved.
