Titus: Finally

Thanks for joining me on this journey through Paul’s letter to Crete. The church was struggling because it wanted to look a lot like the world around it.

Today, we’d call that tolerance. And we should be gracious to other points of view and other cultures and traditions.

But not all ideas are equal.

Paul made that clear in his letters. Although some people were trying to convince the church people that the ways of the world were more educated, more thoughtful, more pleasurable, Paul said there was death in returning to the world.

We have the same temptations today. You may know people who followed Jesus for a while but then decided the world’s ways looked pretty good.

You may know people who didn’t want to have self-control but wanted to do what they wanted to do. You may be that person.

Following Jesus isn’t easy, because we have to say “no” to the ways of the world and say “yes” to Jesus. That may mean we give up some things.

Even though those things aren’t good for us, they seem good for us in the beginning. And we find ourselves addicted and pulled away from Jesus.

When we keep our eyes on Jesus, we remember his love and gentleness.

We live in upside-down world today, where naughtiness gets a pat on the back while the virgin is mocked. But, oddly, it entices. We can lose our bearing quickly.

The key is the way of wisdom, holding firm to God’s Word. No matter what the world offers us, following the way of Jesus leads us to the nature of God, where we find kindness, love, mercy, generosity, and eternity with the Creator of the universe. That's worth resisting today's culture for.




Titus on Crete

Titus is such a short book that it’s tempting to skip over it, but it is full of important information for us.

Paul wrote this letter late in his ministry. Because he was probably in prison, he couldn’t go to the island of Crete where he’d left Titus to organize the church there. He had to write a letter of instruction instead.

Crete had a rich history and had been important in earlier Greek times. By the time the Romans had conquered the civilized world, Crete had lost some importance but was still a strong trade area. The island was not a wild uncivilized place but had large cities and much culture.

Many Jews lived on the island and were among those listed to be in Jerusalem during the Passover. (Acts 2:11) Since many became Christians at Pentecost and took the good news home with them to start new churches, the same thing probably took place on Crete, too.

We’re not sure if Paul planted a church in Crete or simply discovered Christians there and sent Titus to help with some problems on the island.

Because Paul calls Titus a “true son,” we know that they are very close friends. And it’s likely that Paul had shared the gospel with Titus and been part of his conversion to Christianity.

They had probably traveled together and Paul obviously trusted Titus enough to leave him on the island to clear up some matters there.

This letter was written to give Titus some pointers. One of the keys to understanding the book is to remember that the culture was trying to tear the believers away from the truth of Christianity. How could Titus teach the body of believers to live differently than those who were not believers.

Since that's slightly relevant to us today as well, we’ll be studying those differences in our weekly study of Titus.

Next week: titles