Remember This

Introduction

Asking “basic” questions, see who can remember them. Sometimes we forget even the simplest of things and need to be reminded of them. This is true of the Christian life. Many of us have been Christians for a while, yet because we live in a culture that has such a skewed view of what it means to “be good” and “do good” it’s easy for us to forget what exactly it means to be “good” people because of Christ often because it means so much more than what the rest of the world considers “good”. The same thing was happening to the Christians on the Island of Crete. Their culture was known for being corrupt, lazy, and just overall evil (their prophets even said so!), and the Christians there were starting to backslide into that same life which is why Paul has to give them a pop quiz to help them remember what exactly it means to “do good, be good” as a Christian. He repeats this three times over 14 verses. First in verse 1, then in verse 8, and finally in 14.

The best way for us to be counter-cultural, is to be counter-culturally good.

And so Paul gives us two distinct areas of our lives in which we need to remember to do good.

Work Life Good

This first area is what I like to call our “work life”. This doesn’t just mean how we should act when we are at work, but specifically how we should act in our everyday lives, especially when we are around non-Christians. Here is what Paul says we are to do: Read 1-2.

Now some of these are pretty reasonable. I think everyone can pretty much agree that we should slander, or talk evil about other people, and always being ready to what is good seems like a must. But it’s the other commands Paul gives here that really trip people up. These are commands that non-Christians look down on, that they scoff at, and honestly so do most Christians.

The first command: to be subject to rulers and authorities. That’s just plain unamerican! It doesn’t matter what side of the political aisle you stand on, we naturally just don’t like the government. It’s who we are. We don’t ever really 100% trust even the people we elected. And we definitely don’t like the people we didn’t vote for. As Christians we are called to be better than that. 2000 years ago, Christians didn’t get to pick their leaders. They lived under whoever happened to be the emperor at that time, and some of them were pretty terrible. One emperor burned down half of Rome and blamed in on the Christians…just so he could build himself a new palace. Paul’s command here and in his other letters is still the same: submit to the governing authorities, even if you don’t like them and especially if they don’t like you.

Today we live in a unique period of time where we actually have somewhat of a say of who our leaders are. But the reality is, who we want won’t always win, the laws we want won’t always pass, and the rulings we desire won’t always be given. Paul tells us we are still to submit, because as he says in Romans, every government in the world and throughout history only stands because he allows it. In another place he calls us to pray for our leaders, no matter who they are.

Next he says to be peaceable and considerate. This one is simple but one we all too often forget because the world sucks us into their hatred. In your striving to be good, how far are you willing to go for peace? Jesus gives some pretty clear instructions on this: if someone slaps you on the cheek, turn the other one. If someone sues you for half of your clothes, give them your other half - yes that means you might just have to go naked. Finally, he says if someone makes you walk with them one mile, go with them two. The world is terrible at making peace, and that is because they do not know how to love their enemies. This is what makes Christians so unique when we are told to love our neighbors as our self and to always “to be ready to do what is good”.

Finally Paul sums it all up by telling us to show “true humility to everyone”. What does that mean? Well, he elaborates in by saying: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also the interest of others.” You will not find this kind of humility in non-Christians. Many will say that they “love everybody” and can “do good without God” but I promise you, I kind find an exception to that. I can find at least person that they will refuse to help, serve, or care for. And this is why we are different. We love and care for people who don’t deserve it, who we don’t like, and who don’t like us. No exceptions. Paul gives the ultimate example of what this “true humility” looks like: Jesus himself read .

Remember this: many people will try to tell you what it means to be good, but it will always fall short. We are call to be better. We are called to be like Christ.

Family Life

Paul then switches from what I call our “work life” to what I call our “family life”. Now this isn’t our biological family, this is our church family. If you think the commands he gives us to live our here are any easier than the ones given out there, you are sadly mistaken.

Read verse 9

Let me sum that up for you: don’t be stupid. We are a family and we are a body, the Body of Christ. So we better not be fighting over stupid stuff. “Foolish Controversies and Geneologies” might as well be the color of the carpet, the food on Wednesday nights, who’s leading worship, whose family has been here the longest, and the list of stupid things to argue about goes on and on and on. Stop it! The things we argue and quarrel over while people are going to hell absolutely blows my mind. Theres currently a popular worship song out right now that calls God’s love “reckless”. It’s amazingly beautiful song, yet you would not believe how many arguments and fights have been started and are still going over whether or not God’s love is actually reckless.

G.K. Chesterton, a Christian writer who lived around 100 years ago or so once said this, “People generally quarrel because they cannot argue. And it is extraordinary to notice how few people in the modern world can argue. This is why there are so many quarrels, breaking out again and again, and never coming to any natural end.”

100 years later this is still true! We don’t know how to argue well and confront one another when we have a problem and so oftentimes we don’t say anything. Then bitterness grows and grows and we get more and more hurt until finally someone leaves or we never talk to them again. That’s how the world works. But it’s not how it should work here. But sometimes there are people in our churches who like to cause trouble. They like to gossip. They like to turn us on each other. Paul has some strong words when he tells us how we should handle those types of people: read 9-11. If someone is wanting to cause trouble and division within our church and they won’t listen to us when we tell them to stop, then they do not belong here.

“Wow Greg, that sounds really harsh and not Christ-like.” What they are doing is not being Christ-like. Paul tells the Church in Corinth to do the same thing to a man who is openly sinning and doesn’t care. Do you know what happened? This man quickly realized that the Church was serious, and when he repented Paul ordered them to welcome him back with open arms. If we have to make someone leave because they will not listen and are still trying to cause trouble within our church, then you better believe that we will also welcome them back with open arms when they repent. That is probably the most counter-cultural thing Christians can do. I promise you, if the world ever decides to cast you out, and it is possible, they will never welcome you back, but Jesus will. And we will too.

The Good Life

Many of you are probably wondering why I skipped verses 3-8. That’s because I wanted to save the best for last. Even though it is found right smack dab in the middle of his commands, I think this is what Paul wants us to remember the most. We need to remember to do good, because we have been given the good life. A danger we can run into when doing good is that we start to feel like we have to do good, not that we get to do good. Here Paul reminds us that in our pursuit of doing good we have to remember that we aren’t doing it to be saved. He reminds us where we came from, what God did for us, and where we go from here.

V3: Where we came from - Those of you who didn’t grow up in church probably remember this better than those of us who did. This was the life you lived, and it was terrible. Even us who grew up in Church but didn’t really get the whole Jesus thing right away remember the life we lived.

V4: What God did for us - here we are reminded what God did for us. Just at the right time God came crashing in. NOt because of anything we did, but because of His mercy and grace.

V8: Where we go from here - These things are profitable for everyone. If you know Christ the command is simple: remember to keep doing good. If you aren’t a Christian yet, I challenge you to try it. Jesus said to try his teachings and you’ll find that they truly are from God. As Christians we are called to not just be good, but to do good, in all circumstance. Remember that.