Ripples of Grace (Part II)

The Motivation for Every Member

Titus 2:1–10 ESV

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

Titus 2:11–15 ESV

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

II. Power in Community

C. Slaves/ Employees (9-10a) Paul finishes his advice in chapter 2 as he shares with Titus regarding a specific people group. He addresses a group of people that would represent the normal, every day work force. This is a group that is near to Paul’s heart that all of us can identify with. — the slaves (in our modern context these would be the employees)Look at Titus 2:9

Titus 2:9–10 ESV

Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

Let’s keep in mind that all of these groups that Paul is instructing Titus to address are all believers. These are all people who have joined with the local church on Crete and would profess the name of Christ. Bondservants is actually the word “slaves”. We discussed that in our Charting the course message. So, Paul addresses the slaves in the community and says that they are to “be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative (not contradicting or speaking against), not pilfering (stealing), but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior” (Titus 2:9-10 ESV) It is interesting that as Paul is concluding his thoughts in this section, the group of people he identifies with, by name, are the working class people, the slaves. Remember, Paul uses the same word to describe himself in 1:1.“Paul a servant (slave) of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ,…” (1:1a)A slave in the Greek world included those in miserable conditions, but it also included those in apprentice or indentured relationships, domestic workers, and some who held high government office. Additionally, as the context of this passage indicates, a slave could be considered a member of the master’s household and a member of a religious community with freemen.Paul tells Titus to teach the Slaves (who are believers and church members) that they are to be submissive (same word and meaning as in the discussion of the younger women) to their own masters in everything, be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not stealing, but showing all good faith (show that they can be fully trusted). What is the point in instructing slaves to live out this behavior? Because right doctrine produces righteous living!Everything these Christian slaves do (these Christian employees) is to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. We will dig into the cool picture that Paul’s words paint in a minute. But, what Paul is saying is that he is entrusting to these believing slaves the ministry of making the gospel appealing to their masters. In a way, by giving this responsibility to slaves, the apostle makes their masters’ eternity subject to the slaves’ good-hearted willingness to live for gospel priorities. The slaves become the Savior’s representatives giving hope to their community. They are now responsible for conduct that can lead their masters (bosses and community leaders) to salvation. This perspective makes a master’s ultimate welfare somewhat dependent on his slave and here the slave has an opportunity to model how the gospel can beautifully transform the human heart. In a sense, the slave is empowered because he has an opportunity to help mold his masters’ future.

Living out all that accords with sound doctrine gives us the ability to proclaim the truth in our community, be instruments of God’s power in our community, and lastly it gives us the ability to be messengers of Hope in our community.

III. Hope in Community A. Highlighting the Treasure (10b)

Before I let you go today, we need to dig into the last phrase in verse 10.

Titus 2:10 ESV

not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

As Paul finishes writing verse 10, he gives Titus the end goal that he and the church need to keep in mind as they do their day to day jobs as well as try to minister together as a church. They need to be able to keep the right end goal in mind, the right eternal perspective.Paul says, in the second half of verse 10b: so that (– in other words, do all the above –) so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

The word that is translated as “adorn” in the text (cosmeo) gives us our word, cosmetics. The word means: to decorate or to make beautiful. It was used by the ancient world to describe setting jewels in such a way so as to highlight their beauty.Our lives as Believers are to serve as a beautiful cosmetic ( Highlighting the beauty) of the truth about God our Savior.As slaves of Christ, we are to live our lives in such a way that we are daily demonstrating the beauty and splendor of Christ’s Gospel. We are to be like the setting of a ring that holds up and models the perfect clarity diamond of the doctrine of God, so that its natural beauty can shine. One commentator writes, “So live a life that adds luster to the gospel of God our Savior.”Why? The main reason is because adorning the doctrine of God, highlighting the beauty of the doctrine of God through our demonstration of it, brings glory to God. Why else? Because your boss needs a Savior. You work for your employer with the thought that your boss and your coworkers and your friends and all those in your world are going to live somewhere forever. And there are only two options – heaven or hell. Being in the glorious presence of God and Christ forever or being doomed to an eternity without Christ. And you can’t get into heaven or be in the presence of God without the doctrine of God our Savior. As you study this passage and you come to verse 10, you can look at two ways. 1. Paul is wrapping up verses 1-10 with an all inclusive “so that”, or “because of everything I said in verses 1-10”, they (meaning all of the church) should adorn the gospel of God, should wear, act out, live out what it means to be a Christian, what it means to live a godly life. By doing this the believers would figuratively be “adorning” or highlighting the beauty of the transforming power of the Gospel. Christian every day you are to live your life in such a way that the the Gospel, the doctrine of God is seen as more and more beautiful to the fallen and flawed world around you. or you could go one step farther and say that...2. Paul is speaking generally of everyone but specifically of Slaves, because they have the biggest opportunity to model what adorning the Gospel really looks like, because of their low position in society and their place as being owned by someone else for the purpose of serving others. … Isn’t that a cool picture? Someone in a position of humble servanthood, having the ability to reflect the beauty of the gospel so that those they serve daily can be led to Christ! What does that mean to us, we’re not slaves… Well, aren’t we? We have been bought with a price, and are not our own. I hope that most of us will stand with Paul, James and Peter and say that the most important position we will ever hold, the most important thing about us is that we are a slave of Christ. We may not have earthly masters, but I would guess that most of us have a boss, someone who we work under. Most of us probably have people we work with or people we know that are hostile towards the gospel, maybe they are jaded against the church. Many of the people we know and have to submit to at work every day have been hardened by the corruption of this world and the love for self and money. They are skeptics towards the gospel. The people that you live around and with every day are not much different than those 1 million people living on the island of Crete. Hardened by the sin in their lives. Desperately in need of someone to demonstrate how beautiful a transformed life can be. Adorning the gospel, highlighting the beauty of the gospel has never been more important, as we live in a world that is anti-Christ and anti-God. We live in a society today where everything is true, and yet nothing is. Why is adorning the gospel so important? By adorning the gospel you are illustrating a life led by godliness. This kind of life is beautiful and both encourages and strengthens faith. When the message of the gospel comes unglued from godliness, faith shatters. No matter how commendable our intentions may be, the message of grace apart from godliness—or godly endeavor apart from an understanding of grace—destroys the hope that the gospel offers.When people see the gospel consistently lived out every day in our lives, they see its radiant beauty. But, when we live our lives without godliness, we are not able to adorn the gospel, we don’t highlight its beauty, and many times the hope we are so desperately trying to offer people, seems hopeless. Unless we demonstrate the gospel, and lift up its radiant beauty, people will never naturally be attracted to it.

B. Graceful Living (11-15)

Titus 2:11–15 ESV

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

Conclusion/ Application: We were not saved to be set aside, we were saved and sent into the world to be a living demonstration of how the Grace of God actively works in a person’s life.

Justin Martyr wrote in the second century that those around believers should be ready to hear about Christ by either watching the Christians lives or by doing business with them.I wonder how many people would be receptive to our gospel after having done business with us.

No wonder Jonathan Edwards, the father of the Great Awakening and faithful pastor prayed that God would stamp eternity on his eyes so that all that he viewed would be seen in the context of its eternal consequences.That is what we are to do.... view each and ever situation in our lives as an opportunity to act in the context of eternity. We need to be active in impacting our community in a way that will make a difference not just for today… or for the next 10 years… but for the next 10,000 years. Having the right eternal perspective helps us to adorn, highlight the beauty of the doctrines of God in our lives.

And that doesn’t mean you have to go out and do something big – or amazing – or great. Paul basically tells us to, “Just do your job as a Christian! A representative of Jesus!”

 show up . . .

 work hard . . .

 smile often . . .

 stay out of trouble and stay away from troublemakers . . .

 don’t talk back . . .

 tell the truth . . .

 live for something greater than yourself and the weekend . . .

 point people to your Savior whenever you get the chance.

There are 46 verses in this short letter to Titus. In at least 10 out of the 46, Paul encourages Titus to model good works so that the beauty of the Gospel, the doctrines of God, could be clearly seen by a pagan society. What great mentoring. In this letter, Paul comes to Titus and to everyone of us who truly mean it when we say, “I am a Christian” . . . and he mentors us along . . . here’s how you stand for Christ.As believers we have a duty that no one else in the world is qualified to do, we are to magnify the beauty of the doctrine of God our Savior.

A simple challenge: Did you adorn the gospel this week? How will you highlight the beauty of the gospel to the “Cretans” you work and live with tomorrow?