Model Disciple: Titus
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What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? How does it change your life – accepting God’s grace and having Jesus live in you? What changes occur in a Christian’s life when they fully surrender to the Lord and seek to be obedient to His ways?
Those questions are best answered by examining the lives of faithful disciples. That is what we are doing in this sermon series – examining the lives of disciples found in the Bible – asking ourselves how does this person’s life bear witness to the transformative power of God’s amazing grace, and since that same grace is available to me, does my life reflect the same change – and if not, why?
The model disciple that we are looking at this week is Titus – a disciple who had his life in order, therefore he was able to bring order to others.
(Titus 1:5, NKJV)
Paul instructs Titus “the reason I left you in Crete was to set in order the things that are lacking and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you.”
Paul would not have entrusted that responsibility to one whose own life was in disarray. It would be like hiring a known compulsive gambler to be your accountant, or an incompetent slacker to watch your children. To go about the critical work of setting the church in order, Paul would choose someone who own life was very clearly, in order.
Let’s begin this examination by listening to what the scriptures tell us about Titus:
Galatians 2:3 informs us that Titus was a Gentile believer, he was Greek, and he was a trusted companion of the Apostle Paul.
But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.
Titus was such a valuable asset to Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles that he accompanied Paul to the first Church council meeting in Jerusalem – described in Acts 15. When the early Church, which began as a fellowship of Jewish believers, started to receive reports that the Holy Spirit was being poured out onto Gentiles as well as Jews, this caused a great debate in the Church as to how to incorporate these new believers into the family of Abraham. This led to a Church Council meeting where the Apostles and other leaders in Jerusalem summoned Paul and his companions to come and share what was happening in the places Paul and his team were working. Some strongly felt that Gentile believers needed to become Jews, which would mean that male Gentiles would need to follow all the OT ritual laws including circumcision – others, including Paul, argued that God’s salvation is received by faith alone and no further works were needed. Titus was among the party that travelled with Paul and Barnabas from Antioch to Jerusalem to attend this important council meeting – he would have been a representative of a Gentile Christian – all those gathered would see for themselves how God, through the outpouring of his grace, had redeemed and set in order this man’s life.
Titus was living proof that salvation had come to the Gentiles as well as the Jews.
At some point, Titus went on to serve the church in Corinth. In 2nd Corinthians, a letter that Paul sent that church by way of Titus, Paul spoke of entering Macedonia on his missionary journey, of being weary and receiving comfort from this faithful disciple.
For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.
The last mention of Titus’ ministry career, according to 2 Timothy 4:10, tells us that he eventually was sent to Dalmatia, an area today known as Serbia and Montenegro.
For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.
Of course, the greatest insight we receive on Titus comes from the pastoral letter that bears his name. Here we see just how trustworthy, capable and zealous Titus was for establishing the Church so that the gospel of Jesus would be spread far and wide and souls would be saved.
Paul’s letter to Titus, as well as his letters to Timothy, emphasize the necessity of selecting leaders whose lives had been ordered by God. From what can be inferred from the text, there was a primitive church of believers on Crete who gathered in homes, but they were apparently struggling to organize and grow. So Paul sent Titus.
It would be a challenging assignment to say the least. The people of Crete were not known for being virtuous – if you sat on the nominations committee of one of these churches, you would have your job cut out for you trying to find godly persons to fill needed positions. Cretans had an honor code among those within their circle of acquaintances, but they would have no hesitation deceiving and stealing from an outsider.
In fact, the famous Roman politician Cicero stated ““the Cretans . . . consider piracy and highway robbery honorable.” In verse 12 of this chapter, the Apostle Paul repeats and affirms a quote from Cretan philosopher Epimenides [Epi-mee-knee-deez] who said “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.”
It is in this culture that Paul says, “hey Titus, go find leaders whose lives are above reproach in each town so the church can grow.” I’m sure Titus was like, “yeah…thanks a lot Paul.”
Yet as difficult as that assignment sounded, the truth was that God was already at work, there were already lives that had been transformed by the receiving of the gospel, Titus just had to go and find them. He would start by visiting each house church and examining the head of the household.
According to Biblical Scholar Ben Witherington, “It is not a surprise that when the church met in a house, the head of the household played an important role in that house-church meeting, and that especially since his own family was on display at those meetings, he had to demonstrate good household management of his own family. The converts were watching and looking for models in the home of the elder, and so he had to set the example of Christian behavior both for those within the household of God and as a witness to those outside of the church.”
It was critical that those who led house churches exemplified Christian behavior. So Paul instructs Titus in chapter 1:5-9,
This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
Just as the people of the Isle of Crete needed strong, faithful Christians to show them the love of God and the way to eternal life, we live in a culture in desperate need of principled Christians who are biblically grounded and who seek first and foremost to please God.
Faithful witnesses who, regardless of where they have been, are intent now on living lives that honor God, who do good to others, and who practice self-control. Lives that are both joyful and reverent. Lives that are in order.
Now I’ve used that term order a few times already. What do I mean when I say lives that are in order?
Let’s start with a definition. According to Oxford Languages, order is “the arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern, or method.”
Historically in the Church, when we say someone’s life is in order, we mean that their life is arranged toward it’s proper end – or as one writer puts it “they are following the trajectory that God intended. That trajectory is love.”
In the beginning, God created everything and called it good. Everything and everyone was in good order. Due to human rebellion, when sin entered creation, life became disordered. Instead of God being our ultimate, often we make ourselves the ultimate. Our desires and our passions are often times out of whack.
This is exactly what the Apostle James describes in James 4:1-3,
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
That is the power of sin among those who are unrepentant. If you look closely at the internal conflicts in a dysfunctional family, or violent acts committed in public, or the discontentment in our own lives – it stems from lives that are out of order. On the Isle of Crete, a people known far and wide for their disordered passions, Paul tells Titus in 1:15 “To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.”
He continues on in Titus 2:11-14,
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.
This is the power of the Gospel. When we receive Jesus, we die to our old, disordered self and we take on our new ordered life. We welcome the Spirit of God to fill us and begin the work of reordering our passions. Our passions and desires become focused on good things.
As we walk in obedience to Christ’ teachings, and in the power of His Spirit, we find that we develop virtues (such as humility, charity, chastity, gratitude, temperance, patience, diligence) and put to death our vices (such as pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth).
Is your life in order? Are your passions and desires rightly aimed at bringing God glory, or is there a need to reassess, repent, and ask the Lord to set things right?
Titus shows us what it means to live a rightly ordered life - for our own spiritual health and for the witness of the Church.
Amen.
