Written by: Sam Chaplin - UCCF

Titus 1 v 1-2
From Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I was sent to help the faith of God’s chosen people and to help them know the truth that shows people how to serve God. That faith and that knowledge come from the hope for life for ever, which God promised to us before time began. And God cannot lie.

Notes
A young man had committed suicide. He had left a note pinned to the tree where he had hanged himself. It read, “This was the only thing round here with any roots!” It is easy to feel that you don’t matter, that you are just a speck in a vast cosmos; to sense that your actions have little meaning or weight in your short life. It’s a feeling that neither you, nor your society, are part of something bigger, something with roots. This can lead to dark despair or often to apathy - a sense of “Why bother?” 

Paul starts his letter to Titus by reminding him what he is part of. He is part of something that gives “hope for life for ever, which God promised to us before time began”. God wants to bring hope and meaning to our lives by putting our story into his huge eternal story that stretches from “before time began” to “life for ever”. It is also a “truth that shows people how to serve God”. It is a truth that transforms. It punctures our “why bother” half-life that we find ourselves in, and it fills us with vision and passion and reasons to take hold of life - the life we were designed for: life God’s way.

So, Paul knows his calling is “to help them know the truth that shows people how to serve God.” Later in the letter he tells Titus that one of his main responsibilities is to teach this truth to the community he is in. And this is a great reason to read word on the web each day: to immerse ourselves in God’s eternal story and place our roots deep into God’s eternal stream of life. 

Titus 1 v 3-4
At the right time God let the world know about that life through preaching. He trusted me with that work, and I preached by the command of God our Saviour.
To Titus, my true child in the faith we share:
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour.

Notes
“We just stopped talking properly” is often the phrase that is heard after a relationship breakdown. Words are so important. Without words we can’t express ourselves. Without words we can’t give ourselves to each other. There can be no true intimacy where there is no true communication. 

God is passionate about his relationship with you. And because he is passionate about his relationship with you, he is passionate about communicating to you. God has expressed himself in great depth and beauty in his Word, the Bible. He also speaks powerfully and clearly when we explain God’s words to others. God loves to involve us in his communication. God’s heart pounds for relationships, so he commands us to explain his words to others. Paul knew this, so he wrote, “He trusted me with that work, and I preached by the command of God our Saviour.”

As God expresses himself in his words, he also gives himself to us in his words. Jesus says, “My words are life.” And here Paul tells Titus, “God let the world know about that life through preaching.” As we hear God’s words preached, God is giving himself to us and the result is that we are given his “life”.

God’s message is always “Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour”. This is Paul’s greeting to Titus; it is also God’s welcome to us. “Grace” - the offer of a fresh start in the relationship; “peace” - clear air and enjoyment of the relationship. 
There can be no true intimacy where there is no true communication. God has expressed himself in his Word. He gives us to himself in his Word. He trusts us to speak his Word. He is passionate about communication and he’ll never stop talking.

Titus 1 v 5-6
I left you in Crete so you could finish doing the things that still needed to be done and so you could appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. An elder must not be guilty of doing wrong, must have only one wife, and must have believing children. They must not be known as children who are wild and do not obey. 

Notes
“Give me a David Beckham!” said the boy in the barber’s chair. I wonder who your role models are? They may be celebrities from the world of sport or music, or they may be closer to home than that. The question isn’t whether we are influenced by role models, but who are the people that are influencing us?

This is true of the Christian life too. Christianity is not primarily taught, it is caught. The best way to go deeper in your Christian life is live amongst Christians. That is why it was so important to the apostle Paul that Titus should “appoint elders in every town”. The elder would be the church leader. When Titus was to choose these people, his primary concern was the character of this person because he would be the role model at the centre of the community. The elders were the ones from whom Christianity was to be caught.

In today’s reading the focus is on the leader already being the role model within his own family. This gives us an insight into God’s vision for church, that it is to be a place of family closeness.

So who is influencing you? Who are you catching how to pray from? Who are you catching how to care from? Who are you catching Christ-likeness from? Look out for these people, pray for them to be in your life and then spend time with them.

God is so committed to using role models to transform society that he decided to do it himself. He came and lived amongst us in his Son Jesus Christ. 

It isn’t whether we are influencing the people around us, but what kind of an influence will we be? Will people catch a bit of Jesus from you today?

Titus 1 v 7-9
As a manager of God’s work, an elder must not be guilty of doing wrong, being selfish or becoming angry quickly. He must not drink too much wine, like to fight or try to get rich by cheating others. An elder must be ready to welcome guests, love what is good, be wise, live right and be holy and self-controlled. By holding on to the trustworthy word just as we teach it, an elder can help people by using true teaching, and he can show those who are against the true teaching that they are wrong.

Notes
One of Satan’s biggest lies is convincing us that living a holy life is boring and restrictive. One of the church’s greatest callings is to show that this is not true and to enable people to taste the satisfaction and beauty of real everyday holiness.

Imagine living next door to Jesus Christ. You’d never bump into him holding his head and panicking about the stupid thing he’d done or said because he’d had “too many” the night before. You wouldn’t have to tread on eggshells with him because you wouldn’t know when he’d fly off the handle. He wouldn’t be the sort that just used people then forgot them. In fact, it would feel great to be round at his place. You wouldn’t feel in the way, and he’d genuinely be excited by the good things that had happened to you. He’d be great when you needed advice. Everything he did would have something of his Father in it. 

This is Paul’s vision for the Christian community, that being amongst us might be like living next door to Jesus, showing beautiful, satisfying, everyday holiness. Because Paul was passionate about the Christian community shining with Christ’s light, it was so important for him that Titus should choose leaders that demonstrated everyday holiness. 

Let’s pray for our church leaders today that God may produce more of Jesus’ character in them. Why not think of a way you can honour them and encourage them this week. 

Are you believing Satan’s lies and holding yourself back from this kind of life? God’s invitation is to taste and see that his ways are good and wonderfully satisfying. Start by praying through these Bible verses for yourself today.

Titus 1 v 10-11
There are many people who refuse to obey, who talk about worthless things and lead others into the wrong way—mainly those who say all who are not Jews must be circumcised. These people must be stopped, because they are upsetting whole families by teaching things they should not teach, which they do to get rich by cheating people. 

Notes
“We’ll love you just the way you are, when you’re perfect.” This is the final line of Alanis Morrissette’s galling song “Perfect”. She talks about her experience of always having to earn her parents’ love and never quite making it. This is the way so many of us grow up - expecting to earn love. The great revolution of becoming a Christian is the discovery that God’s love is totally different. He loves us when we’re not perfect. His love is unconditional - there’s nothing we can do to make God love us more or love us less. Because Jesus stretched wide his arms and died for you, taking all the blame you deserve, God’s arms are continually open to you, longing and loving to embrace you as his own. This is the wonderful freedom of being a Christian.

The problem is that we have this “earning” mentality ingrained deeply into us. So we turn even the most beautiful ways of relating to God into ways of trying to earn his love. There were a group in Titus’ church who were playing on this “earning” mentality, saying you had to be circumcised to be accepted by God. 

Christian freedom does not mean accepting everything that everyone is saying. The Bible says that we are surrounded by things that threaten to take away our freedom. Paul’s harshest and strongest letter, Galatians, was so strong because he was defending their freedom. So he tells Titus here: “These people must be stopped”!

What things threaten your enjoyment of God’s unconditional love for you? How do you get into that earning mentality? Why not spend some time thanking God for the freedom of his love, and ask him to search your heart for the things that threaten your enjoyment of that freedom.

Titus 1 v 12-14
Even one of their own prophets said, “Cretan people are always liars, evil animals and lazy people who do nothing but eat.” The words that prophet said are true. So firmly tell those people they are wrong so they may become strong in the faith, not accepting Jewish false stories and the commands of people who reject the truth

Notes
When Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, he instructed his men to build with one hand and to keep a sword in the other (Nehemiah 4 v 17). They had a double calling: to build and to defend. It is the same with the picture of the shepherd that we are given in the Bible - he protects his sheep, and he cares for them. So it is with the Christian life, and in particular with leading others. We are called to build them up and care for them whilst defending and protecting them.

The defending bit always feels like the hard bit, so Paul encourages Titus to confront the difficult situation he has out in Crete amongst the Christians there. He is to confront their natural tendencies to sin that seem to be part of the culture they live in, and he is to confront them where they have listened to people who are leading them away from Christian freedom. But all of this is “so they may become strong in the faith”. 

It is so easy to sweep things under the carpet, to be peace-keepers rather than peace-makers. Peace-makers confront the problems and deal with them. Peace-keepers ignore the problems, hoping they will go away. 

Perhaps there is a situation that you know you need to confront, a tough word that needs to be said. Titus had to learn to confront issues as a church leader “so they may become strong in the faith”. Why not pray for God’s wisdom and sensitivity in the tough situations you face today.

Titus 1 v 15-16
To those who are pure, all things are pure, but to those who are full of sin and do not believe, nothing is pure. Both their minds and their thinking have been ruined. They say they know God, but their actions show they do not accept him. They are hateful people, they refuse to obey and they are useless for doing anything good.

Notes
“It’s rotten inside” was the diagnosis one of my friends offered me as we looked at this huge oak tree lying on its side. There had been some violent winds, and this tree that had looked so great on the outside had fallen. Paul warned Titus that there would be people like that in his church.

I heard of a church that had dry rot. It looked fine for years, but no one dealt with it, then one day the walls literally exploded. Paul said it’s possible to be people who sound good but inside are just rotting. He said, “They say they know God, but their actions show they do not accept him.” In reality, they “are full of sin”. 

The reason Paul told Titus about these people was to warn him that they would be harming God’s people. Paul’s words also stand as a warning to us. Have we stopped fighting sin in our lives and let the rot just grow? Are we nourishing a real walk with Jesus in our hearts? If not, we may continue to look good but danger is ahead of us and those around us. Perhaps you need to hear this warning today and re-start the battle against sin in your life.

Paul warned Titus because he was passionate about church. He believed in a community of people who really had been transformed by God and were not “useless for doing anything good”; rather, they were “ready to do good”, and “careful to use their lives for doing good” (see Titus 1 v 8, 2 v 3, 2 v 7, 2 v 14, 3 v 1, 3 v 8, 3 v 14). He was committed to pouring his life into the creation of this community. Spend some time praying for your local church.


word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes