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Sunday 08/10/25
Title: Sound Doctrine leading to Good Works
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Sound Doctrine leading to Good Works
I don’t know if it’s just my age or my gradual maturing in Christ, but the letters, anymore, seem so familial to me – especially Titus and Timothy and maybe Philemon.
Every time I read them in the past, they were like an instruction manual. They were making point, after point, after point and reading it like that is both appropriate and instructional because some of the things that God had Paul tell Timothy in his letters were in fact instructions which Timothy was supposed to teach the church in Ephesus.
Such is the same idea here with Titus. But when Paul speaks to them, he does so as to “sons” and so there’s a very familial connection here between Paul the mentor and Timothy and Titus “the sons” so to speak.
It is helpful therefore to recognize a certain tenderness in his words to them. Paul was 100% confident in their competence as apostolic delegates or he would have never sent them to such places as Ephesus or Crete. He was sending his sons in the faith into some tumultuous waters!
You know the Isle of Crete was no picnic!
We read it just earlier this past week where Paul, quoting one of their own prophets said that “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts and lazy gluttons”.
Doesn’t sound like a hospitable place to be especially the “evil beasts” part – that and being in the company of those who are habitual liars. But this is where Paul had sent Titus.
Ephesus, where Paul sent Timothy, was no picnic either! It was a very distressed church and it was going through some very severe growth pains under tremendous opposition! You may remember I told you that Ephesus was a very small place geographically. It was just a small fraction of the size of Palmetto, much smaller and yet it boasted a population that was probably 10 times that of Palmetto. So it was a densely packed city.
You quite literally couldn’t go anywhere but that you were rubbing shoulders with others all the time. It was just like an ant colony and so you can imagine that alone would be stressful enough, but on top of that it was also a hub of pagan worship and that less than probably 2% of the population knew Christ! So it was an overwhelming place to live and do ministry to say the very, very least!
So to send Timothy there reflected a huge amount of confidence in him from the Holy Spirit and Paul.
So knowing all of this as we do, I now tend to read these letters through a deeply, fatherly relational lens because this is not a letter written to the saints or church in Crete. This is written to Titus, Paul’s son in the faith, who he left in Crete.
So the things written in here to Titus is what he was encouraging Titus to teach and live before the believers in Crete. So IN this letter, we learn the things that Christian Cretans learned, vicariously through the letter written to this faithful apostolic delegate and Paul’s personal son in the faith – Titus.
I don’t know about you, but knowing the audience and the relationship helps set the tone and influences the understanding of where Paul by the Spirit was coming from and where he was going with this letter!
So let’s go ahead and crack it open starting in chapter one, verse one and I am reading from the Holman translation this morning!
Titus 1:1-16,
“(1) Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, (2) in the hope of eternal life that God, Who cannot lie, promised before time began, (3) and has in His Own time revealed His message in the proclamation that I was entrusted with by the command of God our Savior:”
That right there teaches a lot!
Here, at the very first part of verse one Paul completely confirms the things he taught the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians chapters 12 through 14. There’s a structure here!
God the Father is the One Paul is the servant of, but he’s been sent out as an apostle of Jesus Christ. Do you see the heavenly hierarchy here at the start? And the stated REASON why Paul was sent out as an apostle and the reason why he’s a slave of God is for the faith of God’s elect!
It was so that he might fortify and broaden the faith of God’s children! Well there’s an assignment for you! We already know that an apostle was a paramount and important position in the body of Christ and as an apostle – THIS is what he was sent out to do! To fortify the faith of God’s children and teach them the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness!
Notice he didn’t say the truth that leads to salvation, though that would be ‘a truth’, because the fact that godliness is part of the ongoing work of salvation. But Paul here bears down on God’s intention of Christ being formed in these believers.
So this verse is saying,
“The reason why I’m a slave of God and the reason why I’ve been appointed as an apostle representing Jesus Christ is for the establishment, the encouragement and the growth in the faith of God’s people and for their instruction in the knowledge of the truth that leads towards Christ being formed in them.”
And then he affirms that the goal of all of this is the favorable expectation or anticipated end result of Eternal Life. Of course, we know that the word “hope” means “a favorable expectation”.
It’s not a wish! It is something they can anticipate which is favorable to them in every way. The intended goal of the faith and knowledge is a union that will continue to grow and be formed in them. A union of intimately knowing God and being known BY Him. THAT is the consummate definition of what eternal life is!
Paul is the slave of God Almighty the Father and an apostle of Jesus Christ sent out for the work of establishing and maturing the faith of God’s elect and instilling the intimate knowledge of the truth that will lead towards Christ being formed in them in the favorable expectation that a union with God that is growing and maturing in intimate knowledge – one of knowing and being known!
WOW!
Furthermore, this is ALL within the framework of a promise the Godhead made. Knowing, as Paul here affirms, that God cannot lie, He promised this eternal union with Him before time began!
THINK ABOUT THAT!
God promised BEFORE TIME BEGAN!!!
Do you realize what that means?
God promised that it was going to be made available to His special creations who bore Their collective likeness an eternal union with Them of knowing and being known!
You talk about foresight!
You talk about planning!
You talk about original intent!
As you read through the scriptures, it always leads us back to the first 11 chapters of Genesis, because those speak to and reveal God’s original intent!
So anything that wavers from His original, and stated intent is a distortion of God’s image and a distortion of God’s purpose! This needs to be understood!
If God started something down a certain path and said that this is the way He wants it to be and if God does not change then it doesn’t matter how many thousand years we get away from “original intent” what we read there is STILL God’s intent.
In this case, we are learning of something that happened BEFORE the first 11 chapters of Genesis! BEFORE there was ever an earth – God promised!
Now when you make a promise, you make it TO someone – don’t you?
Well, we weren’t around yet! So who was God promising this to?
Don’t miss this!
This was a promise the Godhead was making amongst Themselves – Each One to the Others.
- The Father promised to the Son and the Spirit.
- The Spirit to the Father and the Son.
- The Son to the Father and the Spirit.
This represents a promise THEY collectively made to One Another!
Now God does not lie, so it hardly makes any difference WHO God makes a promise to, He is bound by His character to honor it. But doesn’t it take it up a notch (at least in our eyes as humans) that the One promising and the Ones being promised, Were all within the Godhead! This was a holy pact if you will!
But I want you to notice WHAT They were promising to One another!
The promise was that those They were going to create in Their image and after Their collective likeness would have an eternity of knowing and being known by and with Them. That this would happen within the framework of true intimacy and on a level of union that’s on par with that which They have with One Another!
We’ve been invited into the perichoresis. Into the “perimeter dance”, where now it’s no longer just the Three Who are collectively God, but now and forever it’s all of us together with THEM as a family!
Now to be certain we will always be the progeny.
We will always be the product of.
We will never be on par with “Being God”, BUT we’ll be the closest thing in existence to it!
We’ll forever be the created – nothing’s going to change that!
We will never be a source – God will ALWAYS be our source… amen!?
But just shy of that, we literally are branches that grew out of our native vine Who is Christ.
You know, it doesn’t get any more intimate than that! We share, as it were, the same DNA with our Creators!!! We literally are products of the Godhead!
That really REALLY takes your mind and just expands it beyond what it feels comfortable trying to embrace! And this is what the Godhead promised to and amongst Themselves! This was a gift They were giving to One another!
The Father was saying,
“I’m giving as a gift to You Spirit and Son – the gift of a family who will eternally enter into our collective union of knowing and being known!”
And the Others promised the same in kind all the way around the circle – as A GIFT!
An eternal family who are just like Them, who would bear Their glorious likeness and Whom They would know and be known by in honest perfection FOREVER!!!
A perfect union of contentment with one another for eternity!
Now don’t let that get you haughty! This is God’s work and gift – it is NOT of ourselves, so we have nothing about which to boast or to be prideful!
Additionally, I also want you to consider a phrase Paul used about TIME which in all honestly was a statement ‘out of time’.
Paul, by the Spirit of God said this promise was made “BEFORE TIME BEGAN”.
There were no yesterdays, or todays or tomorrows – TIME did not yet exist when this promise was made!
The universe had not been spoken into existence… it was truly BEFORE TIME BEGAN!
You need to understand that’s a concept that is before its time.
I mean I don’t want to get too sciency on you here, but the idea that there was an existence before time is really kind of like a 20th century kind of thought and yet here it is in a letter written 2,000 years before the likes of Georges Lemaître and Edwin Hubble postulated that time did not always exist. That, time itself, had a starting point – which thoughts were probably influenced by Einstein’s ‘special theory of relativity’ back in 1905.
Yet here we have Paul mentioning an existence which the Godhead enjoyed before time was ever created!
And the amazing thing is what, or rather who, was on Their mind. What was in Their hearts and plans… It was us!
Kinda makes you feel special doesn’t it?!
Now let’s take it back down to earth and see that all of this that Paul has so far said doesn’t even contain a period in it.
This was all a prelude to what he was about to say to Titus. In fact, verse 3 ends with a colon!
“(4) To Titus, my true child in our common faith.
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.”
“Our common faith” meaning, the beliefs we hold in common and to which we submit.
“Grace” and “peace”, meaning God’s influence upon your heart is reflection in how you live your life and union with God through agreement with Him be with you my son. When I read those words anymore, I just feel like I’ve just put on a warm blanket on a cold day. God’s influence upon your heart, its reflection in how you live your life… this represents a mentorship.
My heavenly Father has put His arm around me and is walking with me and teaching me as I go through the way.
It’s a good day. It’s a very good day, because I’m walking with my Father and He’s instilling things in me, investing truths into me, which facilitate an ongoing union with Him.
A great relationship of knowing and trusting and not only His influence, but also the tranquility and the peace in our union with Him, that comes from my agreeing with Him.
This peace is the opposite of what James was saying to the Jewish believers in the 4th chapter of his letter to them. Their friendship with the world made them hostile towards God – it made them His enemies.
Well peace means the complete opposite. It means a place of settled agreement with God because He’s the only One from the two of us that’s right! He’s not only the source of truth – He is the truth.
So if there is going to be agreement, it’s not going to be because God has agreed with us, but rather, because we have agreed, with Him.
I can submit (hoopotasso) and agree with Him which is the direct result of Him influencing me.
So Paul here could hardly have evoked anything better or more wholesome upon Titus than those two things! Also, you will notice that these two things often make up Paul’s introductory statement in all his letters.
So you think that might be important?
Now Paul reminds Titus of his purpose for leaving him in Crete…
“(5) The reason I left you in Crete was to set right what was left undone and, as I directed you, to appoint elders [pastors] in every town:” [See – Why Elders?]
Again notice that there were pastors (plural) in every church (singular).
Every town or city in the first century only had one church. The only places that had more than one were regions, not cities, and each church had multiple elders.
In Crete they were called “towns” and that was an appropriate word, they were not cities. Crete is an island, and right down the spine of that island are ridiculously formidable and steep mountains.
Back then people didn’t, for the most part, build up on the steep slope of the mountain. Instead, they built around the base of the mountain by the beach.
So it was that there were townships all the way around this island, probably each township only had maybe a couple hundred people.
Knowing that the common experience in the Roman Empire was that Christians typically only constituted about 1-3% of the population in any one given city or town. That would mean in Crete most churches had maybe 30 to 35 people in them at most and Paul was ordering Titus by the Holy Spirit to appoint at least two elders in every single one of those.
Two pastors of equal authority ruling together in the work of the ministry in every single one of these churches!
Now Paul offers the list of requirements for a Pastor…
- “(6) someone who is blameless,
- the husband of one wife,
- having faithful children not accused of wildness or rebellion. (7)
For an overseer, as God’s manager, must be…
- blameless,
- not arrogant,
- not quick tempered,
- not addicted to wine,
- not a bully,
- not greedy for money, (8) but
- hospitable,
- loving what is good,
- sensible,
- righteous,
- holy,
- self-controlled, (9)
- holding to the faithful message as taught,”
A few definitions here…
- Blameless simply means someone to whom it would be hard to make an accusation stick.
- Husband of one wife – not that they have to be married, but that IF they are married, he is a “one woman kind of man”. He is not a flirt, nor does he have a wandering eye or wavering affections. He is devoted to his wife!
- Having faithful children who are not accused of wildness or rebellion – again not that the pastor has to have children, but that IF he has children, they must not be wild, unruly or rebellious.
Is it any wonder that it has become a common standard that if a kid in the church is going to be wild and rebellious it will be the pastor’s kids? I want you to know that this DISQUALIFIES THEM!
This is not necessarily an indictment against the pastor, though it may be.
Even Judas rebelled and he had no less than Jesus as his mentor and shepherd.
But, if someone is going to stand before the sheep, to lead by example and feed them solid doctrine they cannot serve as examples if their children are unruly.
It is a necessity of the position.
So this statement being true, and yet, it being common in the body of Christ for the Pastor’s kids to be the worst – what does that say about our churches?
According to this passage and the one found in Timothy, these men are NOT appointed by God.
God is NOT going to deviate from His words or His commands. So we have many, MANY NON-PASTORS, do the work of pastoring in the churches.
The next words out of Paul’s mouth is that they are “managers” of God’s house. If they do not qualify for the position, then what condition does that place God’s house in?
It’s about time that we as the body take the commands of God seriously!
We need to lose our deep affection for degrees and diplomas and embrace a love for the requirements GOD set forth which are nearly ALL character driven.
- Not education.
- Not accomplishments.
- Not eloquence.
- Not proper grammar in speech.
- Not even “giftedness”.
The list of requirements both here and in Timothy nearly all speak to the character of the one called to Pastor and that alone should teach us volumes!
Once more time, just to be clear.
I believe that there are cases where a man may be very godly, and live the way they should, be diligent in the word of God both personally, as well in how they teach and model it before their children and yet still have wild, rebellious children.
I honestly believe these are the rare exceptions, but I’m certain they do exist. So I don’t believe this requirement is an attack or point of character defamation against the would-be pastor, but it most certainly is an absolute disqualifier for this type of service.
If you’re going to be an elder aka a pastor you cannot have this!
Next is word that needs some defining is “Holy”…
- “Holy” – Now I’ve told you a lot about the word “holy” and there are at least two different words associated with the word holy particularly in the New Testament. Throughout the Bible the word “holy”, especially in reference to God, means other than, different than or uncommon.
“Holy” does have to do with behavior – living in a way that is set apart, that is pure and honorable. A character that is godly.
The mechanism behind holiness however, if a person is simply devoted to and loyal to and faithful to God, they would BE “holy”. Even though “holy” doesn’t actually mean devoted, loyal and faithful – those qualities towards God will produce actions that are completely “holy”.
Now all of this is for a very singular and pointed purpose which constitutes the entire goal of shepherding.
“so that he will be able both…
- to encourage with sound teaching and
- to refute those who contradict it.”
Sound Doctrine
Teaching sound doctrine is the cornerstone of pastoring.
A pastor MUST be “able to teach”, as it says in Timothy. This does NOT mean he is a gifted teacher, nor that he has the spiritual gift of teaching, but merely that he is able to clearly lay down sound doctrine before the sheep.
- Giftedness is nice but not a requirement.
- Eloquence is nice but not a requirement.
- Being great with illustrations and examples and enjoyable stories is nice, but not a requirement.
He just has to be able to clearly instruct in doctrine that is established, tested and true!
Next he has to be able to refute those who disagree with sound doctrine.
So SOUND DOCTRINE is paramount which will be further illustrated as we continue!
Paul sent Titus who carried in common the same faith and beliefs, to establish leaders who do and believe the same.
Titus was to go duplicate himself. He was to live before them consistently enough that it would catch on with a handful of them, from which God could empower and call some to the work of pastoring.
God strategically does this. He raises someone up indigenously rather than bringing someone in from another location. This offers PROOF of a life changed by the gospel.
Local people can attest to who this person was and how they acted prior to coming to Christ. THAT testimony empowers their words by a life changed and lived.
Confronting false teaching
“(10) For there are also many rebellious people, idle talkers and deceivers, especially those from Judaism. (11) IT IS NECESSARY TO SILENCE THEM; they overthrow whole households by teaching for dishonest gain what they should not.”
Now Paul is not talking about silencing people outside of the church. He’s talking about silencing people in the church.
A pastor is not a shepherd over the world, they are shepherds over their flock.
So apparently there were some Jewish believers who were in these churches, but who were rebellious, idle talkers and deceivers. No doubt some of them weren’t of Judaism but Paul especially mentions those who were. He tells Titus that it was necessary, while acting from the authority given him by God – to silence them!
How would one do that? By what Paul had said earlier. By refuting their contradictions.
I mean, how did Jesus do it with all the religious leaders of His day? He silenced them by the wisdom granted Him from the Holy Spirit.
You don’t see His opponents coming back to Him with the same argument twice. The reason is because they had already been publicly humiliated. They had already been publicly shamed.
Now I don’t mean by that that Jesus derided them or spoke down to them or attacked them – He didn’t! Instead, He said something like “I’ll answer your question with a question” or “I’ll give you a question and if you can answer it, then I’ll answer yours”.
Sometimes they did so, other times they realized any answer they gave would incriminate them.
In either case, the result was they were silenced!
Titus was to do the same and train elders (pastors) who could do likewise.
Not by training them in the art of debate, but by instilling SOUND DOCTRINE into them and teaching them how to be led by the Holy Spirit.
“(12) One of their very own prophets said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.
(13) This testimony is true. So, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith (14) and may not pay attention to Jewish myths and the commandments of men who reject the truth.”
Titus is told to “rebuke them sharply THAT they may be sound in the faith”.
So what’s the intention? God doesn’t want to lose any of them. He wants them to be sound in the faith, but there are times if you’re dealing with that kind of a person you have to speak sharply.
If you’re to do a little bit of a word study here, you’ll understand one of the nuances of this is that they might be ashamed.
Oh, God would never want to shame someone, you might say.
Well, you’re right. God doesn’t want anyone to be ashamed. But if their character is such that it can’t be glorified, then they’re already in shame.
All God is doing, is to reveal shame what is already there and this is redemptive, if responded to correctly!
“(15) To the pure, everything is pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; in fact, both their mind and conscience are defiled.
(16) They profess to know God, but they deny [disown] Him by their works.
They are detestable, disobedient, and disqualified for any good work”
We see here that denying Christ can take more than just a verbal form. True faith and true denial is expressed more by a life lived, than a confession made.
Regardless of what these people do, the job of Titus remains constant.
He is to speak what is consistent with sound doctrine, something Paul presses in his letters to Titus and Timothy by mentioning it no less than 6 times in 3 letters!
Titus 2:1-15,
“(1) But you must speak what is consistent with sound teaching.
(2) Older men are to be self-controlled, worthy of respect, sensible, and sound in faith, love, and endurance.
(3) In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not addicted to much wine.
They are to teach what is good, (4) so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and children, (5) to be sensible, pure, good homemakers, and submissive to their husbands, so that God’s message will not be slandered.
(6) Likewise, encourage the young men to be sensible (7) about everything. Set an example of good works yourself, with integrity and dignity in your teaching.”
Two things of note are first – the stated need for integrity and dignity in teaching. In the modern church I think these attributes left the building long ago!
Secondly, there is an obvious lack of addressing the young women directly, but this is done vicariously through the older women who are to be the ones teaching them.
“(8) Your message is to be sound beyond reproach, SO THAT the opponent will be ashamed, having nothing bad to say about us.”
Here is that topic of “ashamed” again!
We must learn to see this and understand it from God’s perspective and therefore from ours.
We want people to be ashamed NOT because we want them to feel the feeling of shame itself.
No, we want the product that can come out of them being made aware of the shame that already covers them. Like we said above, “that they might be sound in the faith.”
If a person realizes the shame they’re walking in, they will usually grab a cloak. Right?
Biblically shame is often associated with some form of nakedness.
Well, if these believers realize that they’re “spiritually naked”, they’re going to be grabbing from something to cover themselves.
This is precisely the same intention behind excommunicating from the local assembly, any Christian who is living in unrepentant sin.
The advice of Paul by the Holy Spirit was “don’t even eat with such a person that they might be ashamed”. [See 1 Corinthians 5:11-13 & 2 Thessalonians 3:14]
That was the intention. But why do that to a sibling in Christ?
Because we just want to shame them, ridicule them, walk by the streets and laugh at them? You better not!
The Bible says that you’re supposed to warn them as a brother, but treat them like a non-believer.
- Don’t fellowship with them.
- Don’t eat with them.
- Don’t commune with them, but warn them like a brother.
You love them. They’re not your enemy! They’re one for whom Christ died!
You’re doing WHAT you’re doing so that they might feel the shame that is already covering them spiritually, so that they do something about it!
But as long as they feel safe and secure in their sin, they’ve got no reason to change at all.
If however, you’ve exposed the spiritual nakedness of their condition, they’re going to be looking for a fig leaf.
In doing this you have done them the best service you could ever do them!
None of this is nefarious.
None of this is intentionally attacking, and if that happens to be the attitude in which it is done, it’s wrong!
We don’t attack and put someone down to one up them and to win an argument. That’s not the characteristic of the Holy Spirit of God.
So, if you’re in a position where you have to sharply rebuke someone, you don’t do it to win a fight. You do it to win a brother. This is a hand up not a slapdown!
We wrap up our lesson this morning by reading the last group Paul mentioned, which were slaves, though the advice would also fit employees.
“(9) Slaves are to be submissive to their masters in everything, and to be well-pleasing, not talking back (10) or stealing, but demonstrating utter faithfulness, so that they may adorn the teaching of God our Savior in everything.”
Notice in the closing statements, the reason for all of these expressions of Godly character. It is because God’s grace has appeared to all, teaching them the same.
You therefore, as God’s child MUST model what you preach, otherwise you discredit the gospel!
“(11) For the grace of God has appeared, with salvation for all people, (12) instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age, (13) while we wait for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
I encourage you in your faith to live you life in true and honest devotion to Christ as your Lord and as your Savior. To emulate Him, honor Him and live before the world in a way that makes your conversion a living testimony – pointing others to Christ!
Blessings!
Tri
