"Goodness Grace Us"
Titus 3 Jan.26/03
Memorable Mindless Moments
At some points in our life we may think we're pretty hot stuff. But sooner or later we slip up, something goes wrong, we blow it - and suddenly we realize we're just another person, no better than anyone else, in fact pretty ordinary, if not even a little discouraged and hopeless. Frankly, looking back, we have to admit some of what we've done is awful. Yet the good news is that God loves us even at our worst. In mercy He sent Jesus become the compensation for our folly, so by trusting in Him we may enjoy God's saving and renewing power, giving us a fresh start and acceptance into eternal life with Him. As a result of this grace and forgiveness extended to us by the Lord, we're empowered to do whatever is good ourselves, and be more humble servants of His in caring for those in need whom He puts in our path.
No matter who we are, at some time or other we've probably done something that made us feel like a moron. Arthur Black's newspaper column defined this word last week as "a very stupid or foolish person". He then proposed a moratorium on the use of the word "because it is too precious to be squandered by mere functionaries in the prime minister's office". Black is referring to Prime Minister Chretien's assistant Francoise Ducrois who recently created "a modest international flutter of dismay" by referring to US President Bush as 'a moron'. The columnist then proceeds to poke fun at some high-ranking officials for poorly thought-out statements that sound rather humorous if not idiotic in retrospect. For instance, the current premier of BC wrote in a letter to the New York Times, "There is more old-growth forest in British Columbia now than 100 years ago, amounting to 62 million acres. That total is projected to increase in the century ahead." But the dictionary defines "old-growth" as "never felled" - how can it increase even in a century?
Black also pokes fun at former US President Reagan for saying, "80% of pollution comes not from chimneys and automobiles, but from plants and trees." And the current president who once said, "It isn't pollution that's harming our environment, it's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." (duh!)
It's easy to be critical of those in authority, especially when they make obvious slips. But this shows the need to be praying for our leaders all the more. And we'd each have to admit that we've had our "moronic" moments too, the times we've said things that didn't come out right and afterwards sounded very foolish. It's just so easy to laugh and point fun at important people, and hold higher expectations for them than we do for ourselves. Yet we are all susceptible to foibles and folly; theirs are just more obvious.
A friend back home once asked Abraham Lincoln, "How does it feel to be President of the United States?" Lincoln replied that is was like the man who was tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. When someone in the crowd asked how he enjoyed it, he replied, "If it were not for the honour of the thing, I'd just as soon walk."
Graced Wrecks
In our study over the past weeks of Paul's letter to Titus, stationed at the church on the island of Crete, we've heard the apostle's call (in chapter 1) to "get a GRiP" on the Saviour's program for the early church by becoming, with His help, Good, Right, and Pure. In chapter 2 Paul emphasized repeatedly that people in all age groups needed to learn self-control, to say "no" to worldly passions and become eager to do what is good. In this third and final chapter, the author sets out a doctrinal basis for doing good - not for brownie points or on our own steam but as a response to the Lord's marvelous grace in forgiving us, and His renewing power which changes and re-focuses our lives on eternal matters.
Verses 3 and 9-11 give a sobering picture of our "wrecked" state morally apart from God. Without the Lord's intervention in our lives, we would be left stranded in the "moron" category, foolish, mindless, senseless with respect to eternal values. V.3: "At one time we too" - note Paul includes himself, "we too" not "you too" - "At one time we too were foolish [literally mind-less], disobedient, deceived [tricked - duped] and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another." We were "hard in heart, servants of evil desires, living in bad feeling and envy" (Bible in Basic English). Not a pretty picture; selfishness begets strife and other sin, as anyone knows who's tried to live with the motto, "I wants what I wants when I wants it".
Or maybe we recognize some of our tendencies from the sketch of religious strife in 9-11: caught up in foolish controversies (literally "moron" questions), arguments, legalistic quarrels, people who are divisive, warped, self-condemned (surely these can't be church people he's referring to!). The "being hated and hating one another" of v.3 extends far too often into church life, and our home life. If we allow God to show us our hearts as He sees them, before entrusting our lives to Him, we will be forced to concede that hate, foolishness, disobedience, and slavery to evil has a strong hold on us. We are wrecks, fallen way short of His ideal for our lives.
Gary Demarest comments, "Hate is not always expressed in violent behaviour or words. We talk a great deal these days about child and spousal abuse. We are quick to declare physical abuse as criminal. We also recognize to a lesser degree the unacceptable nature of verbal abuse. However, we readily overlook and ignore the expression of hate through withdrawal or of the withholding of love. This may well be the most common and devastating form of hate, all the more pernicious because it can even be done under the guise of righteousness. The descendants of Saul - those who express their hate, even in religious activity, to 'the glory of God' - are legion."
Apart from God's intervention, how far removed are we from Him? This week we watched the movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" because Emily was visiting Petra in Jordan and the movie shows some scenes from Petra. At one point in the movie two main characters are making their way through underground tombs. They round a corner and find rats covering the floor - rats everywhere, they have to step on them to get anywhere, the rats get in the woman's hair. It's just awful, horrible, it gives you the creeps. In our fallen state, that must in some small way have resembled how UNdesirable we were to God: He is absolutely good, pure, loving, true, and holy; we were foolish, disobedient, enslaved by passions, argumentative, warped, and absolutely sinful. Sin is an abomination to God, He can't stand it, it must be eradicated from His presence. As loathsome as those stinking tomb rats would be.
The great people of faith have always recognized their original obnoxiousness before the Almighty. Looking into his own heart, John Wesley said, "I see nothing but hell." John Bunyan (author of Pilgrim's Progress) wrote, "When I saw John Bunyan as God saw John Bunyan, I did not say I was a sinner; I said that I was sin from the top of my head to the soles of my feet." Sheer wrecks, totally depraved.
However, it is precisely here, at the point of our lostness, our wrecked rat-ness, that God performed a miracle. He became a rat in our place and transferred all our sin onto the man on the cross, so sin and iniquity and its wages, death, might be destroyed. Let's read verses 3-7 together one final time, with its great summary of Christian truth, what God's done to save us:
ALL - At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.
MEN - We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
WOMEN - But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,
MEN - he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
WOMEN - He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
MEN - whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,
WOMEN - so that, having been justified by his grace,
ALL - we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
The transitional word is at the start of v.4: "but" - God's kindness and love interrupted our rapid slide down the slopes to hell. The key phrase is shouted twice in v.5, "He saved us": that's what Jesus' name means, in the Hebrew "Yeshua", Yahweh saves. If we receive Him as Lord of our lives, the horror of the cross has wiped out the despicableness of our sin. This has to be by faith, not based on any supposed "good deeds" of our own which are like filthy rags compared to God's works; it's sheer grace, a free gift, undeserved, charged to Christ's account. There's been the "washing of rebirth", a born-again fresh start, symbolized in the bathing of baptism. God's own Holy Spirit breathes renewal and transformation into us. We are "put right" with God relationally and in the law-court of eternity, "justified by His grace". We are made legal heirs of God's eternal Kingdom, with real assurance of eternal life - better than the Indiana Jones movie's imaginary offer by a supposed "holy grail". Gary Desmarest comments: "Precisely at the point where God has every right to express His judgment of us, He chooses instead to meet us with kindness and love." Amazing grace!
God has broken the cycle of sin, hate, and destruction that bound us. Recently I spoke with a man who came from a broken home; his own parents separated while he was still young, so he missed out on having the experience of a loving dual-parent environment. But for over a dozen years now as a grown man, he and his wife have been fostering children of various ages and situations. Whether he's a Christian or not I don't know, but I would suggest that at least in some small way God's grace is active in this reversal. A cycle has been broken; this man is offering something to the next generation he didn't enjoy as a youngster himself. So in our spiritual lives, God intervened; we deserved death, He offers life. He is our "foster Father", and pours love and kindness into us that we wouldn't have had apart from believing in Jesus. The "being hated and hating one another" can stop.
Good Works
That's not the end of the story - instead, a marvelous beginning of a truly fruitful, meaningful, and productive life. V.8: "And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone." "Good works" are mentioned three times in this chapter v.1, "ready to do whatever is good", v.14, "devote themselves to doing what is good" - we're to make good deeds a priority. As we saw last week, in 2:14, Jesus "gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good." The teaching of the gospel was made attractive by all the good works Christians did out in society. They put God's love into action in their relationships.
Paul notes these things are "profitable for everyone", compared to what v.9 describes as "unprofitable and useless" religious quarrels. It's just about RRSP season and investors are scratching their heads about what to invest in, given the poor performance of stocks and mutual funds over the year. Concerned about long-term yield? Looking for something that pays better dividends than even Microsoft or CN? Paul claims that good works are what's hot, what's truly profitable in the eternal view.
In vv.13-14, Paul gives the concept some practical expression, urging Titus to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way, "and see that they have everything they need.Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives." Zenas and Apollos were fellow Christian workers who would have delivered Paul's letter in Crete before heading on to other points. The early church had to be ready to keep such travelling ministers supplied in order that evangelism and spread of the Kingdom might continue. Similarly, Paul had organized a financial drive amongst the young churches in support of the Judean congregations which were suffering through a famine (1Cor.16:1). As Christians who have experienced God's grace in their own spiritual salvation, we are called to love others as God has loved us; that means opening our hands toward the "urgent needs" around us. Get past the "grudging" level to stewardship that's generous, reflective of God's abundant grace. As Bill Easum used to say, "Give until it feels good."
Money is one vehicle for doing good; time is another. Much Kingdom work is of a volunteer nature. Note all the mentoring that was going on: Zenas the lawyer was maybe a protege of the more experienced Apollos. Paul was busy discipling and interning Titus, Artemas, Tychicus, Titus, and Timothy in his sphere of influence. The church was being built, not with bricks and mortar, but minutes and months, time invested into people's lives in great wads. Who is mentoring you? Whom have you taken under your wing to encourage with the lessons God's taught you? What "good works" projects can you think of that could serve as an opportunity to involve new believers in an enjoyable (and at the same time productive) workout of the Body?
Note that Paul appears quite supportive of Apollos' ministry - they're not competitors, but on the same team. Paul's attitude was ever "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth" (1Cor.3:6) - they shared a common purpose, God's project; it didn't matter to them which got the credit. In the book Spiritual Leadership J.Oswald Sanders notes this: "Out of his wisdom Robert Morrison of China wrote, 'The great fault, I think, in our mission is that no one likes to be second.' The world has yet to see what could happen if everyone lost the desire to get the glory. Wouldn't it be a marvelous place if nobody cared who got the credit?"
Gentle Words
Good works are an outward expression of God's grace. Even before we get to DOING, there's BEING: so Paul also talks about a gentle attitude and manner in our relationships. Skip back to the beginning of the chapter and note some inner qualities Jesus offers us redeemed rats. "Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men." (Titus 3:1-2) God's grace helps us to be submissive to those in authority over us (imperfect as they may be), and considerate to our peers. Not to speak evil of them, to be a non-scrapper, gentle in our dealings. We're to have true humility, courtesy, good manners (whatever the PM's assistant felt, she might have refrained from letting it slip - and now probably wishes she had!). Let's pray for our superiors rather than be quick to criticize them. Let's start by modelling good manners in our homes. It was encouraging to read that a USA Today poll discovered 40% of Americans pause to say grace before meals. No heroic effort required for that, but it's a witness to visitors, and a reminder to youngsters that Mom & Dad are responsible to Someone even more important.
Gentle words and true humility are endangered species of qualities in this day of media hype and Hollywood stardom. Yet humility is something Christians can model for others, as Jesus' grace brought him down to serve us at our rat-level. Watchman Nee said, "Genuine humility is unconscious...God's workmen must be so emptied of self that they are unconsciously humble." CS Lewis offers this picture of humility: he says the Lord "wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another."
Humility is kind of a Catch-22 virtue in that, the instant you think you have it, you don't any more! Being humble doesn't mean focussing on your less-ness, but Christ's more-ness. Keith Brooks noted, "Humility does not consist simply in thinking cheaply of oneself, so much as in not thinking of oneself at all - and of Christ more and more." FB Meyer said, "the only hope of a decreasing self is an increasing Christ." Samuel Logan Brengle, longtime revered leader of the Salvation Army, was once introduced as "the great Dr.Brengle". In his diary he wrote: "If I appear to be great in their eyes, the Lord is most graciously helping me to see how absolutely nothing I am without Him and helping me to keep little in my own eyes. He does use me. But I'm so concerned that HE uses me and that it is not of me the work is done. The axe cannot boast of the trees it has cut down. It could do nothing but for the woodsman. He made it, he sharpened it, he used it. The moment he throws it aside it becomes only old iron. Oh, that I may never lose sight of this. The spiritual leader of today is in all probability one who yesterday expressed his humility by working gladly and faithfully in second place."
Remember it is because of God's kindness and love you are saved, revering Him, not because of righteous things you've done. Jesus - God's only Son - became nothing in order that you might be rescued from the "hell" in your heart. Thankfulness for that helps keep us humble. Call it an "SASE" attitude. Thomas Hardy was a British novelist and poet who became so famous that he could have named whatever price any newspaper would have been willing to pay if he would just submit anything for them to print. But every time he submitted a poem or some literary piece, he always included a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) for the return of his manuscript should it be rejected. He remained humble enough to think that his work could be turned down by an editor who would never be as famous as he!
Thank God, He didn't turn us down. And His kindness and love motivate us so that not in every case will we turn others down either, but express His grace in good works and gentle words. Let's pray.