Titus 2:9, 10 Teach Slaves

Titus 2:9, 10 Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Saviour attractive.

In Titus 2:9, 10 we find Paul's instructions to Titus as to what he should teach slaves. Some five inter-related commands are given. 1. They must be subject to their masters in everything 2. They must try to please them 3. They must not to talk back to them 4. They must not steal from them 5. They must show that they can be fully trusted. A great deal has changed since the days of the Roman Empire when large numbers were in life long servitude, chiefly under the influence of the gospel. It is not difficult to see applications to today's workaday world - respect, hard work, no insolence, no pilfering but trustworthiness and integrity of the highest sort. Paul's concern then was so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Saviour attractive. That same concern should be prominent in our thinking today. This is the sort of thing that congregations need to be reminded of regularly.

Titus 1:15 Pure, Corrupted

Titus 1:15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.

Paul draws a contrast in this verse between the pure that is the believing and the corrupted who do not believe. Because the believer is pure at heart then, at his best, all that he touches becomes pure. This is the general rule. Paul is surely not a naïve as to think that it is inevitable. As for the unbeliever, his tendency is towards corruption and so for him nothing is pure in the end. There is such corruption in their minds and consciences that it seeps into everything they say and do and are. One sees this on all sorts of levels and in all sorts of ways. It is like a man with dirt on his hands - everything he touches gets dirty too. Paul says this as a warning against the way error of all sorts can creep into all sorts of places if we do not take care. It is important for pastors to understand this principle.

Titus 1:9 Encourage, Refute

Titus 1:9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

One of the main things in Titus 1 is the delineation of the qualifications for eldership or being an overseer. Paul completes his list with this statement in verse 9 that says that an elder must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught and so on. The verse gives us one statement about what sort of man an elder is required to be and two connected statements about what he must do. So he must hold to the trustworthy message, he must do so firmly (there must be no doubt about his commitment to it) and it must be the message as it has been taught. He must not be an innovator but a faithful passer on of the tradition. This is a plea for a rigorous orthodoxy. Despite the claims of some, there was a specific message or body of truth that was taught in those days and it was expected that elders should hold firmly to it. This was one of the things that was expected of anyone who held such office in the churches. The reason for this is so that he can do two things, one positive and one negative - encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. The emphasis on careful, accurate teaching is undeniable and points to thorough preparation for followed by steadfastness in the office. Elders are to be thoroughly conversant with sound doctrine or the trustworthy message as it has been taught and are then to do all that they can to encourage believers to follow the truth and to refute opposers of that truth wherever they arise. Few things will encourage the true Christian as much as sound teaching. Ministers have a duty not only to faithfully teach the sympathetic but also to carefully refute false teaching wherever it arises. This is the work of all elders.

 

2 Timothy 4:14, 15 The Metalworker

2 Timothy 4:14, 15 Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.

Because the Bible relates things that really happened there is a great deal of what fiction writers call back story. We are often ignorant of this back story, as is the case here. He is probably the man in 1 Timothy 1:20 and possibly the one in Acts 19:33 (an Ephesian Jew) but we do not know who Alexander the metalworker was or anything about the harm that he caused the Apostle Paul. It is unlikely to have been physical harm that he caused but harm it was, nevertheless, of some sort. Did he stir up the Jews against Paul when he was on trial? He may well have been an apostate. As ignorant as we are of Alexander what we can learn here is how to react to experiences such as Paul knew. Paul has no spirit of revenge but is confident that The Lord will repay him for what he has done. We ought to have the same confidence regarding those who oppose us because of the gospel as Paul had. He goes on to say to Timothy You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message. He warns him in the light of his own troubles with this man. Ministers are likely to face opposition of one sort or another. When they suffer then they should look to God for vengeance. They ought also to take opportunity to warn others against those who do harm.

2 Timothy 4:2 Ministerial Duties

2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction.

As Paul comes towards the end of his letter, he solemnly charges Timothy, reminding him of several aspects of the ministry that he must give attention to. In the verse he tells him, firstly, to preach the Word. The heralding of the Word has to have priority in the life of any true minister. We tend to think of the Sunday pulpit work when we think of preaching but there are other forms of preaching and all of it must be done without neglect. Along with this, there must be a prepared or ready attitude that is maintained both when it is easy to do so and when it is not. Whatever changes come the work of preaching must go on. Adaptability to situations is important in the ministry.  Then there is the work of correcting, rebuking and encouraging. This work is not confined to preaching, although much of it will take place in that context. This work must be done with great patience and careful instruction. Your correcting or rebuking or encouraging may be ignored at first or not understood. Keep at it -  repeating and clarifying all the way until, ideally, it is received.

2 Timothy 3:12 Godly Persecuted

2 Timothy 3:12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted

This striking verse appears to be extrapolated from Paul's own experience which forms the context. No doubt his knowledge of the Lord's own sayings also informed him. Perhaps he also recalls his own former hatred for Christians. His point is that everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will inevitably be persecuted. As a general rule godliness and persecution go together. If you are determined to live a godly life then expect persecution. Perhaps there is significance in the way he phrases things - not everyone who lives a godly life but everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus. We cannot say that persecution proves godliness. If we are serious about godliness, however, we can expect persecution. There is a certain inevitability about striving for godliness inviting opposition. It is a theme in Scripture. Think of Joseph, of Daniel, perhaps Jeremiah, certainly the Lord himself. Ministers should warn congregations that is they are serious about godliness then they will undoubtedly find themselves persecuted at some point. If you are willing to go easy on godliness you may well escape persecution but the more godly you seek to be the more likely you are to find yourself falling into persecution of some sort. No doubt the corollary works to some extent - if you are persecuted, it will help you to be more godly. Many have observed how in places where persecution was strong there were plenty of examples of godliness but once persecution eased, it was much more difficult to find that same godliness. It is like the story of the competition between the rain and the sun and who could get the man's coat off first. The wind tried with all his might but failed. The sun succeeded easily. So luxuries are more likely to destroy godliness than are persecutions.

2 Timothy 3:1 Terrible Times

2 Timothy 3:1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.

In 2 Timothy 3 Paul talks about people being lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, etc. He talks of men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected (8). The chapter begins with his saying that Timothy must mark the fact that things will be like this in the last days. Clearly these last days include the days in which Paul lives. In fact they are best understood as that whole period from the first coming of Christ until his return and so includes our days too. There are periods when God's people are tempted to think that things are getting better and better but the fact is that the last days will be characterised by their terrible nature, regardless of what else may be said about them. No pastor should be surprised at the self-devotion, greed, pride, abusiveness, rebelliousness, unthankfulness, etc, of false teachers.