Christmas is almost upon us. Only 4 more sleeps left. But what does Christmas mean to you? For some it just means more work. For some it involves the trauma of family reunions. For others it’s a time of joy as families get together to catch up, while for others it means loneliness.
It’s a time for giving and receiving of gifts. A time for celebrating the good things that God has given us, especially his own son, Jesus Christ.
But I wonder how many of us think of Christmas as a time to review our lives; to rethink our lifestyle, our way of life. We usually leave that sort of thing to New Year’s eve, don’t we?
Well, today I want us to do just that; to think about the lifestyle described in Titus 2, with a particular focus on the motivation behind the sorts of behaviour described here.
Now I don’t want to get into the issue of whether some of these instructions are out of date because our cultural context is different. I know some would argue that. Rather I want us to think about the type of behaviour being suggested and the reasons behind it.
The first thing that stands out as far as I can see is that the motivation for all of this behaviour is the coming of Jesus Christ to live and die for us. There it is in v11: "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all." All the things he’s talked about up in the first 10 verses are premised on this one event. Jesus Christ, the grace of God personified, has appeared, bringing salvation to all. Out of that single statement flow a whole range of implications.
First is the imperative of gospel proclamation. If the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all, then all need to hear about it. It’s no good us knowing about this great salvation if we don’t spread the news around.
There was an article in the Age last week about how drug companies are funding disease awareness campaigns to raise public awareness of particular diseases and illnesses. Now of course they’re doing it to increase the demand for their products, but nevertheless there’s generally a great public benefit in what they’re doing, isn’t there? People need to know about the rise in asthma in our country and how to deal with it. We need to hear about the number of young people who are suffering from depression. Those of us who are ageing, and that’s all of us, need to understand the issues around the onset of arthritis and what we can do about it.
But how much more do people need to know about their eternal destiny and what they can do about that. How much more do they need to know about the cure for the disease of death.
The trouble is no-one is listening. The situation isn’t much different now to what it was back then. Christianity then was a newfangled upstart religion. These days it’s old-fashioned. And in both situations people need to be convinced about its validity before they’ll listen. So how do we convince them that the message of Jesus Christ is worth listening to?
You do what we’re told here. First of all you make sure you teach what’s consistent with good doctrine. Then you live that way. That is, you teach things that fit with what God has revealed about himself. Things that lead to consistency and integrity in our behaviour. Things like the sort of behaviour he describes here.
It’s interesting, isn’t it, that the decline in church attendance has coincided with the rise of liberal theology, with its denial of basic Christian beliefs, with its lowering of moral standards, with its questioning of the validity of the Biblical record. It’s no wonder people question the relevance of Christianity when they see its leaders doubting the validity of its very basis. And that’s why we’re warned here to make sure that what we teach is consistent with good doctrine, that is, with Biblical teaching.
What’s more, if we believe that the grace of God has appeared among us, then the way we teach people to live will reflect that gracious act of God. So, for example, we’ll be teaching people to be gracious in the way they act towards others. We’ll teach them to forgive one another. We’ll teach them to be generous and patient and kind.
What’s more we’ll live in ways that commend the gospel; ways that lead people to want to hear about the grace of God that we’ve discovered and that’s made such a difference to our lives.
That’s why he gives this long list of behaviours covering 6 different groups categorised by age, gender and occupation.
Older men are to be dignified in the way they behave and to demonstrate maturity in their faith, in the way they show love and in the way they endure, as they await the fulfilment of their Christian hope. They need to resist the temptations of old age, to be grumpy and irritable; to complain about their various aches and pains; to reminisce on the past as though it were so much better than the present, rather than looking forward to the fulfilment of their Christian hope, the resurrection to eternal life.
Older women are similarly to be dignified in the way they behave. That word reverent has the idea of a priestess serving in the temple. Someone has suggested it carries the idea of practising the presence of God in their lives. They too are to avoid the temptations of old age: they’re not to be gossips or addicted to alcohol. Instead they’re to teach what’s good. They’re to be models for the younger generation, passing on what they’ve learnt about how to live as Christian women.
In turn, younger women are to love their husbands and children in a self sacrificial way, just as Christ loved us. Of course the assumption in that culture was that young women will all be married and while that may not be the case any more, most of these instructions are still relevant to both married and single people. Be self-controlled; pure; good managers of your household; kind; if you’re married, being submissive to your husband so that the gospel will not be discredited. I guess in today’s context that means having such a relationship with your husband, of mutual support and respect, that that relationship will attract people to the gospel.
Young men likewise are to be self-controlled. They’re to avoid the temptations of youth, to be intolerant of the conservative older men and women, to lose their temper, to let fly with their tongue, to seek advancement at all cost. Rather they’re to be a model of good works, of integrity and seriousness.
Such advice of course includes Titus himself. Paul wants to make clear that the leader must be an example to others. He’s the first person he should apply these standards to, so that no-one can have any grounds for criticism of his teaching.
Finally slaves are to work hard, to be people of integrity, trustworthy and respectful. The issue isn’t the justice or otherwise of slavery. That wasn’t a question that could be asked in that context. The issue was the witness provided by such a life to the power of the gospel. So too, Christians today can show a powerful witness to Christ by the way they behave at work; by the integrity they exhibit; by their trustworthiness, their honesty; by the way they use their tongues; by the respect they show to those in authority over them.
And why should we live like this? For 2 reasons.
First because God has sent Jesus Christ, the grace of God incarnate, to show us how he wants us to live. Jesus’ own life is the model for our lives. Just as Jesus renounced his Father’s glory, so we’re to renounce worldly living. Just as Jesus lived a life of obedience to God, so we’re to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly.
But secondly we’re to live like this because we’re looking forward to Jesus’ return. The blessed hope he speaks of is the hope of the resurrection, of being brought into the glory of God, of sharing that glory with Jesus Christ. And it’s this future hope that’s an even stronger motivation than the first.
You see, Jesus Christ lived and died and rose again with this one purpose in mind: to redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own. Our destiny is to be a people pure and holy, set aside for God, living in his presence forever. But we need to begin our preparation for that day right now. You see, we’re already part of God’s kingdom. We’re already living in God’s presence through his Holy Spirit who dwells within us. So our lives should reflect that future reality right now in the present.
I’m not sure this is a perfect analogy by any means, but it might be a helpful idea. I learnt to play the piano some time ago. Well, actually I learnt to play a few pieces on the piano. But the process of learning to play the piano involved first learning to play scales. Up and down the keyboard, over and over, the same set of notes, played with the same fingers every time. C scales, D Scales, A minor scales, something called harmonic scales. It’s quite a tedious process really. There’s little in the way of satisfaction. And you wonder what’s the point? Why can’t I just start playing something interesting?
Well, the point is that until you’ve mastered those scales you won’t be able to play anything interesting. You’ll be playing baa baa black sheep and twinkle twinkle little star until the cows come home. You actually need to build up what’s called muscle memory. Your hands and fingers need to be so used to playing scales that you don’t have to think about which finger to use next, until they just do it automatically. It’s the same with playing the guitar. I no longer have to think about where to place my fingers, they just go in the right formation almost by themselves.
Well, that’s a sort of analogy to what we read here. We’re to practise godly living now so that it becomes second nature to us. So that when the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ appears, we’ll be ready to live with him. We’ll be at home, living in God’s presence.
So you see, Christmas is the time for making those New Year resolutions. It’s not the beginning of a new year that will motivate us to change our way of life. Rather it’s the awareness that God has revealed the depths of his grace to us in the person of Jesus Christ, who came to purify us and to show us how to live in God’s presence. It’s that future hope of eternal life in God’s presence that will motivate us now to live as his sons and daughters.
So let me encourage you to do what we read here in vs 12 &13: "to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, 13while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ."
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