1 But as for you, speak the things that are consistent with sound doctrine. 2 Older men are to be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, and sound in faith, love, and perseverance. 3 Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers or addicted to much wine, but teachers of good. 4 In this way they can train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, managers of their households, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be discredited. 6 In the same way, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7 In everything, show yourself to be an example by doing good works. In your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and wholesome speech that is above reproach, so that anyone who opposes us will be ashamed to have nothing bad to say about us. 9 Slaves are to submit to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not stealing from them, but showing all good faith, so that in every respect they will adorn the teaching about God our Savior. REFLECTIONSWritten by Stephen Shead One of my constant struggles in life is that I don’t understand colour combinations. I can’t tell which colours are supposed to go with which, so I’m constantly being told, “You can’t wear that shirt with those pants!” Oh… I don’t get it, but OK. There’s a different kind of combination which is essential for every Christian believer to understand and apply: the behaviour that goes with the truth of the gospel. Paul tells Titus to teach the church “the things that are consistent with sound doctrine” (v 1) – that is, the attitudes and behaviours that are consistent with the Bible’s teaching. Two main things stood out to me about the attitudes and behaviours Paul lists. First, even though Paul lists virtues for each group (old men, women, etc.), self-control appears in nearly every list. For older women, Paul warns against addiction to wine, which is also a self-control issue – and for young men, self-control is the only issue! I did a search of the New Testament, and self-control is often linked with being “sober-minded,” and also with remembering that Jesus will return and this present evil age will be destroyed (for example, 1 Peter 4:7). That suggests that all of us need to work hard (and pray hard) to keep a certain degree of seriousness in life. It’s great to enjoy good times with friends, but we need to recognise the danger of becoming flippant and careless in our attitude to enjoyment and fun times. Heaven and hell are real. The return of Jesus is always just around the corner, and salvation is at stake. Keeping those realities in mind will then help us to work at self-control, or discipline – learning to discipline our minds, our bodies, our habits, and our patterns for relating to others. The other thing that stood out was the reason why it matters whether our behaviour matches the truth we believe. I mean, it matters on a personal level because Jesus warned that those who claim to believe but ignore his word will be shut out of the kingdom (Matthew 7:21-27). But the bigger reason to learn godly behaviour is “so that the word of God will not be discredited” (v 5), so that opponents of the gospel will not be able to criticise us (v 8), and so that we will “adorn the teaching about God our Saviour,” showing people how beautiful and good the gospel of Jesus is (v 10). Do those reasons motivate you to be godly? If not, have you yet turned to Jesus? And if so, spend some serious time in prayer, reflecting on areas where you need to coordinate your behaviour more with the truth of Christ. ABOUT THE AUTHORStephen is our Senior Minister.
