Helping people find grace in us and through us, every day.
The letter of Paul to Titus was dispatched to the island of Crete, a place that held a rather colourful reputation in the ancient world, with even their own poets suggesting the inhabitants were perennial liars and “evil beasts” who were perhaps a bit too fond of their lunch. It was into this somewhat chaotic social landscape that Titus was tasked with bringing the order and beauty of the Gospel, showing that faith is not merely a private feeling but a public way of life that polishes the rough edges of our character.
In the second chapter of this short letter, Paul moves from the theoretical to the practical, much like a patient schoolmaster explaining that the rules of grammar exist so that we might eventually write beautiful poetry. He addresses everyone from the seasoned grandfathers in the pews to the young mothers balancing toddlers and household tasks, suggesting that “sound doctrine” is something that should be lived out in the kitchen and the marketplace just as much as it is recited in the ancient creeds. For those of us who might find the idea of “sound doctrine” a bit dusty (or nowadays “relative”), it simply means “healthy teaching,” the kind of spiritual vitamin that helps us grow into the people God designed us individually and corporately to be.
The heart of the chapter lies in that wonderful assurance that “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions” (Titus 2:11-12 ESV). We often think of grace as a lovely, soft word, perhaps something we say before a Sunday roast, but Paul describes it as a tutor or a trainer. This is what might be called “sanctification” in the ivory towers of theology, but down in the pews, it is simply the process of God’s love teaching us how to live “self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”
As we look to the “blessed hope” of Christ’s return, we find that our daily work and our interactions with neighbours are the very places where we “adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour.” To adorn something is simply to make it look attractive, like putting a fresh coat of paint on a tired garden gate or arranging flowers for the altar.
When we live with kindness and integrity, we make the Gospel look beautiful to a world that is often looking for a reason to hope, and we do so knowing that we have already been redeemed from all lawlessness and purified as a people for His own possession.
We are not working to win God’s affection, but rather living out of the abundance of the affection He has already shown us in Christ.
Pax
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