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seeking-his-plan-blog · 7 years

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"Teach what accords with sound doctrine.”

Monday, March 19 - Day 31 of Lent.

Here we have another book that is written by Paul, seemingly to his mentee Titus, “my true son in our common faith” (Titus 1:4). It seems to me that Paul is giving Titus instruction on how to choose a leader for his specific church on the island of Crete. The book is classic of Paul. I enjoy reading his writings because he reminds me what a good Christian ought not to be, and what a good Christian ought to be:

7 ... He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9 ... so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

This actually goes hand-in-hand with what I’ve just been studying in James, about the importance of taming the tongue when teaching the Word of God. The role of a teacher is an important one. What’s interesting is, when explaining the qualities of a good teacher, Paul doesn’t say “he must be well-liked, confident, charming and entertaining”. No, the qualities that matter more than being liked are being “disciplined” and “self-controlled”. This is an important distinction. I can relate, for I have always found in the teaching profession that I get better results when I try to be consistent and firm in my rules and convictions, as opposed to trying to be liked. Well said, Paul!

The worst kind of teacher, I think, is one who marvels in his own authority, and enjoys influencing minds not because he believes that the truth is inherently good and true for the learner, but because he likes to be right. A classic example of the latter is one who tries to backtrack when he has made a mistake in his lesson, rather than admitting he was wrong. To emphasise the importance of humility in a teacher, Paul adds:

15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.

Incidentally, I think it is much harder these days to come across properly humble teachers in our society. The invention of Google makes every person think that they are right. Somewhere along the lines of technology, humans started trusting Google more, and educated individuals less. Just the other day I told a friend a fact that I knew was 100% true, and I even said so. Yet the friend still said, “oh really?” and Googled it quickly, before saying, “oh wow” after Google had confirmed. My be-a-better-person radar stopped me from passive-aggressively saying, “I just said I was sure about that. Why you gotta be Googlin’ it?”

Aside from the qualities of a good leader, Paul emphasises the importance of sticking to sound doctrine. “But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.” (Titus 2:1) I get nervous sometimes when defending the faith to others; not just those who do not believe, but Christians who disagree with something I’ve said. I’m always worried that I don’t know scripture well enough. I’ve just finished reading ‘Rome Sweet Home’ by Scott and Kimberly Hahn, and I was amazed by how well they both knew scripture; how they could just pull relevant verses out of a hat. They inspired me, and I felt that in their text ‘conclusion’ -- in which they urged Catholics to learn scripture by heart -- they were speaking directly to me.

Well, Kristin. What’s stopping ya, right?

Paul has spoken before about a teacher being so solid that he is able to rebuke any claim made that is not sound doctrine (in Timothy 1, for example). He underlines it again for Titus:

9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

Gosh, this was a massive task for Titus, given that Paul instructed him to name a church elder for every city in Crete, and Crete was well-known for having many cities. How would one even go about...?

It isn’t rebuking that scares me, actually. It is simply my lack of knowledge with which to rebuke. On the odd occasion, I hear someone teaching something about scripture that makes me go, “hmmmm, I don’t know if that’s right.” But I hold my tongue because I’m just not sure. I could get out my phone and Google it in a minute or two, like my aforementioned friend. OR I could just learn scripture. If I could memorise all the names of all the top K-Pop boy/girl group members through 2013-2015, then I can learn some Bible verses. (Yes, I really did that.)

God’s Word must be held onto at all costs. Losing it will cause a decline into a wishy-washy, buffet faith, the specifics of which no one quite knows. That is not the future we want! We have been trusted by God, and the saints before us, to keep the Word sacred. So, we must!

We ALSO must hear Paul’s message that the Gospel is for everyone, not just cradle-Christians or those who sin less than others.

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.

For ALL PEOPLE. Whether someone gets to learn about Jesus Christ or not, is not our choice! We are a mere vessel for Him to use in the spreading of His Word. Ergo, we all need to aim to achieve the qualities of a good teacher, so that we may accurately, and to the best of our ability, teach our brothers and sisters about the Gospel!

If you ever need advice or motivation about preaching God’s word, or need a reminder of how important accuracy is (down to the final letter!), Titus is a short but powerful book that I reckon achieves this quite well! (Lol, I sound like I’m giving a book review.) Five stars! (Yes, I just was cocky enough to rate a book in the Bible five stars.) (It was a joke though.)

#lent #lentenseason #titus #stpaul #bookoftitus #dailybible #sounddoctrine #peace #lentenramblings #letterofstpaul

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