Thoughts on Titus, Entry 3

*note: I decided that whenever I had "blog block" that I would walk through the book of Titus as my "default" topic. So, here's the third installment of this series, which has no predicted length or end date...but I am going paragraph by paragraph.

I've been pretty blessed when it comes to what was being taught to me in church.

My parents attended this Episcopal Church that I still have trouble pinning down on some theology. I mean, from what I understand regarding the EC's official positions my first church played a little fast and loose with those. The pastor and people were markedly evangelistic in their approach, and every now and again a nun would actually speak prophetic words during the service. Hey, I was a kid and wasn't picking up on much...and they were certainly fuzzy on an area I now know as "sanctification" (a fancy word that references how we walk with Christ in the here and now)...but they had the basics of coming to Christ down pat and certainly did very well in creating community among us.

Long story, but I walked away from church/organized religion for a few years after my dad's death and eventually got involved in an organization called Campus Life. It was their job to go to public high schools and reach out to teens like me. This they did in spades. They were instrumental in teaching me to go to the Bible and check out what it says and letting it be living and active and life-changing. I didn't ever hear Big Dave or Duffy talk directly about theology but I caught it more than they taught it.

They got their theology from the Bible church they attended, and where I started going. I got good, solid teaching from Pastor Mickey, who lived in a parsonage and all he ever wanted from life was to own a convertible. I played baseball with his son and had a crush on one of his daughters. Mickey never knew that, but I doubt if he had it would've kept him from letting me come to his office and chat once a month. Bob, the youth pastor there, was a pretty solid teacher as I recall...but my recollections are somewhat weak considering all the crushes I was having on the girls in his ministry.

In high school, me and my friends were exposed to some goofy stuff like seminars on rock music where they played it backwards and told us Satan was trying to send messages to our brain, which would, in turn, decipher these messages and cause us to go all Helter Skelter. The only obvious solution was to burn our records (fat chance with the state of Christian music in 1982). Our charismatic friends took us to their camps and tried to get us to speak in tongues since this was "evidence" of the filling of the Spirit (I earnestly asked, and apparently never got, for them...but we took our friends pretty seriously on this matter since they took it so seriously). I was told movies and television were vast wastelands where the "liberals" were trying to take God out of society and that it was best to not go or turn them off. So, like most of us, I was given different, and well-intentioned, ways of looking at things but I'd hardly characterize them as false teaching.

My college Bible study leader, Charles, was Presbyterian through-and-through. He was unashamedly coming from a "reformed" theological framework (which, on occasion, clashed with my "dispensational" leanings...but that was rare) but he was teaching truth. And my journey with Christ changed significantly from my interactions with ol' Chuck. He was a great Bible study leader for my university years.

Mickey, my "home church" pastor, gave me some great advice when I was trying to choose a major. He suggested that if I was serious about going into ministry that I load up on Bible classes at my state university. Said I'd have to evaluate everything I'd ever learned and figure out for myself what I believed. I wonder what my Mom would've said if she'd ever known about such a conversation...but it wouldn't have mattered. I took him up on his offer.

And I got the only false teaching I'd ever seen from my religion professors at Auburn (I don't even think they have a religion department any more). They told me that you couldn't really take the Bible literally. They told me that miracles didn't happen. They told me we really couldn't trust the creation accounts. They told me that Jericho didn't happen. They told me that Jesus didn't walk on water...or heal anybody...and He probably didn't say what the Bible says He said. They told me that Israelites crossed a 6-inch drainage swamp called the "Reed Sea" (to which Charles had given me ammo to ask how the Egyptian army drowned in a 6-inch drainage swamp, in which case, you'd still have a miracle) and Moses & the Red Sea didn't take place.

But they were university professors and I knew that. They weren't working for a church. And I was trying to learn from them how the "other half lived." I did that. And it was ultimately helpful to my spiritual growth. They even let me read the entire works of Francis Schaeffer as my senior readings project and having discussions with learned folks on what I was reading might've been the educational highlight of my university career.

So, when I read Titus 1: 10--16, I don't have much front-line experience with it in my church. See, Paul had left Titus in Crete to establish some order in the church and gave him what to look for in people who would govern the situation. We learn pretty quickly this was needed because there were false teachers in their midst.

Some rebellious people, bent on deception and out to grab money and power, were upsetting whole families with whatever the content of the false teaching was. Titus was told that they must be silenced.

In verse 12 we learn that this 6th century B.C. poet Epimenides had written a line that had become accepted in the Hellenistic world that Cretans were liars. Evil. Lazy. Gluttons. And this little line of poetry hadn't really been refuted.

And, when you think about it, this is where the Gospel would have it's most wonderful display. Liars. Evil folks. Lazy people. They like to party to excess. And then the message of God's grace comes to town and some people begin to transform. The surpassing riches of His grace begin to be seen. They start telling the truth. They become righteous. Godly people. They become diligent about things they weren't really diligent about before. They begin to celebrate with those that are celebrating rather than joining in some hedonistic frenzy. And when somebody wants to know why they've changed, they say that it wasn't anything they did...but rather the love and mercy and kindness of Christ...his grace working through them and giving Him the glory for it...and one-by-one folks start to change.

Naturally, there were some who liked the lifestyle of lies. Evil was more "fun." Being lazy was "easier." And who doesn't like to party hard and have a few laughs and eat to much. We've earned it, right? We work hard, for cryin' out loud. And, when you start bringing the message of God's transforming GRACE into a world where they'd known nothing but the ability to "measure" spirituality...

...did you go to Temple today?
...did you make your offerings?
...did you obey the Sabbath?
...did you do this to atone for sin?
...did you do attend the feats?
...did you make your tithes? And don't even get me started on your offerings.

Just check yes, no, maybe so and you know if you're spiritual or not. Pretty simple, really.

Now the division begins to become noticable, and I'd imagine that in the first century as the Tribe known as Christians was just getting off their feet they'd have to come to grips with what they'd been taught their entire lives, well, it'd be easy to fall back into old patterns because this new way of communing with God seems so, well...

...easy. Almost too easy. And don't even get me started on the reality that now you're not doing those very things that set you apart from the world for centuries and made you a peculiar people and your own identity hinged on these things. "False" teaching would bring comfort...and maybe even make you feel like that blend of Christ and living under the Law might just be "true." Maybe you'd even hope it would be.

But Titus had a responsibility. Truth. Nothing but the truth. And, oh, by the way. Silence the false teachers. Reprove them severely. Somehow, this means that he'd have to discipline them...and this is one more proof that sometimes spirituality doesn't require being polite. I can't imagine this severe reproof didn't involve raised voices and heated discussion, if not downright coming to blows.

And they were teaching Jewish myths. I don't know the content, but from what I know of Jewish lore, there are plenty of riveting stories out there to hold attention and keep audiences chatting like a good movie.

They were teaching the commandments of men. Likely, this involved food. And staying away from certain ones. At least if the rest of the New Testament is consistent this always seemed to be the deal. Peter and Paul were butting head on this one as early as 6 years after Paul's conversion.

But in verse 15, we get the attitudes of the false teachers. Their minds are defiled. They don't think correctly about God...and if you don't think correctly about God...well, everything we do will flow from this plum line. The drift may be small, but consistent drift over time will take you far off course. And they weren't thinking well. Their conscience is defiled, too. It isn't clean. They know what they're doing. So, the outside might be clean, but the insides are eaten with rust. I think Jesus, in a different context, used the phrase "whitewashed tombs." Pretty outside. Death & rot inside.

In verse 16, we get their actions. They say they know God...but they don't live it out. In other words, they talk an enticing game under the guise of speaking for God and their actions don't line up with it. I'm convinced, now moreseo than ever, that the man and the message cannot be separate. Either you're a walking, talking, living, breathing corroboration of what you're teaching...

...keeping in mind that perfection isn't the deal, hence this includes handling your false steps and missing of the marks in such a way that it holds true to the demands of Scripture...

...or you're a snake-oil salesman using smoke & mirrors. They are detestable...they make you dislike them. They are disobedient. They are...

...worthless for any good deed.

Worth nothing.
For any...
...and this means any...
good deed.

Ouch.

Now, I know the tendency here is to start putting labels on the false teachers we've come across in our lives and I wouldn't be too quick to make such a list. Like I said at the beginning, I've been in Christian circles of all types for a long time and had former students get involved in all sorts of ministries all over the spectrum of our Tribe. Having honest differences on some areas of theology might make for interesting conversation over coffee and I think this is healthy--even enjoyable and profitable for all of us--but the Kingdom is big enough and broad enough for a wide variety. Let's face it: We're anything but bland.

But the idea is to measure the teacher & his message against Truth. His Truth.

And this necessitates we have the wherewithal to do so...

...and that's on us.