Pick Your Elders Carefully (Titus 1:1-15) Series

Today we start a new series on Titus. I'm going for the record here, in how little I say about the book before we jump in. Verse 1:

(1) Paul, a slave of God.

Now, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

in accordance with the faith(fulness?) of God's chosen ones,

and the knowledge of the truth-- the one in accordance with godliness,

Paul starts his letter to Titus, by describing himself. How does Paul view himself?

He is, first of all, God's slave. This is a really interesting way to talk about yourself, and I'm not sure how to unpack it. You could say, Paul is God's possession. Or, Paul is not in charge of his own life; God is. I was reading Smith Wigglesworth this past week, and one of the things he talks about, is how to reach a place where you can be filled with the Spirit, and with power, and stay filled. He answers this, in terms of abiding. You have to abide in Christ, and with Christ. And the path to abiding, and staying with Christ, has four main things. Maybe. I'm still trying to figure this out:

The first, is repentance. All the sins you tolerate in your life, and tell yourself aren't a big deal, and that God doesn't mind, He minds. You have to turn from them, give them up, and come back to God.

The second, is surrender. There are maybe areas in your life where you don't want to give up control. Those things mean a lot to you. In my experience, it's really easy to figure out what those things are, if you truly want to know. Just start a prayer to God: "God, I surrender my..." And the things that pop in your head, that you don't want to surrender, are the things keeping you from abiding with Christ at a deeper, higher level. For myself, apparently, it's wealth, and my job. So yesterday, thinking about these things, I prayed this to God: "God, I enjoy my job, most days. I value it. And I don't want to give it up, or the wealth it has given me. But I surrender these things, and everything else, to you."

The third, is yielding. You give control to God. You yield, and yield, and yield, until there's nothing left of you, and you are truly God's slave, and you are entirely committed to him.

The fourth, is to ask. Ask God to give you his Spirit, knowing that your Father gives good gifts (Luke 11:13). Ask God to come and abide in you, and with you, in a deeper way.

Now, I'm not sure that Paul means exactly all of this when he calls himself God's slave. I wanted to get this on paper, and teach it, so that hopefully I don't forget it. But what Paul means, is certainly close to this. Paul has reached the point in his life, where he voluntarily lives as God's slave. He has died to himself, and there is nothing left of Paul. He will do nothing for himself, but he instead, lives only for Christ.

Later in this letter, Paul is going to ask slaves for something tough. Even though in Christ, they are equals with free people, and raised up, and exalted, Paul is going to ask them to voluntarily surrender, and live in submission, and subjection, to their masters. When Paul does this, we are supposed to find ourselves thinking about Titus 1:1. Paul doesn't ask anything, or command anything, to others, that he doesn't do himself.

He is God's slave.

Paul then goes on to describe himself as Jesus' apostle. Outside of the Bible, "apostle" means something like "envoy," or "representative." Inside the Bible, what the word "apostle" means is actually really complicated. The 12 were apostles. And so was Paul. But there are others in the church beyond them given this title. Off the top of my head, I can think of Barnabas (Acts 14:14), and Junia-- a woman (Acts 16:7). But I'm going to let that go, for now, and keep moving.

Let's reread verse 1:

(1) Paul, a slave of God.

Now, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

in accordance with the faith(fulness?) of God's chosen ones,

and the knowledge of the truth-- the one in accordance with godliness,

It's quite often the case that when you are talking with other Christians, they want to know what kind of Christian you are. It's like Christianity is a filing cabinet, and they want to put you in the right folder, carefully sequenced, so that they understand who you are. They want to know your denomination. If you're a Calvinist or Arminian. If you're a Free Will Baptist, or a Reformed Baptist. If you're an ELCA Lutheran, or Lutheran Brethren, or Missouri Synod Lutheran. If you think that God still heals through people, or if those days are done.