Faith In Action

What does it mean to be a Christian? How would you answer that question? I think we’d start with what we believe. As Christians, we believe in the Bible as God’s Word. We believe that our God is Triune, that all people are dead in sin, and that we have new life through faith in Christ. As Christians, we’d say all this, and more. We’re defined by those things we believe. But we also know being a Christian is about more than just good doctrine, it’s a way of life. This set of truths is so powerful that it shapes everything we do: in the home, and church, and at school, in marriage and friendship, in our work and play.

The theme of faith-in-action is key to Paul’s letter to Titus. Here he writes to another co-worker in the gospel, just as he wrote to Timothy. Titus was a church leader who was working on Crete, which is the island south of Greece.

Now, this was one tough place to be. Even among the worldly folks of the Roman Empire, Cretans were known for their bad behaviour! Titus had a big job: organize the churches there, contend with false teachers, and teach the believers how faith impacts all of life. Listen to how Paul condemns the heretics on Crete in 1:16: “They profess to know God, but in works they deny him.” The churches were being influenced by people who said a lot of godly things but who lived in a godless way.

And this is still the challenge we face. How can we let faith in Christ touch more and more of what we do? How can we keep bringing God into our ordinary moments, and live out our Christian faith? Paul instructs Titus, “Speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine” (2:1). And then he spends the chapter not explaining what sound doctrine is, but what sound doctrine looks like in real life. Sound doctrine—when you study the Bible, when you sing the creed, when you know your Catechism—all this must lead to a holy life! This is our theme,

Put your sound doctrine into practice! A command for:

1) older men

2) older women

3) young women

4) young men

5) the teacher

1) older men: “Speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, that the older men be sober, reverent, sound in faith…” (2:1-2). As we listen to these words, first about the “older” and then the “younger” men and women, we wonder what category we belong to. For who is “older?” And who wouldn’t want to be known as “younger?”

There was a Roman writer around Paul’s time who commented on the different stages of life. And he said that a person more than fifty years old is “older”—so anyone else is “younger.” That’s a bit helpful, but Paul is using these terms in a relative sense. For he’s writing to an entire congregation. Some were children, others teenagers; some were single adults, others married with young kids; others had seen their children leave the home, while others were in their closing years. So it is today in our congregation: compared to the age and life situation of the other members, some of us are definitely “younger,” some are “older.”

And in our text we see that every Christian needs to learn and grow, not just the young, but the older ones too. For God’s work in us is always ongoing. It’s been said that there are only two directions for our life as Christians: forward and reverse—you can’t put it in neutral. If I’m not walking any closer to Christ (even a little closer, year by year), or not making any progress in my fight against sin, then I need to give this serious attention. There’s no point when we’ve learned enough, no age when we stop needing instruction in the Word.

So when Paul explains the Christian lifestyle, he begins with the older members of the church. Back then, just because you were older didn’t mean you’d been a believer for a long time—the churches were filled with new Christians. All the same, he begins with words for those who might’ve been expected to have the deepest knowledge and the greatest maturity.

In our congregation, the older men (and women) have lived out their faith for a long time. They have a wealth of life experience, they’ve studied the Word from cover to cover, and served in the church in many ways. But again, no one is finished growing, no one is ever done serving—rather, these older members must set a good example of a living faith.

To the men who have children that are already married (and even some grandchildren), and the men who’ve belonged to the church for long decades now—to them, Titus must teach, “that the older men be sober, reverent, sound in faith, in love, in patience” (2:2).