Inside Out

"Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed,to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men." Titus 3:1-2

How often are Christians encouraged with words like duty when it comes to living our lives? As one author puts it, regarding the above passage from Titus, "The first two duties—submission to government and obedience to all human authority ... are just one more reminder that Christians have certain requirements of attitude and conduct in relation to their secular leaders." As the author earlier puts it, "Paul simply followed the Lord's model..." Requirements of "attitude and conduct" and following the "Lord's model" are, in my opinion, not so subtle ways in which to put a Christian under some sort of law. Otherwise, why would he say, "The first two duties"? This means there are more duties to come. It may not be a law designed to earn God's blessings or to obtain a right-standing before Him, but they are still laws designed to modify our behavior in order for Christians to somehow win unbelievers and secular society to the Lord. While there is nothing wrong with good behavior, the motivation for this behavior seems to only come from obedience to laws. In other words, God has shown you how to act so you should respond accordingly regardless of whether or not you want to do it. If we are required to behave a certain way that is a law. What if I don't live up to these requirements of attitude and conduct? Is there a penalty? Furthermore, did Paul follow the "Lord's model"? Jesus is God. God's standard of "attitude and conduct," if I am to use Jesus as a "model," is perfection. After all, didn't Jesus say, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48)." We can't "model" our behavior after Jesus no matter how hard we try. In fact, it was Paul who said, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do (Romans 7:15)." These aren't the words of a man who is successfully modeling his life after Jesus. Duties, requirements and modeling our thoughts and actions after a standard impossible to duplicate is trying to change our behavior from the outside in; here's a way to act now go and do likewise. That is not Christian living at all and will only end up turning the watchful eye of secular society against us as they see our hypocrisy when we cannot live up to the standards we claim we are living by.

If you look closely at the passage from Titus 3, what does it remind you of? It reminds me of the "fruit of the Spirit." "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23)." When I am receiving the love of God, He created me to receive by trusting in and relying on the indwelling Holy Spirit, I will bear the fruit that He is producing in and through me. It becomes easier to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle and show consideration for all men because the origin of my behavior is the Spirit of God loving me. The behaviors spoken of in Titus 3 are in many ways acts of love. God is the ultimate ruler and authority to be obedient to and when I am loving others the way He is loving me, then I won't have to be told how to act towards those in charge or my fellow man. My "attitude and conduct" originates from the inside out. Receiving God's love for me, through my faith in Jesus Christ, means I am at peace with Him. When I am at peace with my God then I can respond to the truth He is revealing to me and, in turn, share that with the secular world. I am subject to rulers and authorities because I am subject to the ultimate Ruler and Authority. I am obedient because I am obedient to Him. I am ready for every good deed because He has prepared the works for me to walk in. I don't malign others because He has restored Himself to me and built me up in love. I am gentle because He is gentle with me as His child. I am considerate of all men because He is attentive, thoughtful and kind towards me. That is why the scripture says there is no law which can produce these things because they come from God, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, not from the flesh, through responding to the law. 

The Foundation of our Faith

Anything that is built must have a firm foundation or else it will fall. After the Apostle Peter confessed that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of the living God, Jesus replied to him by saying, "on this rock I will build my church (Matthew 16:18a)." Jesus Christ is the rock that the Church of God is built upon. It is because of this firm foundation that "the gates of Hades will not overcome it (Matthew 16;18b)." Here we are nearly two thousand years after Jesus said these words and His church is still going strong. If a Christian can trust that the Church will continue to stand and grow because it has Jesus Christ as its foundation, we should also be confident that this same Jesus will help us to stand and grow as individual Christians because He is our life and our foundation. After all, the scripture tells us that Jesus is "the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2)." With that in mind take a look at 2 Peter 1:5-9. It reads, "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins." It is easy to read this passage and focus on Peter saying, "make every effort" and then go out in the energy of our own flesh and try to "add" to our faith all the things which follow these words; goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. However, the key to adding all these things to our faith is found in verse 9 where it reminds us not to forget that we have been "cleansed" from our past sins. Forgiveness is the foundation we build off of to see these things in our life.

A friend of mine once said, "If we won't believe the things God has already revealed to us, why should we expect Him to reveal more to us?" In short, what he meant was that so many things we learn in life depend on us already understanding and believing in other things. For example, you can't learn Geometry if you don't know basic math. Growing in our faith as Christians depends on us first understanding, knowing and believing in the forgiveness we already have through faith in Jesus Christ. If you believe that God still holds your sins against you, to any degree, how can you approach Him in confidence to get to know Him? Consequently, if you can't approach Him and don't really know Him, what is He going to teach you? Peter said a person has "forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins." This is true. Actually, we have been cleansed of all sins; past, present and future. When you owe somebody something you can't afford to pay, how much of a relationship do you have with that person, if any? Too many Christians feel they still owe God that debt of sin that Jesus paid in full on the cross. Despite knowing this they will still live their lives trying pay God with a currency He doesn't accept nor require. The "currency" we try to pay with is our confession booths, short accounts, altar calls, repetitive prayers, you name it. Thus, we have a shaky foundation that little to nothing can be built on. We all know that God is the source of all goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. These are nothing more and nothing less than fruits of the Spirit, not fruits of our flesh. When you don't believe God has forgiven you, you will simply stay immature in your faith. No matter how long you've been a Christian and no matter how much scripture you know and no matter what God has brought you through, you will still be a baby in Christ. You will, as Paul, said, "still need milk not solid food."  Everything starts with forgiveness. You have it. There is no more to get. Christ purchased eternal redemption for you. Your job is to believe it, rest in it, approach your God with confidence and let Him build on that solid foundation He put in place; producing His fruit in and through you.