To Encourage You

Titus 3:1-7 “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

My daughter lives in Beaver Falls. It’s where Joe Namath went to high school. Some time ago I saw a documentary about Joe that talked about how he never forgot his roots. Joe Namath is held in very high esteem by the people of his hometown because regardless of the fame and fortune he found as one of greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time, he never forgot where he came from.  He has made a point of visiting his hometown, and in the documentary, he praised his high school football coach and others from Beaver Falls who had had so much influence on his young life.  It’s an attitude we love to see in a person, for it’s a sign of humility. 

Humility is an attitude that exalts a person in the eyes of others. On the other hand, pride is something that is universally despised.  Perhaps there’s a lesson in this for us who call ourselves believers.  In fact, it is this very lesson that is being taught to Titus by the apostle Paul in the passage above.  Here Titus is being instructed to teach the people he ministered to as to how they should live. He is to “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.”  Likewise, Jesus has called all of us who know Him to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). It’s a high calling, and a tremendous responsibility. However, as we do these things, we are to never forget our own roots.  Again, as Paul told Titus of the life of obedience to which he was to call the people to whom he ministered, he was also to remember that “we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.”  In other words, we are not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought (Romans 12:3). No matter how God has changed our lives, we had the very same roots as those to whom we minister. Before any of us were saved, we were sinners, and very bad sinners at that. 

Paul often spoke of what he was before Christ apprehended him.  He saw himself as “the worst of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).  To keep that reality before us will have a very humbling effect. As we speak to others who don’t know Christ, it will keep us from looking down on them, and to think that we are somehow better than them, for if the truth be told, compared to many of them, we were worse.  The message we have to share is always not how wonderful we are, but how wonderful Christ is.  As Paul told Titus, the message is not about us.  It’s not about how wonderful we are now that God has come into our lives. Rather, our message is that, in spite of how ungodly and sinful we were, “the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, (and) He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” 

May the Lord give us the humility of the apostle Paul whenever we share the gospel with an unbeliever, or whenever we minister in some way to believers within the body of Christ. May the Lord help us always to “remember our roots,” and may the message of God’s mercy and love in spite of our sin be what we tell, and not how we are better that anyone else, for the fact of the matter is that we are not.