To Encourage You

Titus 3:14 “And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.”

There is much in the Christian life that must be learned not by hearing, but by doing.  There is always a danger that we think we are growing in our faith simply because we hear lots of good sermons, listen to the music and teachings on Christian radio, or read helpful books written by wonderful Christian authors.  Certainly, it is important to learn in these ways, for we have been told that the person is blessed who meditates on God’s Word day and night (Psalm 1:2).  We are told that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).  The writers of the epistles of the New Testament devote large portions of their letters to teachings on spiritual truth that is the “theory,” if you will, of who Christ is, and what is true, spiritually, of someone whose life has been transformed by knowing Him.  But, inevitably, the writers then turn to what those realities look like in practice.  James’ epistle is particularly noted for this, with statements such as “be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22), and “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27). 

In the verse above, which is one of the last verses of Paul’s letter to Titus, he essentially says the same thing. He tells Titus to make sure that the believers under his charge “learn to devote themselves to good works.”  By “good works” he’s referring to actions that actually help others who are in urgent need.  He wants people to learn to go beyond knowing spiritual truth to putting that knowledge to work in their day to day interactions with others. He wants them to not just pay close attention to the teaching of their pastor, but to pay just as much attention to the urgent needs of those around them so they can put that teaching into practice. He urges them to go beyond the theory to the hands-on work. 

No one wants a doctor to operate on them who has limited his or her knowledge about surgery to what they’ve read in a book. A surgeon will never excel in the field of surgery by just reading about it.  While the reading is absolutely necessary and essential, so is the practical application of that knowledge to the hands-on work.  It’s in the practical application that the discipline is fully learned. And so it is in the Christian life.  We are to devote ourselves not just to learning what the Bible says.  We are to put that knowledge into hands-on training by doing what it says.  To do otherwise misses the mark. While we may have a head full of knowledge, it becomes unfruitful knowledge in the end if it’s not put to use in our interactions with others. 

Again, looking at the wisdom of James, “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:15-17).  Note the sense of urgency in this teaching, as well as Paul’s reference to the “urgent need” of others in the verse from Titus above. This carries with it the sense of something that is to be done now. Urgent matters aren’t things that are to be dealt with “sometime later,” or “when the spirit moves us,” so to speak.  No, the Christian life is a life lived moment by moment in the here and now. It’s learning to put our faith into practice whenever the need arises. When, as in the example of the good Samaritan, we find ourselves “by chance” (Luke 10:31), seeing a person in need in our daily walk, rather than avoid them or wait to meet their need at a more opportune time (in our own mind, that is), we should act as God gives us the opportunity for it’s in this way that our lives bear fruit to His glory.

May the Lord help us to learn to be devoted to good works in the practical matters of our daily life.  May He keep us from being people with heads full of the knowledge of what it means to do good, while failing to actually do it.