Clean it Up!

Titus 3:5-15

As we continue in Paul’s letter to Titus, I want to pause a moment to acknowledge something. On one hand, it’s been pretty easy to translate the situation on Crete to the current situation in our country; both have prevailing cultures of indulgence and deceit. At the same time, it’s been hard preparing these messages, because the scripture continues to unearth difficult areas in my life where I need Jesus more.

Last week I realized that one reality that is difficult to navigate is how far we have to subject ourselves to rulers and authorities when they are obviously corrupt.

It was obvious as I preached that section of scripture that many of us have some pretty strong feelings about authority, especially when it comes to personal liberties and use of money. Many of us feel like we’re being stretched, poked, and prodded needlessly by the government and we’d really like the government to just get out of our business, especially out of our wallets.

I recognized that tension as I was writing the message, but it was even more evident as I was preaching it. As I was reflecting on it, it was startling just how much we are products of our culture. I wonder how someone in Indonesia or North Korea or Somalia or Saudia Arabia would respond to our complaints about our government. I don’t say this to say that our government is always right, but we are fortunate to live here, and we have a duty, as Christians, to live obediently, to always be ready to do whatever is good, especially when it comes to people who are not good to us. At the same time, I encourage Christians to work against oppression in whatever form it takes; our focus can never simply be on ourselves. On Facebook this week I posted a quote from Pastor Perry Noble where he said, “‎I am more convinced than ever before that when someone walks away from church it is impossible for them to maintain an intimate walk with Jesus!”

If we’re not intimately and authentically involved with one another, we are not obeying Jesus, so how can we say we’re walking intimately with Him?

I say all of this to say that living the Christian life is not easy. It’s not about doing whatever we want to do whenever we want to do it. It’s about a complete reprioritizing of our lives and everything we value.

I’m pretty well convinced that this doesn’t just happen. It certainly doesn’t happen on its own. Paul was convinced of the same thing, so he wrote to Titus, telling him how to lead the church leaders. In Titus 3, last week we looked at Paul’s reminders of how to live life, always being ready to do what is good. He admitted that he had lived a foolish life, a life apart from God, a deceived life enslaved by his passions and pleasures. That’s our context for verses 4 and following.

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,  he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,  so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

Into a world of deception and gluttony steps God, a God of kindness and love. He didn’t send his Son into the world to save us because we were somehow good enough – he had to do it because we couldn’t save ourselves. And contrary to what you might have thought, God didn’t save us for our sake. God saved us because it’s his character to do so. It is because of who He is! We don’t deserve it for a minute. This is what God says: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. (Ezekiel 36:22)  

God isn’t doing this because we’re somehow better than other people. He is doing it for the sake of his own name. One reason people often give for leaving the church or for hating the church is that Christians are hypocrites. We say one thing and do another. Another is self-righteousness. We act like we think we’re better than other people. We’re no better than anyone else – we all need God’s mercy, and until we humble ourselves and realize that we’re not good enough on our own, that we need him desperately, until then, we’re in major danger.

In Romans 3, Paul reminds us that “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12) What might we look like if we were constantly cognizant of how far we’ve fallen short… and, at the same time, how much God loves us and how much he has forgiven us of?

As we recognize that it’s God and God only who saves us, not Jesus+, as I have said before, our love, thanksgiving, and gratitude to God call us to live out our salvation.  The Bible tells us how to do that. Remember that we don’t live these things out to somehow earn our salvation; we do them because we love God and we don’t want anything to get in the way of our relationship with him.

And as we obey him – there’s that word “obedience” again – we grow closer to him and we find ourselves listening better to the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who guides us to obedience, who draws us ever closer to God. And in his letter to Titus, Paul interprets salvation in terms of the Holy Spirit.

When Paul wrote, he wrote in Greek, and in the sentence that we read: He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:5b), Paul holds the main verb (he saved) until after he states the conditions. To translate it stiffly: “Through the washing that causes rebirth and renewal, which washing is done by the Holy Spirit.”

God, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, washes us. When Paul gives instructions to husbands in Ephesus, he tells them to love their wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (Ephesians 5:25-27). This spiritual cleansing, symbolized beautifully in our baptism, is a work of God. We can’t clean ourselves, but the Holy Spirit does. The hymn “Jesus Paid it All” puts it beautifully: sin had left a crimson stain; he washed it white as snow.

Remember that our salvation is all about an action God already took. The price was already set and paid in full! It is a past action with present and future (and eternal!) implications.

An effect of the Holy Spirit washing us is rebirth. Most of us in our culture have heard the phrase “born again” enough that we ignore it. It doesn’t have the shock value as when Jesus told Nicodemus “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” (John 3:3). The imagery of rebirth is powerful, especially when considering who does the action. A baby doesn’t birth itself – a mother gives birth. It is never about the baby doing enough to get born.

This week in community group, we looked at 1 Peter 1:23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. Our first birth was perishable. In other words, it was finite. It was mortal, and this life will end in death. But our second birth is imperishable, meaning it will not end in death. It culminates in glorification.

Rebirth goes hand in hand with renewal. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17) The old “you” – the one full of sin, the one destined to destruction… that self is gone. Dead. Remember, again, that the Holy Spirit not only sets us apart as a new creation, but he enables and empowers us to live it out in our daily lives.

This is what the prophets looked forward to. In Ezekiel 36, God speaks through the prophet: I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people and I will be your God. I will save you from your uncleanness. (Ezekiel 36:27-29a)

The problem Ezekiel was facing was similar to the one Titus was, and it’s similar to our own problem; God’s very people were giving God a bad name. I already talked about this, about hypocrisy being one of our primary problems. People often can’t tell the difference between a someone who calls himself Christian and his non-Christian neighbor. There is often little to no difference in our behavior. But into this reality, God says, “I am putting My Spirit into My People to move you to follow me and obey me.”

 He is sending his Holy Spirit, who will change us from the inside out. The Holy Spirit makes us new people, and the new person has different values than the old person. The new person behaves differently than the old person. That’s why I say it’s not about trying harder to behave. It’s about being a different person altogether!

God pours out his Spirit on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:6), as he said he would. The Day of Pentecost was a fulfillment of Joel 2:28, when God said, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” This outpouring of God’s Spirit is a brilliant reversal of God pouring out his wrath on those who worked against him, as in Ezekiel 36:18. God brings his people from wrath to blessing, from immorality to holiness.

He justifies us, making us “just as if I’d never sinned” and gives us new birth with a new identity in a new family –we are God’s children, full of God’s Spirit, God’s heirs, those who will inherit eternal life. Again, the language is carefully chosen; we do not somehow earn an inheritance; it comes by birth. 

I love how Paul drives his point home, telling Titus “This is a trustworthy saying” As opposed to everything that culture is telling them, the people of Crete can trust what Paul told them. This is why he wants Titus to stress these things: so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

Again, he reminds Christians that we are to devote ourselves to doing what is good. This doesn’t save us; it is our response to our salvation. And living out our salvation, living the new life given us by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, this is excellent and profitable for everyone.

In contrast to what is excellent and profitable for everyone, Paul tells Titus to avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.(Titus 3:9) In this series we’ve already talked about the power of words; sometimes words are used carelessly or thrown around foolishly. There are people who try to make controversy where there really is none. There are people who use their family tree to puff themselves up. There is nothing wrong in and of itself with knowing your ancestry, but if your purpose is to tell people how great you are because of who your ancestors were, that’s simply foolish. It’s foolish because our new birth makes us children and heirs of God! If your glory is in your family name, that won’t get you anything on Judgment Day.

Arguments and quarrels about the law, likewise, are short-sighted. Most of them are designed either to justify your own sinful actions, to condemn someone else, or legalistically claim that you’ve arrived. Self-righteousness has no place in Christian life. Instead of wasting our time in unprofitable bickering, we have a chance to live our lives for something meaningful.

Paul tells Titus to Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned. (Titus 3:10-11)

Church discipline gets a bad rap in our “why can’t we all just get along” culture. There are divisive people; we even have divisive people in our church and some who have left. People have all kinds of reasons for leaving a particular church, but Paul is saying, “Don’t go chasing after divisive people, bending over backwards to keep them happy. That’s not helping God’s cause. That doesn’t bring God glory.” I’m not going to chase down divisive people and beg them to come back to this church. That’s an unproductive waste of time and energy; Paul was clear that devoting ourselves to doing good, on the other hand, is excellent and profitable for everyone.

Paul concludes his letter to Titus with some final personal remarks. (As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there). He is sending Artemas or Tychicus to him and he wants Titus to come meet him at Nicopolis, where he’s going to spend the winter. I actually thought that the phenomenon of “snow birds,” people who go south for the winter, was new, but the climate of Western Greece is extremely mild in the winter. 50* isn’t bad. That’s where Paul was going to be, and he’s inviting Titus to come hang out. Of course, Crete’s weather isn’t bad…

Titus is also tasked (Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need.) with caring for some other Christians who are traveling through the area, a reminder of all of our duty to care for those who God has called into ministry, especially those who have to rely on the generosity of other Christians for their livelihood. Then Paul reminds Titus again that Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.

This is a summary of what he has been saying all along; be counter-cultural. Live lives that actually look like Jesus. Devote yourself to doing good because of the good that God has done for you. Don’t lie and cheat and steal; instead, provide for the needs of others. Live productive lives. Many of us have possessions that were meant for one purpose and are used for another; for example, Pastor Clarence left his old cell phone in the church office. I was able to use it to drive in a nail, and now I use it as a paperweight. It holds down something equally useless: fax coversheets. Live a productive life; live for what you were made for: to enjoy God’s grace and extend his glory.

Paul closes his letter with greetings. Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.

May you as well enjoy God’s grace and extend his glory. Amen.