Titus 2:1-10
In our study of the book of Titus,
over these last weeks, we’ve looked at the admonition of the
Apostle Paul to Titus. The pastor on the island of Crete,
his task was to set the churches, we don’t know how many, but several
on the island of Crete, set them in order so that they adorn the
gospel of God our Savior. And those churches are producing
the effect of a good witness before the watching world. And
so in chapter two, verses one through 10, we’ve seen admonitions
to older men and younger men, older women and younger men.
And now today we hear the admonition to those who are bond servants
or who are slaves. Hear God’s word with me from
chapter two of Titus, beginning at verse one. But as for you,
teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be
sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in the faith, in love,
and in steadfastness. Older women, likewise, are to
be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much
wine. They are to teach what is good
and so train the young women to love their husbands and children.
to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive
to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself
in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching,
show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned,
so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil
to say about us. Slaves are to be submissive to
their own masters and everything. They are to be well pleasing,
not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith so
that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God, our savior. This is the word of God. Pray
with me. Our Lord, help us to understand what your word says
to us. Help us to listen. Help us to hear. Help us to Let our hearts receive this as
what it really is, the Word of God. And may your word penetrate
deep into our lives. May it change the way we live,
the way we act, so that our lives show the fruit of the gospel,
so that our lives may be an effective witness to what Christ can do
when he makes a person, a new creation in him. We need your
help, your grace and your blessing and your strength. For we are
not ourselves fit for these things. So come and make us fit so that
we can serve you well for your glory and the good of our neighbor.
And this we ask in Jesus name, amen. Some of you no doubt have
in times past been reading the want ads for jobs. You read those
want ads and you find that someone is looking for someone with administrative
skills, someone who can do this task or perform this function. so that their company, their
business, their entity, whatever it may be, may have success in
that particular area. You’ve read these want ads and
you read about the specific job. Maybe you’ve read about the skills
needed, typing skills, skills in certain computer programs
or accounting software or some sort of particular skill needed
to perform that task. And then, you read the listing,
what type of person is desired to fill that job? And what if
the job ad you were reading, the want ad you were looking
at said this, employee wanted, who is submissive, who is well-pleasing,
who is respectful, honest, and loyal. Well, dear brothers and
sisters, that is exactly the type of employee that God wants
each of us to be. God wants us to be submissive,
well pleasing. He wants us to be respectful,
honest and loyal. Now, do you think it’s possible
to find that kind of employee? Do you think it’s possible to
be that type of employee? Well, the answer, of course,
is yes. By the work of God’s spirit, as he has made you into
a new man or new woman, as he’s made you a new creation in him,
regenerated you by the power of the Holy Spirit, he works
in your life. He works in our lives to produce
that character. then we can be submissive. We
can be well-pleasing, respectful, honest, and loyal. And so in
chapter two, Verses nine and 10, we find after Paul has expressed
the desire of God for the people of God, whether old or young
or male or female, he has expressed the desire of God for them to
live in a certain way. Now he lands on a particular
class of citizens in the Roman Empire, those who are slaves
or bondservants. And he says to them, he says
to us, your lives should adorn the gospel. The way you live
or in today’s case, the way you work should give evidence to
your Christianity. It should prove that you are
of the new humanity, that you are in Christ, that you are a
new creation in him. The old is gone. and the new
has come. Now I’m sure each of you are
probably thinking, what about this slavery business? What of
slavery in the Roman first century era? And it’s pretty commonly
known, all scholars and students of history pretty much understand
this, that in order for the economy and the Roman empire to thrive
and flourish, It did so under the employ of slaves. Slaves
were owned by their masters. They were property. Slaves often
were educated. They had families. They may have
lived on a large family or household piece of land. And very often
they were given as stewards over much. That’s why you’ll see the
charge today, the command, the exhortation not to be a stealer,
not to be a theft from the one who employs you. But very often
people in the first century Roman Empire were in this condition
of slavery. They were bond servants to someone. And there were consequences to
disobedience. There were consequences to theft.
There were consequences to not having or displaying the character
that is listed here in the book of Titus. And the consequences
could even be death. And so this is not one of the
greatest social constructs of human history. We’ve seen it
recently in the last century or two in America. We are not
far from having treated people this way in our own nation. But
we understand as people who have looked at history, those who
have lived life, that basically there are two kinds of people
in the world. There are those who serve. And there are those
who are served. It’s the basic makeup of the
world. Some are served and others are servants. Now, our sin filled
world, our cultures. The tyranny of man to one another
has often abused it. We find that slavery throughout
history has been difficult, but we also find harsh treatment
in the workforce. We find difficulty in the marketplace
even today. But I want you to understand
this. God is calling Christians here in this passage, Christians
on the island of Crete in the first century, And he’s calling
us today in 2018, in the 21st century, as the people of God. Whether we are being treated
fairly or unfairly, whether we are in a situation that is ethical
or unethical, we may find ourselves in a culture or a society that
is treating people poorly and wrongly. You may feel like it
is you versus the world. God is saying to you, no matter
what your situation, You look at you and because of your heart
changed by the gift of Jesus Christ, you live in such a way
that your boss, your employer, or in the case of slavery here,
the one who owns you and is your master, you make sure that they
get from you a work ethic, that is pleasing in the sight of God
and that is rooted in the new humanity. And so our passage
today calls us to be workers worthy of the gospel, workers
worthy to be calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
what is the importance of this? What is the value of this? I
want you to think of it this way in light of evangelism, in
light of being a witness, you will spend, very likely, the
largest portion of your life serving others, working for others. in the employ of another person.
You will spend a large amount of your time outside your home,
outside the church, in the world, in the marketplace. And it is
an opportunity to be a witness to the power and the greatness
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And very often, the only glimpse
of the church, the only sight of Christianity, the only taste
of heaven that people in this world will get is from you as
you faithfully serve in the marketplace. And so there are five things
the apostle Paul tells Titus to teach those who are workers.
And I want us to walk through those today. A worker worthy
is first submissive. Notice verse nine, it says, slaves
are to be submissive to their own masters. Now we live in a
culture, we live in a time where people do not want to be submissive.
We come out of the womb saying, you’re not the boss. of me. We say it to our parents. We
say it to our teachers. We say it to our employers. And
so we spend a lot of our lives, generations saying to people,
you’re not the boss of me. You will not rule over me. And
then very sadly, we even say it to God. Or sometimes we say
this, if conditions are right, if you’re nice to me, I’ll do
what you ask. If you say pretty please with
sugar on top or something of that nature, I’ll do what you
ask. But what is God calling us as
Christians here to do? He’s saying, I want your absolute
submission. Do it because God says so. Now, some of you find yourselves
or have found yourselves in the past in a difficult work situation. You found yourself working for
a boss who is impossible to please. You’ve found yourself in a situation
that may have been unethical. You may find yourself presently
in hard times. And God is calling you to have
the character of the Christian in that hard place. Now, there
may be a time where you go through arbitration, or you go through
discussions, and you go through the difficulty of working something
out. And sometimes you may be called by God to quit and to
move on to a place that’s more pleasant, a place that is more
enjoyable, because the work environment can be very difficult. But God
is saying to us, simply obey. Wherever you are, obey those
who are over you. And we find other places in the
Bible where this call to submission, this call to obedience is given
to us. We find it in the world. We find
it in the military. We find it in marriage. We find
it in the parent-child relationship. We find it as God calls us to
be citizens, submitting to the authorities who are over us.
We even join the church and we submit to one another as well
as to those who God has called and placed in leadership over
us. So God calls us to submit. He
calls us to obey. But what happens when we do otherwise? Well, in this particular teaching
or this thought system in the book of Titus, we have to understand
that our disobedience, our lack of submission in the workforce,
It dishonors God. And not only does it dishonor
God, it is not proper behavior for those who are new creations
in Christ. Even if you find yourself planted
in the context of difficulty, God calls us to be submissive. He calls us to obey. A worker
worthy is not only submissive, but secondly, he is well-pleasing. In the Old Testament, we read
about this phrase well-pleasing very often. You may not recognize
it, but as soon as I say it, I’m sure you will. Remember,
as far back as Cain and Abel, the language used in the Old
Testament for offering was that we offered something to God and
it was either well-pleasing in his sight, it was pleasant as
the fragrance rose up into his nostrils and he accepted it.
And that is the exact same language that is used here in this New
Testament letter to Christians on the Isle of Creed and to us
today here in 2018. Our work should be well-pleasing. It should be well-pleasing to
our boss. It should, in the same imagery and language as our offerings
to God, It should be seen by us that our work is an offering
to the one who has hired us. It is an offering to him and
it should be pleasing. It should be acceptable in his
sight. You know, Christians of all people
should do things well. After all, we’re made in the
image of God. And if God made the world and
everything in it perfectly and beautifully and wonderfully,
and if we then are made in his image, should we not then produce
good work, excellent work, products that are well-pleasing, products
that are excellent quality? with craftsmanship, whatever
it is, whether we teach, whether we make, whether we do, whether
we consult, whatever it is that we do, we should do it as unto
the Lord. And it should be well pleasing, not only to our bosses,
our masters, our overseers, our employers, but it should be pleasing
in the sight of God. Let me ask you this. Do you think
that you can rip off your boss and be pleasing to God? You know,
after all, whatever we do, we’re to work at it as unto the Lord. And so a worker worthy is submissive.
He is well-pleasing. But a worker worthy is also respectful. Notice what it says in verses
nine and 10. It says slaves are to be submissive
to their own masters and everything. They are to be well-pleasing,
not argumentative. You know, we’re a mouthy generation. We like to run our mouth. We
like to argue. We like to dispute. We like to
say, no, you in authority are wrong and I under authority and
right and right. And so we tweet, we protest. And nowadays in this 21st century,
if we don’t like something and our voice is not being heard,
we burn, we vandalize. And not just buildings and property,
we destroy people’s character, their good name, we destroy their
efforts. And we’ve seen in the last few
years, if you don’t like the way somebody runs a business,
you just go online or you stand out front. And before long, that
person who is a good upstanding citizen producing a good product
for a fair price, just because they don’t wanna serve you, they’re
out of business. And not only are they out of
business, they’re up to their noses in legal debt. They’re up to their ears in a
life of grief because one day minding their own business, doing
their job as unto the Lord by their convictions, the next they’re
protested. They are railed against and they
are in great difficulty. We’re in a mouthy world. We’re
in a mouthy world that loves to protest and whine and petition
and burn and destroy and put people out of business. But put
this back in the workplace for just a moment. We are to be a
people under authority who are respectful. Today in our study
in Sunday School of Legalism, we talked about how in the Garden
of Eden, how Adam and Eve were to trust God that when he gave
them a prohibition, do not eat from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. They were to accept that command from Him
simply because He was God. And then they were supposed to
deduce in their mind or take the logical step in their mind
that if God is loving, if God is wise, if God is holy, if God
is all the things that I know Him to be because I, Adam and
Eve, have walked in the garden with Him and enjoyed fellowship
with Him and gotten to know Him, I should simply take Him at His
word. Oh, but how often it is in our day and time, the minute
someone who is over us opens their mouth to encourage us or
instruct us or even demand something of us, our mouth is open before
theirs has even completed a sentence. And we are arguing, we are complaining,
we are whining, and it’s back and forth, back and forth. And
the call from God to us as Christians is to be respectful. The book
of Colossians tells us to do all things without complaining,
and disputing. And so the people of God are
not to be argumentative. Oh, yes, there’s a time and a
place for dispute. Yes, there’s a time and a place
to show why something is unfair or unjust. Yes, there’s a time
and a place for things like that. But generally speaking, we need
to be respectful. We need to do all things without
complaining and disputing and not be argumentative. We need
to listen. We need to obey. And probably
very often we just need to keep our big mouths shut. So a worker
worthy is submissive. A worker worthy is well pleasing.
A worker worthy is respectful. The fourth thing we find in this
passage about a worker worthy is that they are honest. I was
reading this week that in America, Businesses lose 50 billion. That is a billion with a B, not
million with a M. $50 billion in employee theft. That’s staggering. That is a
lot of money. That’s why our prices for us
who are honest and hardworking are going up because that cost
has to be absorbed elsewhere. It has to be absorbed by the
legal system. It has to be absorbed by our taxes to adjudicate these
sorts of issues. Friends, it pays to be honest.
It’s cheaper, isn’t it, to be honest. And God calls us as a
worker worthy to be honest, to be a trustworthy steward. and not to steal, and not to
embezzle, and not to cheat, and not to skim off the top, and
not to rationalize and say, well, because of this, I can take a
little of that, or I’ll scratch your back if you will scratch
mine, or to do whatever it takes under the table to be advanced. God calls us to be honest. And you understand in the context
of a bond servant or a slave in the early first century, the
time of the Roman empire, when the apostle Paul was writing
and Titus was ministering, you understand that very often a
bond servant, a household slave had a stewardship. He was given
or she was given Ownership or lots of authority and trust was
invested in them to make that house or that business prosper
for the one who owned it. And that owner, that master may
not have often been present. You know, sometimes we see a
place of business and it’s a franchise and we go in there and we realize
that the owner is not there, the boss is not there. And you
know, you go into one of these, say, for example, a yogurt shop
and it’s being run by teenagers. Sometimes as you sit back and
you’re eating your yogurt and enjoying that little tasty treat,
you sit back and you watch, you watch these children. And sometimes
I say to myself, why would I invest my good money in a business and
then entrust it to some teenagers? But wouldn’t it be great Wouldn’t
it be great if they were honest workers? If there were people
who were honest and trustworthy, they didn’t steal, embezzle,
skim off the top, you know, give their buddies free food as they
come in and things like that. God calls us to be workers honest. And it’s in the little ways and
in the big ways. As I was reading this article this week about
the $50 billion worth of theft, you know, the average age of
the theft It’s committed by someone in their late 40s. It’s committed
by someone in their early 50s. And I got to thinking, why is
that? And I got to thinking, it’s probably about that age
that the financial pressures on a person are greatest. They’ve
just finished raising their kids, most expensive time of life,
and now their kids are off in college. And the price of college,
the price of having an extra car and insurance and gas and
other things, and you realize the pressure, the pressure is
there. The boss won’t miss it. He’s
making enough. And after all, I’m the one doing
all the work. And so we rationalize it. We make it right. But God calls us as a worker
worthy to be honest, to be faithful, be trustworthy, to be faithful
to the one who’s entrusted us with these things, these resources
that are theirs. I mean, after all, what are we?
We are people of the commandments. And what is that eighth commandment?
It is thou shalt not steal. So a worker worthy is to be submissive. He is to be well-pleasing. He
is to be respectful and honest. And the final characteristic
A worker worthy is to be loyal. Loyalty. Show up. Do your job. Get paid. Repeat. Show up. Do your job,
get paid, repeat. That’s a piece of advice. I remember
a friend of mine in another church ministry setting, he was trying
to teach his son to work. He said, son, what you gotta
do is show up and then you gotta do what’s asked of you and then
get paid. That’s pretty important as well.
And then repeat and do that for 40 or 50 years and save a little
along the way and then maybe you can retire. Where is loyalty
these days? Someone I know who is in business,
in the restaurant business, said, my greatest problem was getting
employees to show up. And what happens when you own
a restaurant and the line is out the door, but your line cook
didn’t show up? Or your servers aren’t there? You’re missing an important piece
of the puzzle. And so, dear brothers and sisters, This is a pretty
simple one, isn’t it? Be loyal. Show up. Do what’s
been asked of you. Do what you committed to do. You know, you can, you can read
people’s character, can’t you? You can tell when they’re gung
ho about something. They’re going to be there. They’re
going to do because it’s exciting, but you can sure read their character
when the going gets tough. when things aren’t as exciting
and glamorous. They’re here when it’s great. They’re here when
it’s payday. They’re here when there’s some
perk or some big important thing that they wanna take part in.
Oh, but when it’s tough, I’m sick. I can’t be there. We’re such a disloyal and fickle
people. And God is simply saying to us,
do what you were supposed to do. demonstrate faithfulness. And so this passage teaches us
much about how we can influence the world, much about how we
can be a witness to the world. Yes, we live in a dark and dying
world. Yes, we live in a world where
very often work, work stinks. Work is hard. Sometimes our work
environments are so impossible. We want to pull our hair out.
We want to stay in bed. We want to quit. but we need
to remember why that difficulty is there. Do you remember when
Adam and Eve sinned against God? God said to Adam, he said, work
will be miserable. You’ll sweat. You’ll get poked
by the thorns. The ground will be so rock hard
that you cannot plow it. You cannot till it. And besides
that, if you can get a seed in it, it may, or it may not grow. And so work, Work has a dignity
in it because God has put us here to work. We’re to work to
serve the glory of God and the good of our neighbor. But work,
in addition to that dignity, it has a flip side to it. Work
can be hard. Work can be miserable. Work is
under the curse. There’s hostility in the marketplace.
There’s hardship in the workforce. We have bosses that are impossible
to please. Our pay and our conditions may
not be fair. And God is calling us as Christians
to be like Jesus. Remember a few moments ago, I
said, God is looking for employees. He’s looking for employees who
have these characteristics. I wanna add one more characteristic
to that list. If you’re to be like Jesus, you’re
to have that attitude that he had. The son of man came not
to be served, but to serve. and to give his life as a ransom
for many. How will people know? How will people know what the
gospel is able to do if we don’t live like it? And very specifically,
if we don’t work like it. And some of you may be in such
a great difficulty right now in your workplace. And you say,
my comfort level is, It’s shattered, it’s broken.
I’m having a hard time. I can’t even get up and face going into
the office or to the school or to the workplace. And you’re
struggling with your comfort and you should. But I want you
to wrestle with this as well. Even under those dark, dark difficulties,
could not the gospel shine brightly? as you show what a new creation
in Christ is able to do. You see, dear brothers and sisters,
God has put out a want ad. He wants employees who are submissive,
who are well-pleasing, who are respectful, who are honest, who
are loyal, and who are like Christ. Pray with me. Lord, help us in
our work to work us into the Lord. to be pleasing in your
sight, but help us to please men as well. You put us here,
you’ve given us work here, you’ve given us people over us, and
so help us by your grace day after day, even when it’s difficult,
even when it seems futile, even when it seems as if our hard
work is producing nothing. Help us, help us to please King
Jesus, and in pleasing King Jesus, we’ll please others. And as we
please others, as we live faithfully, people will see what Christianity
is like. Help us in this great endeavor
and this thing that takes up most of our life to be effective
and fruitful. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Let’s stand together and respond to God’s word from number 531
of the hymn is satisfied.