The Christian in Society

Overview of New York City and Central Park

What comes to mind when you hear the words, gentle, courtesy, and submission? You probably don't think of a strong person, do you? We tend to think that strong people are brash, tell-it-like-it-is people. Yeah, they may not be gentle people, but when was the last time you saw someone gently get things done? But this is what Paul is calling us to be in our Christian lives.

Is Paul asking us to be a bunch of obedient weaklings? Courteous lambs to the slaughter? Let's face it, none of this sounds like a winning strategy for a brutal world. in fact, it sounds like a good way to get run over and stay out of power. This seems especially true if the people that we are fighting against are passing their days in malice and envy hated by others and hating one another.

But we probably think this way because we don't see gentleness and kindness portrayed Biblically. Gentleness and kindness get a bad rap these days because the gentle and kind people are often portrayed as weak people who couldn't muster up a fight even if they wanted to. These are necessarily kind people, as much as people pleasers or people just looking out for themselves. Or we see "kind" people portrayed as people who set aside truth for the sake of not offending people. We often throw around the term liberal or woke for such. Again, that isn't actually kindness. It is not kind to lie to people or go along with a delusion.

So if those are bad examples of kindness, gentleness, and courtesy, what is Paul telling us to be?

The gentleness and courtesy that is being portrayed here in Titus is one who has a right to exercise but chooses not to. This isn't a mousy personality that isn't able to express what they want. This is a person who actually has a higher goal than getting what they want all the time. In fact, it is exactly how the ministry of Jesus is described. Paul appeals to the Corinthians "by the meekness and gentleness of Christ" the same two words used in this passage. Jesus describes Himselfas gentle in Matthew 11:29. Jesus certainly isn't out to please people or unable to take care of Himself. He certainly isn't one to set aside the truth for the sake of feelings.

Paul isn't calling us to be small and out of the way. He is calling us to be like Christ.

Here we remember that Paul is calling First Pres Crete to be an attractive example of what Christ transforms a people into, namely the image of Christ. We are not brash and harsh and rude. We are people that don't have to be like that for what is really important.

How is this manifested and motivated?

Today we will see that we show gentleness when it counts when Christians submit for a higher authority and Christians remember themselves in the merciless.

Christians submit for a higher authority

Paul opens with the reminder that we are called to submit to the governing authorities above us. We might wish he started with a more pleasant thing to break us in with on our journey to meekness and gentleness, but he starts here. One commentator noted that this command comes right on the heels of the commands to wives and slaves to submit, and now all Christians are being called to submit to governing authorities (Kostenberger, 343). This is not always pleasant, but, outside of extreme circumstances, this is the call for us as Christians. Like it or not government is actually God's creation, with the role of making bad guys afraid and good guys secure (see Romans 13:3). We are told, explicitly, to pay taxes where taxes are owed (Matt. 22:21), and here we are called to submit to ruling authorities.

Now, we could just leave it there and say that the purpose of paying taxes, doing the speed limit (roughly), and cooperating with the local building codes is just being a good, obedient person. But Paul tells us more than that. We are to also be prepared to do every good work, which at least one commentator looks at this as being ready to pitch in for any good work that is going on in our community (Bray, 539). But there was one scholar who had a bit of a bigger view than this. Bray notes that for Paul, the proclamation of the gospel was the most important thing. So as long as he didn't have to compromise that gospel, he's willing to work with whatever regime he has to to get that message out there. But then he quotes this other scholar who says something very interesting, "suggests that the churches subjection to the state, worked out in public Christian service, has the redemption of creation as its goal, not simply peaceful coexistence with the secular power structure." (Towner, quoted in Bray, 541). What is he getting at here?

It means that when we willingly submit to governing authorities and serve our community, we are doing so with a higher motivation. We aren't just trying to do nice things as an end in and of itself. When we are ready to be a part of any good work, we show what a redeemed world will one day look like.

Now, this isn't trying to build utopia through the means of government. Many have tried that at the cost of literally millions of lives. You can legislate morality, but you can't legislate salvation, and that is what people need. When we submit to God by submitting to government, we are living faithfully. Building a park isn't just building a park. It is doing God's work. Yes, even paying taxes when done well and accurately is an act of submission to God.

I know in our tribes we like to poke at the government, and believe me there is plenty to poke, but our government can be more than a punching bag in our view. Yet when we choose not to, when we choose gentleness, obedience, and meekness, God is glorified. Government becomes yet another sphere to bring glory to God. Only Christ can bring that level of value to that. Are there times the government oversteps and does wrong things? Yes. Do we go along with evil? No. In those moments we submit to God alone, which makes obedience in normal circumstances actual expressions of meekness.

And this applies in our personal relationships, too.

Christians remember themselves in the merciless

Now, your interactions with the government are likely pretty limited, so let's move into the sphere we all live in, interpersonal relationships with people. We are called not just to submit to authorities, but we are also called to show perfect courtesy to all people. That's right; all people. Not just the nice ones that socially deserve it, but the unmerciful.

Jesus doesn't let us out of this one. Look at Luke 6:32-33 "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same." Being kind to the kind is basic, expected. YOU'RE the jerk if you don't!

Instead we are to show perfect courtesy to all people, just like Jesus. What does that look like? We are not to be manipulated by this verse to mean we have to make everyone happy all the time. Jesus didn't do that. We can't do that. We can't use kindness as a cover for lying.

Nor can we use truth-telling as the pretense for knocking people down a peg. Christian truth, fully spelled out, is always hopeful. We can describe sin in no uncertain terms. It is offensive against God in such a way that justice demands nothing less than eternal conscious torment for the single least sin. Every sin is a direct poke in God's eye and causes suffering in the people around you. It is the cause of everything bad in the world including sickness and death, and the slightest indulgence in it is hideously dangerous to your soul.

But.

God has seen to it that this problem is entirely dealt with by His own hand. His Son has absorbed all the rightly aimed punishment for sin and offers complete, total redemption for any sin that you could possibly commit or even imagine. What's more, he promises not only to legally clear you of all wrongdoing and legally assign a perfect record to your account (justification), but He will adopt you into his people and slowly begin to transform you day by day into that person he has declared you to be (sanctification). It won't be complete in this life, but one day your body and soul will be completely resurrected to live forever in bliss with God (glorification).

So understanding what we are supposed to do isn't hard, but the motivation to do it?

Well, that used to be us. But we have been made new. Sure we might not have had people recording us when we said our harshest things, but I don't think there is anyone here who regrets nothing that they have said. I think this is especially true of the words in our own heads that we have thought of others but were too afraid of consequences to say out loud. Restraint because of fear of consequences is not character; it is just self-interest by another name. Any time we have complained about our lives has been to be unjust to God.

So what do we do from here? We remember what we were, and remember what God has done and will do. Life actually isn't about us, but is about another.

Practically, how do we follow this? Watch not just what you say but what you think. Note how you think about others in hard moments. Are you compassionate or critical? Kind or cutting? Even on yourself. How you think is eventually how you speak. When you feel those thoughts rising, you have to give your mind something else to do, and it is best occupied with prayers to God asking for His help here. Complaining, angry, cutting thoughts are like one swipe of sandpaper. It doesn't do much, but it does make a change on the wood. A thought here or there doesn't seem to do much, but it does shape your mind. Where bitterness has settled for a long time, only Christ can repair. And here at the table is a new place to begin.