ORDAINED TO ENCOURAGE AND CORRECT.
In
the name + of Jesus.
St. Titus was a co-worker of Paul. They served together doing mission work on the island of Crete. We know very little about that work. What we can know is deduced from St. Paul’s letter to Titus. They had traversed the island and preached a message of repentance and salvation through Jesus Christ. By this preaching, the Holy Spirit called the elect, gathered them into churches, and enlightened them to see God’s grace. In short order, St. Paul left Crete, and he left Titus behind. Paul told him why: “The reason I left you in Crete was so that you would set in order the things that were left unfinished and appoint elders in every city, as I directed you” (Titus 1:5). Titus was to ordain pastors to encourage and to correct God’s people according to God’s word.
We don’t
know much about the congregations in Crete, but we do learn a few things about
their society. St. Paul wrote to Titus, “One
of their own prophets said, ‘Cretans are always liars, vicious beasts, and lazy
gluttons’” (Titus 1:12). Apparently,
it was a society that was low on morals and deep into deceit, debauchery, and
brutality. Paul and Titus had called
people to repent and to flee from this sad and selfish lifestyle. They assured the Cretans that Jesus Christ delivered
them out of the judgment they deserved. They
were redeemed from their sins, and they were redeemed for godliness, as St.
Paul said, “the grace of God … trains us to reject ungodliness and worldly
lusts and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present
age” (Titus 2:12-13). These new
Christians were now called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified—set apart for
a life of godliness in a society that embraced ungodliness. They would need strength and guidance to
remain faithful to their Savior. This is
why they needed pastors, and this is why Titus was left behind to ordain men to
encourage and to correct them.
The
Christians on Crete would have struggled mightily to live a God-pleasing
life. Once they took God’s word to
heart, their lives were markedly different than what they had been. It could not go unnoticed. They might have been mocked by their friends:
“Oh, I guess you are so much better than us now!” If they were not mocked, they would have been
seduced: “Come on! You used to party
with us. Let’s get wild again!” Since the sinful lifestyle was so common, it
would have been easy to be swayed and to conclude that such sinful living is
just normal. And if it is normal, why
not do it?
Whether
metro-Detroit is any better or worse than Crete was, I don’t know. But I think we can all relate. God’s people can become weary of being godly
people, especially when we see that the wicked are not bothered by their
sins. They do not repent; they revel in
it! We know what St. Peter was getting
at when he wrote, “They are surprised that you do not plunge into the same
overflowing river of filth with them, and they slander you” (1 Peter 4:4).
This is the reason why the Lord brings his
people together in congregations. The
Lord knows that we need each other. The
writer to the Hebrews urged some weary Christians, “Let us also consider
carefully how to spur each other on to love and good works. Let us not neglect meeting together, as some
have the habit of doing. Rather, let us
encourage each other, and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews
10:24-25). God’s people not only
need each other, they also need someone to deliver God’s word to them so that
they are guided rightly. Titus was left
behind in Crete to set apart pastors for this very purpose—ordained to
encourage and to correct God’s people according to God’s word.
St. Paul instructed Titus what is expected
of a minister of God: “He must cling to the trustworthy message as it has
been taught, so that he will be able both to encourage people by the sound
teaching and also to correct those who oppose him” (Titus 1:9). God’s people will need encouragement and
strength to continue in the faith. Now,
the encouragement is not necessarily to teach you how to behave. Almost everyone knows that. Even atheists know how to be honest,
virtuous, and chaste; and some are. The
encouragement is that you remember whose you are.
Jesus
Christ came to deliver you out of a world of sin and death into a kingdom of
grace and glory. You are the people St.
Paul wrote about when he told Titus, “God … saved us—not by righteous works
that we did ourselves, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth
and the renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). You have been reborn and now live in Christ. You have been renewed in your minds and
hearts. If you are grieved that you fall
into temptation, that is evidence of a repentant heart. It shows that you are God’s people. Your comfort is not in your grief, but in Jesus
Christ who has rescued you from the curse and the control of sin. You are God’s people, sanctified for good
works and a glorious eternity. It is
good to remember whose you are, and it is good to remember the goal of every
Christian—not merely to get through this life, but to embrace the hope of
eternal life. This is the encouragement
that sustains you even through trials and tribulations. This is where your pastor should direct your
focus.
The pastor is ordained to encourage and to
correct. Paul’s writing to Titus refers
not to correction when people fall into sin (although it is that, too); rather,
Paul refers to correction regarding doctrine.
God’s people need correction for the same reason we need
encouragement. Just as sin is so
prevalent that we might accept it as normal, so also false teaching is so
prevalent that we might accept it because it is repeated so often. Time does not permit all the examples we
could consider. You might find our Bible
classes more appropriate for that. But
we will consider one. It is a phrase
that is seen on bumper stickers, wall plaques, and coffee mugs. It is especially deceptive because it is a
Bible verse: “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me”
(Philippians 4:13).
Can you?
I know I can’t be an Olympic sprinter who will set a world record and
receive a gold medal. I will not be the
king of a sovereign nation. I cannot
hold my breath underwater for half an hour.
Now, I guess if God wanted me to do those things, they would happen. But I have no such promise that he will. And I certainly should not expect he will
because I invoke this verse and expect God to follow through.
If you want to understand this verse
correctly—and, in fact, not be misled by other verses—you must look at the
context. In his letter to the
Philippians, Paul explained that he had endured various circumstances in
life—some good, some bad. “I know
what it is to live in humble circumstances, and I know what it is to have more
than enough. I have learned the secret
of being content in any and every situation, while being full or hungry, while
having plenty or not enough” (Philippians 4:12). To summarize these things, we might think of
Paul saying, “I can put up with all things through Christ, who
strengthens me.”
This correction is necessary because if you
trust this verse when it is ripped out of context, you will conclude that God
has failed on his promise. Bible verses
which are distorted or ripped out of context end up proclaiming promises that
God did not make. How many Christians
have been cast into doubt or despair because they think God has failed on his
word? This is one of the reasons Titus
was to ordain pastors for the Christian churches around Crete—ordained to
correct those who oppose sound teaching.
Jesus Christ has established the office of
the holy ministry for the good of his church.
Pastors are ordained to speak in the stead and by the command of Jesus
Christ. But that carries a burden, and
pastors do well to recognize their task.
Regarding a minister of Christ, St. Paul told Titus, “He must cling
to the trustworthy message as it has been taught” (Titus 1:9). That phrase, “as it has been taught,” is
crucial. The pastor has no authority to
spout his own opinions and ideas. My
opinions do not save anyone. You might like
my opinions. You might even find value in
them, but the pastor’s opinions are not God’s promises. Therefore, the pastor “must cling to the
trustworthy message as it has been taught” (Titus 1:9). He must proclaim what he has been given so
that his encouragement and correction are beneficial to God’s people.
I have
taught Catechism class for a number of decades now. If you remember those days, you also remember
the memory work. You recited one of the
Commandments, and then you had to state Luther’s explanation, “What does this
mean?” As you might guess, teens don’t
often want to do the memory work. So, it
has happened several times over the past years that they wanted to strike a
deal. “Pastor, can we just tell you want
we think it means?” Can you imagine if
we did that with Bible verses here? “What
do you think this verse means? And you,
what do you think it means? What about
you?” And so on. We would end up with a dozen or more meanings
for the same verse, as if the Bible were our own personal confession to believe
as we like. If we are to find any
comfort and assurance from God’s word, then we had better be sure we are
actually holding to God’s word rather than our own unique interpretation of it.
Now, when
Titus was sent to preach and to ordain ministers, the whole New Testament had
not been written yet. Titus had to rely
on what he had been taught. This oral
tradition was proclaimed by Paul and the other apostles. That is what Titus was to cling to, to
proclaim, and to entrust to the ministers he would ordain. Now we have the word of God in writing so
that all of God’s people can know it. We
have it so that all of God’s people can read it and recognize who is teaching
rightly and whose teaching needs to be exposed as wrong. But the task of the pastor remains as it was
with Titus: “He must cling to the trustworthy message as it has been taught”
(Titus 1:9).
Titus was left in Crete to ordain pastors to encourage and to correct God’s people. And if a pastor is going to be worth anything to God’s people, he must cling to the trustworthy word as it has been taught. One of my professors instilled a healthy fear into a class of future preachers. He told us, “If a man dares to step into a pulpit and declare, ‘This is what the Lord says,’ it had better be what the Lord says.” It is God’s word alone that proclaims Jesus who alone saves, who alone forgives sins, who alone delivers from death, who alone opens heaven. Only that word delivers encouragement to God’s people so that they will remain godly people. Only that word provides the comfort that sustains them in a sinful world and will usher them into a kingdom of glory.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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