1 00:00:09,450 --> 00:00:15,840 Welcome to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia, that seeks 2 00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:21,925 to glorify God through biblically sound, thought-provoking and challenging talks and interviews. 3 00:00:22,795 --> 00:00:30,445 In this episode, from the first part of his plenary address at the 2025 Priscilla & Aquila Centre annual conference 4 00:00:30,445 --> 00:00:38,485 held on Monday the 3rd of February, Paul Grimmond, Head of the Ministry Department at Moore College, unpacks Titus 2 5 00:00:38,935 --> 00:00:45,600 and the commands given to specific groups of people: older men, older women, younger women, younger men, and so on. 6 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:54,420 Paul reminds us that the way we read the Bible is often influenced by our original context and our view of Scripture, and he encourages 7 00:00:54,420 --> 00:01:02,010 us to think hard and carefully about the parts we hold close, the parts we hold at a distance, and why we are actually doing that. 8 00:01:02,670 --> 00:01:04,230 We hope you find the episode helpful. 9 00:01:05,460 --> 00:01:09,780 Please note: Part 2 of Paul Grimmond's talk will be published on this podcast in July. 10 00:01:10,470 --> 00:01:16,260 If you would like to listen to it before then, head to the Priscilla & Aquila website using the link in the show notes. 11 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:24,390 Please pray with me. 12 00:01:26,610 --> 00:01:29,880 Father, we thank you for your word in our own language. 13 00:01:29,940 --> 00:01:33,450 We thank you for the privilege and freedom of being able to gather and read it. 14 00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:39,510 We pray for the gracious work of your spirit to soften our hearts that we might hear your truth. 15 00:01:40,304 --> 00:01:45,705 We might understand it and put it into practice that we might obey it and love you. 16 00:01:46,214 --> 00:01:48,434 And Father, we ask these things in Jesus' name. 17 00:01:49,065 --> 00:01:49,455 Amen. 18 00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:54,690 Well is godliness complimentarian? 19 00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:59,280 Uh, that's the question that I wanna engage with as we engage with Titus two today. 20 00:01:59,970 --> 00:02:06,180 I chose to ask it because of the nature of instruction to us as followers of the Lord Jesus. 21 00:02:06,690 --> 00:02:13,290 Why does Paul in Titus tell Titus to tell Christians how to live as older men and older 22 00:02:13,290 --> 00:02:18,540 women and younger men and younger women, and as bold servants in spite of our common faith? 23 00:02:19,605 --> 00:02:23,205 At one level, the New Testament calls on every Christian to be like Christ, right? 24 00:02:23,835 --> 00:02:28,425 Um, you can see lots of examples of that, but Colossians chapter three gives us a classic example. 25 00:02:28,575 --> 00:02:36,375 We are all to put away Roth anger, malice, obscene talk, and lies because we are being renewed in the image of Jesus. 26 00:02:37,155 --> 00:02:41,895 And there is one set of instructions that applies to Greek and Jew, to circumcised, 27 00:02:41,895 --> 00:02:47,055 uncircumcised, barbarian, Syrian, slave, and free, and of course, to male and female. 28 00:02:48,060 --> 00:02:55,590 In March of the Scriptures, the injunctions are given to all of us because we are all called on to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. 29 00:02:57,060 --> 00:03:03,495 And yet there are other passages in the Scriptures where God chooses to address us more specifically than just that there 30 00:03:03,495 --> 00:03:10,424 is not just a set of generic instructions that exist for all of God's people in all God's time and places in passages like 31 00:03:10,424 --> 00:03:18,584 Ephesians five or one Timothy five, or one Corinthians 11, or today in our section of Titus, the Bible instructs us according 32 00:03:18,584 --> 00:03:25,454 to categories like our gender and our age and our station in life, and the set of relationships that we are a part of. 33 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:32,580 So what I wanna do today is actually to have a little bit of a think about how Titus two makes sense in the light of the 34 00:03:32,580 --> 00:03:39,420 rest of the book of Titus, but also more broadly as the rest of Scripture speaks to the things that are there in Titus. 35 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:47,940 And I wanna think particularly about how we read and engage with instructions like these, uh, in order to fully and faithfully 36 00:03:47,940 --> 00:03:54,540 obey them, uh, but do that in a way that honors Christ and it also protects and loves and cares for the people in our community. 37 00:03:55,965 --> 00:04:02,835 Now, of course, part of the reason that we're having this conversation at all is because in our particular part of the world at this particular 38 00:04:02,835 --> 00:04:11,505 moment in history, there are certain encouragement to Godly living in Titus two that are, for lack of a better word, somewhat contested. 39 00:04:12,555 --> 00:04:15,375 Some of the instructions in his chapter, seems straightforward. 40 00:04:15,975 --> 00:04:18,015 Others raise questions for us. 41 00:04:19,065 --> 00:04:25,485 So I wanna actually begin by making some observations about that lay the groundwork for trying to think about these things. 42 00:04:26,534 --> 00:04:29,445 Some of these I think are obvious, but I think that they're important to state. 43 00:04:30,045 --> 00:04:39,719 I. First, these instructions are contested not just because of our cultural situation, but because of our convictions about the word of God. 44 00:04:40,409 --> 00:04:44,400 You think about it, there are lots of texts that tell you lots of things about how to behave or what to 45 00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:49,590 think or what to do, and we don't argue about any of those because we don't actually particularly care. 46 00:04:50,310 --> 00:04:57,719 We think that these are generic things you're gonna believe or not believe, but our convictions about what are going on in Scripture. 47 00:04:58,435 --> 00:05:07,645 Our belief that the Lord who made the whole world and who sent his son to die for the salvation of all people who speaks in these 48 00:05:07,645 --> 00:05:15,505 words, then it's impossible to read the words of Scripture, dispassionately or removed from our own existence and belief and life. 49 00:05:17,895 --> 00:05:24,945 So Titus, as much as it's a book written by a man called Paul to a guy called Titus about how to conduct 50 00:05:24,945 --> 00:05:31,995 yourselves in life in a church on Crete some 2000 years ago, we are deeply convicted that those words are 51 00:05:31,995 --> 00:05:38,565 actually God's words that have significance for people way beyond that original context and situation. 52 00:05:40,245 --> 00:05:42,679 But therein, of course, lies the rub for all of us. 53 00:05:44,340 --> 00:05:51,750 Once you say, this is relevant and important and this is God speaking to me, then what I do with it and how I do 54 00:05:51,750 --> 00:05:57,840 something with it becomes very important, hopefully for every person in the room and every person in our churches. 55 00:05:59,850 --> 00:06:03,720 But I think that leads us to thinking and reflecting a little bit about this second point. 56 00:06:04,140 --> 00:06:07,020 Our context affects the way that we read Scripture. 57 00:06:08,100 --> 00:06:14,280 You see, when we say the Bible is God's word, it becomes very important, and at least theoretically that 58 00:06:14,280 --> 00:06:21,480 should mean it's important for all of us all of the time, but we're still affected by our humanness as we read. 59 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:27,135 I. As fallen creatures, our experience of reading Scripture is not uniform. 60 00:06:27,705 --> 00:06:32,145 We feel the weight of different parts of the Bible and different commands at different moments 61 00:06:32,145 --> 00:06:37,995 in our life and at different times and places according to our own experience and other things. 62 00:06:37,995 --> 00:06:44,835 I. Now, this was brought home to me a number of years ago now when I was having a chat with what I will call the famously controversial passage 63 00:06:44,835 --> 00:06:52,364 in one Timothy two, in which Paul says, I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, rather, she used to remain quiet. 64 00:06:54,135 --> 00:06:59,835 The experience actually taught me that that's an incredibly relative experience that I caught famously controversial. 65 00:07:00,945 --> 00:07:07,635 I had a friend that I was talking to about teaching this passage in my own context and what it meant to preach it faithfully, and he laughed. 66 00:07:08,235 --> 00:07:12,945 His ministry was to a church of people who are from a very different ethnic background to my own. 67 00:07:13,515 --> 00:07:15,195 He said, we did that passage recently. 68 00:07:15,375 --> 00:07:17,895 No one asked a single question about that verse. 69 00:07:18,375 --> 00:07:21,015 He said, our big problem actually was verse nine. 70 00:07:21,645 --> 00:07:25,245 Likewise that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty 71 00:07:25,245 --> 00:07:29,475 and self-control, not with braided hair, gold or pearls or costly attire. 72 00:07:31,005 --> 00:07:39,045 Although we're not often aware of this truth, what is controversial in our space is mundane in other people's space and vice versa. 73 00:07:41,205 --> 00:07:47,325 But it's interesting that what we perceive as controversial shapes the nature of our engagement with the text, doesn't it? 74 00:07:48,255 --> 00:07:55,935 What we experience gets questioned in different ways if we feel the pressure of the way that it pokes against us. 75 00:07:56,715 --> 00:08:03,045 You see in my friend's church, the very important exo question was what was meant by the word not? 76 00:08:05,565 --> 00:08:10,635 Women should adore themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair. 77 00:08:10,635 --> 00:08:15,795 Gold or pearls or costly attire is not an absolute or relative prohibition. 78 00:08:16,665 --> 00:08:18,675 Is he saying that braids are always wrong? 79 00:08:19,305 --> 00:08:20,775 Is expensive clothing out? 80 00:08:21,195 --> 00:08:24,525 Is there a difference between going to a wedding reception and going to the shops? 81 00:08:25,245 --> 00:08:31,695 All sorts of questions actually come into play at a particular moment where the text starts to engage us in our own 82 00:08:31,695 --> 00:08:37,695 cultural context in a way that other people will just dash past that piece of Scripture and move on to something else. 83 00:08:39,045 --> 00:08:45,075 All of which is to say that engaging with the text as the word of God, which is precisely what we should do. 84 00:08:46,020 --> 00:08:52,260 Increases the complexity we find with reading it most acutely, where we feel that it presses most 85 00:08:52,260 --> 00:08:57,359 heavily against the things that feel awkward or uncomfortable or difficult for us to engage with. 86 00:09:00,150 --> 00:09:06,810 Of course, there's a danger here because where a text becomes difficult or controversial or uncomfortable and we start 87 00:09:06,810 --> 00:09:14,670 to read it closely, it also becomes possible to start to use someone else's level of questioning as a test for orthodoxy. 88 00:09:16,515 --> 00:09:23,625 We should actually expect that where things are poking our culture, we're gonna have to work harder at them. 89 00:09:24,315 --> 00:09:28,275 Although in other ways, that's a reminder of what we should be doing with the whole of the Bible, isn't it? 90 00:09:29,025 --> 00:09:32,565 Reading slowly and carefully and thoughtfully. 91 00:09:35,120 --> 00:09:38,925 But all this brings me to the third point that I wanna make, and that is, I actually think. 92 00:09:39,405 --> 00:09:48,495 We all as readers do a little thing when we come to approach Scripture, um, which is both potentially unhelpful and completely right at the same time. 93 00:09:48,945 --> 00:09:51,405 That is, we filter Scripture as we read it. 94 00:09:51,615 --> 00:09:58,635 We hold some things slightly more at a distance from us and we bring some things closer depending on how we read. 95 00:09:59,715 --> 00:10:02,115 Now, it's actually important that we do that. 96 00:10:02,850 --> 00:10:07,800 The Bible tells us that lots of people in Scripture are an example for us, but not everything that they do is exemplary. 97 00:10:08,700 --> 00:10:15,270 Um, the Lord Jesus Christ has done lots of things that you and I can't do, and yet he's also held up as an example for us. 98 00:10:15,270 --> 00:10:17,610 You don't read the Bible as a flat book. 99 00:10:17,670 --> 00:10:20,760 You don't just go, everything that Jesus did is what I should do. 100 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:28,710 What Jesus did and how he lives and how he functions actually are things that we ought to think carefully through and think about in their context 101 00:10:28,710 --> 00:10:35,940 and in the broader context of Scripture in order to work out how do we bring them near to us, or what do we hold at a little more distance? 102 00:10:35,940 --> 00:10:40,380 How do we engage in that process of reading Scripture well. 103 00:10:41,940 --> 00:10:47,400 And so I wanna point out to you, actually, we do this all the time, and not just do we do it, but the Bible does it to itself. 104 00:10:47,940 --> 00:10:51,840 So let me just very momentarily, take a little detour through Hebrews with you. 105 00:10:52,110 --> 00:10:56,040 Uh, this will be short, but I hope illustrative, and then we'll come back to Titus. 106 00:10:56,670 --> 00:11:00,390 If you think about Hebrews for a moment, Hebrews is saying The Old Testament 107 00:11:00,390 --> 00:11:05,280 sacrificial system is deeply relevant and thoroughly irrelevant to you as a Christian. 108 00:11:05,955 --> 00:11:11,145 It is a shadow of a reality, and that shadow means two things simultaneously. 109 00:11:11,865 --> 00:11:19,725 It means that there is a spiritual reality of sacrificial categories that are fundamental to your salvation. 110 00:11:20,115 --> 00:11:25,245 If you don't have these, you don't have Christ and you don't have life, but it 111 00:11:25,245 --> 00:11:28,845 also says all of those things that they used to do, you shouldn't do any of them. 112 00:11:28,845 --> 00:11:32,835 And in fact, if you do them, you are also letting go of Jesus. 113 00:11:34,215 --> 00:11:44,355 You see, the shadow and reality metaphor means that you need a heavenly place, a faithful, eternal high priest, and a once for all sacrifice. 114 00:11:44,355 --> 00:11:47,655 And without any of those things, you cannot be saved. 115 00:11:48,765 --> 00:11:54,915 The Old Testament pointed to an ontological and spiritual reality about the whole of your relationship with God. 116 00:11:56,699 --> 00:12:02,640 But at the same time, you shouldn't kill bulls and goats and sprinkle their blood around on altars. 117 00:12:03,420 --> 00:12:06,959 I mean, I guess possibly you're free to do that kind of thing, but you know what I mean. 118 00:12:08,219 --> 00:12:19,589 But, and here is the big, but Hebrews takes a lot of space to explain the intricacies and complexities of how the shadow applies and doesn't apply. 119 00:12:20,250 --> 00:12:23,579 And just when you think you've sorted the whole thing out, you get to Hebrews 120 00:12:23,579 --> 00:12:27,660 chapter 13 and you find this paragraph which is about to appear on the screen. 121 00:12:30,090 --> 00:12:36,030 I just wanna highlight for you all the words in this paragraph that I think are sacrificial categories or words. 122 00:12:36,810 --> 00:12:37,829 I'm gonna read it slowly. 123 00:12:37,829 --> 00:12:39,810 I wanna ask you to think about the words in italics. 124 00:12:40,020 --> 00:12:44,490 How are these words, which are sacrificial words being applied to you as a Christian? 125 00:12:45,495 --> 00:12:48,045 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings. 126 00:12:48,045 --> 00:12:54,645 For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them. 127 00:12:55,305 --> 00:12:59,265 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 128 00:12:59,895 --> 00:13:08,625 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 129 00:13:09,465 --> 00:13:14,895 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 130 00:13:15,615 --> 00:13:20,475 Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 131 00:13:20,805 --> 00:13:26,025 For here, we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come through him. 132 00:13:26,025 --> 00:13:29,685 Then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. 133 00:13:29,955 --> 00:13:37,875 That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name, do not neglect to do good, and to share what you have with such sacrifices are pleasing to God. 134 00:13:39,045 --> 00:13:40,185 See, it's interesting, isn't it? 135 00:13:40,485 --> 00:13:48,405 You've had this whole book that's all about how to apply and not apply the Old Testament system, but did you know by the time you got here 136 00:13:48,465 --> 00:13:55,845 that where the remains of the sacrificial offerings were burnt was significant for you and your Christian life and how to follow Jesus? 137 00:13:56,445 --> 00:13:58,905 He just kind of slips it in there at the end. 138 00:13:59,685 --> 00:14:05,955 By the way, the remains of the sacrifices were burned outside the gate, and actually that's where Jesus got crucified. 139 00:14:06,314 --> 00:14:11,025 As a reminder that actually following Jesus means being someone who lives 140 00:14:11,025 --> 00:14:15,944 outside the gate who lives outside of the, the normal space of religious life. 141 00:14:15,944 --> 00:14:20,655 And actually, you are going to bear the kind of reproach that Jesus bore if you're 142 00:14:20,655 --> 00:14:25,574 actually gonna follow him and understand how his sacrifice mirrors the sacrificial system. 143 00:14:26,625 --> 00:14:29,805 Oh, and by the way, you know how you're not supposed to offer up sacrifices anymore? 144 00:14:29,805 --> 00:14:30,194 Well, you are. 145 00:14:31,035 --> 00:14:35,235 Because you're supposed to offer up the sacrifice of praise and of lips, and actually your 146 00:14:35,235 --> 00:14:40,005 good works are the pleasing sacrifices that God now desires for you in the Lord Jesus Christ. 147 00:14:41,325 --> 00:14:48,735 Now, we could spend ages picking this passage apart, and I'm not going to, and I'm now outlawing all questions on Hebrews during question time. 148 00:14:50,805 --> 00:14:55,785 But my point is that actually the Scriptures themselves, and not just here, but in many places, 149 00:14:55,785 --> 00:15:01,515 give us complex examples of the ways that Biblical truth understood in light of the fullness of the 150 00:15:01,515 --> 00:15:08,685 revelation of God in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus brings application to us in complex ways. 151 00:15:09,170 --> 00:15:10,550 And as readers of Scripture. 152 00:15:10,550 --> 00:15:16,670 Therefore, we do not read Scripture as a flat book, but we're actually called to read it thoughtfully with the 153 00:15:16,670 --> 00:15:23,000 gospel in mind, reading it carefully in its own context, but with the fuller revelation of the whole Bible engaged. 154 00:15:23,780 --> 00:15:27,530 And this means actually that we're always involved in a dangerous process. 155 00:15:27,530 --> 00:15:32,240 When we read the Bible, sometimes we will see truths there that we hold at 156 00:15:32,240 --> 00:15:37,160 arm's length to distance ourselves from truths that ought to be brought close. 157 00:15:38,115 --> 00:15:42,765 Sometimes it's actually completely inappropriate to say some of these truths need to sit at 158 00:15:42,765 --> 00:15:46,995 a different distance from me or relate to me in a different way to other truths in Scripture. 159 00:15:48,015 --> 00:15:51,555 We can get it wrong in both directions, if I can put it like that. 160 00:15:52,875 --> 00:16:02,834 All of us, and I think rightly because this is what the Bible teaches us to do, are continually engaged in a sophisticated theological process. 161 00:16:03,045 --> 00:16:07,095 When we come to ask the question, what should I do with what I'm reading? 162 00:16:08,700 --> 00:16:10,530 We are convicted that this is God's word. 163 00:16:10,530 --> 00:16:19,230 It is to be obeyed, but when it comes to obeying it, how should I obey it is actually part of asking how does Scripture treat itself. 164 00:16:21,450 --> 00:16:26,340 Now, for all of these reasons, as we come to a section of the Bible that feels contested for our particular time and 165 00:16:26,340 --> 00:16:35,070 place, we need to be aware of the need to be slow, thoughtful, and careful in our reading when something is complicated. 166 00:16:35,385 --> 00:16:42,375 We can either over complicate it, but we can also dismiss thoughtful and helpful arguments 167 00:16:42,825 --> 00:16:47,625 because our anxiety means that we want simple, clear, quick solutions to the problem. 168 00:16:48,375 --> 00:16:52,965 We actually need to be comfortable enough to sit in the discomfort of holding some tensions together. 169 00:16:53,640 --> 00:16:59,339 Wrestling with the immediate context and the broader realities of Scripture in order to be thoughtful and careful 170 00:16:59,339 --> 00:17:05,700 about what we say these words do and don't mean, um, for the sake of God's glory and for the good of one another. 171 00:17:06,780 --> 00:17:10,319 So let me just bring some of those truths to bear in terms of our own passage. 172 00:17:12,060 --> 00:17:14,250 Look at Titus chapter two and verse two with me for a moment. 173 00:17:15,510 --> 00:17:21,149 Should older men be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled sound, in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. 174 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:23,430 You should answer on the count of three. 175 00:17:23,430 --> 00:17:24,569 1, 2, 3. Yes. 176 00:17:25,710 --> 00:17:26,310 Excellent. 177 00:17:27,810 --> 00:17:29,040 Now you can see where this is going. 178 00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:29,910 Um, 179 00:17:32,010 --> 00:17:38,940 most of the commandments in this passage, we just naturally would say, yes, they're the kinds of things that Christians should do. 180 00:17:40,470 --> 00:17:44,010 I wonder the ones that you just jump over or just assume or applied to you, 181 00:17:44,370 --> 00:17:49,290 is that because you like them or because they feel vaguely relevant to you? 182 00:17:50,145 --> 00:17:57,525 Or because they've just got that kind of flavor about them, that feels okay actually if, if Scriptures to be read thoughtfully and carefully. 183 00:17:57,795 --> 00:17:59,625 Why are some held at a distance? 184 00:17:59,625 --> 00:18:00,705 Why are others brought close? 185 00:18:00,705 --> 00:18:02,175 Do you have theological reasons? 186 00:18:02,175 --> 00:18:08,085 Do you have thoughtful, biblical reasons about how you engage with the different commandments that are part of this text? 187 00:18:08,355 --> 00:18:11,400 Have you thought about when and how you do things with them? 188 00:18:12,915 --> 00:18:16,754 I'm gonna suggest to you that actually one of the reasons if you've been reading carefully, that you bring 189 00:18:16,754 --> 00:18:22,485 these commandments naturally close to yourself, is actually that there is a whole shape to the Book of Titus, 190 00:18:22,695 --> 00:18:28,489 which speaks very clearly to the fact that these commandments are for all of us, uh, at all times in history. 191 00:18:29,050 --> 00:18:36,045 I. Now there are a number of these, but the most significant is actually the central theme of the entire book of Titus. 192 00:18:36,615 --> 00:18:40,754 Titus is all about the connection between truth and godliness. 193 00:18:41,024 --> 00:18:44,415 And Paul very helpfully tells us in verse one that that's exactly what he's doing. 194 00:18:44,835 --> 00:18:51,315 Paul, a servant of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth. 195 00:18:51,595 --> 00:18:53,365 Which accords with godliness. 196 00:18:53,485 --> 00:18:58,465 And as you read the rest of the letter, those two ideas are just gonna keep speaking to 197 00:18:58,465 --> 00:19:02,545 each other over and over and over again as you go right through the text of the letter. 198 00:19:02,815 --> 00:19:06,805 Chapter one is all about the connection between godliness and the truth. 199 00:19:06,985 --> 00:19:09,534 And in that chapter it's about who you point to eldership. 200 00:19:09,534 --> 00:19:17,725 In church, Paul is instructing Titus, where there've been new churches planted and there is a need for godly eldership and leadership. 201 00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:26,040 Particular characteristics ought to be sought out for those who ought to be appointed as overseers and elders. 202 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:35,910 In that congregation in particular, the appropriate qualifications involve very much the character and nature of their life negatively. 203 00:19:35,910 --> 00:19:44,340 They must not be arrogant or quick tempered or known for drunkenness or for their violence or greed. 204 00:19:45,420 --> 00:19:47,880 And positively, they must be above reproach. 205 00:19:48,330 --> 00:19:49,950 There to be people who love what is good. 206 00:19:49,950 --> 00:19:52,050 They must be known for being hospitable. 207 00:19:52,590 --> 00:19:56,790 They ought to be known for being self-controlled, upright, wholly, and disciplined. 208 00:19:57,030 --> 00:20:05,970 It is completely inappropriate for somebody to be appointed as an elder in the church, if any of their life, either public or private. 209 00:20:06,150 --> 00:20:11,070 A distinction that actually probably wouldn't have occurred to the first readers in the way that it occurs to us. 210 00:20:12,360 --> 00:20:20,040 Unless their life actually exemplifies all the fundamental characteristics of loving Jesus and being faithful and gracious in our 211 00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:29,580 relationships, that person should not be made an elder because actually having these characteristics is related to what you will teach. 212 00:20:30,780 --> 00:20:35,879 If you are being ungodly, you will avoid, mess around with tamper, with, adjust, 213 00:20:35,970 --> 00:20:40,590 or avoid bits of God's word that speak about those aspects of ungodliness. 214 00:20:42,345 --> 00:20:47,775 And so Paul says to Titus in verse nine, they need to hold firmly to the trustworthy word as 215 00:20:47,775 --> 00:20:52,995 taught so that they may be able to give sound instruction and rebuke those who are opposed. 216 00:20:53,445 --> 00:20:59,985 Because the church has always existed in a context where there are people who will claim to be belong to Christ, but speak falsehood. 217 00:21:01,635 --> 00:21:07,215 Elders must have their life and doctrine closely combined because actually the way that 218 00:21:07,215 --> 00:21:11,745 you know a false teacher is by the fact that they teach one thing but live another. 219 00:21:12,615 --> 00:21:21,285 Chapter one in verse 11, these false teachers upset whole families by teaching for shameful gain, what they ought not to teach. 220 00:21:21,975 --> 00:21:24,405 You can skip over it, but it's wicked and it's awful. 221 00:21:24,405 --> 00:21:27,105 Is it not that people profiteer off the gospel? 222 00:21:28,155 --> 00:21:33,284 You know them because they are those who profess to know God, but deny him by their works. 223 00:21:33,585 --> 00:21:37,304 They are unfit for any good work. 224 00:21:39,165 --> 00:21:42,435 You see, faithful teachers are godly, upright, and holy. 225 00:21:43,185 --> 00:21:48,135 Unfaithful teachers are ungodly destructive and unfit for doing good. 226 00:21:49,335 --> 00:21:53,534 Chapter one is all about truth and godliness when it comes to appointing elders. 227 00:21:54,465 --> 00:22:00,525 Because the nature of life and the content of the gospel that they preach are fundamentally in intertwined. 228 00:22:01,665 --> 00:22:05,775 So then when Paul gets to chapters two and three and he says to Titus, this is what 229 00:22:05,775 --> 00:22:09,975 you and those elders are to teach people to do as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. 230 00:22:10,395 --> 00:22:14,595 The whole of the next part of the book is divided up between instruction about what Godly 231 00:22:14,595 --> 00:22:19,545 living looks like and statements of the nature of the gospel and the character of God. 232 00:22:20,534 --> 00:22:22,185 So you get to chapter two, verse one. 233 00:22:22,514 --> 00:22:24,465 He says, as for you, Titus teach what? 234 00:22:24,465 --> 00:22:28,695 Accords with sound doctrine and you are expecting excellent. 235 00:22:28,695 --> 00:22:32,235 A lesson in justification, uh, and some thoughts about the Trinity. 236 00:22:32,685 --> 00:22:38,175 And he says, I. Don't get drunk too often and be upright and sober and godly and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 237 00:22:38,175 --> 00:22:44,324 What is in accord with sound doctrine is a pattern of life that is not independent of the gospel, but actually the truth of 238 00:22:44,564 --> 00:22:50,629 who you are called to become is related to the character and nature of God and the character of Christ's work on our behalf. 239 00:22:53,729 --> 00:22:59,580 That's why verses 11 to 14 are so very significant in the context of the letter and in the context of 240 00:22:59,580 --> 00:23:05,610 our reading of this, you hear Titus says, this is what a accord with sound doctrine live like this. 241 00:23:05,909 --> 00:23:10,649 But then he goes in depth into the reasoning chapter two and verse 11, why? 242 00:23:11,790 --> 00:23:18,570 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and 243 00:23:18,570 --> 00:23:25,530 worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our 244 00:23:25,530 --> 00:23:33,120 blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us. 245 00:23:34,110 --> 00:23:42,300 To redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. 246 00:23:44,100 --> 00:23:48,420 Notice the logic that ties godliness so closely to the gospel. 247 00:23:50,220 --> 00:23:57,720 God's grace has appeared and bought the possibility of salvation for all people, but 248 00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:02,040 do you notice as those who have been saved, you are waiting for another appearing? 249 00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:06,660 God's grace appeared once and he will appear again. 250 00:24:08,730 --> 00:24:16,860 You are waiting for the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 251 00:24:17,910 --> 00:24:21,900 Do you remember that about your life day by day as a follower of Jesus? 252 00:24:22,500 --> 00:24:23,640 What are you living for? 253 00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:24,840 What are you hoping for? 254 00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:26,730 What is the outcome and goal and aim? 255 00:24:27,180 --> 00:24:31,650 It is the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 256 00:24:31,650 --> 00:24:37,620 I. But do you notice what the passage says about the one who you are waiting for the appearance of? 257 00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:47,910 Well, he is the one who gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself are people who are zealous for doing good. 258 00:24:50,100 --> 00:24:59,610 You've been saved and you are waiting to meet the one who rescued you from lawlessness and who purified you for good works. 259 00:25:01,815 --> 00:25:05,385 See brothers and sisters, what is our state apart from Christ? 260 00:25:06,555 --> 00:25:09,225 Well, we are in a state of lawlessness, aren't we? 261 00:25:09,855 --> 00:25:13,785 And does not that word describe very aptly the world in which you live. 262 00:25:15,524 --> 00:25:16,274 See, think about it. 263 00:25:16,455 --> 00:25:20,235 We live in a world that has elevated and celebrated the rebel, haven't we? 264 00:25:21,179 --> 00:25:27,389 I mean, Australian society is replete with it, um, from Ned Kelly to Bob Hawke telling everybody that if they fire 265 00:25:27,389 --> 00:25:33,179 someone who didn't appear on the day the Australia won the America's Cup for the sake of work, well, you'd be a bum. 266 00:25:33,570 --> 00:25:38,520 And, uh, actually all of you take a national public holiday, even though he doesn't have the authority to do such a thing. 267 00:25:38,850 --> 00:25:40,409 But that's Australia, right? 268 00:25:41,110 --> 00:25:43,720 Uh, and it's actually a truth that's celebrated everywhere. 269 00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:51,100 Think about just about every buddy cop movie that you've ever seen, and the guy who's the central lead character is the guy who pursues 270 00:25:51,100 --> 00:25:58,360 justice by ignoring all authority and doing his own thing on his own timetable, because that's how you actually serve it, right? 271 00:25:58,360 --> 00:26:00,580 You do your own thing at your own pace. 272 00:26:01,290 --> 00:26:06,990 Um, I was gonna give you examples from Dirty Harry, uh, through Eddie Murphy, and then realized that they all existed in the last millennium. 273 00:26:07,290 --> 00:26:09,990 Uh, and there would be people in the room who had no idea who I was talking about. 274 00:26:10,169 --> 00:26:12,480 Go and watch some real movies, people anyway, 275 00:26:14,580 --> 00:26:17,580 but it's actually part of a broader cultural narrative, isn't it? 276 00:26:18,659 --> 00:26:21,510 Truth is not about what anyone anywhere tells me. 277 00:26:21,510 --> 00:26:22,620 There is no authority. 278 00:26:22,620 --> 00:26:23,699 There's no institution. 279 00:26:23,699 --> 00:26:27,899 There's nobody who has the right to tell me what to do or how to live or where to go. 280 00:26:28,199 --> 00:26:32,189 Truth is about what I work out for myself and what I decide for myself. 281 00:26:32,370 --> 00:26:34,774 And if it's different tomorrow from what it is today, that's okay. 282 00:26:36,959 --> 00:26:40,830 Now we have this weird little thing on the side because I do quite like the rules. 283 00:26:40,830 --> 00:26:47,100 I, I'm thankful that I don't live in a society of complete disorder, and I'm certainly thankful that the other people obey the rules. 284 00:26:47,699 --> 00:26:53,969 It's just that, you know, well, sometimes they're awkward or difficult and just pain outright dangerous. 285 00:26:54,179 --> 00:26:58,889 Um, I have an office that overlooks Carilion Avenue, uh, and Carilion Avenue in the little 286 00:26:58,889 --> 00:27:02,580 stretch of double white lines leading to a major intersection in the middle of Sydney. 287 00:27:03,479 --> 00:27:08,370 People do u-turns over that double white line every single day of my life. 288 00:27:09,389 --> 00:27:13,800 Because of course there are rules there, and the rules are generally good, but if anything's happening to me at the moment that 289 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:19,679 causes that to be a bit kind of uncomfortable or difficult or whatever else it is, well I can just dissipate them, can't I? 290 00:27:20,729 --> 00:27:24,899 Because actually the law isn't what makes us right. 291 00:27:24,899 --> 00:27:32,939 And of course the tragedy of all of this is that lawlessness characterizes not just the little nitty gritty bits of our life. 292 00:27:33,855 --> 00:27:42,525 It's what we do with the people that we love the most and are closest to us and most precious, we want them to obey the rules, but we don't want to. 293 00:27:43,815 --> 00:27:54,285 And of course, most awfully of all, there is a God who has made real laws that are good for us that I don't want to have in control. 294 00:27:55,335 --> 00:27:56,655 Just think about what we say. 295 00:27:56,655 --> 00:28:01,815 I don't want someone in control who is greater and kinder. 296 00:28:02,955 --> 00:28:09,495 More faithful, yet more fierce, more holy, and yet more gracious than I am. 297 00:28:10,784 --> 00:28:15,044 I don't want them in control because I think it would be better for me to be in control. 298 00:28:16,965 --> 00:28:24,014 And the Scriptures say that the ugliness of our rebellion and rejection, which completely screws 299 00:28:24,014 --> 00:28:29,895 up all of our relationships, is a truth that God is gonna bring to judgment on the last day. 300 00:28:32,490 --> 00:28:42,450 Jesus when he died, died to redeem us from our lawlessness, to redeem us from a way of life that breaks us and breaks 301 00:28:42,450 --> 00:28:48,600 others and redeem us from a way of life that will end in our judgment before the Lord who made heaven and earth. 302 00:28:50,685 --> 00:29:01,695 We have been freed from our bondage and created to be something new and something other, and something rich and wonderful and good because we have 303 00:29:01,695 --> 00:29:12,554 been made to be his treasured and precious position as people who have been renewed and remade in order to do good in God's world for his glory. 304 00:29:14,370 --> 00:29:20,280 That idea of leading us to Zeal for Good works six times in three chapters in the Book of Titus. 305 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:22,770 It's not incidental or accidental. 306 00:29:22,770 --> 00:29:25,800 It's the very purpose of Christ's death for us. 307 00:29:25,950 --> 00:29:31,170 And so do you see in verse 11, why the grace of God, which has appeared and brought salvation, has trained 308 00:29:31,170 --> 00:29:36,060 us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. 309 00:29:37,245 --> 00:29:44,895 It's because the very purpose for which Christ died was to free you to pay the price, to get rid of that old life, 310 00:29:44,895 --> 00:29:51,584 which was so awful and destructive, and to grant you a new way of life, which was so good under the Lordship of God. 311 00:29:52,995 --> 00:29:58,635 But here what the passage is saying to you, he appeared and he will appear again. 312 00:29:59,850 --> 00:30:07,860 You are going to meet face to face, the one who died to redeem you from lawlessness and to purify you to be zealous for good. 313 00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:14,310 So I actually need to ask you, as I ask me, what do you want to say to him when you meet him? 314 00:30:15,510 --> 00:30:17,970 Who do you want to be when you meet him? 315 00:30:18,540 --> 00:30:21,660 How do you want to speak to him when you meet him? 316 00:30:22,770 --> 00:30:27,480 We will need to speak to him as those who have been freed and cleansed and washed by him. 317 00:30:28,170 --> 00:30:36,510 Deeply thankful for that, but also as people who are zealous to be those whom he has called and acted to become, won't we? 318 00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:42,780 Paul's explanation of the gospel is directly connected to the central theme of his letter. 319 00:30:43,950 --> 00:30:49,320 Paul is an apostle for the sake of God's people knowing the truth that accords with godliness. 320 00:30:50,295 --> 00:30:53,235 And so he says to Titus, tell the people to live like this. 321 00:30:53,505 --> 00:31:00,220 'cause living like this is actually what flows out of the nature of the God who has died and risen again to save them is like. 322 00:31:01,139 --> 00:31:07,290 And of course when you get into chapter three, you again get the same pattern, a set of instructions surrounded by another clear section of 323 00:31:07,290 --> 00:31:15,780 doctrine in verses four to seven, in which we're told that God has redeemed every one of us who is Christian, and that he's applied the work 324 00:31:15,780 --> 00:31:23,459 that God has done in Christ through the washing and rebirth of renewal by the Holy Spirit to us that we might be made new and eager and zealous. 325 00:31:23,850 --> 00:31:29,459 And the letter finishes in chapter three in verse 14, let our people learn to devote themselves to. 326 00:31:30,570 --> 00:31:36,960 Good works so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful and all. 327 00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:38,310 Who with me send greetings to you? 328 00:31:38,310 --> 00:31:42,120 Greet those who love us in the faith, grace be with you all. 329 00:31:43,530 --> 00:31:49,260 The reason that we read chapter two and go those are instructions for us is actually, 'cause that's what it looks like in 330 00:31:49,260 --> 00:31:56,550 terms of the whole way that the letter is constructed and all of the, what I'm gonna call intrinsic skews in the letter. 331 00:31:57,300 --> 00:32:01,500 You read this book and everything about it says to you, these are things that you're supposed to do. 332 00:32:03,150 --> 00:32:10,230 There is another motivation, by the way, which he repeats three times, chapter two and verse five, that the word 333 00:32:10,230 --> 00:32:16,500 of God may not be reviled, chapter two and verse eight, that an opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil 334 00:32:16,500 --> 00:32:24,000 to say about us in chapter two and verse 10, so that in everything you may adorn the doctrine of God our savior. 335 00:32:25,395 --> 00:32:33,915 You see as people who have been redeemed from lawlessness and purified to be zealous for good actually, as you live in the way 336 00:32:33,915 --> 00:32:42,405 that Christ has remade you to live, you automatically make the truth about who he is, attractive to the world around about you. 337 00:32:42,645 --> 00:32:49,995 You adorn the gospel, which is a totally ridiculous thing to say at one level, theologically, isn't it? 338 00:32:51,690 --> 00:32:58,530 That by God's grace, the way that you get to live as a follower of the Lord Jesus adorns the gospel, 339 00:32:58,890 --> 00:33:04,890 the teaching about God, our savior, the truth, the doctrine, and it keeps people from reviling. 340 00:33:05,130 --> 00:33:11,700 That word, the connection between truth and godliness means that Godly living naturally commends the truth. 341 00:33:12,780 --> 00:33:17,190 And the whole structure of the letter reads you just naturally to read those commandments as things that 342 00:33:17,190 --> 00:33:21,870 apply to you so that you should reflect on them and engage with them and think about what to do with them 343 00:33:21,870 --> 00:33:27,060 and how they impact your loves and your desires and what you do in your life and all of those things. 344 00:33:28,530 --> 00:33:31,920 But I wanna point out, and you kind of knew that there were gonna be a but didn't you? 345 00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:41,280 But anyway, it is interesting to note that as much as the whole intrinsic nature of the letter points you to applying these things to yourself. 346 00:33:41,760 --> 00:33:44,010 You are actually doing something else. 347 00:33:44,010 --> 00:33:48,210 As you read these commandments, and I'll illustrate it for you by giving you a 348 00:33:48,210 --> 00:33:51,780 slightly different, this is the Paul Grimm and edited version of the New Testament. 349 00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:53,790 None of these words are from God, by the way. 350 00:33:54,615 --> 00:34:02,325 If you had read, because the grace of God has appeared and teaches us to say no to ungodliness and to live self-controlled ungodly lives, tell them to 351 00:34:02,325 --> 00:34:09,645 brush their teeth, deposit some savings in a safe place so that they've got a nest egg for the future, and do something nice for yourself once a week. 352 00:34:10,245 --> 00:34:13,155 How would you feel about those words with the person beside you? 353 00:34:13,785 --> 00:34:15,045 Talk for 30 seconds. 354 00:34:18,555 --> 00:34:22,965 Now, actually, if you're serious about reading the Bible, you should have a little bit of a conundrum at that point. 355 00:34:23,639 --> 00:34:25,139 Because God could tell you just once. 356 00:34:25,139 --> 00:34:25,620 Right? 357 00:34:26,190 --> 00:34:29,490 And that would be enough for those commands to be worth obeying. 358 00:34:30,990 --> 00:34:35,400 And yet you are not expecting those commands to occur in Scripture. 359 00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:36,000 Why? 360 00:34:36,690 --> 00:34:41,280 Because they don't actually fit with your experience of the reading of the rest of God's 361 00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:45,195 word, or what he's revealed about himself or the nature of everything else that he said. 362 00:34:47,100 --> 00:34:51,810 I think that that's really important for us to realize that actually part of what informs 363 00:34:51,810 --> 00:34:55,800 us and shapes us as Christians is the reading of the whole of Scripture, isn't it? 364 00:34:56,730 --> 00:35:01,890 And it's actually one of the reasons that we keep encouraging each other to keep reading the Bible for ourselves. 365 00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:08,400 Because you think about it, a new believer often finds fascinating, a new insight every time 366 00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:11,610 they turn the page because they're reading things that they haven't seen or heard before. 367 00:35:13,694 --> 00:35:18,165 The way that you know what is true and faithful and wise and right is actually by God's grace. 368 00:35:18,165 --> 00:35:22,785 If you have been reading and hearing the Scriptures read and taught and engaged with over many, many 369 00:35:22,785 --> 00:35:27,615 years, you have an entire framework into which each of the command fits and you do something with. 370 00:35:28,605 --> 00:35:31,245 Now that's actually at one level, really positive and helpful, right? 371 00:35:31,575 --> 00:35:36,674 Because that's part of how your worldview and you are reshaped to love and understand all the goodness of God. 372 00:35:37,485 --> 00:35:39,045 Um, but it's also dangerous. 373 00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:45,180 That then becomes your personal filter through which you bring things close and hold things at a distance. 374 00:35:45,270 --> 00:35:50,370 And so you've gotta actually work out for yourself as you are reading, what am I 375 00:35:50,370 --> 00:35:55,200 bringing close and what am I holding at a distance, and why are those external filters? 376 00:35:55,200 --> 00:36:03,060 Is my theological system is my broader reading of Scripture helping me or hindering me at this point as I engage with this text and these truths? 377 00:36:04,380 --> 00:36:06,300 Now, of course we know that it's important and real. 378 00:36:06,720 --> 00:36:11,130 The reason that we read acts and don't bless handkerchiefs and hand them out on street corners in order to 379 00:36:11,130 --> 00:36:15,540 heal people is that we think that there are certain things that the apostles were doing that we shouldn't do. 380 00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:20,549 But when the Sanhedrin calls them up and says, you must stop preaching about Jesus, and they say, 381 00:36:20,549 --> 00:36:25,380 well, we have to obey God rather than you, we all go, yes, of course that is true for us as well. 382 00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:32,610 You are actually bringing Scripture close or distant according to your broader theological understanding as you read and engage. 383 00:36:32,610 --> 00:36:36,960 Now, I know I've said this over and over again, but I'm just wanting you to feel the weight of what you are 384 00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:41,819 doing with the Bible all the time that you are reading with it, but how often that happens unconsciously. 385 00:36:42,690 --> 00:36:42,960 Yeah. 386 00:36:43,529 --> 00:36:47,640 Whereas God calls on us to become more and more conscious about these things. 387 00:36:48,870 --> 00:36:52,740 So what do we do with the extrinsic cues of Scripture, the broader reading of 388 00:36:52,740 --> 00:36:56,730 Scripture and these instructions that are given to us here in Titus Chapter two? 389 00:36:58,290 --> 00:37:03,509 Well, first thing that I wanna point out to you is that a number of them are instructions that 390 00:37:03,509 --> 00:37:07,379 don't just occur here, but they do occur regularly in all sorts of parts of the New Testament. 391 00:37:08,025 --> 00:37:10,275 That is even some of the ones that we find uncomfortable. 392 00:37:10,275 --> 00:37:12,555 This is not the only place in which they occur. 393 00:37:13,575 --> 00:37:19,575 Um, wives are called on to submit to their own husbands in Ephesians five, in Colossians three in one. 394 00:37:19,575 --> 00:37:26,174 Peter three, I think probably in one Corinthians 11, and they're mirrored in church life in one Timothy two. 395 00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:33,930 Slaves are called on to submit to their masters in Ephesians six, Colossians three and one Peter two, as well as the passage in front of us. 396 00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:39,960 That is, these instructions are not kind of out of the blue once off kind of in Scripture, but they're 397 00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:44,670 things that follow the pattern of Scripture as it's taught in many places throughout the Bible. 398 00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:51,600 What is actually weird here is that there are two instructions that don't occur anywhere else. 399 00:37:52,740 --> 00:37:54,720 One of them, you didn't blink an eye at. 400 00:37:55,890 --> 00:37:57,330 Nowhere in Scripture. 401 00:37:57,330 --> 00:38:01,980 Apart from here, are younger women told to love their husbands and children? 402 00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:08,069 Is that not weird that you haven't been told somewhere else that you should love your husband and 403 00:38:08,069 --> 00:38:12,870 children, but none of you go, well, this is a one-off instruction and therefore I shouldn't obey this one. 404 00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:15,029 Why? 405 00:38:15,420 --> 00:38:18,750 Because actually the loving your husband and children fits with the whole 406 00:38:18,750 --> 00:38:22,770 shape and tenor of Scripture, and there's nothing surprising about it at all. 407 00:38:22,770 --> 00:38:31,170 At one level, you think about how Scripture speaks about motherhood and about the, the way that it works and the goodness of life. 408 00:38:31,190 --> 00:38:33,620 The positivity about mothers. 409 00:38:33,800 --> 00:38:35,510 God is like a nursing mother. 410 00:38:35,510 --> 00:38:36,710 Paul is like a mother. 411 00:38:36,710 --> 00:38:38,150 As he ministers to people. 412 00:38:38,600 --> 00:38:41,330 The Scriptures encourage children to obey their parents. 413 00:38:41,330 --> 00:38:44,990 There's a deep and nurturing relationship that occurs between husband and wife. 414 00:38:45,440 --> 00:38:52,100 All of Scripture paints a picture that means you read those words, even though they're the only time that those words occur in the whole of the Bible. 415 00:38:52,100 --> 00:38:53,210 And you go, sure. 416 00:38:55,010 --> 00:38:55,940 And then you read. 417 00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:00,480 Work at home and you go, Hmm. 418 00:39:04,140 --> 00:39:09,300 Now actually working at home is a slightly more complicated thing to deal with for a couple of reasons. 419 00:39:10,020 --> 00:39:20,070 The word in the original ogo is made up of two component parts, OCOS to do with the domestic sphere, the house, the home, and Ergon to work. 420 00:39:20,070 --> 00:39:23,970 Work Orgo, literally workers at home. 421 00:39:25,170 --> 00:39:28,740 You know that etymology doesn't tell you exactly how to use a word, right? 422 00:39:29,460 --> 00:39:34,800 The parts that make it up, or exactly how you know words mean what they mean 423 00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:38,520 as they're used, not just what their bits mean when they're whacked together. 424 00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:43,680 The problem is in terms of working out how to use it, there's not actually a 425 00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:46,950 lot of context here that tells you exactly what he means by workers at home. 426 00:39:46,950 --> 00:39:48,810 It's one little word in a string of things. 427 00:39:49,590 --> 00:39:52,050 There are no other biblical uses of the word. 428 00:39:52,529 --> 00:39:58,169 Actually, there are very few uses of the word outside of the New Testament in the extent literature that we have. 429 00:40:00,390 --> 00:40:01,770 What do you do at that point? 430 00:40:03,540 --> 00:40:05,970 Therefore, we can know nothing about it. 431 00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:09,810 Therefore, we can have a bit of a stab. 432 00:40:11,339 --> 00:40:13,350 Well, actually, we need to be careful, don't we? 433 00:40:13,350 --> 00:40:16,649 Not to overplay what we know and not to dismiss it. 434 00:40:18,285 --> 00:40:22,095 Paul certainly thought that Titus would know what he was talking about when he used 435 00:40:22,095 --> 00:40:26,865 the word he was conveying something that meant something in its original context. 436 00:40:28,065 --> 00:40:32,955 How do we do the best that we can to approach what that kind of word might mean for us? 437 00:40:33,915 --> 00:40:39,825 Well, you notice some of what it says in its context, but you also look at how this idea, the concept of 438 00:40:39,825 --> 00:40:44,955 working at home perhaps, rather than just the words gets picked up and employed in other parts of Scripture. 439 00:40:45,990 --> 00:40:51,180 And I'm gonna suggest to you that I think that actually one Timothy five brings some crucial 440 00:40:51,180 --> 00:40:55,505 background information that informs and helps us as we try to make sense of the word I. 441 00:40:56,115 --> 00:41:02,775 In one Timothy five, you're uh, at the point where the church is being instructed to put some older women 442 00:41:02,775 --> 00:41:07,845 who have become widows on a list of people who are cared for financially and physically by the church. 443 00:41:08,805 --> 00:41:12,975 And Paul is actually laying down a set of criteria for how you get to be on that list. 444 00:41:12,975 --> 00:41:15,945 Not everybody who is widowed deserves to be on the list. 445 00:41:15,945 --> 00:41:18,645 The church is actually to look after some and not others. 446 00:41:19,875 --> 00:41:25,485 But here he's, he starts to describe the characteristics of the godly faithful woman who should be put on that list. 447 00:41:25,845 --> 00:41:27,645 Read it with me, one Timothy five verse nine. 448 00:41:27,645 --> 00:41:31,575 It's about to appear on the screen, let a widow be enrolled if she's not. 449 00:41:31,575 --> 00:41:40,035 Less than 60 years of age, having been the wife of one husband and having a reputation for good works if she's brought up children, 450 00:41:40,305 --> 00:41:47,265 has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted and has devoted herself to every good work. 451 00:41:48,225 --> 00:41:52,634 But refuse to enroll younger widows for when their passions draw them away from Christ 452 00:41:52,634 --> 00:41:57,105 they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their form of faith. 453 00:41:58,035 --> 00:42:06,615 Besides that, they learn to be IRS going about from house to house, and not only irs, but also gossips and busy bodies saying what they should not. 454 00:42:07,845 --> 00:42:15,944 So I would have younger widows marry their children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. 455 00:42:16,859 --> 00:42:19,049 For some have already strayed after Satan. 456 00:42:19,830 --> 00:42:23,129 If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them. 457 00:42:23,759 --> 00:42:27,810 Let the church not be burdened so that it may care for those who are truly widows. 458 00:42:29,339 --> 00:42:35,069 Now again, culturally, this passage raises some discomfort for us, doesn't it? 459 00:42:36,299 --> 00:42:38,700 There are some complexities in understanding the passage. 460 00:42:39,390 --> 00:42:44,160 I think following towner that the passions which carry them away from Christ 461 00:42:44,160 --> 00:42:47,370 probably indicate that they've ended up marrying someone who's not Christian. 462 00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:56,250 I suspect that that's what's going on in the text, but will you please notice what it is that's to be honored amongst the household of God's people? 463 00:42:57,300 --> 00:43:05,160 It's good works, bringing up children, hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, caring for the afflicted. 464 00:43:06,585 --> 00:43:11,445 Do you notice that those things have a clear focus in terms of their domestic nature? 465 00:43:11,835 --> 00:43:15,285 Many of them are centered, again on the household, the kinds of things like 466 00:43:15,495 --> 00:43:18,975 loving your husband and children and things that are over in Titus chapter two. 467 00:43:20,610 --> 00:43:23,310 But added to that, we get other kind of phrases and descriptions. 468 00:43:23,310 --> 00:43:25,500 You see that her work is not just within the house. 469 00:43:25,500 --> 00:43:30,210 She's actually a blessing through her household to the entire community in which she lives. 470 00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:32,100 She washes the feet of the saints. 471 00:43:32,100 --> 00:43:33,690 She cares for the afflicted. 472 00:43:33,930 --> 00:43:38,490 Her household becomes a place that actually brings grace and hope and healing, and hopefully 473 00:43:38,695 --> 00:43:44,040 physical and hopefully spiritual nurture to people who are all sorts of places outside of the home. 474 00:43:45,794 --> 00:43:51,765 She's someone who is known as managing her household in a way that I think makes it a blessing, not just for those 475 00:43:51,765 --> 00:43:56,745 who live within it, but makes their household a blessing in the community and the world of which they're apart. 476 00:43:58,064 --> 00:44:05,834 So one aspect of this working at home, I suspect, is realizing that the home is held in very high esteem, scripturally. 477 00:44:06,569 --> 00:44:12,000 And what goes on with the nurturing and raising of children and the care of others and the way that people are welcomed 478 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:18,810 in, in hospitality and the way that people are loved in and through the life of a household is incredibly significant. 479 00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:28,740 But secondly, it's important for us to realize that again, our cultural misappropriation of these things gets wildly off kilter. 480 00:44:30,120 --> 00:44:35,640 If you read something like Xenophon, which I know you kind of get up to on your day off, right? 481 00:44:35,640 --> 00:44:43,560 But anyway, so writing 400 years before Paul, but in his book, the economics writes at length about 482 00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:50,520 the way that a faithful wife in his world, overseas, basically the entire industry of the household. 483 00:44:51,555 --> 00:44:56,445 She managed the house, she spent all of the money that was spent in the house. 484 00:44:56,775 --> 00:45:00,525 She looked after the welfare of the servants and slaves. 485 00:45:01,035 --> 00:45:07,785 She acted in all sorts of ways, and you put that picture next to something like Proverbs 31, where she's buying 486 00:45:07,785 --> 00:45:13,275 and selling cloth and acting in the marketplace and doing business and owning land and all of that kind of stuff. 487 00:45:14,265 --> 00:45:16,065 And you are painted this picture of. 488 00:45:17,175 --> 00:45:21,315 Actually, they were all oppressed back then and none of them knew what was really true. 489 00:45:22,365 --> 00:45:30,675 They actually lived messy, complex, busy, difficult lives just like you and I live in world where actually what she 490 00:45:30,675 --> 00:45:38,565 was doing as a member of the household wasn't denigrated as some sort of weird private sphere that made her unworthy. 491 00:45:39,705 --> 00:45:45,404 It was actually held up as a place of great, good and honor that was to be praised 492 00:45:45,495 --> 00:45:51,435 and held up by all, even in the community around about them and not just in Scripture. 493 00:45:52,665 --> 00:45:59,145 My point here, brothers and sisters, is not to delineate a specific set of internal and external responsibilities. 494 00:46:00,300 --> 00:46:07,080 It is more to say that when Paul encourages them to be working at home, he's encouraging them to do something that is seen 495 00:46:07,080 --> 00:46:14,520 as deeply honorable and particularly honorable because of the nature of God's household and what happens in the gospel. 496 00:46:14,970 --> 00:46:20,955 I. To act in the light of God's family, in your own family, in ways that reflect who you know 497 00:46:20,955 --> 00:46:25,154 and love, and therefore to love your husband and children, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 498 00:46:25,605 --> 00:46:29,265 Those are not a put down or a removal from something significant. 499 00:46:29,265 --> 00:46:33,765 They're actually a way of commending something that's deep and rich and good. 500 00:46:35,895 --> 00:46:43,005 Now, I think it's also important that I think one Timothy E five gives you another little picture, which is that one of the other things that he's 501 00:46:43,005 --> 00:46:52,545 trying to work against, as he says to them, uh, marry and look after your children in your household is not becoming idols or busy bodies or gossips. 502 00:46:53,595 --> 00:46:57,825 Is, what does a fruitfully engaged life look like? 503 00:46:58,455 --> 00:47:03,794 It looks like using who you are and your resources and who you've been made to be and where you've been placed 504 00:47:04,064 --> 00:47:08,805 for the good of the people around, about you and through them for the good of the community that you're a part of. 505 00:47:10,814 --> 00:47:20,174 Whatever being a worker at home is, it's contrasted with idling, with being a busy body, with finding the latest morsel of gossip to share. 506 00:47:20,174 --> 00:47:25,800 I. That's what he's actually denouncing, and so I think. 507 00:47:26,370 --> 00:47:33,750 Actually these instructions, which in one ways are one-off the individual words, the instruction itself doesn't occur anywhere else in Scripture. 508 00:47:34,529 --> 00:47:41,910 I wanna suggest to you that I just think a rich reading of the fullness of the witness of Scripture actually brings evidence that lines up 509 00:47:41,910 --> 00:47:49,529 completely alongside the evidence of Titus two, that Paul thought that all the things that he was commanding to the people in Titus two. 510 00:47:49,850 --> 00:47:54,230 Verses two to 10 were just things that are a real and rich outworking of 511 00:47:54,230 --> 00:47:58,250 following Jesus and acknowledging him as people have been saved by the gospel. 512 00:47:59,660 --> 00:48:07,430 But having said that, I do think that the extrinsic evidence is a little more complex than the intrinsic evidence. 513 00:48:08,299 --> 00:48:14,115 And so as we come to the end of this first talk, there are two things that I wanna raise that I want us to wrestle with a bit in the second half. 514 00:48:15,825 --> 00:48:21,795 You see Paul instructs Titus to instruct the older women to teach the younger women to love their husbands and 515 00:48:21,795 --> 00:48:29,055 children to be self-controlled, pure, working at home kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of 516 00:48:29,055 --> 00:48:36,134 God may not be reviled, as I've already said to you, the ancient literature from before and even during the time. 517 00:48:36,134 --> 00:48:38,265 So from Xenophon and then down to someone like Philo. 518 00:48:39,285 --> 00:48:46,005 All tells you that perhaps these things that he's encouraging 'em to, were seen as virtues more broadly in the society around about them. 519 00:48:46,755 --> 00:48:52,305 And so it's easy to think that the logical connection between the kind of way that they lived and the word of 520 00:48:52,305 --> 00:48:57,615 God being attractive and not reviled was just that what Christians were doing lined up with the world outside. 521 00:48:57,615 --> 00:49:00,855 And actually that's the kind of thing that that brought this to pass. 522 00:49:00,855 --> 00:49:02,625 But what do we do? 523 00:49:03,465 --> 00:49:07,424 When teaching these things or seeking to live these things out seems to bring the 524 00:49:07,424 --> 00:49:12,045 exact opposite response to God's word that Paul seems to tell you that it should. 525 00:49:13,515 --> 00:49:19,335 Speaking these things and living this way will cause people to adorn and not revile the truth about God. 526 00:49:20,475 --> 00:49:23,235 What happens when you speak them or live this way? 527 00:49:23,355 --> 00:49:30,945 And it feels like this is what actually causes the reviling of the word of God, and that doesn't lead to any kind of adornment. 528 00:49:32,835 --> 00:49:37,215 How do we hold that together and is there a biblical principle on what sense do we make of it? 529 00:49:38,805 --> 00:49:45,315 The second problem that we have in this passage is that while we engage with all of these things, the stuff about bond 530 00:49:45,315 --> 00:49:52,155 servants and their masters, we kind of skip over because it doesn't actually exist in our experience, in our part of the world. 531 00:49:53,415 --> 00:50:01,214 I mean, apart from perhaps workers in the gig economy and other people who actually are in some sort of economic semis, slavery, I would suggest, 532 00:50:03,254 --> 00:50:04,995 but I don't think it's analogous. 533 00:50:06,765 --> 00:50:12,105 But here's the thing that's quite complex for us, evangelicals on the basis of 534 00:50:12,105 --> 00:50:18,310 gospel conviction, argued against slavery in their world and saw it eradicated. 535 00:50:20,370 --> 00:50:25,950 So why don't we who follow an apostle who said, in Christ there is no male and female. 536 00:50:26,700 --> 00:50:33,180 Do the same thing with these instructions that occur about men and women when they too have been abused. 537 00:50:33,360 --> 00:50:37,200 Should they not be overturned and removed in the same way that we have removed slavery? 538 00:50:37,380 --> 00:50:44,460 How can we celebrate the evangelicals who eradicated slavery while saying, these are still instructions that we ought to obey. 539 00:50:45,495 --> 00:50:51,705 I actually think we need to have a good answer to that question if we're gonna actually live faithfully and do these things. 540 00:50:53,265 --> 00:50:57,825 Uh, given the amount of time we spent so far, they, they're questions for the second talk, and I planned it that way. 541 00:50:58,274 --> 00:51:03,314 Um, let me just conclude and remind you of where we've come. 542 00:51:04,785 --> 00:51:07,814 We're engaged with a section of Scripture which calls us to a particular way of 543 00:51:07,814 --> 00:51:12,314 living as those who know the grace of God that has appeared in the Lord Jesus Christ. 544 00:51:12,645 --> 00:51:18,405 And our great and glorious savior will appear again, and he has given himself to redeem us 545 00:51:18,405 --> 00:51:23,235 from lawlessness and to make us a people of his own possession who are zealous for good. 546 00:51:24,645 --> 00:51:28,695 We've noted that we should expect as we read Scripture because of our commitment 547 00:51:28,695 --> 00:51:32,295 to it as the word of God, that some of it's gonna be pokey and uncomfortable. 548 00:51:33,135 --> 00:51:38,805 We should be aware of the fact that this discomfort that we feel affects the way that we read the Bible. 549 00:51:39,930 --> 00:51:44,160 We should be aware that there's not an absolute blanket rule for what we do with Scripture. 550 00:51:45,180 --> 00:51:47,970 The way that we engage with it is a thoughtful reading of it. 551 00:51:47,970 --> 00:51:52,860 In its immediate context, read wisely in light of the fullness of the theological 552 00:51:52,860 --> 00:51:57,390 revelation of the character of God and his work in the gospel displayed in the whole Bible. 553 00:51:58,350 --> 00:52:02,370 That actually is the task that you ought to be doing every time you go to Bible study. 554 00:52:02,370 --> 00:52:06,000 Could I encourage you, but it becomes particularly relevant here. 555 00:52:07,920 --> 00:52:12,090 I suggested to you that the intrinsic evidence, the structure, character, and argument 556 00:52:12,090 --> 00:52:16,440 of Titus pushes very strongly to the fact that all of these instructions are for us. 557 00:52:17,790 --> 00:52:21,540 I think that much of the extrinsic evidence points us in that direction, but 558 00:52:21,540 --> 00:52:24,810 there are some complexities in that evidence that we need to deal well with. 559 00:52:26,790 --> 00:52:29,970 So in the second talk, I want to deal with those two questions. 560 00:52:30,315 --> 00:52:37,694 But then I wanna return to this issue of, and you'll say at long last, what does it mean to say something like, I think Godliness is complimentarian. 561 00:52:37,995 --> 00:52:38,865 We will get there. 562 00:52:46,845 --> 00:52:51,555 Thank you for listening to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College. 563 00:52:52,155 --> 00:52:56,805 Our vision as a College is to see God glorified by men and women living for 564 00:52:56,805 --> 00:53:01,485 and proclaiming Jesus Christ, growing healthy churches and reaching the lost. 565 00:53:01,875 --> 00:53:04,545 We invite you to attend any of our upcoming events. 566 00:53:04,904 --> 00:53:07,694 Including this one from the Priscilla & Aquila Centre. 567 00:53:08,055 --> 00:53:15,285 The term "Complementarian" was coined in 1988 to describe the view that God created men and women equally in his 568 00:53:15,285 --> 00:53:22,725 image with equal dignity and purpose and equal standing before him as sinners and as recipients of his grace. 569 00:53:23,325 --> 00:53:31,295 However, in marriage and in leadership of the church, some roles and responsibilities for men and women are not identical or interchangeable. 570 00:53:31,775 --> 00:53:34,655 There is ordered complementarity of equals. 571 00:53:35,585 --> 00:53:43,440 Even though the term "Complementarian" was new, this view reflects 20 centuries of biblical interpretation and church practice. 572 00:53:44,220 --> 00:53:51,180 Join us for the next Priscilla & Aquila evening seminar on Wednesday the 13th of August, 2025, when writer 573 00:53:51,180 --> 00:53:56,970 and theologian Claire Smith will examine the history of Complementarianism, not just for its own sake, 574 00:53:57,300 --> 00:54:03,780 but to help us gain a greater understanding of our current context and to identify areas of future focus. 575 00:54:04,620 --> 00:54:08,430 To find out more and register, visit the Priscilla & Aquila website. 576 00:54:08,729 --> 00:54:12,520 That's paa.moore.edu.au. 577 00:54:13,140 --> 00:54:16,359 paa.moore.edu.au. 578 00:54:22,259 --> 00:54:28,759 You can find out more and register by going to the Moore College website: moore.edu.au. 579 00:54:29,089 --> 00:54:30,580 That's moore.edu.au. 580 00:54:31,170 --> 00:54:35,400 If you have not already done so, we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast 581 00:54:35,400 --> 00:54:39,270 through your favourite podcast platform so that you'll never miss an episode. 582 00:54:39,960 --> 00:54:44,940 For past episodes, further resources, and to make a tax deductible donation to support 583 00:54:44,940 --> 00:54:52,850 the work of the College and its mission, please visit our website at moore.edu.au. 584 00:54:54,090 --> 00:54:59,880 If you found this episode helpful, please share it with a friend, and leave a review on your platform of choice. 585 00:55:00,660 --> 00:55:08,840 We always benefit from feedback from our listeners, so if you'd like to get in touch, you can email us at comms@moore.edu.au. 586 00:55:10,200 --> 00:55:18,240 The Moore in the Word podcast was edited and produced by me, Karen Beilharz, and the Communications Team at Moore Theological College. 587 00:55:18,780 --> 00:55:22,660 The music for our podcast was provided by MarkJuly from PixaBay. 588 00:55:23,430 --> 00:55:24,330 Until next time.