Congregational Bible Experience Day #70
Bible Reading: Titus - Philemon
Introduction: God's intention for the Gospel in your life, is not that it merely rescues you from coming judgement (which it does), but that it also changes you - not by bringing you under a new set of rules to obey, but by transforming your heart so that you first begin to think and feel about life and one another as Jesus does, so that in time we come to live and act and respond like Him as well.
In these two short letters, Paul is pressing the recipients to let the Gospel have its transforming impact in their lives by allowing it to go deep into their hearts. Paul writes to Titus to insist that those who profess to be believers should live as those who have been washed and cleansed by Christ's death (Titus 3:3-8). Paul writes to Philemon to encourage him to lovingly forgive the unforgivable, even as Christ has mercifully forgiven him (Philemon 4,16).
May Gospel roots sink deep into our hearts that we may bear abundant Gospel fruit in our lives.
It's easy to point
the finger at these Cretan Christians and accuse them of churlish godlessness.
2 responses come to mind: first, such behaviour is probably the normality among
first generation believers - even today - who are converted from within cultures
that have had little previous exposure to Biblical moral standards. We need to
be praying for missionary pastors in situations where historically there has
been no historical influence of the Christian ethic. In those circumstances,
Gospel-motivated changes in people's behaviour and lifestyles need to start
further back along the moral path. Second, and perhaps more pertinently
relevant, to look down upon other sinners as being less worthy than ourselves
is to miss the point entirely. Paul's finger-pointing at the Cretans is in the
context of having his own other 3 fingers point back at himself (3:3). Paul's strongly moral and legalistic
background only thinly veils a morally corrupt heart in need of transformation,
which law-keeping - as we have seen already elsewhere - cannot achieve. Those
of us privileged with a Christian heritage, are no better than anyone else; we
are still wholly saved by God's undeserved mercy and grace (v4-7), "by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit". That is, all of grace.
Philemon comes
across as a mature believer, his life having been radically changed by the
Gospel (v4-7). Onesimus, Philemon's slave, had run away, only to be converted
under Paul's personal and direct influence. How now should Philemon view
Onesimus? As a criminal fugitive justly
to expect retribution and punishment? Or as a new brother in Christ whose
salvation was being demonstrated in the sincerity of his care for Paul
(v11,13)? Paul's letter is a tender
request that Philemon should now receive his slave back, no longer as a runaway
felon, but instead consider him as a "beloved brother" in Christ who
will now serve the Lord alongside him (v16). But the significance of Paul's
request is not that he demands Philemon's compliance, but that he has appealed
to Philemon's heart in love (v9-10) that he might respond with love (v16-17).
For both slave-owner and have been transformed by grace; they were once both
slaves to sin, and are now - like Paul - held as prisoners by God's grace, and
each are learning what it means to become less self-centred and more lovingly
other-centred, for the sake of Christ. Like Titus's Cretans, Philemon and
Onesimus are being transformed - not by lawful compulsion - but from the inside
out, by the Gospel which saves us even as it changes our attitudes towards one
another (see 2 Corinthians 5:14-18)
Bible Reading: Titus - Philemon
Introduction: God's intention for the Gospel in your life, is not that it merely rescues you from coming judgement (which it does), but that it also changes you - not by bringing you under a new set of rules to obey, but by transforming your heart so that you first begin to think and feel about life and one another as Jesus does, so that in time we come to live and act and respond like Him as well.
In these two short letters, Paul is pressing the recipients to let the Gospel have its transforming impact in their lives by allowing it to go deep into their hearts. Paul writes to Titus to insist that those who profess to be believers should live as those who have been washed and cleansed by Christ's death (Titus 3:3-8). Paul writes to Philemon to encourage him to lovingly forgive the unforgivable, even as Christ has mercifully forgiven him (Philemon 4,16).
May Gospel roots sink deep into our hearts that we may bear abundant Gospel fruit in our lives.
Reading through
Paul's letter to Titus suggests that the younger man didn't have his sorrows to
seek as he tries to motivate these Cretan believers to move forward in their
walk with God. It seems that beyond an
initial commitment to Christ, they haven't really got very far. There is little
in this church that is noteworthy of Paul's praise and thanksgiving to God. The
behaviour that Paul does mention as requiring Titus's intervention and
correction seems more like what we would associate with that of unbelievers
rather than that of Christians: potential elders must not be over-bearing,
hot-headed, drunk, violent or in it for themselves (1:7); older men need to be
told to be temperate, self-controlled, living lives of respect (2:2); older
women are to be reverent, not slanderers, staying away from the wine… (v3); the
younger women in church have to be shown what it is to love their husbands and
families… (v4-5); younger men too need to have it spelled out and modelled
before them what it is to be good… (v6-7); converted slaves should not
disrespect or steal (!) from their masters, but aim to please (v9-10) .
It's easy to point
the finger at these Cretan Christians and accuse them of churlish godlessness.
2 responses come to mind: first, such behaviour is probably the normality among
first generation believers - even today - who are converted from within cultures
that have had little previous exposure to Biblical moral standards. We need to
be praying for missionary pastors in situations where historically there has
been no historical influence of the Christian ethic. In those circumstances,
Gospel-motivated changes in people's behaviour and lifestyles need to start
further back along the moral path. Second, and perhaps more pertinently
relevant, to look down upon other sinners as being less worthy than ourselves
is to miss the point entirely. Paul's finger-pointing at the Cretans is in the
context of having his own other 3 fingers point back at himself (3:3). Paul's strongly moral and legalistic
background only thinly veils a morally corrupt heart in need of transformation,
which law-keeping - as we have seen already elsewhere - cannot achieve. Those
of us privileged with a Christian heritage, are no better than anyone else; we
are still wholly saved by God's undeserved mercy and grace (v4-7), "by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit". That is, all of grace.
Paul's brief letter
to Philemon is often paired with his letter to the Colossians, as Philemon was
a wealthy Christian from Colossae in whose house the church gathered. At its
heart, the letter is about the power of the Gospel to change people's lives, in
ways that are unexpected and which cause us to reassess whether we are living
and loving in line with the same Gospel.
Philemon comes
across as a mature believer, his life having been radically changed by the
Gospel (v4-7). Onesimus, Philemon's slave, had run away, only to be converted
under Paul's personal and direct influence. How now should Philemon view
Onesimus? As a criminal fugitive justly
to expect retribution and punishment? Or as a new brother in Christ whose
salvation was being demonstrated in the sincerity of his care for Paul
(v11,13)? Paul's letter is a tender
request that Philemon should now receive his slave back, no longer as a runaway
felon, but instead consider him as a "beloved brother" in Christ who
will now serve the Lord alongside him (v16). But the significance of Paul's
request is not that he demands Philemon's compliance, but that he has appealed
to Philemon's heart in love (v9-10) that he might respond with love (v16-17).
For both slave-owner and have been transformed by grace; they were once both
slaves to sin, and are now - like Paul - held as prisoners by God's grace, and
each are learning what it means to become less self-centred and more lovingly
other-centred, for the sake of Christ. Like Titus's Cretans, Philemon and
Onesimus are being transformed - not by lawful compulsion - but from the inside
out, by the Gospel which saves us even as it changes our attitudes towards one
another (see 2 Corinthians 5:14-18)
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