Jump Start # 1601

Titus 3:1-2 “Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.”

Preaching isn’t always teaching new truths, in fact, there isn’t anything really new. The old, old story must be told over and over. In doing this, some lessons, some truths must be repeated to the same people. Sure, we’ve heard this before, but we need to hear it again. This is the idea behind our verse today. Remind them.  Peter uses the same thought in his epistles.

We need reminders because we forget. Living in a world that is disobedient to God we can get caught up in that spirit and forget that we are to be different. We are to be submissive, obedient and gentle.

We need reminders because life can get ugly and we often feel like fighting back. We can only take so much and when we have reached that limit, we so easily can forget all that we are. Remind them.

We need reminders because walking with Christ is a choice. These actions, submissive, obedience, gentleness are all choices that we must make. The natural thing to do is often not the direction of Christ. So we must always be thinking. We must always understand the choices. Remind them.

The Common English Bible words our passage as: “They shouldn’t speak disrespectfully about anyone, but they should be peaceable, kind, and show complete courtesy toward everyone.”

Paul is teaching what Christ lived. Jesus wasn’t disrespectful to anyone. Samaritans? No. Lepers? No. Tax collectors? No. Gentiles? No. Jewish leaders? No. Respectful. Not misquoting them. Not putting words in their mouths. Not taking things out of context to make them look bad. Not lumping them all together. Not ridiculing them. Jesus wouldn’t make it in the political arena today. Mud slinging has become normal. Trash talking, mean spirited, misquoting and making the opponent look bad is the means to win votes and elections. As elections draw near, the commercials become more numerous and more offensive. The public tires of them. Once the elections are over the politicians are not heard of again until the next round of elections.

We do well to follow the steps of Jesus. These verses can easily be summed up by the golden rule. Treat others as you would want to be treated. That would manifest our verse today. Malign no one. Peaceable. Gentle. Considerate. These choices and characteristics build bridges of communication with others. It’s the rude, harsh, “my-way or the highway” attitude that shuts doors and leaves a person feeling like they have been pressured or bullied into something that they did not want to be.

I expect most of us do pretty good with these. It’s hard not to if you are learning from Jesus. Our troubles usually are found when we disagree with someone. When a conversation becomes controversial then our tone gets louder. Our speech is faster. Our words are not gentle, they become rough. We have less patience and less consideration for the other person.

Consideration for all people does not mean look the other way. It is not the New Testament’s version of tolerance. It’s not those at all. It’s understanding where a person is coming from. Not everyone sees truth as quickly as you did. Not everyone understands. Some have decades of error that they must work through. Some have been told things that can not be supported Biblically. That’s a journey they must work through to discover the truth of God’s will.

Here’s one tough one for many folks. In the New Testament, the church sang. There are 9 verses in the New Testament that shows the early church singing. Simple truth. Many understand this. For many, this is normal. This is the way they grew up. But for tons of others, they have never even thought about this. They grew up with churches using organs and today the church has a full band. The music is lovely, exciting and a huge part of the worship experience. Some places have full time music directors whose job is to keep the music lively and cutting edge. To tell these folks that the church never used instruments in the N.T. is so radical, foreign and odd, most can’t believe that you’d even bring up that subject. It praises God, doesn’t it. That’s how many see it. Why fuss about something so insignificant as this? Don’t you have anything better to do?

But it is a matter of worshipping the N.T. way. If one is to follow God’s will, they must follow it. God never told the church to make music, He said sing. We understand the difference between band class and choir class. A student that shows up with a trumpet at choir class is laughed at. But the guy who goes to band class without an instrument is also laughed at. Band and choir are two different classes. One plays and the other sings. We get that. We know that. In the N.T. the church sang. But how about all those Psalms, like 150, that names specific instruments and it says to praise God with those instruments? Right. It certainly does. That’s not the church. Back in the Psalms they were still sacrificing animals, waiting for the Messiah, and traveling to Jerusalem three times a year. Different law. They worshipped on the Sabbath, not Sunday. To be like that early church, to imitate the churches of Judea as the Thessalonians did, a congregation will drop the instruments. History agrees with the N.T. The use of instruments in worship did not become a part of the church until hundreds of years later.

All of this is to remind ourselves what Paul told Titus to remind his people to be considerate of others. Learning truths takes time. Don’t be ugly with those who do not get it. Teach. Show. Illustrate.

Some will say, “there is no passage that says you can’t.” Right. God doesn’t have to say “Thou shalt not, for something to condemned.” He tells us what He wants. You will not find a passage that says, “Thou shalt not have soft drinks for the Lord’s Supper.” It’s not there. What is there, is what Jesus used. Following Jesus will lead us to doing what He did. God doesn’t have to name every beverage in the world for it to be condemned. He states what He wants. We understand this in life. We go to get our oil changed in the car and it’s understood that is what we want done. If the guy, on his own, decided to change our headlights, wiper blades, change the transmission fluid and presents a bill of over $400, we’d flip. We’d declare “I never asked you to do those things.” He’d say, “You didn’t tell me not to.” Oh, we’d have issues then and there. We get this in life. It works the same with God. The Lord never said “make music.” The church was told to sing. They did. Is it wrong to include instruments with our singing? Is it wrong to add things to what God says? Where do you stop? Who decides? Is it wrong for the guy to add things done to our car when we want an oil change? Cain worshipped different than what God wanted. Was God happy with him? Aaron’s sons, used a different fire for the sacrifice. Was God happy? They died because of that. Remember in Revelation, we are told not to add to nor take away. It’s a fact the early church sang. Now, can I be content with that, or must I start adding and changing that.

This is just one simple illustration. What music did the church have in the First Century? The answer is singing hymns to God. Anything different than that is not what was done in the original church. Now, given that fact, what am I to do with that? Fuss? Argue? Be submissive and obedient? Ignore the facts? Do what I want? Do what everyone else wants? Do what God wants?

Be considerate is kindness in action. It’s not tolerating things that are wrong but neither is it busting a guy over the head with the Bible. Show. Teach. Illustrate. Prove. Let the Bible work on a heart. Let a person see the pattern of God in the Bible.

Be considerate…great words for us to live by.

Roger