Perhaps it is because I spend too much time with social media,or maybe just the daily news, that I can’t help but find examples of how the advice and observations Paul offers in his various epistles continues to apply today. Then again, despite our computers and self-driving cars and striped toothpaste, people haven’t changed much in the last two millennia.
In this passage from Titus (who was among the believers on the island of Crete), Paul is discussing those “detestable” types who criticize others constantly, spread endless dissension, and yet do it from their own holier-than-thou point of view. Today these sorts write opinion pieces that appear on the Internet. Somehowthey seem to see racism and misogyny and hatred everywhere, yet they do it without ever really looking. Feeling offended is all they require. But it is for our own good, they say, and give themselves a pass when they themselves hurt and offend the targets of their strident critiques.
Paul himself is strident in his advice to Titus. He tells him these men are to be silenced (vs 11) and to rebuke them sharply (vs 13) so that they will be sound in the faith. Notice that this last is said not out of retribution, but out of love. Not only are they to be silenced to rid the faithful of wrong teaching, but it is to replace their corrupted understanding with that which is pure and true. And that is genuinely for their own good, because it comes from Christ.
PRAYER: Our Lord, we praise you for making us pure and for the light of truth you have bestowed upon us to shine through us. Give us the strength and courage to call out evil for what it is, regardless of source and the stridency of those speaking it. But always keep on reminding us that we are to do this only out of love, for it is your work we do, to your glory. In Thy holy name we pray, AMEN.
GOD BLESS YOU.
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Authored by: Jeffery D. Kooistra