This sermon on Titus was given in a series at Kew Baptist Church, London.
Prioritise what is profitable. It is perhaps the most basic rule in business. Focusing your efforts on products that make no money, or even worse, lose money, is hardly the secret to economic success. There are of course exceptions. However, the central truth remains, profitable products are at the heart of any good business. This rule of prioritising the profitable, applies not only to businessmen looking to become billionaires, it is crucial in many other aspects of life. For example, athletes apply the same rule. They prioritise the profitable. Anything that will shave seconds off their time, help them to recover quicker or train longer, is embraced. Anything that wastes their strength or slows them down is avoided. Athletes have regular early bedtimes, healthy balanced diets and consistent training programmes because each of these things are profitable to them. On the other hand, they avoid staying up late and binging on junk food because each of those things is an obstacle, obstruction to their success. They prioritise what is profitable. They avoid what is unprofitable.
Here at the end of Paul’s letter to Titus, we see him highlight that churches and Christians should take the same approach. Like an athlete they should prioritise what is profitable and avoid what is unprofitable. Embrace what helps and evade what harms. These are the two instructions that lie at the heart of 3:8-15. In 3:8-9 Paul explains: ‘I want you to insist on these things…These things are excellent and profitable for people. But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.’ On the one hand, Paul tells Titus to assert what is profitable. On the other to avoid what is unprofitable. As we go through the passage, we will see that everything Paul says in 3:8-15 is connected back to or grows out of these two things: assert what is profitable (3:8, 12-14) and avoid what is unprofitable (3:9-11).
1. ASSERT WHAT IS PROFITABLE (3:8, 12-14)
‘Trust me when I tell you.’ ‘You can be sure of this.’ ‘Believe me when I say.’ ‘You can count on that.’ Those are the kinds of everyday phrases we use to emphasise the reliability of something important. When we use phrases like this, we don’t mean that the other things we say can’t be relied upon. Rather, we mean that this particular statement is so significant, that they should make sure that they are certain of it. Even if they were to disregard everything else we say, they must not doubt this fact. Doubting such a definite declaration would be disastrous. Paul begins our passage with such a phrase: ‘The saying is trustworthy…’ (3:8) What saying does he mean? Well, he almost certainly means the significant statement that he has just made in 3:4-7. As we thought about it last week, having described the depths of our depravity in 3:3, in 3:4-7 Paul states the scale our salvation. The greatness of that appearance of the goodness and generosity of God, when he saved us. In one single sentence, spread across four verses, Paul summarises our salvation. When we were saved. Who has saved. Why we were saved. How we were saved. What we were saved for. Straight after saying all of this, Paul stresses the trustworthiness of this teaching. ‘The saying is trustworthy…’ (3:8) This isn’t the only time Paul does this, five times in his letters to Timothy and Titus Paul tells them that what he has just said or is just about to say is a trustworthy teaching. In 1 Timothy 1:15, perhaps the most famous of the five, he writes ‘The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…’. He does the same in 1 Timothy 3:1, 4:9 and 2 Timothy 2:11. While every letter Paul wrote which is included in the New Testament is trustworthy teaching. However, within his letters there are sayings that are so significant, their reliability was particularly emphasised.
Given the importance of what Paul has said, it is perhaps unsurprising that he tells Titus to ‘insist on these things’. These things were so significant that Titus was to stress them. However, we quickly see that Paul has another reason why Titus should insist on these things. Later in 3:8 we have noticed he explains, ‘These things are excellent and profitable for people.’ These things are not only reliable, they are profitable. Like any athlete, or sensible business, Titus was to prioritise the profitable. What kind of profit is Paul talking about? It is not economic gain or athletic greatness. Paul tells Titus he is to ‘insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.’ That is why he says these things are profitable, for they cause Christians to commit to good works. Paul says that these things should be emphasised not only because of their reliability, but also their results. Titus is to insist on these things, that is the Gospel, because it generates good works.
What kind of good works is Paul talking about? Well I think he gives us a taster of them as he finishes the letter. In 3:12-13 Paul gives Titus two instructions: ‘When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing.’ Those are the good works Paul wants Titus to perform. However, we see that carrying out these instructions will have an impact on others. For immediately after telling Titus about these two tasks, Paul writes in 3:14, ‘And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.’ Back in 2:7, Paul told Titus ‘to be a model of good works’. I think he teaches the same here. Titus leaving Crete to serve alongside Paul and Titus helping Zenas and Apollos as they travel through is how people will learn to devote themselves to good works and help in cases of urgent need themselves. When they see his good works, they will go and do the same.
Paul not only gives us a taster of good works here in 3:12-14, but I think he also points us to the type of good works he wants us to prioritise. Last week we seen that we are to be good to all. Whether as a lollypop lady, volunteering at a foodbank or visiting elderly neighbours. Just as there were no borders to God’s goodness, their should be no bounds to ours. However, we only have so much time and energy. On what should we mainly focus our efforts? On who should we primarily spend our strength? By listing these two tasks, I think Paul implies here what he makes clear elsewhere: that (1) Christian service and (2) serving Christians should be priorities for us. The first task Titus gives is a form of Christian service – that is, Titus is to work alongside Paul in his mission to strengthen the saints and plant new churches. Here we see that while we should do all kinds of good, there are some kinds of good we should focus on in particular. As John Piper is famous for phrasing it, ‘Christians should care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering’. That means we should absolutely seek to alleviate hunger, cure diseases, care for the homeless and support the vunerable. However, we would be bad stewards if we focused more on earthly suffering than on eternal suffering. Our greatest efforts should go towards the greatest need. And the greatest need of this world is the gospel. That should be our first priority. Everything else we do should serve that support that end. The second task Titus was to carry out was serving other Christians. Titus is not only to serve himself, but to help others serve as well. He is to help Zenas and Apollos on their way. Here we see that yes we ought to do good to all, we have an obligation to all our neighbours. However, we have an obligation especially towards our brothers and sisters in the faith. Our good works shouldn’t stop there, but they should certainly be seen there. Paul makes the implication found here in Titus 3 explicitly in Galatians 6:10: 'So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.' In all our good works, (1) Christian service and (2) serving Christians should be priorities for us. Those are the types of good works Paul tasks Titus with here.
Finally, lest you feel overwhelmed by having an obligation to good to everyone, especially other Christians. To not only take the gospel to the ends of the earth, but also end world hunger. Lest the scale of such good works overcome you, see here the standard Paul sets. Twice he gives Titus the same target: ‘When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis… Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way’. Friends, see here the standard we are to strive for in all the good works we do. Paul realises that as much as Titus may try to get to him before winter, that may not be possible. Storms may prevent him sailing. Unexpected circumstances may block his path. Paul knows that even if Titus does everything in his power to speed Zenas and Apollos on their way, they too may face hurdles and obstacles that slow them down. Paul was perfectly aware that Titus, that we, live in a world of unexpected interuptions and adverse conditions. Therefore, what does he tell Titus? He tells him to do his best. How refreshing is that? No matter how hard we might try, none of us are able to secure success by our own strength. All we can do is our best. That is all we are asked to do. It is our job to spend our lives, our time, our engery, our resources, as best as we can in God’s service. Everything else is up to him. We are to devote ourselves to good works as best we can. It is not within our power to do any more than that.
As Christians who are firmly grounded in the truth that we are saved by grace alone, which we have been thinking about this morning, sometimes we feel a little strange speaking about good works. The main way we think about good works is found in places like Ephesians 2:8-9, ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.’ This great truth is why we sing verses like, ‘Not the labours of my hands; Can fulfil thy law's demands; Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears for ever flow, All for sin could not atone; Thou must save, and thou alone.’ We absolutely should announce this truth about salavation by grace alone, and yet we must take care that we do not think and talk about good works in this way alone. For the Bible certainly doesn’t. In fact, in those passages where we see clearest that we are saved by grace not our works, there is often another emphasis as well. There in Ephesians 2:8-9, straight after Paul declares that we have been saved by grace through faith, not a result of works, he immediately in 2:10, ‘For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.’ Here we see that while we are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. Yes, our salvation is not the result of our good works, but the result of our salvation should be our good works. The same dual emphasis seen in Ephesians 2, is also seen here in Titus 3. Back in 3:5 Paul proclaimed, ‘he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…’. And yet, here in 3:8 he calls for Christians ‘to devote themselves to good works.’ Clearly then there is more than one way to speak about good works.
The 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon, when preaching on this passage, helpfully articulated the distinction to be made between these two ways of speaking of good works like this, ‘To the sinner, that he may be saved, we say not a word concerning good works, except to remind him that he has none of them. To the believer who is saved, we say ten thousand words concerning good works, beseeching him to bring forth much fruit.... There is all the difference between the living and the dead: the living we arouse to work; the dead must first receive life.’ Both in the beginning of Ephesians 2 and here in Titus 3 Paul is speaking about the dead. Here in Titus, we are described as being once ‘foolish, disobedient, slaves to various passions and pleasures…’ (3:3). That is ‘when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared’, when ‘he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…’. However, by the time Paul passes on to speaking about being devoted to good works, he is speaking about us now as Christians. He makes this so clear in 3:8, for he says ‘so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.’ These twin truths, dual emphasis, are entirely consistent with each other. However, today, I not only want you to see that they are consistent with each other, but that they are connected to each other. That is what Paul tells us here in Titus. It is important that we see he doesn’t contradict himself. However, it is also important that we see the connection he draws. How is it that those who have believed in God will devote themselves to good works? How can Titus cause them to care about this? What does Paul tell him to do? ‘…I want you to insist on these things [verses 4-7] so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.’ Titus was to stress the gospel of grace to those who have believed in God, for that is what will cause them to devote themselves to good works. When they understand what God has done for them, they will be driven to do something for him.
Friends, do you view the gospel as something that is primarily for non-Christians? Good news that needs to be heard by those who have yet to trust in Jesus? Something contained in a track that you can put into somebodies hand? A message to be shared so that people may come to Christ? Evangelistic messages and materials are absolutely important. The Gospel is certainly the news that we should seek to share with those who have yet to trust in Jesus. In the New Testament we see the apostles doing just that. And yet, most of the New Testmant records the apostles sharing the gospel not with non-Christians, but with those who have believed in God. Most explainations of the gospel are found in letters like this one, reminding those who have believed in God of the gospel. The gospel is not only crucial to becoming a Christian. It is central to being a Christian. It seems we never get beyond the gospel. We only get deeper into it. We never graduate from the gospel. We only grow in our understanding of it. We never get to the point where we no longer need the gospel. As John Newton famously put it, it is grace that brought us safe thus far and grace that leads us home. Friends, do you see that the gospel not only gives the Christian life, but guides the Christian through life? Over and over again in his letters, we find Paul demonstrating this. He spends his time applying the gospel to the different situations and problems faced by Christians and churches. For example, when trying to correct the attitude of the Christians in Philipi, what truth does Paul reach for? It is the truth of the gospel. ‘Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.’ Or in trying to encourage the generousity of the Corinthians he wrote, ‘For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.’ (2 Corinthians 8:9) When confronted with sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, Paul again points to the gospel, ‘Flee from sexual immorality….Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.’ Throughout his letters, Paul insists, stresses, continually applies the gospel over and over again. Whether to combat sins, exhort godliness or encourage good works, as here in Titus, Paul goes back again and again to the gospel. No wonder he tells Titus to insist on it. For the gospel seems to be a weapon for every battle, a medicine for every ailment and a map for every journey. Titus is to assert what is profitable. And is there anything more profitable than the gospel?
Timothy Keller, a writer and minister based in New York, explains it like this his: ‘All our problems come from a failure to apply the gospel…. The main problem… in the Christian life is that we have not thought out the deep implications of the gospel, we have not "used" the gospel in and on all parts of our life.’ The reformer Martin Luther put it slightly less delicately when he said: ‘The truth of the Gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine. . . . [It is most necessary] that we know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.’ This is what Paul was telling Titus to do: ‘I want you to insist on these things’. Or as Luther would say, ‘beat it into their heads continually’! We have seen this is what Paul does in all his letters, including his letter to Titus. On the very first week, when commenting on the very first verse, I told you that the whole book could be summarised by those four words ‘Truth leads to godliness’, or as we see here, the gospel generates good works. From the first verse to the very last, Paul emphasises the importance and prominence of the gospel. He has beat it into Titus’ head for three chapters, now he wants Titus to go do the same. It is the gospel would generate good works. That is why Titus was to insist on these things. He was to assert what is profitable.
2. AVOID WHAT IS UNPROFITABLE (3:9-11)
I’m sure you have all done it. Perhaps it was in an exam, you spent too long revising some topics and not long enough revising others. The exam comes and you end up having wasted all that energy learning things you didn’t really need to know. Or maybe it was when preparing a meal for guests. You put so much time and effort into the starter or dessert, you kind of forgot about the main course. You either find yourself leaving it in the oven too long, or forgetting to put it in in the first pace. Or perhaps it was when you were preaching a sermon, when you used up almost all your time stressing the first point and so don’t have very long to explain your second point! We all know what it is like to get the balance wrong. Waste our time and energy. To get caught up in things that don’t matter and so miss the ones that do. This was a risk Paul was aware of, and so alongside telling Titus to assert what was profitable, he also tells him to avoid what is unprofitable.
In 3:9 he writes, ‘But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.’ That word ‘avoid’ has physical overtones – it means ‘to go around so as to avoid’. It is like when we change our car journey to avoid a traffic jam or road works. He tells Titus he must get out of the way of these things. Give them a wide berth, stay a safe distance from them. It is hard to know exactly what these things are and we need to be careful about spending too much time speculating over speculations! They may be examples of the deceptive doctrine that the false teachers, mentioned back in chapter 1, were spreading on Crete. If that is the case, then we can absolutely understand why Titus was to stay clear of this teaching. However, it might be that Paul isn’t referring to deceptive teaching here, but is instead talking about distracting teaching. When he talks about ‘foolish controversies’, ‘dissensions’ that is disagreements, and ‘quarrels’, it gives the senses that these are pointless, meaningless arguments about nothing at all. Christians falling out over things that don’t really matter. Stirring up controversy where there really shouldn’t be any. Such things are unprofitable and worthless not only because they have no positive outcome. But they actually have a negative one. I think this is what causes Paul to continue in 3:10: ‘As for a person who stirs up division…’. These things not only squander our time, but they stir up division. That is why Paul tells Titus, tells us, to avoid these teachings.
However, Paul goes even further than this. We are not only to avoid such teachings, but we are also to avoid such teachers. After warning them twice, Titus is to ‘have nothing more to do with’ these people who stir up division, which they presumably by teaching these distracting and potentially deceptive things. Just as Titus and the church is to do their best in assisting faithful people like Zenas and Apollos (3:13), they are to do all they can to avoid foolish people like these. In Hebrews 10:24 we are told that we are to stir up one another to love and good works. These people are doing the exact opposite, stirring up division and controversy. As we have seen, Titus has more than enough to do in asserting what is profitable, he shouldn’t be drawn what is distracting and divisive. He is to stay clear of such teaching and teachers. He is to avoid what is unprofitable. Each of us must seek to do the same. There is no lack of opportunities for good works. The gospel needs to be taken to the ends of the earth, Christians need to be encouraged and strengthened. Beyond those two priorities, there is a long list of needy causes in this world which cry out for our support. We have no time or enegry to waste on unprofitable things. We ought to spend our time stirring up one another to love and good works. Not stirring up division and controversy.
CONCLUDING TITUS
It is with these two instructions that Paul concludes his letter to Titus: assert what is profitable and avoid what is unprofitable. We have spent eight weeks working through this book, which I trust has been a blessing to each of you. If Titus is told to assert what is profitable here at its end, then I think Paul has given him a pretty good example of this. For of all the books in the New Testament, I think that the book of Titus is particularly profitable for three main reasons:
Firstly, its content – within these three short chapters Paul includes almost every major doctrine in some shape or form. The doctrine of the word of God, of God himself, of Christ and the Holy Spirit, of man and sin, of the church and the return of Christ. If you want a concise yet comprehensive summary of Christianity in one New Testament book, then look no further than the book of Titus.
Secondly, its context – all of this theology is explained and applied in the same context that we find ourselves in, of Christians living their lives as part of a local church. The book of Titus not only teaches us lots of theology, but shows us how to apply it in our lives as individuals and brothers and sisters in the church. Again and again it has reminded us that truth leads to godliness. That the gospel generates good works. If you are looking for an explaination of how Christians are to live out their faith alongside their brothers and sisters as the church, then turn to Titus.
Thirdly, and most important of all, its Christ – three times, once in each chapter, Titus tells us of Jesus Christ our Saviour. The second and third chapter have two sections, which are really two sentences, summarising our salvation and Saviour in stunning terms. If you need reminded of the breadth of our salvation and the beauty of our Saviour, return again to the book of Titus, for there you will find truths of such depth, that all eternity will not be long enough to praise and thank God for them.
ALEXANDER ARRELL