Remind the People

"Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men." Titus 3:1

I just finished reading Paul's short letter to Titus and wonder, how successful he was at the assignment Paul gave him. He asked that Titus to "....teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance." (Titus 2:1-2)

It seems as if our church leadership is still struggling with the same knowledge gap as Paul and Titus were in the early church. As the "leadership example" within the society we, Christians still struggle with the same issues that Titus and his elders were supposed to educate out of us. "Be imitators of Christ," Paul said to the Ephesian church, and in similar fashion also to the church in Corinth he made the same call to obedience. It seems as if the message didn't ring very true.Perhaps the problem lies in the the second part of the instruction, "In your teaching show integrity, .... so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us." Titus 2:7-8 Paul knew that the "buck" stopped with his leadership. Unless they practiced in their lives what they taught the people, the message would not be received. God gave Moses the ten commandments not for him to judge us but for us to have a yardstick to measure one another against what God desires.

To have integrity is to practice what you profess. Without it our message of the good news of Jesus Christ will not be heard by those who are lost. It is incumbent upon us as Christians to be imitators of Christ in every aspect of our lives in public and in secret. We will fail at times but, praise God, we have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. However, what others see in us is what they see in Christ therefore, our duty should not be taken lightly.

My Prayer: Father, help us to be more like you and less like our former selves. Make us imitators Christ so that we may teach others with authority and live lives of integrity. In Jesus name, Amen!