Feb 6th | Orthopraxy

This Sunday Tim Stauffer brought the message, kicking off our 4-week study of the Letter to Titus. Paul wrote it. Not Tim’s message…the Letter! It was late in Paul’s life…he’d been following Jesus for the better part of 30 years, taking the Kingdom of God beyond Jerusalem, beyond the Jews, to the “entire world” of non-Jews…then referred to as Gentiles.

Paul had pretty much canvased the entire northern coast of the Medaterrainian Sea from Rome in the NW around to the SE. At some point Paul’s travels took him to the historically barbaric island of Crete…probably unintentionally…although Paul did very little unintentionally, except go to jail or get beaten. While there, maybe only weeks, he, Timothy, Titus, and probably Luke traveled about to numerous cities intoducing the One…Jesus…the Solution to sin, to separation from God, to redemption, to eternal life. And, surprisingly, many believed! Christianity took root on Crete in numerous locations and cities. But there was a problem.

Unfortunately there was no leadership to carry on after Team Paul sailed on. In the void, the new believers were left alone not only to secure their understanding of the Gospel (Orthodoxy), but also to figure out how the Gospel was to work out in real life (Orthopraxy).

Paul instructs Titus, who has returned to Crete, to appoint bishops…area leaders…elders, to establish both sound doctrine (doxy) and practice (praxis) in their assigned area, town, city, locale. Paul affords much of the rest of the letter to a description of both.

A central point throughout the remaining chapters is the notion that belief is inseperable from practice. It is quite challenging for us Westerners to actual get that. We are instead bombarded with powerful cultural forces like “character doesn’t matter”, ie., it doesnt matter what is at the core, we evaluate outward behavior and results. Or Machiavellian approaches that support an ends justifies the means if the end good outweighs the bad means. Or WWJD.

And so, as Christians, we try to incorporate those skewed principals into our new life in Christ. We pay little attention to our heart…our center…our beliefs, while trying to live the good Christian life. But not only does this prescription not work, it is heretical…counter to…the Gospel. Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good…moral police attempt that. Jesus came to make sick people well. And how do we know spiritually sick people are well? They’re good. The fallacy is that good people are well, or that doing good makes you well.

Paul says…God says…no, behavior flows from the center. “For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6). And Jesus said things like, Only a good tree bears fruit, a dead tree cannot.

When was the last time you felt spiritually successful? (When have you been pretty sure God was smiling on you?)

So, what does a struggle to “behave” indicate? What to do about that?