A Study of the Book of Titus

Sermon # 4 

“Christians As Citizens”

Titus 3:1-7 

       As Christians we should understand that we enjoy dual citizenship. In Philippians 3:20 the Apostle Paul says, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Back in Philippians 1:27 Paul acknowledged the fact that while we are citizens on this earth and must be careful about how we live, “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind ?striving together for the faith of the gospel.” We might paraphrase that verse to say, “The only thing that matters is that you live as good citizens in a manner worthy of the gospel.”

       In the third chapter of the letter to Titus Paul deals with the subject of “Christians as Citizens!” 

“Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, (2) to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. (3) For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. (4) But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, (5?) not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, (6) whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, (7) that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (NKJV)

THE REMINDER OF PROPER CONDUCT (vv. 1-2)

       Titus is told to “remind” them (Gr. is an present imperative) literally continue reminding. The Cretans were notorious for their turbulent and rebellious nature. Dr. Samuel Johnson once said, “It is not adequately understood that men more often need to be reminded than instructed.” What we need is constant reminders to bring our experience into line with the truth we have already been given.

       The Christian is reminded of his obligations in two directions; first in verse one toward civil government. “Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work.”

One of the ways that Christians demonstrate that they are saved is to show a respectful attitude toward authority. In Romans 13:1-7 Paul writes “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. (2) Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. (3) For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. (4) For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. (5) Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. (6) For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. (7) Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.”

 The Apostle Peter voices similar thoughts in 1 Peter 2:13-15, “Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, (14) or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. (15) For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men”

       Paul now sets out three actions which will result in Christians being good citizens.  

Be Subject to rulers and authorities

       Lest be tempted to think that Paul just did not know what we would have to put up with, we should remember that when Paul wrote these words that Roman Empire was ruled by Nero, one of the cruelest Caesars ever. The pagan government was antagonistic toward Christianity yet Christians are instructed to submit.   

Be Obedient – Submission starts with our attitude and obedience is the outward expression of that attitude. The practical working out of obedience would include things like paying your taxes, displaying honesty in business, and in general obeying the laws of the land. 

Be Ready to Do Good

The last part of the verse one in our text  says, “be ready for every good work,” is a reminder that the only evidence the unsaved have that we belong to God is our actions. The “good works” being described here are not necessarily religious work or church work but any act of good citizenship.         

Secondly, in verse two they are to be reminded about how they are to fulfill their obligations toward fellow citizens. “To speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.”

       Paul now sets out four areas in which we should guard our conduct toward others.

Don’t Slander (v. 2) “speak evil of no one” - means we are to malign no one, and we are not to repeat gossip. It has been said that, “You can’t believe everything you hear today, but you can repeat it!” That is what he is talking about here—we are not to repeat what we hear. Many evil reports are passed from person to person without even a shred of evidence that the report is true. Another old saying is that some people will believe anything if it is whispered to them!

Be Peaceable (v. 2) “be peaceable”

The Christian is not to be “contentious” or a “brawler.” It is interesting to consider that our English word macho came from the root of this word through the Latin and Spanish languages.  

Be Considerate (v. 2) “be… gentle”

       Perhaps the little girl’s prayer says it best, she prayed, “Dear God: Help all the bad people to be good; and heap all the good people to be nice.” 

Show Humility (v. 2) “showing all humility to all men.”  Surely one of the most difficult things about practicing humility is that Paul says that is something that we are to do for all people, not just the ones we get along with. We are to show gentleness to those who cut us off on the highway, or run over us with a shopping cart in the grocery store and don’t bother to say their sorry. We are even supposed to practice humility to the “know-it-all” who always thinks they are right, and usually aren’t. Practicing humility does not however mean that we can’t stand up for what is right, but that we are willing to allow others to have opinions different from our own.  

THE REASONS FOR PROPER CONDUCT (vv3-7)

          To many Christians are like the little boy who when he was asked why he fell out of bed, stated, “I fell asleep to close to where I got in!”  If we are maturing spiritually there ought to be some consider-able distance between where we are now and where we used to be!

       “One of the greatest tragedies of the Christian Church in the North American continent is that we have millions of people who profess they have been saved, but show absolutely no evidence of it, because they insist on living the way the unsaved do!”  [Stuart Briscoe. Purifying the Church: What God Expects of You and Your Church. A Topical Commentary on Titus. (Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, 1987) p. 163]

       Remembering What We Once Were (v. 3) “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.”

       Remembering what we used to be before we came to Christ should be a strong motive for obedience to God and being more understanding with the unsaved.

       The downward spiral resulting from the enslavement to various passions is more clearly illustrated in Ephesians 4:17-19

(New Living Translation). “With the Lord’s authority let me say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused. (18) Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against him. (19) They don’t care anymore about right and wrong, and they have given themselves over to immoral ways. Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed.” 

       Realizing What Brought About The Change (vv. 4-7)  

       First, The Kindness Of Our Savior

(v. 4) “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared.”

The source of the drastic change in the lives of believer’s is in God alone. We are merely recipients of what He has initiated as a Savior God. It is the realization of what God has done in the “appearing” (epephane) of Christ that is the greatest motivation and source of enablement to live productive lives.  

       Second, The Mercy of Our Savior (vv. 5-6) “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, (6) whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

       The very first thing we must note here is that salvation is not by human works, this would include things like the receiving of the sacraments, water baptism or the observance or rituals and fasts. Through this letter calls for and commends good works Paul makes it clear that our salvation is entirely dependent on the mercy of God. In Ephesians 2:8-10

Paul even more clearly states, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, (9) not of works, lest anyone should boast. (10) For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

It is worthy of note that the apostle says (v. 5) “He saved us” (Aorist tense – past deed with continuing results) it is the testimony of the New Testament that our salvation through the accomplished and finished work of Christ on our behalf through his death and resurrection. It is a finished, once for all time work. As Hebrew 9:12 says, “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”

If there is one thing obvious it is that we cannot save ourselves. Yet the possibility that we save ourselves remains one of the major delusions even in the present age. Only one example is that of the New Age proponents who teach that salvation does not come from outside (someone else coming to our rescue) but rather from within (as we discover ourselves and our own inner resources. But Paul teaches that we cannot save ourselves.

      But how are we to understand the second phrase of verse five, “through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” For many the mention of anything that might be associated with water is seen as a reference to water baptism. As a result, this is one of those passages used to teach “baptismal regeneration” or that water baptism is necessary for salvation. But such an interpretation is out of character with the context of this verse which stresses that salvation is not by works. It is also out of line with the vast majority of Scriptures that clearly teach that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone.

       So what does this phrase “… through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” mean? Since there are two phrase introduced by one preposition “and” and since it is the Holy Spirit that is the agent of both, it would seem to be saying, “through the washing that produces rebirth and renewal by the operation of the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is the agent through whom we are reborn and renewed.       

       Third, The Justification by His Grace. – (v. 7) “that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Having been justified we must realize the Present Possession of Our Salvation.

We need to make sure that we do not misunderstand when verse seven says that we are “heirs of the hope of eternal life.” This does not mean that we have wait and “hope” that we receive eternal life. Eternal life is already the permanent possession of anyone who trusts in the person and work of the Savior who died for their sin and rose as evidence thereof. The point is that the possession of eternal life brings with it the hope (confident expectation) that we are indeed the heirs of God.  

Verse eight closes out this section by saying, “This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.”

You will remember that we stated that there are five “faithful sayings” which occur in Paul’s Pastoral letters (1 Tim 1:15, 3:1, 4:9; 2 Tim 2:11, Titus 3:8). We saw three of them in our study of 1Timothy. This one is the only one in Titus.  You will remember that we have previously said that these “faithful sayings” are the equivalent of when Jesus saying in the Gospels “Truly, truly or Verily, verily.” When Jesus used those words he was saying, “Pay attention this is important!”  That is what Paul is doing here! Each time Paul uses the words “this is a faithful saying” he is underlining a fundamental principle.  The affirmation of verse eight refers back to the truths found in verses four through seven.

       John Stott sees in this summary to Titus the six essential ingredients of salvation

Its need – our sin

Its Source – God’s Love

Its ground – not our merit but His mercy

Its means – regenerations and renewing work of the Holy Spirit.

Its goal – our final inheritance of eternal life

Its evidence – our diligent practice of good Works