Gathering Growing Going
with Lizzy Smallwood
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One of the delightful features of Paul’s letters is the way they exhibit such personal details, painting a picture of God’s household which was dispersed but lived grace in their relationships. This close is like so many of Paul’s letters – personal details interspersed with reminders of key points from his letter. The names mentioned here are not unfamiliar (although Zenas and Artemas are not mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament). Tychicus was a close friend of Paul, the deliverer of the letters to Ephesus and Colossae (and possibly the correspondence named Philemon). Apollos was a well-known Christian leader. Their place in God’s household, and their mission, allowed an opportunity to display the great grace of God in good deeds. Moreover, the way in which this command is restated should cast the mind of every reader of this letter (‘all of you’) back over the whole letter – the content of these good deeds (which is grace), the nature of that grace (God our Saviour), the things consistent with this nature (sound teaching in sound behaviour), the threat to that grace (false teachers), and those entrusted with leading God’s household (elders). In summary, this has been a letter about the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, from go to woe!
As Paul brings his letter to Titus to a close, he tells Titus to remind the church how they should behave. Christians are to be kind, humble, gentle and, submit to authorities. Why does he ask this? Because that is how God has treated us. God sent his son to save us, not because we earnt it, but because of his great mercy. Now, as the church, our charge is to treat others the way that God treated us.
‘The best thing since sliced bread’ is a phrase we use often. Now, we cannot deny the significance of ‘sliced bread’, but how often do we stop and ponder this truth: the coming of Jesus Christ has changed our lives in a way greater than ‘sliced bread’. ‘Sliced bread’ changed bread-making, nutrition, machinery and appliance development – but Jesus Christ saves lives, gives life, and shapes life in a way that stretches beyond the grave! WonderWhite cannot do that!
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