Productive Living

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Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: I’m sure you’ve heard the expression; it’s a challenge to stake something on your beliefs – to show you really believe it. It’s the sort of thing you might say to your mate who’s been boasting he can do something he clearly can’t do – ‘go on then mate; put your money where your mouth is, do it’. That simple challenge has led to numerous acts of bravado and stupidity. All over the country young blokes are climbing mountains and going sky diving and bungee jumping just because they made some stupid claim and someone said ‘prove it – Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is’.

One man who knew what it meant to put his money where his mouth is was Henry Colcord. In the 1850s and 60s he promoted the great Blondini, who was a world famous tight-rope walker. Blondini made his name by stringing a rope over the Niagara Falls and walking across it. He walked across forwards and backwards, with a pole and without a pole, blindfolded with his hands tied to his side, with a wheel barrow, and, somehow, on stilts. As if that wasn’t enough he rode a bike over it, and even carried an oven into the middle, cooked an omelette and ate it. In all he crossed the Niagara falls some 83 times. I think you’ll agree he earned his reputation as a great tightrope walker.

All the while Henry Colcord was Blondini’s biggest supporter. He arranged and promoted these feats, convincing the authorities and the crowds alike that Blondini could do it. Colcord was so confident in Blondini’s skills that he didn’t flinch when Blondini told him he wanted to cross the falls with a man on his back, he went right ahead and put an add in the paper asking for an assistant to join the great Blondini in his tight-rope walking act.

Of course no one was stupid enough to volunteer to have some nutter carry them across a tight rope, so in the end Colcord was forced to climb onto Blondini’s back and hang on over 1100 yards of torturous swaying and balancing 300 feet above the surging waters of Niagara Falls. So Colcord became famous as the only man ever to be carried across the Niagara Falls. For years he’d said Blondini was the greatest tight rope walker ever, on that day he showed that it wasn’t just words, he really believed it. He put his money where his mouth was and he acted on what he believed.

The Apostle Paul was another person who put his money where his mouth is – he dedicated his life to telling the gospel where ever he could, whatever the cost. And in his letter to Titus Paul has been instructing Titus to teach the church in Crete to do likewise, to act on what they believe, to shape their whole lives around the gospel, to put their money where their mouth is. Here in the concluding verses he gives one more challenge to put their money where their mouth is by supporting the work of travelling missionaries. I want to highlight 3 aspects of what Paul says here:

1) Christians must give to support Gospel Work

2) Giving is an aspect of Godliness; and

3) Godliness is seen in Productive Lives

Lets begin with point 1:


First, CHRISTIANS MUST GIVE TO SUPPORT GOSPEL WORK

See this in verse 12 and 13

12 As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. 13 Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need.

When Titus completes his work in Crete Paul wants to meet him in Nicopolis for their next task. But before he leaves Crete Titus is to provide for Zenas and Apollos. We don’t know much about Zenas, but Apollos is well known in the NT. In Acts and in 1 Corinthians we read about his preaching to young churches to build them up in the faith. It appears that Zenas and Apollos were travelling together, going from church to church to encourage and build up these young congregations by solid teaching.

So what was the church to do for them? The expression translated here ‘to help them on their way’ usually means giving money and provisions for a journey – Paul uses it that way at the end of Romans and 1 Corinthians. So Titus is to make sure that they don’t leave without enough money for the journey. It’s unlikely Paul means for Titus to provide the money – after all as a travelling missionary himself Titus wouldn’t have had much to give – rather this instruction is directed to the church as a whole: the church should provide for the needs of these men because they travel for the sake of the gospel.

Is it reasonable to expect the church to pay for their journey? Certainly - ultimately they are not giving to Zenas and Apollos, they are giving to the churches the missionaries visit and minister to, they are giving to support the growth and spread of the gospel. As a result their giving is not to be stingy or half-hearted. Titus is to ‘see that they have everything they need’. The church is not to send these missionaries off half supplied, hoping they can pick up more along the way, but to ensure that they lack nothing they’ll need for the duration of their journey.

There are some important principles for Christian giving and for paying Christian workers that lie behind these instructions, and its worth just pausing for a moment to spell them out in a little more detail.

Firstly we note that the church in Crete doesn’t shower the missionaries with money, they simply provide enough to meet their needs. This reflects two principles of paying Christian workers:

One Christian workers mustn’t be in it for the money – Titus 1:7 says elders must not pursue dishonest gain, the parallel passage in 1 Timothy 3:3 says an elder must not be a ‘lover of money’. Christian workers must serve out of love for the church not love for money.

And two Christian workers should be provided for so that they have enough to live on and can serve the church full time, without the need to work a second job to pay the bills.

And with regard to the church’s generosity in giving we note that Paul expects them to be generous. This follows from three underlying principles:
First we are to be generous givers because God is a generous giver. The generosity of the church in Crete flows directly from what Paul has already told them about God’s generosity to them –have a look at Titus 3:3-5:

3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.

We should give generously because God gave generously to us.

Secondly we should give to support ministry even when we don’t benefit directly from the ministry we support. We see in Titus that these missionaries came to the church funded by others, and the church at Crete was to send them off with funding for the next leg. This is the reason that giving is often associated with partnership, or fellowship, in the New Testament. They gave to support ministry in other places, not just at home and so should we.

Thirdly we can afford to be generous because our treasure is in heaven. Again the generosity of the church in Crete is anchored in their status in the gospel as people who are chapter 2 verse 13, ‘waiting for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ’. Because their hopes were to be focused on that day when Jesus will return their investments should also be focused on things that will last beyond this world and into eternity. It’s the same with us, if we truly believe that Jesus is coming back with judgement we won’t waste money on frivolous things, we’ll seriously consider how we invest it so that we’ll see the return in heaven.

Jesus gives a brilliant illustration of this when he tells us to look at the flowers of the fields and the birds of the air – they don’t worry about wealth but God provides for them. Similarly we don’t need to be concerned that we will miss out if we give to gospel work – as He says seek first the kingdom and all these things will be added to you as well.

What Paul says here to Titus and the church at Crete should be a challenge for us, so let me spell it out for you: How are you going at being generous? Do you give occasionally, when you’ve got the money handy, or have you sat down and worked out how you can give sacrificially to support Christian ministry? If not, can I strongly encourage you to do so? In one sense this matter of giving to others, especially to support Christian ministry, is one of the most important ways that we put our faith into practice. It shows that we’ve really taken the gospel to heart and we are no longer living for ourselves, but for God and for his family. So give generously and willingly, and trust that God will provide for all your needs.

Of course there are wider implications than just giving money – we should be encouraged to do all we can to enable ministry. Pretty soon a group of us from here will go out to start a new ministry across the river in Gateshead. Many of you have already given generously and thank you very much. But as we begin to actually meet in the building we’ll have another opportunity to put our faith into practice, to put our money where our mouth is. Whether you are coming to Gateshead or not, we are all involved in the church plant. We all have a responsibility, like the church at Crete, to do all that we can to make sure that church has all that it needs to preach the saving message of Jesus to people in Gateshead. God has given us a brilliant opportunity to begin a work which could have a massive impact on a city of 193,000 people who desperately need to hear the gospel. Please pray and work to make sure we don’t miss this opportunity.

So that’s point one, Christians are to give money to support Christian work, just as the church at Crete was to give money to support the missionaries in their day. Paul goes on to remind the Cretans that giving to support Christian work flows out of the gospel, the sound doctrine Titus is to preach in Crete. That is, giving is an aspect of godliness, and that is my second point:


Secondly, GIVING IS AN ASPECT OF GODLINESS

Look back at Titus 3: 14:

Our People must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.

Godliness is our response to the gospel; it means living for God in a way that is pleasing to him, instead of living for ourselves. Paul sums it up here as a devotion to doing what is good. So he sets giving money into the wider context of the godliness the gospel requires. In giving to support missionary work the church puts their belief into practice, it’s simply another aspect of their godliness.

Godliness as a response to the gospel has been one of the big themes of this letter, have a look back at chapter two and verse eleven:

11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope-- the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Following on from that passage ‘doing what is good’ has been the theme of Titus chapter 3, if not the whole letter. This last instruction is simply another application of what our whole lives should be about.

Look at 3:14 again: notice that what Paul is expecting from the church is not occasional good works, but an active devotion to good works. We are to work hard at doing good, it’s to be a consistent, on-going commitment of ours. Not a series of one-off tasks or works, but an ongoing pattern of behaviour, like the Olympic swimmer who gets up every morning at five O’clock to go to the pool and swim lap after lap after lap after lap. Devotion is seen in ongoing behaviour, in disciplining ourselves to do good.

And godliness will be hard work, because ‘doing good’ doesn’t come easy. Remember chapter 1 verse 12:

‘Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons’.

Well lets be honest, that’s pretty much true of all of us by nature – we all reject God and sin works in our hearts leading us to rebel against doing good. With the Spirits help we need to exercise an ongoing effort of the will to resist sin if we are to continue doing that which is good.

Notice too that this doing good is not a vague notion of not doing bad things – like the child who is seen but not heard – but it is an active doing good, looking for good things that need to be done and then getting in and doing them.

The implication of all this is that if the gospel is at work in our hearts then we too should be active in this way – seeking out good things to be doing. The church should be full of people who are actively seeking things to apply themselves at. We shouldn’t need to be told before we roll up our sleeves and get involved. There are all kinds of needs for service in a group of people this size. There are all manner of ministries to mothers, babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, adults and the elderly; there are ministries of service, administration, running computer networks and greeting new people. But it is not just the things that are organised for us at church, there are missions to support, churches to plant, Christian Television to be made (Clayton Media), pregnancy crisis clinics to set up (Foundation for life) and so on.

And over and above those things there are the day-to-day needs of our friends and neighbours. We need to be looking out for each other – maybe it’s the friend, who’s been a bit down and just needs a phone call to cheer them up, or the new parents who need help with the household chores or a meal delivered to help with the strain of looking after the needs of their newborn. Maybe it’s the person who needs your seat on the metro, or a hand with their shopping. We should be cultivating the simple attitude of looking out for the needs of others, whether we know them or not.

The thing about lives like that is that people notice. If you take an active interest in the wellbeing of others you’ll stand out from the crowd. And that’s partly what’s behind Paul’s instructions here – he knows that people will be aware of how we live and he wants our lives to help people to accept the gospel. So he finishes his letter with a final instruction that should not live unproductive lives, and this is my final point:


Thirdly: CHRISTIANS SHOULD LIVE PRODUCTIVE LIVES

This is the second half of verse 14, have another look:

Our People must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.

Notice the logical connection between these two halves – Christians are to devote themselves to doing good with a purpose, in order that they may provide for necessities and so not live unproductive lives. Paul wants Christians not to be idle. It is possible that he is worried about the same sort of thing happening in Crete as we read about in his letters to the Thessalonians – Christians deciding that they no longer need to work because they are heading for heaven. But then laziness was a defining characteristic of the people of Crete (see Titus 1:12) so they may have simply been too lazy to bother working. Either way it is clear that settling down and earning a living was what they should have been doing.

As an aside I want you to notice that behind these verses there is an implicit theology of work: contrary to popular opinion, work is not all about providing the means for having a good time. It is not about career satisfaction, not about wealth generation, not about being able to afford the biggest house or the best holiday or the latest and greatest gadgets. None of those things are wrong in themselves – it is not wrong to find satisfaction in your work, or to enjoy a holiday or even to get rich – but they are not the reason we work. Work, under God, is about providing for daily necessities, so that we have enough to live on and enough to share.

But getting back to the passage: The reason Paul is worried about Christians living unproductive lives is that he knows Christians live out what they believe in the face of a watching world. If we are lazy and unproductive we give people ammunition to use against the gospel – I’m sure you have all heard it: people reject the gospel because Christians are hypocrites; the only Christian they know is always skiving work, or whatever it might be. The gospel doesn’t say that good people go to heaven; we don’t think we are better than everyone else. But it does teach us to live in a new way that’s pleasing to God. If we want to be able to tell others that they need to turn back to God we can not continue to live as if we haven’t. If we want people to listen when we tell them the gospel we need to live consistent lives. As Paul says in chapter 2 verse 10 our lives should make the teaching about God our Saviour attractive in every way.

That’s what stands behind these verses, just as it has throughout the whole letter. Paul wants the church in Crete to give money to support Christian work because his great desire for them is that they learn to put the gospel into practice, to shape their whole lives around it. In so doing they also make the message attractive to others.

I got an insight into what this sort of thing looks like in practice when I read Che Guevara’s Bolivian diary. Che Guevara was a Marxist revolutionary. He was one of Fidel Castro’s generals in the Cuban revolution and held high office in Castro’s government. But in the late 1960’s he left Cuba to go and attempt to incite Marxist revolutions in Africa and South America. I’m not sure quite why I chose to read Che Guevara’s diary, but when I did I was struck again and again by the passion of his beliefs, and his willingness to act on them.

He raised a small peasant army and waged guerrilla warfare against the Bolivian Government. He and his men had no possessions save what they could carry. They often went without food and water, and they relied on the kindness of the peasants for whatever they ate. They lived rough in the jungles, with all the dangers and hardships that come with jungles. And all the while they were being hunted by government troops. Towards the end Guevara was badly wounded and he knew that he was going to die. Eventually he was caught and executed. In all this the thing that shined through was his desire to live out what he believed in service of others. He shaped his life around his beliefs; he honestly thought that he could make a difference in the lives of people who were enslaved by a corrupt system. He believed it to be true and he shaped his life accordingly; when it came down to it he was willing to die in service of a bunch of peasants he didn’t even know. He did it all in the name of a hollow materialistic philosophy, how much more should we shape our lives around the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thankfully we are not all called to live rough in the jungle, but we are all called to say no to ungodliness and to dedicate ourselves to doing what is good so that our lives will not be unproductive.

All of this is a fitting end to our study of Titus. In this open letter to Titus Paul has really been instructing the church in what it should learn, as much as he has been instructing Titus in what he should teach. He says to the church, to our church as much as to the church at Crete, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is. The gospel we have received teaches that we are saved from our old, empty, unproductive lives, and saved for a new kind of life. The gospel teaches us to say “no” to ungodliness and “yes” to godliness. We need to learn that the only life worth living is one that brings glory and honour to God. A life that wins the respect of outsiders and so makes the gospel attractive to them – a life that non-Christians may not at first want to live, but that they can’t help but respect. Let’s make it our ambition to live that kind of life – a life that’s consciously shaped by the love and kindness of God towards us and that reflects that loving kindness towards others.


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