CHILDREN OF GOD AS RESPONSIBLE CITIZENS

CHILDREN OF GOD AS RESPONSIBLE CITIZENS

Bible Text:

   [1]   Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,    [2]   to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. [Titus 3:1,2]

Short commentary

Here Paul is admonishing Titus to remind the people he is in charge of certain qualities as they stay in a nation. He is talking about the following qualities to be found in the believers.

to be submissive to rulers and authorities,

To be responsible citizens is one of the calling of each believers. In Romans 13:1-2 we find that people in authority did come to power under God’s sovereignty. We have to accept whatever rule we have. But being prophetic and taking our concerns to the government is also permitted in most of the democracy. Now Loksabha elections are coming in India. Let’s take time to understand the right person and vote to him. Paying taxes is another regulation put forth by nations. Let’s abide by that and have our tax dues cleared.

to be obedient,

Obedience is another important quality all men of Gos should have. :Primary obedience to God and the to others. Obedience to God will automatically push us to obedience in other aspects as well. We are to obey our elders, rules and regulations put for us and so on.

Anomalies in election process is one of the key thing we face with. How meaningfully can we pray and involve in these kind of activities. God wants His people to be obedient and to be submissive.

to be ready for every good work

Election speaks of good work. What good work will you be doing for your constituency if you become the MP? Can you pray to God that God will raise leader of such caliber in your constituency?

to speak evil of no one,

How can we differentiate between speaking the fact as so and speaking evil of someone? Bible wants our words to be a source of blessing to others.

In election context, election propagation is made in terms of speaking ill of the other and gaining popularity. It is a mere deception. How can we be responsible in calling a spade a spade but also not speaking evil of a person?

to avoid quarreling,

Christ wants us to live in harmony with each other. It is important we cultivate forgiveness and shun away from quarrel.

to be gentle, – means ‘gentle, mild, forbearing, fair, reasonable, moderate.’. Jesus showed us an example of gentleness. How can we replicate the same?

to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

When a person lives in a city he will have to live with his own, strangers, neighbours and other citizens. We live in times when racial discrimination is getting more and more rampant. But at this point as believers we should learn to show perfect courtesy towards all people regardless of their language, cultural or religious background. Recently in India we had to face Nido incident, racial discrimination against African students. How can we take efforts to show perfect courtesy?

Questions for reflection:

1. How responsible a citizen you can be as a child of God? Are there any areas you find it difficult to follow the rule of the government? How can you improve?

2. How can we cultivate a heart of obedience and teachability?

3. How can you welcome a person who is from other community and show your courtesy towards him/her?

4. What do you think about quarrel among church members? What can you do to solve them? Can you involve in this kind of reconciliation ministry?

5. What are the reasons for quarrels? What counter traits can stop two parties from quarreling?

6. As elections are approaching what good works do you wish to see in your constituency to be done by your next MP? List them and pray.

THE CHANGING POWER OF SALVATION

THE CHANGING POWER OF SALVATION

Bible Text:

[11] For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, [12] training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, [13] waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, [14] who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
[15] Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

[Titus 2:11-15]

Structure of the passage

For the grace of God

has appeared,

bringing salvation for all people,

training us

to renounce

ungodliness and

worldly passions, and

to live

self-controlled,

upright, and

godly lives inthe present age,

waiting for our blessed hope,

theappearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

who gave himself for us

to redeem us from all lawlessness and

to purify for himself

a people for his own possession

who are zealous for good works.
Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

Brief commentary

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, [12]

Here Paul talks about the power and work of the grace of God. This grace has brought salvation not only to a select but for all people. The sentence starts with ‘for’ which means some discussion has gone before this. Previously he explains about the behaviour of different kinds of people including young, old, man, woman, slave and free. God has intended to bring salvation to all people. Now their actions are to adorn the doctrine of Christ which in turn will enable the gospel being relevant for others.

As we work in a certain place or live a life in a certain community, we are called to live a life which will reflect the salvation we received.

training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions…

Salvation we received also trains us into a Godly living which he explains as below. Salvation is not a one time experience where we accept Him and everything is alright. But it trains us to live in a certain way and renounce those which is ungodly. Here he gives two items to renounce and

to renounce

ungodliness– impiety, irreverence, ungodliness, wickedness

worldly passions –

worldly – earthly, worldly (belonging to the present earthly world as opposed to the heavenly and future)

passions – desire, eagerness for, inordinate desire, lust.

to live

self-controlled,

upright, and

godly lives in the present age,

Here Paul places two contrasting things worldly passions and heavenly characters. He wants us to renounce earthly things but live the heavenly qualities in “THE PRESENT AGE”. He does not portray a life of escapism or succumb but that of victorious overcoming.

waiting for our blessed hope,

the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

who gave himself for us

to redeem us from all lawlessness and

to purify for himself

a people for his own possession

who are zealous for good works.

The boost to live this kind of life comes from our reflection of a blessed hope which takes us to such such a life style and our reflection of Jesus’ redeeming us from all lawlessness.

The ultimate picture about a saved person in one phrase he sums us as the purified one who is zealous or good works.

Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority.

Mostly Christian preachings talks about salvation and heavenly life. But here Paul admonishes Titus to declare all aspects of salvation, ie, not alone the justification but practical living in the society.

Questions for reflection:

1. Todays news reads that former Supreme court judge questions the selection process of ombudsman (lokpal). We read in the passage how salvation trains one to leave wordy pleasure and live a life of godliness

2. Can we reflect on the future hope and the redeeming activity of Christ? How do they boost in living out a life of salvation?

3. If Christ redeems the community we live in or our workplace, how different our community would be? Seeing that end how I should alter my lifestyle?

4. The ultimate picture about salvation is being “zealous for good works”. What good works do you whis to be done by you and do you want to see happening in your community

 

Revealing God in workplace

REVEALING GOD IN WORKPLACE

Bible text:

“ Slaves are to be submissive to their own mastersin everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative,not pilfering,but showing all good faith,so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior”. [Titus 2: 9,10]

Shortcommentary:

Slaves in context:

Slavery was an unquestioned institution in the first century. At that time, slaves were found in all professions. W.L. Westermann writes,

The institution of slavery was a fact of Mediterranean economic life so completely accepted as a part of the labour structure of the time that one cannot correctly speak of the slave “problem” in antiquity. This unquestioning acceptance of the slave system explains why Plato in his plan of the good life as depicted in The Republic did not need to mention the slave class. It was simply there.

[W.L. Westermann.The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity(The American Philosophical Society, 1955) p.215. Cited in James M.Rochford, The Bible and Slvaery, Evidence Unseen, < http://www.evidenceunseen.com/articles/the-goodness-of-god/the-bible-and-slavery/> (Accessed date: 3 March, 2014)]

End result expected from a slave:

in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

Through each and every action the master may see how this slave is living a redeemed life in Christ

submissive to their own masters in everything

Probably in the then context, this is the job and structure of the then slaves. Whereas in other passages Bible does says about freedom for slaves as well.

“ 20 Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. 21 Were you a bondservant[ d] when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) 22 For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. 23 You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants[ e] of men. “ I Cor 7:20-23

now the question to ponder is “ can an employee agree to the injustice done to him?”.

Here we face the difficulty of seeing both the verses that talk about justice and submission to authorities in tension.

For instance, if the head of the department asks his teacher (who is a believer) to pass a student who has not attended the class and who has performed extremely bad in his exam, what should be his response?

In today’s understanding of world with lot of empowerment to justice and right to information, the context we are living is not as it was in Paul’s time. At this point the teacher should show God of justice (Amos 5:24) through his evaluation and let the student fail. Even though this is a tough call to the believing teacher with all question of fired from job, this should be the response from teacher Biblically.

they are to be well-pleasing:

In today’s context this implies each person fulfilling his duties to the great extent so that he may be well appreciated by his supervisors. May be this is the automatci outcome if we do everything as we do to the Lord as ecpressed in Colo 3:23

not argumentative:

The role of a prophet as we see in the Bible is that of argumentative nature. But here we find an instance where Paul asks the slave not to be argumentative or not to contradict. How do we see the two sides in perspective? Should we also hold on to this principle in times when we see right to information and more emphasis on justice?

Well. This aspect should be seen alongside of other quality mentioned as “ showing all good faith”, “ not pilfrering” (stealing) and “well pleasing”. Probably if an employee who is always into doing good things and is excellent in his job, contradicts the employer there is possibility the employeer rethink.

not pilfering:

This is one of the basic principles God has revealed in Mosaic law itself. Can a teacher bring home the pen or pencil that is kept for official use? What is our conviction about pirated softwares or music?

but showing all good faith:

A believing employer should be a faithful person to his boss. He has to be faithful even in little things. In a times when people struggle to find faithful people how much we adorning the doctrine of God will become obvious when we remain as faithful people?

Reflection Questions:

1. In today’s new paper we have a news item about junior doctors going on strike in Lucknow. What will be your response if you were a junior doctor there? ( http://epaper.indianexpress.com/237368/Lucknow/03-March-2014#page/8/1)

2. We see a lot of election activities taking place. How do we discern the ones who will be faithful and will not steal?

3. What challenge do we see in your work place?

4. How can you show Christ in your workplace?