The Peaceable Christian #1

I want you to see how broad and comprehensive this verse is. This is a comprehensive approach to the way that we are to live in an unsaved society. And so what he's cultivating here is a fundamental disposition about the way that we think and interact with the people that are around us in this world. This is to be the defining mark of our character. We live in an often hostile world and culture, but the Bible calls the church to be peaceable, not returning bitterness for bitterness.

How can we live up to that calling? We'll find out today on the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm Bill Wright, and we're continuing our series, Titus, God's Glorious Plan of Grace. Today we'll hear part one of a message titled, The Peaceable Christian. So turn to Titus chapter three as we join our teacher now in the Truth Pulpit. Turn in your Bibles to Titus chapter three now as we continue our study of this letter of Paul.

Titus chapter three. Paul in these two verses, the Bible in these two verses, God in these two verses, is giving us direct instruction on how to live in the midst of a fallen world. As Christians, how do we live and interact with the unsaved people that are all around us? How do we live and interact with the sometimes ungodly authorities that have a prerogative over us in the plan of God? Well, Titus chapter three, verses one and two, give us clear instruction on what we are to be like, what our character is to be like, how we are to respond to people who are unsaved like you and I used to be.

That's the key. Chapter three, verses one and two. Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.

Let me remind you of what led us up to this point. In Titus chapter two, Paul had been addressing the matter of life within the church and talking about the relationships of older men to younger men, older women to younger women and he had gone through life in the church in great detail. He had talked about how slaves were to respond to their masters and he ties it all into the purpose of Christ in redeeming us.

Look at chapter two, verse 14. He said, Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. Now Christ bought us at the price of his own blood. He bought us with a purpose. He bought us that we would belong to him and the Bible says very plainly that he bought us so that we would be zealous for good deeds. Well, here's the question.

Here's the question. What do those good deeds look like? What does the apostle Paul have in mind when he's writing these good deeds that we are supposed to do?

Well, it's very interesting. He doesn't talk about going out and feeding the poor or alleviating world poverty or turning the Roman Empire over into a Christian nation by force of what was utterly impossible political will from the people of the church. No.

No, it wasn't anything like that. It's not what we typically think about good deeds being when our minds are not fully informed with the scripture. He goes to the nature of our character and he goes to the nature of the way that we respond to this unsaved environment that we find ourselves in.

He's very direct. It's contrary. It cuts against so much of what we're told and what passes for the evangelical church today. I just want you to see with clarity from the scriptures that God has made this very clear and we need to conform to it. These are the kinds of deeds that he saved us for. Look at chapter 3 verse 1 again. Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed. See, there it is.

He's linking these things together. The redemption of Christ and the good deeds which we are to live and it's tied together there under the umbrella of living a life of submission to our existing rulers. This time we saw that we are to submit to civil authority as part of our expression of the Christian life that we've been called to live.

Christians should not be known as political rabble-rousers. That is not our calling in this life. We're passing through and it's not our job to try to overturn civil authority and to rebel and buck against it.

Doesn't matter if we like it or not. The Bible calls us to submit to it and that's part of the way that we respond to the work of Christ in our lives. We remember, as we saw last time, we remember God's sovereignty. We remember that God has established these civil authorities for this time in our lives and we honor Christ by submitting to the rulers that he has established.

That's what we saw last time. Sometimes a little bit hard to apply, perhaps sometimes, but not that difficult to understand. The text is pretty clear about what it has to say to us.

Now, here's what I want you to see. In chapter 2, he talked about life within the church. As he opens chapter 3, he's talking about life under the authority of civil government. Now what he is doing is he's expanding it more horizontally and saying, how is it that we live, what kind of people are we to be as we interact with the unsaved world around us? He's broadening his instruction to tell us how to live with unsaved men in society. And I think, you know, as I think about what the future probably holds in light of the moral collapse around us, we need this instruction very clearly because we're prone to fear as we see this collapse going around.

We're prone to fear. I go through these emotions myself thinking, what kind of world are my children and eventual grandchildren going to grow up in? When evil is declared good and good is declared evil, which is right where the sweet spot of where we're living, how are we to interact with that?

And you get a little bit uptight and you feel like you need to go out and fight it and fight the people that are behind all of it. Well, this is why it is so important for us to have our minds in Scripture. This is why it is so important for us to go through God's Word verse by verse and just let it speak to us and show us what God has for us in this kind of society.

If anything, the Roman society in which Paul was writing the context was far worse back then than it was in our day today. And so under worse conditions than what we're facing now, Paul writes this instruction and therefore it continues on and it's what we're to see for ourselves today. Here's what he does, keeping in mind that parable from Matthew 18 that we opened with. Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, paints a picture of Christians with gracious character extending a gracious demeanor even to a hostile society.

We are not to be the enemies of these people in the sense that we are personally hostile to them. And Paul explains this with clarity to us. He's speaking directly to us.

And so let's listen carefully. Paul gives us kind of a contrast and then we're going to build the message around this contrast. He tells us what to avoid and what to advance in terms of what we should not do and what we should do. Here in verse 2, he lays it all out for us. What is it that we avoid? Well, Christian living, you see this throughout Scripture, Christian living means that there are some things that we are to put off and other things that we are to put on.

Things of the remnants of our sinful lives that we consciously separate ourselves from and aim our minds and purpose towards the things that God has revealed in His Word. This verse, chapter 3, verse 2, is exactly like that. Look at what it says here in verse 2. It says, to malign no one. And what he's saying here, this is a continuation of the command from the beginning of verse 1, remind them. And so he tells Titus, as you're speaking to these Christians on the island of Crete, remind them of this.

Remind them to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. Now, what I want you to see from the beginning, as we just kind of look around and see what the environment is here in this text, I want you to see how broad and comprehensive this verse is. This is a comprehensive approach to the way that we are to live in an unsafe society because, he says, malign no one.

That's pretty exhaustive. He says, at the end of the verse, show every consideration for all men. And so what he's cultivating here is a fundamental disposition about the way that we think and interact with the people that are around us in this world. This is to be the defining mark of our character, is what he's laid out here.

It's not a character of hostility. What is it that we avoid as we interact with our unsaved world? Well, first of all, he tells us to avoid what I'm going to call destructive lips.

Avoid destructive lips. Watch what comes out of your mouth and make it so that it is appropriate and interacting with the unsaved people that are around you. Look at what he says there in verse 2. He says, we are to malign no one.

Malign no one. This is the word that we get our English word blasphemy from, is the word that he uses here in relation to men. It has the idea that we are not to slander or speak insultingly about others or toward others or to others in our interactions. What he's doing here is he is restraining our natural inclinations to speak harshly about people or to show them contempt.

When we see people living degraded lives about them, we are not to look at them and think that we're in a position where we should speak down to them and insult them and condemn them with the things that we say. That is just not Christian demeanor. That is not the way that we are to be. We need to repent, you and I personally, individually, we need to repent of any angry demeanor that we might have toward the unsaved. That is not righteous living. Scripture says that the wrath of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

It's very clear about that. These unsaved people, what Scripture is teaching us, and we're going to see more here, these unsaved people should be the objects of our kindness, of our grace, of our mercy. Not our animosity. They're not our enemies.

They're our mission field. Scripture is clear about this. Turn over to 1 Peter.

You'll need to go to the right in your Bibles, past the book of Hebrews and past the book of James. 1 Peter chapter 2, I never had my mouth washed out with soap when I was a little kid, a fact for which I am very grateful to my mother for. But you know the idea that when dirty things come out of your mouth in the older times, you know, they sometimes wash their kids' mouths out with soap to teach them not to do that.

That happen to you? No. Okay. You just remember the principle. Well, here's what I want you to think about, beloved, is that instead of God physically washing our mouths out with soap, what he's doing here is he's cleansing our heart by the washing of his word so that our hearts would be properly oriented, so that what comes out would be naturally in fulfillment of this verse that Paul has given to us. And we are not to be people of destructive, angry lips toward the unsaved people around us. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 12. He says, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Now watch this. So he's talking about our behavior among the Gentiles, among unsaved people. And look how he builds on that later on in chapter 3, beginning in verse 8.

Chapter 3, verse 8. He says to sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, and humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead, for you are called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. For the one who desires life to love and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. He must turn away from evil and do good. He must seek peace and pursue it. So as an aspect of living an excellent Christian life among the Gentiles, there is this peaceful, sympathetic, kind-hearted spirit that animates what we say and what we do. Now let me just make a little, turn into a cul-de-sac here.

We'll go in and turn around and come right back out. Paul is not forbidding spiritual discernment here. Earlier in the book of Titus, he spoke honestly about the evil character of the Cretans in chapter 1. He's not telling us to just turn off the antenna of spiritual discernment here. He's not talking about that. He's talking about the disposition of your heart. He's talking about the way that you interact with unsaved people on a day-to-day basis. He's not talking about how we address false teachers here. He's talking about how you live with your unsaved neighbors, your unsaved co-workers, the people that you meet on the street, that whole interaction of which expresses the reality that we are Christians living in a non-Christian world.

What's our attitude to be about it? This is what he's saying. He says, watch your mouth and don't malign, don't slander, don't insult people as you're going through life like that.

That is inappropriate. It is not fitting for a Christian to be like that. Just building on that thought as we come out of the cul-de-sac here, it's one thing in the teaching of a church to expose false philosophies and to address that and to refute them. That's a perfectly natural and compelling duty that we have to do that.

That's one thing. That's not what this passage is about. It's a completely different thing for us as individual Christians to call other individual men idiots or fools or to just speak in such demeaning ways about them even if they're openly hostile to who we are and what we believe. That is not the calling of us. Paul says, malign no one.

Insult no one like that when you're living your life. And so he tells us to avoid destructive lips as we live in this world. Now, this aspect of avoiding destructive lips comes from something even bigger that we avoid.

And we'll put it this way. We're talking about what to avoid. We said avoid destructive lips. Avoid destructive lips and he goes on and shows us to avoid a combative spirit. A combative spirit.

Go back to Titus chapter 3 verse 2. Titus 3 verse 2 where he says to malign no one, to be peaceable. To be peaceable.

That's our word. It's a word that has the sense of don't be disposed to fight. Don't be disposed to fight. Don't be someone that is just carrying around a smoldering sense of anger at the unsaved world and the wrongness that you see around it.

Don't walk around with a smoldering sense of anger that's just ready to be lit and once your fuse is lit you're going off on a confrontational combative approach with the people that are around you. This is not the way that we are to be as Christians. Now remember, Paul is addressing our personal demeanor as Christians. He's not talking about the inherent offense that the Gospel brings. The Gospel will offend people.

The Gospel will, people will react against the Gospel. That's not what he's talking about here. He's talking about you and me. He's not rebuking the world here in terms of this passage. He's talking to us and so we need to pay attention to what God says in his word here and if God's word convicts us here we need to let it convict us. We need to let it sift through our mind because this is addressing our personal demeanor as Christians.

Who we are, what we do, what we are like. And beloved, here's the point. We don't get to justify ungodly reactions to the world around us in the name supposedly of upholding righteousness. If, I say this gently, if you and I are really concerned about the principle of God's righteousness being manifested on earth, if that's really our concern about I love my holy God, I want to see his righteousness honored on earth and that is the defining thing in my life. Hey, amen. Good, I'm glad you feel that way. I want to be that way too.

Understand this, that if that is what you say is the defining ambition of your life, understand that where it starts in application is not out there but in here. Inside your own heart and it's your own responsibility to pursue your own personal righteousness as the defining priority of your life. And you don't get a pass on all of the sinful things in your heart, your sinful attitudes and angers and bad attitudes toward the people around you in life. No, don't worry about what their own righteousness is like. Deal with your own. Love Christ enough, have enough personal integrity to say the real issue of righteousness in my life is my own. And start there. As we've said, we must be discerning and we must confront error.

Sure. That's why we're called truth community. But on a personal level, with who you are like as an individual man or woman, boy or girl, the disposition of your heart should be against personal combat with unsafe people in your lives. It is just ungodly and it is totally the wrong approach to life.

And so we have to sort through all of this. It doesn't matter that they're advancing things that you may be opposed to, that they're living in ways that you think are wrong. In terms of what your demeanor is toward them, be peaceable, it says. Look over at Matthew 5 to reinforce this. Matthew 5, verse 43. This is not an isolated principle in Scripture. This is fundamental to living in an unsaved world, in a fallen world, in a hostile world, as we said from 1 John repeatedly.

Matthew 5, verse 43. You've heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. That's what the Pharisees taught. Sure, love your neighbor, but if you have an enemy, hate them.

Jesus says, nope. I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he causes his Son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. God is indiscriminate in the dispensing of his common grace.

Unsaved people get to enjoy a beautiful sunset. They get to enjoy good meals. All coming out of the gracious, magnanimous character of God who is good to everyone on earth, saved and unsaved alike. What Jesus is saying is that you and I are supposed to be like that.

Indiscriminate, generous with our kindness, generous with our grace, generous with the sweet words of reasonable character that should be the mark of a Christian. This is what we do. This is who we are. It comes out naturally because we have been born from above by a God who is like that. And so we're to be like him.

Wow. You see a sunset and you say, oh, okay, great. Praise the Lord. Well, think for a moment about the fact that your unsaved neighbor gets to see and enjoy that same sunset. God doesn't hide his goodness from them in that way.

This is what you're to be like. Verse 46 of Matthew 5, as Jesus continues to have voice here, he says, if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even Gentiles do the same? He says the sinful despised tax collectors will greet their own. Gentiles will greet their own and be kind to them.

If we only showed kindness to one another, this would not distinguish us at all to show kindness to like-minded people who are in sympathy with us. Jesus says, no, you go way beyond that. You love your enemies. You pray for those who persecute you, remembering all the while that this is the way that God has been. This is the way, this is who God is. He shows that indiscriminate goodness to all. And so what Paul is telling us is that Christians should be peaceable citizens as we go through this world. The biggest obstacle to overcome in being a peaceable Christian is to reject bitterness and ill will and replace it with thanksgiving for all that God has done for us, as we were once helpless sinners but are now redeemed through Jesus Christ. Pastor Don Green will conclude his message on our next broadcast as he continues in the series, Titus, God's Glorious Plan of Grace, here on The Truth Pulpit.

We do hope you'll join us then. Meanwhile, Don's back here in studio with some closing thoughts. Well, my friend, as we wrap up this broadcast on the American holiday of Thanksgiving, let me give you just two things to kind of give a Christ-centered focus to your Thanksgiving as you go through the rest of your day. First of all, remember that though you were dead in sin, God has made you alive in Christ. You have been rescued if you are a Christian from the realm of sin and death and judgment and delivered into the wonderful kingdom of his grace. Praise God and thank him for that. And along with that, remember that your salvation is still yet to be completely consummated. You are one day going to be with Christ and see him face to face, and that is going to be a wonderful glory that surpasses the best riches that this world has to offer. So look back and realize that God has forgiven you and give thanks. Look forward and realize that you're going to see Christ and give thanks all the more.

We have a wonderful God who has been wonderfully gracious to us, and a heart of gratitude is the right way to respond to him. Thanks, Don. And friend, we hope you'll visit thetruthpulpit.com to find out how to get free CDs of Don's messages. That's thetruthpulpit.com. Now for Don Green, I'm Bill Wright, inviting you back next time when Don presents more from The Truth Pulpit.