The call to take your stand.

In just a few verses we are going to see that the assignment for Titus needed for him to be courageous and to move forward to deal with very difficult islanders. Crete doesn’t sound to have been a very nice place. Yet it was here that churches had been planted and Titus had to now train and appoint leaders to oversee them.

It is not easy being a leader. There are often seasons of conflict and solving problems can be very taxing. A leader must be a shepherd caring for people with love, grace and mercy. But they are also called to take a stand against those who negatively disturb the community around them whether that be in the workplace, community and here … the church.

“For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. ¹¹ They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. ¹² One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” ¹³ This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith ¹⁴ and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth. ¹⁵ To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. ¹⁶ They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.” (Titus 1 v 10-16)

If Paul told Titus there were many who would not submit to authority then we should expect this in our times and not be surprised when we see it.

So what does Paul tell Titus and therefore ourselves? It is a list that is a help to every leader but also helps us to appreciate those who lead us.

1. Have a realistic perspective. Don’t look only at those who are following but keep your eyes on who are not with you. There are ‘many’. They have a different gospel, vision and belief system than what you are proclaiming.
2. Have a plan. Know how you will ‘silence’ their voice. This doesn’t mean you will be unkind or use violence (could be a temptation!) but that you will have a plan to know how to refute their rebelliousness. For Titus it was to train leaders to use the gospel to silence those in the circumcision camp.
3. Don’t delay. ‘Rebuke them sharply’ is not to destroy the person but the deception. The end goal is solid Christians who hold firmly to the faith. Titus had to ‘get on with it right away’ (Message). Some things are not for discussion or empathy. You don’t always have to get in the other person’s shoes. Stay in your own shoes because they are the correct ones to wear. A dithering church always gives more ground to the destroyer of the church.
4. Don’t be fooled. Anyone can claim anything even to know God. Claims and actions can be very different. A good leader who is deceived will not see the bad. A good leader who is not fooled easily isn’t necessarily a cynical leader though it may feel like that.
5. Change the culture. Paul quotes Epimenides, a Cretan prophetic poet from the sixth century BC. Prophetic not in the sense of being divine but nevertheless a well-known not only to Paul, Titus but the whole island. He accused his own people of being ‘liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons’ as they claimed that they had the tomb of Zeus, the master of the gods who he believed lived for ever. Paul was saying to Titus: “this is why we came here in the first place; to turn a lying, evil, lazy culture into the culture of the kingdom by the power of Christ. That is the goal. That is why Titus you are there. That is why you must raise leaders for the churches.” And this is the goal of every leader here 2,000 years later.

Pray for your leader as they take their stand for the gospel and for truth in the context that God has appointed them to. It is not easy and they need your support.