Faithful
So let's carry on through the book of Titus. It's really a great book to go through. Martin Luther, the great reformer, actually said that “the book of Titus contains all that you need to live for Christian knowledge and life.” So I think these words are going to bless us as we continue to go through them.
We saw last week how Paul's greeting taught us so much. And in verse 5, we find out a little bit about Titus because Paul tells him that he left him so that Titus could go ahead with his job of appointing elders in every town—in other words, setting up small Christian communities and putting leaders in place to oversee them.
Qualities of Leaders
He then explains to Titus what the qualities of an elder or a leader of a church are. But as we go through them this week, you'll see that these qualities are not only for leaders. These are qualities that every Christian should have.
In fact, there's a whole theology around the priesthood of all believers, which talks about how every one of us is a priest or a minister in our own context. And so as much as Paul was using these to talk about leaders of specific churches, all of us need to be these types of people.
So in verse 6, Paul says “an elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife”. Faithful. So let's be reminded today of our call as Christians to be faithful people.
Faithfulness in Marriage
Of course, for those of us who are married, that's an obvious one. We make vows and we commit to being faithful to this person and this person alone. We reserve ourselves for them only—not only in terms of our sexuality, but in terms of our emotional and spiritual well-being. We lean on our spouse, and we don't give other people the role that our spouse is supposed to play. There's a deep connectedness there that must not be broken when you are married.
And so perhaps that can be a reminder for you, if you are married today, to be faithful to your spouse in all ways—to perhaps commit again to giving them that place in your life that you promised they would have when you got married.
Broader Faithfulness
But what about those of you who are not married? Well, consider your other relationships. Are you a faithful friend? Are you a faithful leader? Are you a faithful brother? Sister? Parent? Child?
Think of it this way: when we say that God is faithful, and when we sing, “Great is God's faithfulness” and words to that effect, what are we saying? We are marvelling at the fact that He's dependable. He's always there. He's committed to us, and we can count on Him.
Let's be Christians who are faithful to the people in our lives. Let's be Christians who are dependable. Because if we want to be Christlike—if we want to be Godlike—and remember Paul said that in those earlier verses, that our faith must lead to godliness - if we want to be godly, it means being faithful.
So my prayer for you today is that you will commit again to the people in your lives—to being faithful to them, whether your spouse, whether your friends or your family, whether it's your workplace, whatever. Be faithful. Be committed. Be dependable.
And remember what Jesus said in His parable in Matthew 25: the ones who are faithful will hear those words one day from the Master: "Well done, good and faithful servant."
