Dr. Manny Arango (0:00)

Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango, and I'm your host for the Bible Department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. We are entering into the Pastoral Epistles. And so over the next three days, we're going to look at 10 Titus and Timothy. We'll actually tackle Titus in one day, since the entire book is three chapters long. Hey, if you haven't done the reading for the day, go ahead, pause, stop this audio video recording and go actually read the letter that Paul writes to his spiritual son named Titus. Three short chapters, really, really, really good content. If you read it and come back, and everything that I'm going to have to say is going to make a whole lot more sense. So for the rest of us who have done the reading already, Titus maybe one of these books that gets skipped over or not really emphasized. There's a lot in Titus that really gets used to talk about women not being in leadership, which, you know, is just not the conversation. Okay, so we're going to try to put Titus into some context. So hashtag context clues. Let's talk about context clues. First. We learn about Titus actually for the first time in Galatians, chapter two, verses three to five. And I'll actually go there because Titus and Timothy get compared a lot and should be compared a lot. Remember, Paul had Timothy circumcised. Okay. And we're gonna read about that tomorrow. That Paul required that Timothy get circumcised, but Titus, the exact opposite, actually. Paul is adamant that Titus not be circumcised. Here it says Galatians, chapter two. I'm gonna start reading. Yeah, I'll start reading in verse one. Okay. Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation. And meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preached among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. Here we go. Titus's name is gonna come up again. Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. So Titus is a Gentile, Titus is not a Jew, and Titus is uncircumcised. And Paul makes a point in the book of Galatians to Say that not even Titus was made to be circumcised, okay? There's going to be all other kinds of juxtapositions between Titus and Timothy. It seems like Titus is kind of like actually the stronger of the leaders between Titus and Timothy. But Timothy gets to go to the big city, Timothy gets stationed in Ephesus, but Titus is going to get sent to an island called Crete. And, man, you know, sometimes, you know, you kind of feel bad, at least for me. Okay? Sometimes I feel guilt. Like, if I'm at a church and I'm thinking to myself, like, man, this church. This church just isn't that good, you know? And I don't mean, like, the stuff happening on stage. Like, this is drama in the church. Like, this church kind of has a toxic culture. I. I go to a lot of churches, okay? And Paul is essentially like, hey, man, this church on the island of Crete is just rough. Actually, I'll read for you, Titus, chapter one. We'll start in verse, like, 11, okay? It says this, actually, I'll start in verse 10. So this is Paul talking to Titus about this church on the island of Crete. He says, for there are many rebellious people full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. So there are some Jews that. That are definitely causing a massive problem. They must be silenced because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things that ought not to be taught and that for the sake of dishonest gain. So right there, Paul tells us, like, what the problem is here at this house church, that there's leaders in place who are in leadership for the wrong reasons. Okay? They want to get, you know, they want to make money off God's people. And we got a lot of, like, rebellion, meaningless talk and deception. Okay? So we'll dig into what's going on there in. In a minute. Verse 12. One of Crete's own prophets has said, cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons. This saying is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply so they will be sound in the faith. Okay? If there's a church, like, outside of Corinth, I know Corinth gets a bad rap. The church of Corinth gets a really bad rap. There was another church that was kind of just, like, rough around the edges, man. We're talking about liars and evil brutes and lazy gluttons. Paul says, hey, Titus, I got a job for you, man. I'm going to install you as a pastoral leadership role on the entire island. There's probably several house churches that Titus is giving oversight, too. And so I want to give you just a little bit more context, okay? So we know who Titus is. Titus is a trusted son of Paul. Titus is a Greek. He's uncircumcised. And he's been assigned to the island of Crete, okay, To provide leadership. And he's got a tough job ahead of him, okay? Because. And actually, this will. Well, here we go. Here's the last of our context clue. Then we'll kind of move into our nerdy nugget for the day. Uh, there was actually this phrase called Kratizo, okay? It meant to be a Cretan, say, to be someone from Crete, but it. It meant, in context, it meant to be a liar. Okay? So the reputation of these Cretans is not good. The. The actual. The. The native culture of the island is not good. And through history are a lot of people, a lot of groups, everyone from Greeks to Romans to even Israelites or Jewish people who had used people from CRE as mercenaries, like paid mercenaries. So, you know, in a lot of ancient armies, you would have, like, you know, people who are fighting in the army because they were trying to defend their nation. And then there are people who are just, like, soldiers for hire. And that's what a mercenary was. It was a soldier for hire. And so if your island is known for, like, soldiers for hire, it's a rough place. And so Titus, you know, he's got to roll up his sleeves and kind of get to work, which now gets into our nerdy nugget. Here's a nerdy nugget that will help us to really understand what's going on. Cretans believed that Zeus was actually born on the island of Crete. And I want you to think about Zeus. What do we know about Zeus? Zeus seduced women. Zeus was a liar. Zeus was deceptive, okay? And so they believe that Zeus, this Greek God, was born on their island and that actually Zeus ran around the island seducing women and kind of impregnating women on the island and creating demigods. And so when your theology, like when your idea of God is that God is a liar and deceptive and seductive, then it immediately gives you license to be those things, okay? To be dishonest, to be deceptive, and to be a seducing kind of menace to society, okay? And so here is what Paul is going to say to Titus in chapter one, okay? He's going to fix theology. So this is chapter one, verse one. Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth. Okay, so right out of the gate, hey, truth is important. And if you're going to be a believer, you need to be someone who has knowledge of the truth. But then it goes further. And knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness. That a knowledge of the truth should lead you to godliness, essentially meaning you should be acting like God. That God should be the model for how we behave. And if your God is Zeus, then you have all these excuses, these inbred excuses to act deceptively, to. To act for dishonest gain, to act seductively. Okay, so the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness in the hope of eternal life. Which God who does not lie? Oh, I need you to right now that you have context and you got that nerdy nugget, you can see why Paul is saying, God who does not lie. Essentially God is saying. I mean, essentially Paul is saying, yeah, the God of the Bible is nothing like Zeus. Zeus is a deceiver. Zeus is deceptive. Zeus is seductive. But if you have now done away with worthless idols and are pledging allegiance to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who's the Son of God, God is not a liar. And now if you are following God as opposed to following Zeus now you are no longer a liar because you are going to act godly. You are not going to act like the gods that you used to imitate. You are now going to act like the God of the universe. And God does not lie. What if I told you that what you're learning in this video was just the tip of the iceberg? The Bible department is actually powered by arma. What is arma? I'm so glad you asked. ARMA is an online subscription based platform that we design to help people, everyday people learn the Bible for themselves. We started ARMA so that anybody, anywhere could have access to to trustworthy and entertaining Bible and theology content. In addition to this podcast, we have over 60 courses on individual books of the Bible, on theology topics, and on some hot topics like homosexuality, tithing and women in ministry. But really, ARMA is a community. A community of people that I've gotten to know. A community where thousands of people are currently finding family, asking questions and nerding out on the Bible together. If you want a community to read the Bible with you this year, or if you want to dive into some deeper theological content, or if you want more exclusive access to me and the entire armor team, how about you go to thebibledepartment.com I'll be sure to post the link in the description of this video. Let's make this your year to become a Bible nerd. How is Titus actually going to turn things around? Okay, Paul gives him a roadmap. Because Paul doesn't just care that the church. Church is healthy. Paul wants the culture to be healthy. Now this leads us directly into our timeless truth for the day. There are two extremes when it comes to engaging with culture. I think as a Christian, one extreme is to kind of be a culture warrior. You know, always got something critical to say about culture. You know, we're anti culture. And sometimes the culture warriors can be separatists, you know, can be fundamentalists. Like, I think about, you know, Amish. Sometimes I even think about the far right, like, very, very super Republican conservative party in America through just kind of like sometimes I don't even disagree with what the right is saying. I disagree with how they're saying it, because tone matters. And if the tone of what someone's saying is going to cause you to hate people and to point the finger and blame them for why America's going to hell in a hand basket, then, man, you have truth, but no grace. Okay? So that's one extreme of, you know, dealing with a secular culture, okay? So Titus has to deal with a secular culture. And one extreme is to engage in a culture war, okay? Argue on Facebook, you know, protest, you know, engage in a culture war. The other extreme, okay, which I can see in America as more of a progressive or liberal kind of approach, is to assimilate to the culture. So be just like it. Okay? There was a season where, like, I think that someone like Carl Lentz was, like, really, really popular. And we all looked at him like, wow, man, he's like getting people saved and he's baptizing people in bathtubs and he's at the club till 2am and then you're kind of like, ah, once we kind of see how that ended up, we're like, ooh, actually, you had assimilated. You had become so much like the world that you were no longer able to speak truth. So you have so much grace now that you don't have truth. And Paul actually gives Titus our roadmap to avoid cultural assimilation and to avoid cultural separatist or separation or to avoid a culture war. And here it is. Here's what Paul says, and this is what I think we should do. Find leaders and appoint them. This is brilliant. Okay, Literally, here we go. Verse 5 the reason I left you in Crete. I love how, you know, I can hear, like, Paul's tone. He's like, hey, man, I know Creed's rough. I know you'd probably rather be like Timothy right now in a big metropolitan city like Ephesus. I know. I know Crete's rough. But, hey, let me tell you. The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. And an elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. I want you to establish leaders. Establish leaders. Find Christians and train them on how to lead by example. Do I want you to find people who are charismatic? No. Do I want you to find people who preach great and eloquent sermons? No. Do I want you to find people who are super gifted? Nah, it's not that. Those things don't matter. But, man, if you don't have the character to actually support your charisma, then this will end up in catastrophe. Okay, I'll say that again. If you don't have the character to support charisma, then that will always end in catastrophe. And so Paul tells Titus, find leaders with character. Let's actually find leaders with character first, and then we'll find charisma. But we're living in such a culture where people are dishonest and people are deceptive, that there's a lot of, like, rough, charismatic, masculine guys. Avoid those guys. Go after the guys that are full of character. Okay? And this is the second thing that he says. Not only do I want you to get leaders, but here's the second thing. I want you to build healthy families. So I want the older women to teach younger women. Here we go. Verse 4 of chapter 2. Then they can urge the younger women to first get leaders in place. And then what are those leaders going to do? They're going to urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, to be subject to their husband so that no one will malign the word of God. And then, hey, get these young men, get some older men to disciple them and make sure that these young men are self controlled and everything. Set an example by doing what is good. Hey, emphasize integrity. Emphasize being self controlled. So Titus got two things that he needs to do. Get leaders in the church. And you can't have a healthy church without healthy families. So, hey, Titus, get. Get leadership you know, people are full of character. Get them in the church and then teach people how to do family really, really well. And if the church is healthy and if the family is healthy, guess what'll happen? It'll transform society. We don't need to pick it. We don't need to protest, we don't need to go in an all out culture war and we don't need to assimilate. What we need to do is we need to make sure we're building up leaders within the house of God. And then we're going to mobilize those leaders to train young men and young women to get married and have kids and lead healthy families. And if we can transform families, we can transform a society. This is Paul's vision to transform Crete through this leader by the name of Titus. But to give him a strategy for how he's going to see revival take place on this island called Crete. Revival is going to happen as he puts leaders in place and then gets those leaders to train young people to be husbands and wives. It's like this. I've got this poster hanging up back at our house. It says, if you want to transform the world, go home and love your family. And I think some so often we're like, I want to change the world. I want to change the world. You know how we change the world? By being a good husband, by being a good wife, by being a good son, daughter. And I'll say this because I think that if you're. And I think that's our timeless truth for the day, by the way. So, hey, if you got to stop watching, just stop watching right now. What I'm about to say, we in the bonus round, baby, I'll say this. If you're a young woman and you're in church, the reality is that you may not be able to control like the timeline on when you get married or if you do get married, that's just the numbers of church right now. But if you're a man and you're in church, then there's like 20 women to one guy in every. In any average church. And I would tell you that one of the most spiritual, mature things you could do is find a wife to have children and be a patriarch, be a husband, be a father. This is actually the model that Paul lays out for Titus. It's not that complicated. When I say husband and I say father, I mean someone who's responsible, someone who takes responsibility over their wife and over their children and over their household. And sometimes I think we over spiritualize spirituality. But if you're a young man, Paul would actually say that if you find yourself in one of these churches, that it's Titus job to. To get leadership involved, to get older men to disciple you so that you can learn the secrets of the faith. And what's the secrets of the faith? It's not unlocking all this powerful revelation from the Word. No, it's get a wife, get some kids, because you know what? You'll go to the Word in a way different way when your kids start asking you questions and your wife is asking you questions. That's the penultimate of being a leader, is now, if you're a woman, you. You may not be able to control that. There's not 20 men for every one single woman in church. The numbers just don't work that way. But if you're a man and you're in church, I would say, hey, you want to, like, you want to take it up a notch as a leader? Get married, be a husband, be a dad. Like that. We are living in a day and age. This is prolonging that season of life. Don't prolong that. Dive in and. And the season will actually turn you into the mature person that you need to be. Nothing, nothing will grow you up like your wife looking at you and saying, I'm pregnant. Okay. Nothing will make you go figure out how to be the provider and the protector and the priest that you need to be. All right, I love you. Till tomorrow as we dive into one Timothy. Love you guys. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebible department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.