Paul continues to instruct Titus about the true principles involved in making disciples for Jesus Christ in the first chapter. It requires a commitment to God as Lord and Master. It requires commitment to the Mission the Lord has given us (See Matthew 28:19f). It requires commitment to the message of Jesus Christ specifically as contained in God’s Word, the Bible. It also requires a commitment to the “proclamation” of that truth. Today there is a strong trend toward the social gospel. I understand that to be a focus on doing good deeds locally and around the world without a proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ. But Paul always connects his actions with his faith just as Peter did in Acts Chapter 4. When he healed the crippled man, he declared to everyone that he did not do it, but that Jesus of Nazareth was the source of that healing. Both Peter and Paul made it a point to connect their good deeds with the message of Jesus Christ. When we do good for others, do we want them to think how good we are, or to see Jesus working in their lives through our ministry?

Paul writes to Titus in 1:3 that the message of Jesus is “the proclamation with which I was entrusted.” He’s recognizing that God as his Lord and master, has given him a sacred mission, and that sacred mission included God’s message about Jesus. Neither Paul nor Peter would cower to the pressure of society or the religious leaders of other faiths to silence that message. We shouldn’t either. Paul tells the Romans, the center of the Political world, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of all who believer, to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.”

Paul illustrates his commitment to God’s Lordship, His God given mission, the message as revealed in Scripture, and to the proclamation of that to all who would hear. Paul was developing Titus as a disciple of Jesus Christ by his example. In other passages of Paul’s writings he tells other disciples that he was “set apart from his mother’s womb” for this mission. We were too! He tells the Colossians “he was made a minister according to the stewardship of God bestowed on him” for the benefit of others. We were too! He said he was “under compulsion” to preach God’s word. We should be also! He told the Corinthians, “woe to me, if I don’t tell others about Jesus.”

Chuck
“But life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about God’s mighty kindness and love.” Acts 20:24