Your Actions Speak
Opening Prayer
Lord, my heart is Yours, my life is Yours, I am Yours. You are worth my all.
Read Titus 1:5-16
[5] 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. [6] 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. [7] Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless-not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. [8] Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. [9] He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. [10] 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. Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Do your actions reflect a life truly devoted to God?“Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons” (12). How do you strengthen a church in that setting? For Paul, it starts with leadership. Titus is in Crete to help establish the church by appointing leaders whose lives reflect Christ’s lordship (7-9). These leaders are distinctive from general society as well as from false teachers within the church.In Crete, whole households are in ruin (11) because a group of people in the church are “rebellious” (10). Paul is clear: they must be rebuked in order that they “will be sound in the faith” (13). This involves rejecting untruths (14), having pure consciences and minds (15), and acting in ways that reflect their words (16). It is a high ideal, and it will require tough, but truthful, words from Titus. Now fast forward to 2015. Our context is very different, yet the challenge to leaders remains. Church leaders have a huge responsibility to reflect Jesus in their lives and protect the church from false teaching. They are called to speak and live truth. So let’s pray for our church leaders, that they may have spiritual wisdom and insight, and that we might see even more of Jesus through their lives.
Apply
Pray for God to raise up leaders who passionately live according to the standard of his Word.
Closing prayer
Father, You have never spoken an empty word. Let me be a person whose words and actions line up.
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