For the faith of God's elect

Titus 1:1-3 (HCSB)

Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, and has in His own time revealed His message in the proclamation that I was entrusted with by the command of God our Savior:

As Christians we are slaves just like Paul, existing to serve Jesus Christ. This however does not mean living in a hut, alone in the middle of the Australian desert, but instead living in communities of believers. How we serve Jesus is said in two ways.

1. For the faith of God's elect.

2. For the knowledge of the truth that leads of Godliness.

Everything that we do as slaves of Jesus Christ should be done in reflection of these two points placed as two questions:

1. How is this (what we do) for the faith of God's elect?

2. How does this promote the knowledge of the truth?

When reflecting on the first of these two questions, our practice of our faith should not lead of pragmatic Christianity, but instead should lead to deep devotion and obedience to God. Sometimes we fall into the pit of thinking that results in us believing that we can accomplish God's work better by skipping around the path he has placed for us, and telling Him that we'll meet him at the end. The Pharisee's are a prime example of this pragmatism, believing that they could do what was right without being regenerate (Matthew 23:23). We often pragmatic in our churches, thinking sometimes that giving someone a job to do in church (in order to get them to attend more regularly) will benefit the growth of the church overall, even when God says that it is believers that should serve within the church (1 Corinthians 14:26, 2 Corinthians 6:14). If we are acting for the faith of God's elect, we should realise that Christian pragmatism is following the path that God has laid before us, you can't serve Christ by not serving him. The quickest path is the one God has placed before you, the path of faithful service to him, obedience (John 14:15), unless of course you are heading somewhere else.

Prayer then is a major part of obedience if we are acting for the faith of God's elect. We need to pray for our leaders, our people, and as Jesus did, for the elect. It should should be deep, expectant prayer. If we pray and do not expect action from God, then we are not trusting God's promises that he hears us. If we do not pray then we are also not acting in accordance with how the Apostles saw the priority of prayer (Acts 3:42, 6:4). Do you spend more time blogging than praying? There is a place for blogging, but it should in no way have priority over prayer.

The truth that leads to godliness is the second of the two, to a certain extent there is a separation which is almost artificial, for we do not act for the faith of God's elect without the knowledge of the truth which leads to Godliness (this is talking about the gospel). We act for the gospel, for the faith of the elect. We cannot act for the faith of the elect without proclamation of the knowledge that leads to godliness. Someone is unable to do righteous acts apart from relationship with God, there needs to be faith present first (Romans 14:23).

How does this passage change how we do church?

We should do the Lord's supper weekly, in the manner which the bible stipulates. This is because in doing this we proclaim Christ's death and resurrection. This is an act which is for the faith of the elect, and is a proclamation of the truth.

There is a movement within contemporary churches to have a loose/random style service. This is a response to how our culture understands what being 'real' is. Our culture equates spontaneity with 'realness' (genuineness). So we have a group of churches responding to this call with unplanned, ill thought through services. This passage demands that our ministers, and our services leaders think very carefully each week about how every aspect of what we do contributes to the faith of the elect or the proclaiming the knowledge of the truth.

Where we aim our services and church groups is also affected by this passage, the aim here is for the faith of the elect, not all non-Christians. Each service should be aimed at building up the body of Christ, and increasing the members. This means not diluting the content of the Gospel, but presenting it in a manner that God's people might be able to hear and respond to it. This means eliminating and practices within our church gatherings and services that are church culture, rather than Christianity.

"The motivation for service springs from the Holy Spirit's presence and reflects the compassion of God: " We love because he first loved us".... Jesus was compassionate. His chief service was to preach the gospel and lay down his life for us. " - D. Broughton Knox

Too much pepper...

I was recently watching an episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, quite frequently in-between swearing he comments about the level of seasoning on a dish. Sometimes the dish has so much seasoning that he can't taste the ingredients-the salt or sauce overriding the fine taste of the Atlantic salmon. Other times there is so little seasoning on a soup that it is bland.

If we took the state of our Christian affairs and converted it into a dish I wonder what comments would be made as to the flavor of our dish. Perhaps our ingredients aren't the best... maybe instead of Atlantic salmon we are using a cheap substitute dyed pink and lit just right as to give the appearance of freshness. Maybe it is that we have over seasoned and now the salt bush lamb can no longer identified with the Coles sauce poured all over it.

Each Christian is given a quality base ingredient to work with; whether your want it to be a red, white or pink meat the decision has already been made by Jesus, and it is clearly that of a red meat (sorry vegetarians - 1 Peter 1:19). That Christ has been offered up as the lamb for us is indisputable, but sometimes when we serve up Christianity to non-believers we add unnecessary seasoning to a dish which is already succulent and tender (I'm writing this entry just before lunch - Hebrews 10:10).

So what are these seasonings that are unhelpful for the Gospel?

In the next couple of posts I'll include some of these problems from a biblical perspective.

If you have any suggestions as well please feel free to post them in the comments and we'll flesh them out a little more in the following posts.