You have probably heard it said that “might makes right”, or that because something (bad) can happen, it will happen. Yet Paul inverts this phrase and breathes new life into it. In our culture, might, force, brute strength, cunning, and all such advantages you might have over anyone are taken to give you right against them. “I am better at this, therefore I ought (by right!) to have authority”. Yet Paul in Titus 1.8-9 offers an opposite image, whereby our righteousness is founded upon the message of the gospel, and it is the Holy Spirit which moves us to speak, not our own understanding. At the same, Paul is calling us to pursue a deepness of this understanding of the gospel. This reinforces the understanding of righteousness God has called us towards. Might is God’s, and he makes us Righteous. Righteousness is God’s, and through it, he makes us mighty to do his will!

[Titus 1.8-9]

1.8 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.

[ WHAT ] is this passage saying and what is a key truth or thought that we learn?

+ What does it mean to be an elder?

+ What is the fruit of “hold[ing] firmly” to the gospel? Why is it important to do so, and in such a way as the gospel “has been taught” to us?

+ What are the ways in which God has given me his “trustworthy message?” What are untrustworthy messages I am heeding?

+ What is the connexion between the qualities Paul lists in verse 8, and the hold that he encourages us to have in verse 9?

[ HOW ] is the Lord calling me to action/obedience?

+ Is there sin to confess or a next step to take? How has it gone since last time?

+ Am I the spitting image of verse 8? Do all feel encouraged by my grasp of the Gospel? How long have I been aware that this is the case?

+ What untrustworthy messages have I been led astray by? How can I return to the truth?

+ How would the Lord have me be hospitable, love the good, be self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined, in my daily life? (v. 8)

+ How is the Lord calling me to get a better grasp on the teachings he has given me? What has he been revealing to me that I may become a better image of the previous verse?

[ WHO ] am I walking with and praying for to discover Jesus?

+ What is my next step?

+ It seems to me that Paul has very closely the definition of elder with the exhortation in verse 9; who has God set up in my life as a teacher(s), whose messages I may firmly grasp?

+ Who is God calling me to encourage by having a better grasp of God’s teachings?

+ Who in my life needs refuting, so that they may trust more God’s trustworthy message, and trust less the untrustworthy messages of the world?