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!
Joseph Padgett