Christmas Eve 2nd Reading
Jason Rowinski
Don’t Drink, Smoke, Cuss, Chew or Run with those who Do
Those of us who’ve grown up in evangelicalism, especially the holiness movement, are familiar with this phrase. It functions as a mnemonic device for instruction in holiness and Christian living. While phrased humorously (and no longer as popular as it once was), I can assure you that its intent was serious. The height of holiness and being a “good Christian” was/is thought by many to be contained in this instruction. An old friend’s humorous summation of the doctrine of Christian holiness is “I don’t do more than you don’t do.”
Our four verse Christmas Eve passage sounds a lot like the old evangelical holiness code language. It’s preceded by a pericope of verses (2.1-10) that give a classic Greco-Roman take on household rules — which is kind of like the ancient version of instruction on “How to live a good, respectable, and proper Upper-Middle class white-suburban life.”
Consider the instructions:
OLD MEN: Tell the older men to be temperate, serious, prudent, and sound in faith, in love, and in endurance
OLD WOMEN: be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink; they are to teach what is good
YOUNG WOMEN: to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good managers of the household, kind, being submissive to their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited.
YOUNG MEN: be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, gravity, and sound speech that cannot be censured.
SLAVES: be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect; they are not to talk back, not to pilfer, but to show complete and perfect fidelity, so that in everything they may be an ornament to the doctrine of God our Savior.
Mixed in with some instruction none would quarrel is a concern for being serious, temperate, submissive, chaste, etc. This sounds like a perfect description of the idyllic life Antebellum South and a manifesto for “white Christian nationalism.” These scriptures have long been used to reinforce misogyny and racism (and more). This instruction is crafted perfectly around its culture and if you want to fit in, be comfortable, secure, and respectable — you can see why Christians throughout the centuries cheery-pick and prooftext these verse. If everyone just knew their place, stayed in their own lane, and behaved like civilized folk the world would be fine, right? Right? NO! Millenia of attempting to be “good people” through “rule-following and respectability” provide enough evidence that legalism and appeasing civilized culture result in destructive discipleship and castrated Christianity.
From Here to Epiphany
It’s no surprise that many in modern scholarship charge that Titus waters down the Gospel and turn it into a sanitized civil religion. These verses from Titus appear to be unworthy candidates for a celebration of the birth of the Incarnate Word, Liberating Savior, Servant-King, do they not? They don’t seem to live up to the Christ as described in verse one of hymn “Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness.”
Praise the one who breaks the darkness
with a liberating light.
Praise the one who frees the prisoners,
turning blindness into sight.
Praise the one who preached the Gospel,
healing every dread disease,
calming storms and feeding thousands
with the very bread of peace.
Our passage stands out foundational (along with 3.4-7), standing out like a theological oasis in the desert of first century civilized moral instruction. The unique perspective these verses bring to Titus’ message is that God’s plan to rescue, redeem, and restore humanity is clearly seen in the epephan (appearance, v.11) of God’s grace — Jesus’ first coming and the work of salvation goes on until the epiphaneian (manifestation, v.13) of hope and glory that arrives in Jesus’ second coming. The Church lives in-between the times of the First and Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Human life and salvation occurs “between two Epiphanies.”
Therefore, there is an “already not yet” quality to the Kingdom of God. It’s arrived and available but it is not fully consummated. While we have a future hope, we also have a present reality. Human ignorance and sin are still with us. The ideals of a consummated Kingdom should continue to drive the Church into mission and toward the Second Coming, ACTIVELY WAITING upon God during this in-between time. At the same time, we must confess that sin, destruction, ignorance, and imperfection are and will remain with the Church for now.
Considering that, let’s look at the situation of Titus’ people in their historical reality as a clue as to WHY Titus instructs them in this manner. This pastoral household instruction would have been a tall order on the island of Crete, where Titus pastored, because Crete a reputation for greed, dishonesty, corruption, and licentiousness that civilized Greco-Roman society frowned upon. These people needed salvation, but they needed some basic life instruction as well.
For us today, perhaps this would be a location like our inner cities or other impoverished areas where churches regularly engage people with work like instruction on how to make a resume’, interview for a job, create a budget, etc. or help people have food, resolve conflict peaceably, or overcome addiction. Some people don’t know how to function in healthy ways in the modern world because of injustice and inequality. The work of putting things right often involves simple steps that are obvious to many of us but elusive to those who’d benefit from them most. This explains why a denomination like the Church of the Nazarene — which began in the inner city — developed its moral instructions to fit that context at that time. The problem comes when we try to make casuistic (situational/case) laws into apodictic (unchanging) laws. While this explains Titus’ use of Greco-Roman household codes and how they applied to his context, in order to not make mistakes we need to grasp the theology (apodictic law) underlying his message so that we can apply it to our context (casuistic law) — lest we keep confusing the two ad infinitum.
CROSS-fit (See what I did there?)
How now shall we live? That’s a question that Titus has on his mind for his people and one that always comes to the Church in every context in every age. We are being renewed by the Holy Spirit and also working out our own salvation. Titus wants to train us in righteousness. He uses the Greek word for training (paideuousa) which is associated with the instruction and discipline of children. Jesus himself “grew in wisdom and stature” and so to it is with his disciples. Discipleship takes time, intention, commitment, and a relationship with the person (Jesus) whom you’re trying to be like.
Titus couches his whole message in grace. We are recipients of grace — chiefly seen in God’s action in coming in the flesh and entering into our broken existence. The grace of God always goes before us. It’s the grace of God (not our own effort) that empowers transformation. Behavior modification, while not necessarily bad, is not spiritual transformation. We are saved and sanctified by grace. This is cause for praise, humility, and gratitude. These attitudes safeguard us from a life of legalistic Phariseeism.
Yet it is also important to remember the “grace is opposed to EARNING but it is not opposed to EFFORT” — to quote Dallas Willard. We are empowered by God to pursue righteousness with ZEAL. God, through Jesus, empowering us to be zealous for RIGHTEOUSNESS. One wonders if people on the spectrum of conservative to progressive, uneducated to highly educated, poor to rich, don’t all suffer from the same root problem of being zealous for the wrong things, where our zeal is measured by some idea of what the world considers good, proper, or civil. The instructions Titus gives to his people were radical for them. But we must ask what God’s righteousness means for us in our time and place and pursue that with zeal until Christ comes again.
Jason Rowinski
Interim Pastor, Kansas City First Church of the Nazarene