(REFLECTIONS ON Titus 2:1-10)

We know that there is inequality in the world. We know that things happen on a daily basis that aren’t fair, that we wish were different, that we wish we could change. This is one of the challenges of living as Christians in a broken world.

Yet, no matter how broken, imbalanced, and unfair the world is, we must still be a good witness of the grace we have received through Jesus Christ, our Lord while we fight for change. We must learn in our faith not to use the brokenness of others, the environment, relationships, etc. as an excuse to why we refuse to be Christ’s ambassadors and to represent Him in this world. Rather, we should consider how we go about living Christ even in the brokenness.

In many of Paul’s letters, he emphasizes the way that we should live out our faith in the different relationships we have in this world. Although we often times get caught up in issues of inequality, imbalance, and unfairness in these relationships, we must keep in mind that these shouldn’t be excuses for us to be bad representatives of Christ in this broken and messy world.

We can easily look at the failure of men in relationships and argue for how unfair it is that Paul asks for wives to obey their husbands. We can also look at the abuse and inequality in the slave and master relationship and argue that we should be fighting for the freedom of slaves instead of encouraging them to be good slaves.

In today’s Scripture, we see several “so that” statements. Paul’s message is that as Christians we should live…

5 …So that no one will malign the word of God.
8 …So that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.
10 …So that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

Yes, husbands and wives will continue to fail one another, and people with power will continue to oppress people without power. But let us not turn from our faith as we try to be the change that we would like to see in this world. This doesn’t mean that we should be passive and do nothing to affect change in this world. However, we should also be asking ourselves how we can do this while still living Christ even in the brokenness?

Let us not let this broken world break us.

Even when things are not fair, may we still faithfully live out Christ’s love, mercy, and grace in the world. Christ’s love, mercy, and grace is not just reserved for the faithful, just, righteous, perfect, but we are challenged to live these things out in a world that is unfaithful, unjust, imperfect, and at times seems like a flat out mess.

Yes, even when it doesn’t seem fair.

Living Christ even in the brokenness means that we should focus less on what type of person the “other” is, but rather, despite their faults, to live out Christ’s love, even when it is hard and seems impossible to do. Our testimony as Christians is that there is only one Savior in this world. Jesus Christ is the only one that can save us, save this world, and bring true healing to this broken world.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Titus 2