The Place to Be #31

We have just seen in his letter to the Ephesians Paul's picture of the church as "The Place to Be" to grow in our relationship with God through Christ.  Since the Church is inseparable from Christ, and God's Plan, we are to do our part in it and to do everything we can to protect its purpose, purity, and peace.  Coinciding with our studies in Timothy, whom Paul sent to Ephesus to address problems there, is Paul's letter to Titus, whom Paul had left to establish the churches in Crete.  The teaching here compliments what we find in Paul's letters to Timothy:

Titus 1:1  Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began 3 and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior;
4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith:
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

The introduction here is a little more detailed than in Timothy, giving us some insight into the problems he needed to address at this church. Just as false teaching was an issue at Ephesus, so it was in Crete and the surrounding islands.  Here we find similar phrases like "Christ Jesus" and "God our Savior," which tells us they needed a clear view of Christ. In particular, Titus needed to firmly establish the doctrine of Christ's incarnation - that He is the hope of our eternal life.  Once we understand that, we are led to understand that we are chosen by God to live "with godliness" lives that are different than the world around us.