The Way of Obedience

We’ve been working through a study on Discipleship, seeking to understand what it means to be a disciple and how we are to follow Christ. We started by defining what a disciple is, and then we shifted to study the patterns that we are given in the OT, NT, saints, and church leaders. Now, we turn to another consideration for the disciple of Christ – what are the beliefs and practices that a disciple is to hold to? Or, what is the way of life that a disciple is to practice? I am going to answer this over the next three weeks by considering another Greek word that relates to discipleship. The word, didache, is most often translated as “doctrine” or “teaching”, but these words carry with them a connotation that limits our understanding of what the NT means by it. I think, when we hear the word “doctrine”, we tend to think of a statement of faith, like our Baptist Faith and Message. We might think of a set of precepts and propositions to which we hold and which we expect our leaders to affirm. But, that’s not all that didache means. This word isn’t just concerned with the principles we believe, but the way those principles impact how we live. So, I would rather consider this in terms of a way of life. Christianity is, after all, a way… the way. It is the right way – the God-honoring way - of thinking, of believing, and of living.

This morning, we begin to understand this way of life by considering the way of obedience. To see this, let’s read Titus 2:1-15 together. From this passage I want you to understand that the way of life is found in obedience that is sound and self-controlled.

First, we follow a way of obedience that is sound. In verses 1, Paul encourages Titus, pastor of the church in Crete, to “teach what accords with sound doctrine.” In this statement we have a form of the Greek word, didache, translated as “doctrine.” Titus is to teach his congregation in a way that is sound. The word, “sound”, means “healthy” or “wholesome.” This sound doctrine is in contrast to false teachers who had come into the church in Crete and were causing all sorts of problems. Notice back up in chapter 1, verse 16, Paul sums up the problem with these false teachers: “they profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.” Catch this: these false teachers seem to say all the right things. They seem to have a sincere profession of faith. They know their Bible, chapter and verse. They can argue philosophy and the finer points of the Law. But, their confession is contradicted by their works. What they say they believe is not reflected in their obedience to Christ. Their way of life is not sound, healthy, or wholesome, but is detestable.

By contrast, Titus is to lead his church in a way that is healthy. So, what does a sound way of obedience look like? Based on what Paul teaches in verses 2-10, a sound way of obedience looks like a life that is rightly ordered. Notice, Paul addresses five groups in these verses, giving each one of them a way that they are to order their lives. In verse 2, he tells Titus to be sure to teach older men to be disciplined examples to younger men. Older men are to show, in their way of life, that they can control their desires and live a healthy life of faith, love, and commitment. Next, in verse 3, Titus is to teach older women to do two things. For one, they are to be reverent in their behavior, which means they aren’t to be gossips or drunkards. They are also to teach the next generation of women. It’s interesting that Paul does not instruct Titus to teach young women directly, but rather he is to teach older women to teach younger women. This goes back to what I’ve said before: a disciple follows the pattern of believers who have gone before. As a pastor, I can teach general principles from Scripture of how women are to live within the home, but I can’t be an example of that. Only women who have been there and done that can, and this is something I think the older women of any church should take seriously.

That leads to the third group: younger women. Older women are to teach younger women to love their children and respect their husbands, and to live in self-control. Similarly, young men are also to be taught to live in self-control. The last group that Titus is to teach is found in verse 9. Titus is to teach slaves to be submissive and diligent in their work for their masters.

As we’ve worked through each of those groups, you’ll notice that each is instructed to rightly order their lives. Titus is to submit to sound doctrine. Older men and women are to submit to the teachings of their pastor. Younger men and women are to submit to the examples of their elders. Slaves are to submit to their masters. Each is under a sphere of authority that helps to order their obedience. Paul says that, in submitting to this authority, they “adorn the doctrine of God our savior.” This is a fascinating phrase. The Greek word for “adorn” is kosmeo, from which we get “cosmetics.” It means to decorate or garnish. In other words, our obedience is like a decoration that is added to the Gospel. Our rightly ordered way of life beautifies the Gospel, particularly by proving it to be effective. In contrast to the false teachers, who prove the falsity of their teaching by their detestable works, true disciples prove the truthfulness of what they believe by the beauty of their works.

The way of obedience is not just sound, but it is also self-controlled. In verses 11-15, Paul reminds Titus of the effect that the Gospel should have on the life of a believer. In verse 11, he says that the grace of God has brought salvation to everyone. That grace has a real, visible effect on those who believe it, which we find in verse 12. The salvation of God teaches us to give up our old ways (ungodliness and sinful passions), and instead to live by self-control. You probably noticed as we worked through this passage that Paul makes a big deal of the concept of self-control. He says it four different times in this passage, and really, every other behavior he teaches us to have goes back to it, whether it be the soberness of older men, the reverence of older women, or the submissiveness of younger women and slaves – it’s all summed up as self-control. The way of the disciple of Christ is to deny our passions, to put ourselves under the authority of Christ, and to consider the needs of others before ourselves.

Brothers and sisters, we are called as disciples to walk in a way that orders our lives around the authority of Christ, and the authorities that he has placed over us. This runs counter to our American way of thinking. We are taught to think of our rights and privileges, to even defend them. But, as believers, we are under authority, and we should live in obedience to authority. The world tells us that our sexual impulses and preferences are the greatest good we can pursue, but in Christ we are to deny those so that we might live in holiness. The world tells us to live for ourselves, devoting as much time as we can to “self-care”, but in Christ we are called to think about the good of others, whether that be young people that we can teach in influence, or our families and employers whom we are called to serve. May we leave this place and walk in a way that brings beauty to the Gospel of Christ as we live in self-control.