Today at our church we will begin a conference called God’s Man. It will include different speakers that will expound on the scriptures in reference to the responsibilities of Christian men. There will be food, of course, while fellowshipping and catching up on the last year. There will be men from several different states coming together to learn, pray, and renew their desire and knowledge on how to apply God’s word in their lives on a day-to-day basis. This gathering of men will leave with a deeper love for God, family, and those who don’t know Christ. They will feel energized to push forward to serve God in all capacities of their lives. They will leave with a renewed responsibility to shepherd their families to know Christ in a deeper way, to make sure they are being the right kind of leader in the home as a godly example. From the beginning, God ordained man to be the head of the home and the local church. Before you tune me out, understand, this is God’s plan and while our pride and ego may fight it, God knows best. This leader is not a tyrant, but a loving head. The passage in Ephesians teaches us that the man is to love the wife as Christ loved the church. He laid down His life to save the church and the body of believers that follow Him. These gatherings are to help them be what God designed them to be.
Ephesians 5:22-25 “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;”
Women have always felt they needed other women in their lives to help them along the way. We tend to be more relational and gain support from other women, but men need men too! They carry a heavy load as the Husband, Dad, Pastor, Teacher, and on and on responsibilities. In our last few verses of Titus, we see Paul supporting this truth that men need men.
Titus 3:12-15 “When I shall send Artemas unto thee, or Tychicus, be diligent to come unto me to Nicopolis: for I have determined there to winter. Bring Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey diligently, that nothing be wanting unto them. And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they are not unfruitful. All that are with me salute thee. Greet them that love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen.”
As we see in verses 12 -15, Paul is telling Titus, his young son in the faith, to come to him when he sends Artemas or Tychicus. He told him to be diligent, don’t delay. He was sending a replacement for Titus so he could come. Titus had done his job well by dealing with all sorts of problems in the church. He had taught the women and the men to adorn the gospel as they become relational, and the older teach the younger. For a young man, Titus had big responsibilities. He had been a defender and protector of the purity of the doctrine of the church. Paul knew if they were to influence those in Crete the church must have a holy witness in the world. The same is true today. If we are to influence others for Christ, we must be different. We must maintain the purity of the gospel in a world that is so vile and corrupt. We must band together to know the truth and live the truth so that we can win others.
Paul was committed to seeing the gospel stay pure and undefiled by the ideas of man. He knew what it would take to continue to keep the church moving forward in the right direction. He didn’t tell them to look for a new program or try a new method to teach. He didn’t tell them to bring in the most popular person in the area or pat people on the back to convince them they were doing well. No, his instructions included keeping the main thing the main thing with godly committed men. Men of character, men who knew God, not new methods or gimmicks to draw attention to themselves. Paul lived a selfless life after he met Christ. His only goal in life was to serve and win others to the gospel. However, in these last words in Titus chapter 3, we can feel the heartbeat of Paul wanting to spend time with Titus. He thought of him as his son in the faith and loved him as his own, but even though he longed to see him and hear about the work he did not allow his feelings to compromise the work that had been done. He was sending other men to continue what had been accomplished for God.
Men do need men and women need women to help us grow and flourish in a lost and dying world. We need to be taught by more mature people. We need to be encouraged and admonished by those who are looking out for our best interests as Christians. Paul understood this and he is setting an example of this truth throughout the book of Titus. Teach one another how to adorn the gospel and get it right so that others may know the love, holiness, power, and hope of a life in Christ.
The greatest thing we can ever do is to be like Paul in Philippians 3:10 “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” We are to gather, gain, embrace, and pass it on!
