Titus 3:14 Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.
You can tell the quality of the character of a person by watching what they do over long periods of time. It must be long periods of time, because some people can fake it very well. They can keep up an act long enough to reach their unspoken goals. Do we do this?
The phrase “show me the money” brings this point home. Anyone can use words in an attempt to convince someone else to take action, to do good, but words don’t have substance until the action connected to those words is completed. Show me the money, put up or shut up, where the rubber meets the road.
Our text today comes from a section of this letter Paul wrote to Titus, and emphasizes doing good. The false teachers that Paul is warning Titus about have all the words and are missing the actions. They are saying things that might give the impression they are on the right track, but then their actions don’t match their talk.
Our verse is a summary of what Christians are supposed to be and do. We are supposed to be doing good works, not as a means to salvation, but as an expression of gratitude for the salvation we have freely received. They are the proof in the pudding. These good works demonstrate that we have understood the Gospel and are putting it into practice in our lives.
But good works do something else; they project the Truth of the Gospel to a hungry world. Doing what is good involves thinking about the needs of others and not just about our own needs. It puts others first.
That is why work is a good thing. Earning a living enables us to meet, not just our needs, but it enables us to have the where with all to meet the needs of others. Work is a good thing. We don’t have to be a burden on a system. We can become the solution to someone else’s need.
At this time in the Church’s history, some though that Jesus was going to return and set up His Kingdom within their lifetime. And as a result, some had stopped working which burdened others with their care. An able-bodied person should not be receiving support from someone else, or even a government support agency. They should work!
We need to be able to provide for the urgent needs of those around us. Paul narrows the focus of our charitable giving. He says it is these urgent needs that the believers should be ready to meet.
The organizations like Salvation Army and Goodwill Industries provide the opportunity for those at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder to begin working, earning something to help them move up and out of the poverty of spirit and body to which they have succumb. They honor work by recognizing the inherent value of work to the individual doing the work.
Too often a handout removes human dignity from they receiver of the handout. There is an implicit downgrade of dignity when someone must beg for their food. They have to be willing to ‘swallow their pride” in order to receive. But for some, that swallow is a very small capsule. They have already been stripped of their dignity by the choices they have made and the treatment they have received by the society at large.
So, today, how can we have actions to match the grace we have received? How can we become productive in our doing good? How can we raise the dignity of those with emergency needs as we provide for them?
The Arnold Journey 