One of the simplest and most useful habits in reading the Bible is to notice what a writer repeats. When the same word keeps surfacing in a short letter, it is usually there for a reason. Paul’s letter to Titus is only three chapters long, yet one idea keeps coming back again and again, the idea of good works. An elder is to love what is good. Older believers are to teach what is good. Titus himself is to be a model of good works. The people of God are to be ready for every good work and to devote themselves to it. By the time the letter ends, it is hard to miss what Paul is pressing on us.
Good Works Are Part of Who We Are
Near the close of the letter Paul writes, “Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful” (). This is not an extra reserved for especially eager Christians. It is one of the reasons God formed a people for himself in the first place. Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (). Good works do not earn our salvation. We are saved by grace through faith, and that is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (). Yet the very next verse explains what we are saved for. “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (). Doing good is not a bonus added onto the Christian life. It is woven into what that life is.
More Than What We Avoid
It is tempting to measure our faithfulness by what we do not do. I do not drink too much, I do not use coarse language, I stay away from this and that, and so I must be doing fine. Avoiding what is wrong matters, and it is a real part of following Christ, but it was never meant to be the whole of it. Even the demons believe that God is one, and they shudder (). Faith without works is useless. The same is true of knowing the right answers. A person can quote Scripture and still do nothing with it. The Bible is given to us so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (). Knowledge is meant to move us to action, not to sit idle. Being a Christian is not only about gathering to sing and share the Lord’s Supper, as important as those things are. It is about taking the lead in doing good, the way Jesus did, who went about doing good wherever he went ().
Devotion Is Something We Learn
Notice that Paul says our people must learn to devote themselves to good works. That word is worth sitting with. If devotion to good works had to be learned, then it does not come to us naturally. What comes naturally is to look after our own needs first. We will find the time, the energy, and the money to meet a need when it is ours. The harder question is what we do when the need belongs to someone else and does not touch us directly. We can always find a reason to wait, telling ourselves we would help if things were different, if the timing were better, if it were more convenient. But urgent needs are rarely met with convenience. Sooner or later we either do what is right because it is right, or we keep waiting for a better moment that never quite arrives. That is why we need reminders like this one, and why we need teaching that is specific enough to actually point us toward the good we can do.
We Learn by Doing
How does a church learn this? Not only by listening and watching, but by being given something to do. Paul told Titus to send Zenas and Apollos on their way and to see that they lacked nothing (), and in doing so he handed the believers on Crete a real opportunity to practice the very thing he was teaching. Churches make a mistake when they expect nothing of people beyond showing up. Christ gave shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ (). The goal is not a few doing everything while the rest watch. It is every member involved, every branch bearing fruit. Jesus said his Father is glorified when we bear much fruit and so prove to be his disciples (), and that a branch which bears no fruit is finally taken away (). There is no such thing as a fruitless disciple.
A Question for Each of Us
So the question is a personal one. Not how the church is doing in general, but how am I doing. Am I looking for ways to help, inside these walls and out in the world where the needs are endless? Am I willing to move outside my comfort zone when someone’s need requires it? Paul prayed that believers would bear fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God (), and that is a good prayer to make our own. If we have drifted into simply occupying a seat, there is no better day than today to commit ourselves again to the kind of life the Lord expects. We were created in Christ Jesus for good works. Learning to devote ourselves to them is simply learning to be who God already made us to be.