BLESSINGS FROM LOVING THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS

My Dear Precious Child, In Paul's administrative letter to Titus, he was precise in his writing about the thoughts and actions of people in the administrative part of his churches. He wrote the strict requirements for the presbyters and bishops of his church in Crete in order to complete what Paul had left undone. He listed the character requirements of presbyters, saying that they should have no character flaws that would embarrass the other members of the church, that they must have been married only once, that they are the fathers of children who are believers and are not known to be wild and insubordinate. As far as a bishop, Paul wrote that they, as stewards, must not be self willed or arrogant, not be a drunkard, and not be a violent or greedy man. Instead, he must be hospitable and a lover of goodness, steady, just, holy and self controlled. In his teaching he must teach only what he had heard from Paul so that he would be able to encourage other men to follow sound doctrine and to oppose men who deviate from the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Paul warned that there were many irresponsible teachers especially among the Jewish converts who were voracious talkers and deceivers of the brethren. He ordered that their teachings must be stopped in the Gentile countries because they were upsetting entire families, teaching errors and all of it for money. Paul quoted a man from Crete who had said that the Cretans had always been liars, beasts and lazy gluttons, with Paul assessing that that was a truthful statement. He told Titus to admonish those men quickly and sharply in an attempt to keep them bound to sound faith beliefs, unaffected by Jewish myths and rules invented by men who had swerved from the truth. Paul spoke truth when he wrote that to the clean all things are clean and to the unclean nothing is clean because their own minds and consciences are tainted. He wrote that those men claim to know Me, but they deny by their actions that I even exist. He labeled them disgusting and completely incapable of any decency. Then Paul started enumerating Titus' own character traits, telling him to let his speech be consistent with sound doctrine, choosing older men who are temperate, serious minded and self controlled, sound in the faith, loving and steadfast in character. He also had opinions about older women and how they should act. He wrote that they should act like women who are beholden to Me; by good example they should be able to teach the younger women how to love their husbands and children, that they should be sensible, chaste, busy at home, kind, submissive to their husbands, all so that the Gospel would not be ridiculed. He wrote to tell the young men to completely control themselves, and that Titus must also not fail to set a good example to the younger men, that his teaching must contain serious, sound words so that no one could take exception to them. He wrote that if it does happen, then no opponent would be able to say anything bad about the believers and if there was hostility, that hostility will become shameful. Workers/slaves were told by Paul to be obedient to their bosses/masters, trying to please them in every way, not contradicting them, not stealing from them, but instead expressing loyalty by their conduct so as to be examples of good adornment in every way possible to the true doctrine of Christ Jesus. As a sound basis for this writing, Paul wrote that My grace had appeared which offered salvation to all people. In those teachings of Christ, Paul wrote that Christ trained His followers to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly and devoutly in this age of the Covenant of the Holy Spirit which institudes My kingdom of God in the lives of believers. Paul advised that, as they were all waiting for My appearing and the appearing of Christ Jesus, who sacrificed Himself for all people to redeem them from all unrighteousness and to cleanse for himself a people of his own, that they should always be eager to do what's right. Then Paul wrote to Titus that he had written to him what to say and what not to say, by making all appeals and corrections with commanding authority, allowing no person to look down on him. Titus was young enough that he needed Paul's godly guidance in order to succeed as Paul had in the ministry. Paul knew that the voice of the Holy Spirit would confirm to Titus the criteria that Paul had written to him. Your Father of Sound Doctrine and Character