Good Works According to Titus 3
Good works call for our devotion. After all, they’re what we were “created in Christ Jesus for” (Eph. 2:10). We must actively “learn” to do them. The ability to do good works is infused into us when we’re born again—so the potential is there. But the actual doing of them is a learned skill (like riding a bike or reading), and part of Great Commission discipleship is teaching people to do them (Matt. 28:20).
The Bible has a lot of negative things to say about “works,” especially “works of the law.” Paul stresses repeatedly that we’re justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Salvation is “not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8, NKJV).
But “good works” are another matter. By my ESV search, the phrase “good works” (plural) is used 13 times in the New Testament, with eight occurrences in the Pastoral Epistles. Without exception, the phrase is used in a positive, nonironic way to describe exemplary Christian activity.
Few chapters are as relentless in advocating good works as Titus 3. If someone tells you Paul and James disagree about the need for good works, point him to this chapter. Here we can identify three facets of good works: their foundation, their importance, and their definition.
Foundation of Good Works
No less a do-gooder than William Wilberforce once defined Christianity as “a scheme . . . for making the fruits of holiness the effects, not the cause, of our being justified and reconciled.” Good works are the fruit, not the root. Or to tweak the analogy, good works are what goes on in the house, but they’re not the foundation of the house.
This is exactly what Paul says in Titus 3:8: “The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.”
Notice that the people who are told to devote themselves to good works are “those who have believed in God.” Saving faith and good works aren’t like our two separate hands—rather, faith in God is the foundation for good works.
Paul isn’t referring to a general faith in God’s existence but rather a specific faith in God’s loving kindness for us in the gospel. Notice how he begins verse 8. Good works are the result of Titus “[insisting] on these things.” We insist on these things so that believers will do good works. But what are “these things”? What is this “trustworthy saying”? The answer is found in the immediately preceding verses:
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (vv. 4–7)
The only message that can be trusted to produce good works is the message that tells us our works can’t save us. It seems counterintuitive, but it’s the gospel. If we want a house filled with good works, we must first lay a solid foundation for them.
Importance of Good Works
Sometimes gospel-centered people can be skittish about good works. We think, Just preach the gospel, and good works will happen on their own without any sustained focus on them. But this isn’t what we see in Titus 3. Instead, Paul says things like “let our people learn to devote themselves to good works” (v. 14) and “[let believers] be careful to devote themselves to good works” (v. 8). There’s an urgency here that’s often missing in our preaching.
Good works call for our devotion. After all, they’re what we were “created in Christ Jesus for” (Eph. 2:10). We must actively “learn” to do them. The ability to do good works is infused into us when we’re born again—so the potential is there.
-
Disney Gone Awry?
The LGBT culture is alive and flourishing within Disney. During a recent virtual meeting, a group of Disney filmmakers together with employees said they have been given the freedom to add “queerness” and LGBT characters to children’s programming, but they believe a lot more needs to be done. Such was expressed during an “all-hands” meeting following controversy regarding Florida’s parental rights bill that prohibits classroom teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.
“M. I. C. K. E. Y, M. O. U. S. E! Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck! Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck! …” Many of us remember this sing-along song that opened the Mickey Mouse Club program when as children we were enjoying the biggest name in entertainment. That, of course, was the wonderful world of DISNEY. At one time, Walt Disney’s family-oriented programming was enjoyed by almost everyone, adults and children alike. However, times have changed and so has Disney, so much so that ole Walt is probably “turning over in his grave”. Disney now promotes the progressive anti-family and anti-Christian LGBTQ woke culture that the founders of BLM intended for the destruction of the nuclear family.
Chances are that if you want to watch a good movie, sporting event, or have your child watch an animated cartoon program, more than likely it will be connected to the vast empire that Disney has become, owning a good portion of the television and entertainment world. Just three years ago Disney, for $73.1 billion, bought the film and TV assets that were held by 21st Century Fox, marking the transaction one of the largest media mergers in history.
The above is just for starters. Add to that the list of Disney-owned companies and you begin to get a sense of just how big Disney really is. That list includes ABC, ESPN, Touchstone Pictures, Marvel, Lucasfilm, A&E, The History Channel, Lifetime, Pixar, Hollywood Records, Vice Media, and Core Publishing among many others.
Included are recognizable brands and film franchises as the following: Star Wars, The Muppets, The Marvel Cinematic Universe (but not the X-Men – yet!), Disney Princesses/Princes (such as characters from Cinderella, Mulan, Frozen, Aladdin, and The Lion King), The Chronicles of Narnia Franchise, The Pirates of the Caribbean Franchise, Pixar Films, (such as Toy Story, The Incredibles, and Cars), The Winnie the Pooh Franchise, The Indiana Jones Franchise, Grey’s Anatomy and other popular ABC shows.
The LGBT culture is alive and flourishing within Disney. During a recent virtual meeting, a group of Disney filmmakers together with employees said they have been given the freedom to add “queerness” and LGBT characters to children’s programming, but they believe a lot more needs to be done. Such was expressed during an “all-hands” meeting following controversy regarding Florida’s parental rights bill that prohibits classroom teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis has signed the bill into law.
In a series of videos released by journalist Christopher F. Rufo, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, Disney executive Karey Burke told attendees of the meeting that she is the “mother of two queer children – one transgender child, and one pangender child”. Wanting to see more LGBT characters in Disney programs, she states, “We have many, many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories, and yet we don’t have enough leads and narratives in which gay characters just get to be characters and not have to be about gay stories.” Rufo, in a tweet, said that Burke added in the video that she wanted a minimum of 50 percent of characters to be LGBTQIA and racial minorities.
Latoya Raveneau, directing two episodes of The Proud Family on Disney Plus, reports she previously had heard “whispers” – when she worked for other studios – that Disney does not allow LGBT characters in its programs. But she said that’s not the case. The Proud Family includes a same sex married couple. She says, “My experience was bafflingly the opposite of what I had heard, and the showrunners were super welcoming of LGBT characters.” She further states, “Our leadership over there has been so welcoming to my not-at-all secret gay agenda…I don’t have to be afraid to, like, let’s have these two characters kiss in the background. I was just, wherever I could, just basically adding queerness [to projects].”
Another Disney production coordinator, Allen Martsch, discussed adding LGBT content to the upcoming Disney series, Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. Martsch applauds Disney saying, “They’ve been really open to exploring queer stories, …we take place in modern-day New York – so making sure that that’s an accurate reflection of New York. So I put together a tracker of our background characters to make sure that we have like the full breadth of expression.”
He concludes by saying, “…It’s not just about a numbers game of how many LGBTQ-plus characters you have,…The more centered a story is on a character, the more nuanced you get to get into their story. And especially with trans characters, you can’t see if anyone is trans – there’s not one way to look trans. And so kind of the only way to have these canonical trans characters, canonical asexual characters, canonical bisexual characters, is to give them stories where they can be their whole selves.”
Yes, Disney holds great power to persuade children and adults into believing it is kind and loving to accept this perverted worldview. Add to this the promotion of the LGBTQ lifestyles by politicians and lobbyists, then a sense of the battle takes on a greater sense of urgency. And it gets more complicated when the President of the United States aids and abets the issue. Just recently some observed a Transgender Day of Visibility and President Biden has declared his support of children and adolescents with gender dysphoria to undergo body mutilating surgeries or use puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to look more like the opposite sex despite unknowns about the long-term side effects.
Standing in opposition to the above procedures the American College of Pediatricians said, “There is not a single long-term study to demonstrate the safety or efficacy of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for transgender believing youth,”… ” This means that youth transition is experimental and therefore, parents cannot provide informed consent, nor can minors provide assent for these interventions. Moreover, the best long-term evidence we have among adults shows that medical intervention fails to reduce suicide.”
Also, on their website, acpeds.org has a page stating that “Transgender Interventions Harm Children” and that puberty blockers may cause both mental illness and permanent physical harm adding that such is not only experimental but dangerous.
Besides Disney, now Apple is lending its strength to opposing gender legislation. That makes two very powerful entities. According to an article in Politico, Apple’s communications, government affairs and legal offices are working with policymakers and advocacy groups to plot out strategies in filing court briefs in cases involving LGBTQ “rights.”
Fred Sainz, their senior of corporate communications, recently pressed leaders of fellow Fortune 500 companies to denounce an order by the Texas governor that called for child abuse investigations of parents who provide transgender children with “gender-affirming” procedures despite opposition from doctors. Sainz asked these leaders to lend their company’s name to the issue because Apple will lend its name and logo to fight for LGBTQ rights. All Americans will be affected by decisions made by Disney and Apple.
Note: I believe it is important to distinguish some terms. The so-called “anti-LGBTQ” laws are not against the 1% of the population who identify as transgender or the 3% who identify as homosexual (percentages according to the YouGov poll released in March). Instead these laws should rightly be termed parental rights legislation or child protection laws to protect the vulnerable from possible lifelong harm.
What is a parent to do? What is a Christian to do? How are parents to handle the area of children’s programs and entertainment? How do we respond? Boycott Disney? Throw away your Apple phone? Good luck with that! Even if that were possible, the extensive effects of Disney influence are worldwide. I think it is safe to say that one thing Americans will not give up is their freedom to be entertained. I’m probably including myself. I love sports. Many people do and to give that up would be a challenge. “Don’t mess with my entertainment” might be the prevailing attitude.
I remember reading about the contrast between Christians in the Soviet Union under Khrushchev and Christians in America during the same time period. The difference was Christians under Khrushchev were tested by persecution while Christians in America were tested by their freedoms. Can it be said that our freedoms have blinded us and are holding us hostage, preventing us from bringing every thought captive to the word of God and keeping us from seeing the threat at our doorsteps? Some say that only time will tell, but I believe time is already telling! Let’s open our eyes and be accountable to truth. Let’s seek to be transformed by the renewing of our minds in the Word of God instead of being conformed to the world system and its culture.
Clete Hux is Director of the Apologetics Resource Center headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. A Teaching Elder in the PCA, he has pastored churches in Alabama and South Carolina. -
Difficult Bible Passages: Nehemiah 13:25
It is the first half of verse 25 of course that so many folks – including too many Christians – would find all rather shocking and unacceptable: “And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair”. The truth is, if Nehemiah was with us today and did something like this, I suspect that most Christians would say he is unloving and unChristlike, and even seek to have him arrested!
As is often the case in this irregular series, the text under question is not so much difficult to understand as it is perplexing and puzzling to many modern readers. Because so many Christians today are far more influenced by the surrounding pagan culture than they are the truth of God’s word, a passage like this will easily bother them and upset them. Yet it is they that need to change – not the biblical text.
Let me present the wider context of the verse (Neh. 13:23-31):
In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”
And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I chased him from me. Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work; and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.
It is the first half of verse 25 of course that so many folks – including too many Christians – would find all rather shocking and unacceptable: “And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair”. The truth is, if Nehemiah was with us today and did something like this, I suspect that most Christians would say he is unloving and unChristlike, and even seek to have him arrested!
They are so filled with the spirit of the age, and so steeped in fake tolerance and unbiblical notions of love, that they would be utterly appalled at this sort of behaviour. Of course these same Christians would likely also be just as appalled at the behaviour of Jesus when he deliberately formed a whip, went to the temple and started flipping tables over while berating those who were there.
In both cases lots of contemporary believers would argue that such behaviour is just not acceptable – nor Christike! But the reason for this is rather straightforward: Western Christians today have so lost sight of who God is, how holy he is, how horrible sin is, and how far we have walked away from God, that they cannot see that the things Nehemiah and Jesus did were perfectly acceptable – and fully necessary.
Read More
Related Posts: -
The Problem with Cultural Christianity
When Jesus said, take up your cross, deny yourself, and follow me, he was not inviting us to a life of misery. He was calling us out of ourselves to the most extraordinary life possible: knowing God. There is no greater glory and no greater joy, but we must root our life in his truth, not ourselves or the pleasure of this world. If we aim at anything less than God himself, we have settled for lesser things and will end up with nothing.
There is a commonplace religion that invites its followers to do the exact opposite of what Jesus taught. It is a religion of self-help, and it likes to go to church. We see it in many popular manifestations of cultural “Christianity.” It has a thin veneer of truth but lacks substance. It gives lip service to following Jesus, but its heart is chasing the American dream.
In many cases, it is thankful that Jesus has provided forgiveness, but now that is out of the way, it can get on with more important things. It has rejected the word of God as its authority and has replaced it with self. Putting self on the throne appeals to many because they believe it is how they will find the fulfillment they seek, but instead of nourishing their souls, it only deadens them further.
It does not take much for the man or woman rooted in scripture to see through the façade. It thinks it can find what it wants by being the master of its destiny, so it replaces biblical truth with personal growth tactics. It is looking for happiness, so it replaces preaching with pop psychology. It is looking for glory, so it turns pastors into celebrities and worship leaders into headliners.
It loves to be the hero in every bible story. It is David defeating the giant. It is Joseph overcoming betrayal to see his brothers bow down to him. It is Moses leading the people out of slavery. It is Nehemiah using all of the correct business principles to build the wall and protect Jerusalem. It also loves to sing about itself. It revels in songs about overcoming, victory, and being more than conquerors. It shouts, “I can do all things through Christ,” and “No weapon formed against me shall prosper,” but it replaces the spiritual and eschatological reality of those truths and applies them to worldly success and other earthly longings.
The problem is its followers will never find the satisfaction they seek because it tells them to look for it in themselves and the things of this world. Instead of waiting on the Lord to bring the holy city, adorned like a bride, down to us, it attempts to build its own city with a tower up to heaven. It will never work.
Read More
Related Posts:
