I’ve worked with adolescents for 6+ years now full time and have studied that stage of life for 10 or so years now. In short, the adolescent life stage is the time between being a kid and being an adult. These adolescents live in a time of already but not yet. They are not really seen as adults by anyone but expected to act like adults. When they are childish they are quickly reminded how they are supposed to act. When they try and be adults and demand to be treated as such they are handed the metaphorical sippy-cup and patted on the head.
In the realization that all metaphors break down, we Christians kind of live like adolescents in this world. We are in a time of transition where we aren’t quite fully in the reality of the New Creation that God has promised us, the hope of eternal life that God has brought to light. This hope is the gospel that has been entrusted to Paul by the command of God our Savior. Paul begins his letter to Titus, even before addressing the letter, by reminding him of this hope.
He addresses Titus as his “True son in our common faith” reminding us of the Family of God, which we are part of. Paul continually uses this language as the reality in which he sees those he is discipling and bringing up in Christ.
Titus’ purpose is to select Elders in every town to be overseers who manage God’s household. They are to hold firmly to the trustworthy message in order to encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. What is this sound doctrine? It is the faith that Jesus is whom he said he is and that we will be resurrected from the death in him because God conquered death through Christ’s death and resurrection. Why does Paul give such a strict list of characteristics for these elders to have? They are the examples of what a Christian is to look like as someone who believes the New Creation, the Kingdom, has come in Christ and will fully be revealed in the resurrection. They are the ones who should give the example of how New Creation is embodied while the Old Creation is still in existence. Paul is so serious about Christians living out this reality that he calls for serious action against those who fail to try and live out this reality.
As Christians, we strive daily to live out what God’s Kingdom looks like in a broken world. Where there are Christians, the world should be different. When we look at the example of Christ, we live out his reality in this world, from the cross.
Northwest Church Bible Blog 