Preliminary Thoughts on Titus, Philemon 2008 April 25^th for May 29^th

These are two short pastoral letters from Paul.

Titus was a Gentile convert who worked and traveled with Paul and who Paul had left in Crete to manage and develop the churches there, administratively and doctrinally. Crete was a particularly immoral place at this time in history, the notes say, making the work with the church there particularly difficult.

Philemon was a personal friend from Colossae who was faced with a dilemma. He had a slave who had run away. Slaves having no rights, Philemon could have done nearly anything to him, but the slave had been converted to Christ after his escape and, the situation having come to Paul’s attention, he writes Philemon to plead the slave’s case. The letter is short, only one chapter, less than a page, but it will be interesting to see what Paul pleads and the rationale he gives.

Titus 1 2008 April 25^th for May 30^th

Paul’s greetings show that he was always thinking, thinking about everything all at once:”

“Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness – a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,

“To Titus, my true son in our common faith:”

<Whew!>

Titus is highly trusted and has been left at Crete to go around to all the towns and appoint elders of the church in each of them. These overseers, as they were entrusted with God’s work, had to have certain qualifications such as being blameless, husband of one wife (if married), with children not “wild and disobedient” or even having the appearance of wildness or disobedience, and all the usual things: patient, not overbearing, not drunk, or violent, or dishonest, not greedy but hospitable, and one who would stick with the doctrine taught to him and not wander off into different thinking.

That was the big problem on Crete. Charlatans were taking over and infiltrating the churches with false doctrine mostly just to make money. One of them said, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” Paul agrees with this assessment and so tells Titus to reign them in and run them off. They obviously didn’t know God, as evidenced by their words and actions.

Titus 2 2008 April 29^th for June 2^nd

Paul instructs Titus what he should teach.

“Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.”

Similarly, teach the older women reverence, and not to be slanderous or drunk. Then they can teach the younger women how to love their families, to have self-control and to stay busy at home, “subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.”

The young men should show self-control so as not to give the opposition to Christianity any evidence. Slaves are to show proper subservience to their owners, not talking back or stealing or slacking. This makes the Savior more attractive to the masters.

“While we wait for the blessed hope,” the grace of God allows us to refuse ungodliness or worldly passion and to maintain upright self-control.

“These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.”

Titus 3 2008 April 30^th for June 3^rd

“Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.”

There was a time when each of us lived as everyone else does, foolishly, with malice, envy, and widespread hatred. By the rebirth through God’s mercy in Christ, we are saved from all that. Through his justification we have the “hope of eternal life.” Titus is exhorted to stress these things and to teach the people to be doing good and taking care of themselves. He is also urged to avoid arguments about the law or genealogies as being “unprofitable and useless.”

“Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.”

We haven’t seen the term “self-condemned” before.

Paul then ends with instructions about his plans for the winter, meetings that he, Titus, and others are planning to have, and with his usual set of greetings from everyone “here” to everyone “there” ending with:

“Greet those who love us in the faith.

“Grace be with you all.”

Philemon 2008 May 9^th for June 4^th

The letter is addressed from Paul and Timothy to Philemon, Apphia his wife, Archippus a fellow worker, and the church that meets at Philemon’s house.

Paul starts with praise and thanksgiving for Philemon and his friendship with him. His faith and love bring Paul joy and encouragement.

Paul then moves to an appeal for Philemon’s slave Onesimus. Apparently, Onesimus had stolen from Philemon and run away to Rome, not uncommon. In Rome, Onesimus had somehow found his way to Paul, who was himself a prisoner there at the time. Under Paul, Onesimus was converted to Christ and became Paul’s helper and servant in prison. Ultimately, Paul convinced Onesimus to return to Philemon and wrote this letter to tell Philemon of Onesimus’ conversion and to instruct that the Christian thing to do would be to free Onesimus so that he could serve as a brother and not a slave.

Paul offered to repay any debt that Onesimus had incurred. “If he has done you any wrong or owed you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back – not to mention that you owe me your very self.”

Philemon had been saved under Paul as well.

“Confident in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask.

“And one thing more: Prepare a guest room for me, because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers.”

He then closes with greetings from others who are with him in Rome: Epaphras, Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”

Much is made of Paul’s stance on slavery here. At least in this case, he has declared equality of all in Christ. With about a third of the population of the world in slavery of some form at the time, he was not spoiling for a political revolution, however.

Slaves are property and have no rights, even in their own person. Some forms of slavery were worse than others, depending on the location, mines, for instance, versus households, and the temperaments of the owners or masters.

Slavery is illegal pretty much worldwide today, but similar social circumstances are widespread, as the integrity of systems of finance and politics are maintained above the value of people they are intended to serve. I am not spoiling for revolution here either; these are complex problems. People need boundaries and things to strive for and the very real ability to fail in order for them to do their best. When they get mercilessly ground up by the system that was supposed to help and encourage them, however, something is wrong.

Paul teaches here that under Christ, we must do right, when and where we can.

Concluding Thoughts on Titus, Philemon 2008 May 9^th for June 5^th

While the letter to Titus deals mostly with accepted Christian behavior, particularly in terms of qualification for early Christian leadership, Philemon provides a specific case study.

Much of what we consider “normal” behavior today comes from texts such as these. The idea of men leading, being married to just one wife, having well behaved children, and well behaved selves, systems of authority, dealing with disobedience and dissension, all of these have become to some extent, our behavioral code. One could argue, persuasively, I think, that some code with such stabilizing features would be natural for civilized groups, but as Christians, there are those who expect us to see this particular code as inviolable commands from God Almighty.

Some, inevitably, have gone beyond the basics and have refined and elaborated on the codes through many eras and styles: gentility and etiquette as examples. As I have observed before, Victorian manners have, in our era, often become confused with Christian behavior, and are taught and enforced as with the authority of the Bible. I doubt Paul would have endorsed such broad application of an extension of his guidelines. And, also as observed before, I think Paul would have been amazed at the number of years and number of people who have closely followed his teachings (usually as interpreted through others with their own peculiar emphases) since he was writing.

In Philemon we come to an application. Christian conduct in a sticky legal and moral situation. Being even more terse, we can imagine this text being expanded over the centuries to rail against slavery or economic injustices, or to claim that people saved from their sins should get a new start in general. In our own era, the rule seems to be that we are happy for criminals saved in prison but it doesn’t change the consequence of their crime, unless a change in behavior comes to the attention of their parole board at some future convening.

This is probably not the last time we will discuss the distinctions between religion, religious text, and contemporary “correctness.”

© 2008 Courtney B. Duncan.