The Good News of Jesus is transformative.
When individuals and churches embrace the message of Jesus with sincerity, lives and
even communities are changed for the better.
In too many cases, however, the message of Jesus seems to make only a superficial impact.
Why is this?
In the book of Titus, we see how Paul seeks to unleash the transformative power of the
Christian message, on a church on the verge of becoming superficial.
In the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, lies a large, mountainous island named Crete.
The inhabitants of this island were as rugged as the terrain.
They had a well-earned reputation for their toughness as well as unruliness.
Over the centuries, they established themselves as masterful mariners and cunning traders,
fierce warriors and ruthless pirates.
In fact, ancient Hebrews like King David, and even Roman Emperors employed these tough
Cretan fighters as mercenaries.
Despite the rough and tough reputation of Crete, it still became a destination for Jewish
immigration, and by the first century, a notable portion of their population was Jewish.
Some Cretan Jews made regular pilgrimages back to Jerusalem for important Jewish festivals.
It just so happened that one year, on the festival of Pentecost, some of them witnessed
something incredible: the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles in power!
They then heard Peter proclaim that Jesus was their long-awaited Messiah.
It is possible that at this moment, some of the Cretan Jews became followers of Jesus,
and established the first Christian church in Crete.
In its early years, as both Jews and Gentiles joined this new church, Cretan unruliness
dampened their growth in faith.
Many in the church got caught up in cultural distractions and unethical behavior that took
them away from the core of the Gospel message.
In an attempt to counter this unruliness, some Jews in the congregation sought to impose
some of their Jewish disciplines on their Gentile brothers and sisters in Christ.
They believed that observing Jewish practices such as circumcision and strict adherence
to Hebrew law would solve their problems.
Sadly, these distractions only served to keep them from reflecting the behavior that they
were to model as followers of Jesus.
After Paul was released from his Roman imprisonment around the year AD 62, he went back to re-visit
some of the churches that he had planted.
His travels led him to the notorious island of Crete.
He visited the Cretan church and quickly recognized the challenges they faced.
The Cretan church needed someone to help them solve their problems and restore health to
their congregation.
That person needed to be tough enough to earn the respect of the Cretans.
Fortunately traveling alongside Paul on this journey was just the man: Titus.
Titus was one of Paul’s longest-serving partners.
He was also the one that Paul consistently turned to, to bring order to the most difficult
of circumstances.
As a Greek, he could relate to the Gentiles in the congregation, and as a companion of
Paul, Titus had developed a deep understanding of the needs of the Jews in this church.
There was no situation that was too difficult and no man or woman too intimidating for Titus.
Shortly after Paul left Crete, he wrote this letter to Titus, encouraging him and providing
him with wisdom on how to bring health to the Cretan church.
How is he to do it?
He is not to take over and lead this church himself; congregations need to develop home-grown
leadership.
Instead Paul challenges Titus to champion Cretan Christian leaders who were neither
unruly nor legalistic — who would not be swayed by the whims of popular teaching, or
unhealthy cultural behaviors — but rather people of character, who understood the Good
News of Jesus, and who allowed the grace of God to transform their lives.
Only leaders transformed by Christ can both model and teach the transformative power of
Christ.
At the heart of his message, Paul emphasizes that the way to community transformation does
not come through imposing legalistic rules, but rather through self-control by the power
of God’s grace.
Along with this, having a firm grasp of sound, Biblical teaching will turn Cretan unruliness
into zealous obedience to Christ.
Genuine transformation does not come from pressure from others, but flows out of the
inner working of the grace of God.
It is not led by culture or popular opinion, but is grounded in Biblical truth.
The result of this transformation is a life characterized by love, humility, self-control,
and good works — not out of a sense of grudging obligation, but out of gratitude and joy.
When we seek to be transformed by God’s grace and sound teaching, then we will see
the Titus effect take root in our lives, and through us in our communities.