| “You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.” |
| —Titus 2:1 |
The role of pastors, as teachers of God’s truth, remains critical to healthy churches. When a pastor serves a church with humility and kindness, yet uses excellent scholarship to fearlessly teach the truth of the Bible, the people in that church will experience a fullness in their personal Christian Spiritual Formation and will be truly blessed.
The Apostle Paul had sent his young colleague, Titus, to the island of Crete in order to “amend what is defective.” Notice these words of instruction from Paul to Titus found in Titus 2:1-8:
You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.
If every pastor would follow these words of guidance from the Apostle Paul, the impact on the believers who sit under this kind of teaching would vastly increase. As such a pastor is used by God to enhance the personal Christian Spiritual Formation of each believer, the effectiveness of this particular church would become more useful to Christ and His Kingdom. Let us pray that this will become a reality in hundreds of churches across our land!
Based on a blog originally posted on Monday, May 4, 2015
