“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. These things are excellent and profitable for people.” Titus 3:8 ESV
Reflection: what is the purpose of food?
Years ago, an independent documentary filmmaker decided to see what happened to his physiological health if he only ate McDonald’s food, three meals a day, for 30 days. He not only gained 25 pounds, but could measure significant health issues from the experiment only after a month. The documentary, “Super Size Me”, became a huge hit, and brought increased awareness of the obesity epidemic, particularly in the United States but is spreading to other nations. There is no doubt that it matters what we eat. We cannot expect to be healthy if we eat junk, or preprocessed foods. But we can also get sick eating healthy foods. For instance, eating only carrots, although they are healthy, will also make us ill. We need a balanced diet. A French lawyer famously stated in 1826 “tell me what you eat, and I tell you who you are”. But what parallels are there here to our “spiritual food”?
As Paul is wrapping up his instructional letter to Titus, he says to him “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. These things are excellent and profitable for people.” Titus 3:8 ESV. What is it that Paul wants him to teach, to insist on? He calls it “these things”, which most likely is all that he has written to him about. Perhaps one of the best summaries of his instructions we find in the previous chapter, where he says “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,” Titus 2:11-13 ESV
If you notice here, he is basically calling for a whole lifestyle of Christian living. Not just go to church on Sundays and that’s it. He says that we need training in order to live godly, upright and self-controlled lives, to renounce ungodliness, etc. And, if you remember, Paul got into some details about how the members of the congregation were to live. Old and young, men and women, with different focus. Different roles. He tells Titus to insist, to “imprint” as some translations state, so that the people will “devote themselves to good works”. That is the purpose of living right, as God’s children in this world. To bring the light of Christ into this darkness.
We were listening to a Christian teacher today who called for people to “get out of the churches”, to do work. He didn’t mean to quit going to church, but to first get equipped then go. There are too many who eat and eat (spiritually speaking), at church, in Bible studies, in all sorts of Christian groups, but never use all what they have consumed to actually do work. Clearly the purpose of spiritual food is to give us life, but it is also so that we can do good in this world.
Jesus talked about exactly this, as He discussed His return ““When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” Matthew 25:31-40 ESV
Let’s make sure we eat a balanced spiritual diet, and, that we put all that good spiritual energy into good works.
