{Titus 1:1-4; NLT}
1 This letter is from Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I have been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives.2 This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God—who does not lie—promised them before the world began.3 And now at just the right time he has revealed this message, which we announce to everyone. It is by the command of God our Savior that I have been entrusted with this work for him.
4 I am writing to Titus, my true son in the faith that we share.
May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior give you grace and peace.
An important truth that Christians need to understand is that our lives our not our own. We are stewards of the life given to us by God. This means that our lives need to be lived in response to the will of God. He is our Creator and Lord.
At the start of his letter to Titus, as he did with many of his other letters, Paul confirmed this reality by stating that he was both a slave and an apostle. Both these titles were given to people who were under the authority of another person. Obviously a slave was a person who was forced to work for a master. An apostle was a person who was sent as the representative of the king or other person in authority. In these two titles Paul admitted he was under the authority of God.
This meant that Paul understood that his life was to be lived to accomplish the will of God. The apostle Paul saw the purpose of his life was to expand God’s Kingdom through preaching the Gospel. Not only did this include evangelism but also strengthening the faith of Christians through instruction of what it means to live a life of faith and reminding them of promise of God—eternal life.
I want us to ponder these two great ideas: that we are stewards and we have been given eternal life. Remember: God has promised us life! Not just existence, but life, eternal life. That is a reason to have hope. Along with this reality is that we are to use this life for God’s purposes.
The promised consequence God gave for eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is that Adam and Eve would die, but even on the pages of Scripture this doesn’t happen.
At least it doesn’t appear to happen, because Adam and Eve go on existing. Like a branch severed from the tree appears to remain alive, and thus continues to exist, it is dead because it has been cut off from its source of life. Adam and Eve existed but were dead because they were cut off from their source of life, God, because of their sin.
The tragedy of Adam and Eve is discovered in the reality that they were not good stewards of the life given to them. They were not content to care for Creation, but they desired to be like God, and thus they misused and lost the life God and given to them.
Through Jesus we have been given a second chance at life. In John 15:1-5 Jesus taught that he is the vine and we are the branches, and that our lives depend and being connected to him as our source of life.
This means that in order to be good stewards of life, to carry out God’s call on our lives, we have to first remain connected to Jesus. Eternal life is found nowhere else but him.
It is through this connection with Jesus that we discover God’s call on our lives. This calling looks different for all of us. I think many of us assume that just because our calling isn’t a calling like Paul’s calling then we are free to do what we want. That is not true. When we are connected to Jesus he will show us how we can love and serve those around us so the effect of the Gospel is continually felt in our our corner of the world.
To be good stewards of the eternal life God has given to us through Jesus means that we live like Jesus would live in our place. How would Jesus do our jobs or spend our money? How would Jesus treat that difficult costumer or serve that insulting client? The only way to know the answer to these questions is to be connected to Jesus and allow his life to be our life.
Our lives are not our own, but they belong to God. This means we are to be good stewards of the life that we have. Following Jesus enables us to live the life God created us to live.
Questions to consider:
- Did Paul believe his live belonged to him? Why do we know this?
- How should the idea of stewardship effect the way we live our lives?
- Why do we need to stay connected to Jesus? What are some of the things you to do to stay connected to Jesus?