Text: Titus 1:1-4
I’m so excited because this passage is all about unity!
Paul loves Titus and he points out five things they share in common. These are the things that all Christians share in common, and it thrills me to think that we She Reads Truth girls have all this in common, too. It makes me want to hug you.
1. Close Relationship
Paul calls Titus his own son. This “sonship” comes from one person leading another to Christ. It is a sacred kinship of the spiritual life. Think of all the dear people who lovingly pointed you to Christ. Now gather them like family around the table at Christmastime. That’s the feeling I’m looking for. Our hearts rise up in loving celebration of this dear bond.
2. Common Faith
Titus and Paul were brothers in a common faith, just as we are sisters in a common faith because we believe the same truths and the same fundamentals. We agree there is one God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and one mediator, Jesus Christ our Savior. We receive our faith as a gift from God, and He is the tie that binds us together.
Our faith is like a shining jewel that we carry in our chest, and we are drawn together with others who carry that same jewel. We cling to same hope, and it will produce the same results in our eternal souls. That certainly gives me a reason to shake hands with you.
3. Mutual Benediction
Paul asks for grace, mercy and peace for Titus. And we all want that grace, mercy and peace for each other. I want it for you, and you want it for me. Here’s why:
We need Grace to help. To protect us from the dangers of comparison. No one looks as good as they seem on Instagram, and all eyes are occasionally wet with tears. Everyone’s life needs grace, and everybody’s toilet needs scrubbed. Seriously. We’re all in the same boat.
We need Mercy to forgive. Perhaps the more leadership and more authority you have, the more mercy you need.
And we need Peace to comfort. We all long for the comfort of peace of mind, restfulness of heart, and quietude of spirit. And we can all agree at the delicious sweetness of peace!
4. Common Source of Blessing
We are one in the source of our blessings. When the wagons of blessing come, one may stop at your door and one at mine, but they all have the same owner and left from the same depot.
Whatever grace, mercy and peace come to us, they come from the same place! We all eat bread baked in the same oven, you know? The same sacred blood mark of our Lord Jesus Christ is on every blessing, whether it comes to me or my sister in China.
5. United by Jesus
You know how we are all united at night by looking at the same moon? In a similar way, when we all look to the Savior, our eyes meet. Except it is more than that: Christ is our common reality; we are joined together in His life.
Christ is OUR Savior. He is not just a savior as in “a savior is born to us in Bethlehem” (Luke 2:11), or my savior as Mary sang “My spirit has rejoiced in God my savior” (Luke 1:47). But He is also our Savior. There is a blessedness in the communal “our.” We have a great reason to be knit together in love. We share Christ.
Let us keep close together with our eyes on Christ, shoulder to shoulder, darlings. And may we continually ask God for that blessed Grace, Mercy, and Peace for each other!
These five points are based on a sermon by C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892).
I still remember how amazing it felt to be a part of a small group of women with one goal… To know Christ o a deeper level. These women, all a little older and more world wise, welcomed a younger college kid me in with open arms and loved me like I didn’t know was possible.and when I moved away to take my first professional job, they cried with me and made me feel I would genuinely be missed. I have tried over and over again to recreate that small group, but I haven’t been successful. I imagine that now, with 8 years of nursing, a marriage, and a child have made me a bit more jaded and cynical that I was a fresh, innocent wide eyed 21 year old. And it is harder to be vurnable and let myself be loved the way I did back then. But when a community of women come together like that in God’s name with a common purpose to serve Him, it truly is an amazing thing.
Amen!
Lord, help us all to bond together in our common goal, which is to serve and Praise the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, to share that same Grace and Mercy that God’s love shares with us. God Bless everyone in the SRT Community.
This message really stuck out to me because I have a difficult time feeling alone. I mean sure I’m in college and have friends but my feeling is really emotionally distant and I can’t seem to get into the community at my church. Don’t get me wrong I adore everyone there.. But I find it really difficult to be vulnerable with them. The sermons are wonderful but for me the community is lacking and that may be my own fault. Needless to say I feel alone when what I need most is community of fellow Christian women to lean on and help stand. It’s hard to find that in a small college town.
As someone who is beyond the college years, be encouraged. We all go through times of loneliness. Take the time to draw closer to God. He really is all we need. That being said, community is important. Have you looked at attending a different church? One that has more to offer a college student? One where you feel comfortable with someone to be vulnerable? Or have you looked into ministry groups on campus? FCA, Wesley, Campus Crusade, Navigators, YoungLife, etc… I know attending a group for the first time, especially alone, can be intimidating. But like this passage says, you already have a bond with those people. You already share something in common.
Consider yourself hugged, sister.
Yes! It’s amazing that we can jump into this letter written so long ago and know that it’s the same fellowship we shares. It’s just as real knowing Jesus today as it was for those first followers of Jesus.
Sometimes I confuse unity with this world or with close friends who do not know him and unity of other believers. There is such a huge difference in what makes people one. No matter how hard we try to be close to others, unless there is the blood and love of Christ shared, the unity grows from our own efforts and is not reliable. I love when Jesus prays in john 17 that we may be one as he and his father were one right before he dies for us. What a picture to bring to mind when interacting with others.
“We need Grace to help. To protect us from the dangers of comparison. No one looks as good as they seem on Instagram, and all eyes are occasionally wet with tears. Everyone’s life needs grace, and everybody’s toilet needs scrubbed. Seriously. We’re all in the same boat.”
Whelp….all of that happened tonight. Talked about how good a life can be portrayed on instagram (but really, just in a photo), cried with friends….we watched Fault In Our Stars *cue the tissues* and I totally scrubbed the toilet for my lovely guests. Reading that tonight after my friends left, just made me smile at that fact that no matter how simple it is, God always weaves thing in our lives at the right time.