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How Slaves Beautify Their Salvation Titus 2:9–10 · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: We come now to Titus chapter two, verses nine to ten,
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  Speaker 1: and the address is to slaves. Keep in mind that
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  Speaker 1: when the chapter began here in verse one, he pul
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  Speaker 1: said that older men are to be a certain way,
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  Speaker 1: and then he shifted gears to older women verse three,
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  Speaker 1: and the older women are to give instruction to the
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  Speaker 1: younger women. And now he says, or last time he
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  Speaker 1: said likewise younger men. And then you yourself as one
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  Speaker 1: of those younger men. So older men, older women, younger women,
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  Speaker 1: younger men, yourself. And now interestingly he chooses slaves as
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  Speaker 1: the next group to address or to tell Titus to address.
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  Speaker 1: Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything.
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  Speaker 1: They are to be well pleasing, not argumentative or talking back,
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  Speaker 1: not pilfering or stealing on the side, secretly taking things
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  Speaker 1: over which they've been given charge, showing all good faith.
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  Speaker 1: So that and then here's the goal in everything they
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  Speaker 1: may adorn, the doctrine of God, our savior. And what
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  Speaker 1: stands out to me first before these particulars hear about
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  Speaker 1: the slave's behavior is that the motive or the goal
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  Speaker 1: of what is to be pursued by the Christian slaves
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  Speaker 1: is that in everything they do and everything they're known
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  Speaker 1: to do, they may make beautiful the teaching this is
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  Speaker 1: the word teaching here of God our Savior. That's their goal.
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  Speaker 1: This behavior, Paul says, will cause the teaching this is
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  Speaker 1: probably about God our Savior, the teaching about God our Savior,
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  Speaker 1: to be more attractive than if you were to behave otherwise,
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  Speaker 1: being not submissive, and to be displeasing, and to be
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  Speaker 1: argumentative and steal. If you do those things, then the
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  Speaker 1: teaching of God your Savior would not commend itself. So
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  Speaker 1: f other as we ponder this, it's wider implications for us.
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  Speaker 1: I pray that we would desern what our goal should
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  Speaker 1: be as we do our work, where you've called us
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  Speaker 1: to be, and how we might go about it and
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  Speaker 1: achieve that goal. In Jesus' name. Amen. And the reason
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  Speaker 1: this stood out to me here is because we've seen
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  Speaker 1: it twice already, only this is the most dramatic. Here.
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  Speaker 1: We are at the end of verses three to five
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  Speaker 1: about older women and younger women, and we see that
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  Speaker 1: the women are to be submissive to their husbands, that
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  Speaker 1: the word of God not be reviled. Now, that's a
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  Speaker 1: negative way of stating adorn the word of God. Similarly,
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  Speaker 1: at the end of the Younger Men and the Word
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  Speaker 1: to Titus himself, it says, so that an an opponent
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  Speaker 1: may not may be put to shame, having nothing evil
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  Speaker 1: to say about us, So adorn the way of Christ
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  Speaker 1: by living this way. So this is negative, and this
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  Speaker 1: is negative meaning he stakes it in a negative way
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  Speaker 1: and now comes positive, so that in everything there might
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  Speaker 1: be a beautification. So he doesn't say so that the
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  Speaker 1: doctrine of God would not be reviled, or the doctrine
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  Speaker 1: of God would did not have anything to speak negative
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  Speaker 1: about us. He puts it positively, and he says in
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  Speaker 1: order that in this behavior of the slaves, the teach
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  Speaker 1: about God the Savior would be made beautiful. And what
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  Speaker 1: strikes me as remarkable is that Paul chooses the the
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  Speaker 1: lowest and the least class in society to express the
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  Speaker 1: greatest beauty adornment of truth. Those who occupy the the
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  Speaker 1: least beautiful role, perhaps you could say, in the household,
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  Speaker 1: are called upon, are given the opportunity, are said to
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  Speaker 1: have the unique position for making the doctrine of God
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  Speaker 1: our Savior the most beautiful. All the other groups were
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  Speaker 1: said just avoid criticism to the slaves. He said, you
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  Speaker 1: make it beautiful. Now what would make it beautiful? Number one,
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  Speaker 1: Do what you're told. That's what it means to be
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  Speaker 1: a slave. You're told to go get the water at
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  Speaker 1: the river. You go get the water at the river.
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  Speaker 1: Be submissive. Number two, Be pleasing. In other words, go
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  Speaker 1: beyond the minimum submission. Every slave is expected to be submissive.
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  Speaker 1: No slave is expected to be pleasing. That is, to
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  Speaker 1: be motivated by a desire to actually please the one
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  Speaker 1: who owns him and tells him what to do. And
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  Speaker 1: Paul says, go beyond this and desire in your heart
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  Speaker 1: to please your master. We don't know whether the masters
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  Speaker 1: are Christian or non Christian here, and that's not the issue. Third,
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  Speaker 1: don't be argumentative, that is in your submissiveness. Don't give
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  Speaker 1: a lot of pushback. Don't be a nice sayer, don't contradict,
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  Speaker 1: don't use your mouth any more than your behavior to
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  Speaker 1: resist intent. I mean I see verse ten. And then fourth,
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  Speaker 1: this is three. This is four. Don't steal, don't try
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  Speaker 1: to take advantage so here we be. Don't be publicly
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  Speaker 1: resistant to your master. And this is don't be privately
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  Speaker 1: undermining his life even in private where you think you
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  Speaker 1: can get away to getting what you deserve. Well, you
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  Speaker 1: think you deserve because he's not paying you the way
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  Speaker 1: he ought, not paying you at all, probably, and you deserve,
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  Speaker 1: and so you steal. And Paul says, no, don't do that.
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  Speaker 1: And then he sums it up totally with showing all
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  Speaker 1: good faith, which I think means being completely trustworthy, so
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  Speaker 1: that in everything they they the slaves may adorn the
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  Speaker 1: doctrine of God our Savior. Now ponder with me the
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  Speaker 1: specific fact that he said Savior. He didn't just say
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  Speaker 1: adorn the doctrine of God or adorn the doctrine of Christ.
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  Speaker 1: He said God our Savior. And the very next thing
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  Speaker 1: out of his mouth in verse eleven goes like this,
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  Speaker 1: for the grace of God God has appeared, bringing salvation.
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  Speaker 1: He's just mentioned God our Savior, and he says, for
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  Speaker 1: the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.
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  Speaker 1: So what is it? What are we commending when we
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  Speaker 1: commend God as Savior training us to renounce on godliness
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  Speaker 1: and worldly passions and to live self controlled, upright, godly
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  Speaker 1: lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope.
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  Speaker 1: The appearing of the glory of our Great God and Savior.
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  Speaker 1: That's our salvation. When Christ appears, there will be glory
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  Speaker 1: from the Great God and Savior. It is our great
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  Speaker 1: and blessed hope. Or in the next chapter he's going
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  Speaker 1: to put it like this, when the goodness and loving
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  Speaker 1: kindness of God, our Savior, God our Savior appeared, he
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  Speaker 1: saved us not because of works done by us in
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  Speaker 1: righte business, but according to his own mercy, by the
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  Speaker 1: washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, whom
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  Speaker 1: he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior,
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  Speaker 1: so that being justified by His grace, we might become
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  Speaker 1: heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So when
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  Speaker 1: this slave has the internal hope, peace, contentment, strength, sense
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  Speaker 1: of identity, security in Christ, confident future, so much so
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  Speaker 1: that he can be submissive, he can be pleasing, he
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  Speaker 1: can renounce argumentation and stealing, and he can act in
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  Speaker 1: all good faith. What does he do? He causes his
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  Speaker 1: master to say, what are you hoping in? You are
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  Speaker 1: so different than the other slaves that I I have.
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  Speaker 1: What is your hope? And his answer is, I have
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  Speaker 1: a savior. I have a God who has saved me
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  Speaker 1: and is going to save me and give me eternal life.
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  Speaker 1: Wouldn't you, my master, who now has a lot of
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  Speaker 1: prosperity for a few years, wouldn't you like to have
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  Speaker 1: the hope of millions of years of eternal joy in
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  Speaker 1: the presence of God? And thus he causes the truth,
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  Speaker 1: the teaching about God to appear beautiful because of what
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  Speaker 1: it has done in his life, and how great it
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  Speaker 1: must be to produce such strength. One more thing, there
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  Speaker 1: is so much more to say about slavery in the
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  Speaker 1: New Testament, And rather than repeat everything here, may I
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  Speaker 1: point you to the look at the book session on
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  Speaker 1: First Timothy six one to two, Part three, titled Slavery
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  Speaker 1: in view of all the New Testament. I made a
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  Speaker 1: great effort there when Paul referred in First Timothy to slavery,
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  Speaker 1: to step back and look at everything the New Testament
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  Speaker 1: said about slavery so that you could get the bigger picture.
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  Speaker 1: Because all he does here is say, given the fact
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  Speaker 1: that slavery exists, my goal is that you might live
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  Speaker 1: in that in such a way as to win your
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  Speaker 1: masters and everybody else to this beautiful doctrine of God.
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  Speaker 1: Our savior y