Joining Titus for a study in GOOD #1

GOOD is one of those words I really struggle with. Like NICE. There are some words that everyone else seems to know the meaning of but me. They bewilder me. For me, they seem to embody everything I am not.

‘Just be a good girl.’ What does that even mean? Growing up, I came to believe that it meant ‘Don’t be yourself. Be more like XXX.’ And then as I became an adult, I took on the task of becoming a good wife and a good mother. The expectations around that word GOOD became crushing. I had to find a way to make peace with the fact that I would never be good enough, when GOOD was such a nebulous, all-encompassing concept that meant different things to different people.

And so I welcome this month of focusing on the word GOOD. It’s a word I’ve been wanting to ditch from my vocabulary for some time now. I avoid it at all costs. However, this month we’ve arrived at the book of Titus in the Bible: a short book of only three chapters – with over ten mentions of the word GOOD! So let’s join Titus in coming to understand this word GOOD.

Paul is thought to have written this letter to Titus, as he wrote the two letters to Timothy that we looked at over the last two months. Like Timothy, Titus has been overseeing a new community of believers on the island of Crete. Paul’s letter focuses on what it is to be a pastor caring for his community. Like Timothy, Titus has worked alongside Paul, learning from his example and gradually being entrusted with more and more responsibility. In his second letter to the Corinthians (which Titus delivered in person), Paul refers to Titus as his ‘partner and co-worker’. This letter to Titus is all about what it looks like to live as a follower of the Way, to be an example to others of how to model GOOD.

So here goes…this letter opens like this:

From Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ.

I was chosen and sent to help the faith of God’s chosen people and to lead them to the truth taught by our religion, which is based on the hope for eternal life. God, who does not lie, promised us this life before the beginning of time, and at the right time he revealed it in his message. This was entrusted to me, and I proclaim it by order of God our Saviour.

I write to Titus, my true son in the faith that we have in common.

May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior give you grace and peace.  Titus 1:1-4

Paul is clear about who he is, who God is and who Titus is. God is faithful and unchanging. God does not lie. God keeps His promises. God is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Having said I avoid the word GOOD, I’ve just remembered that yesterday I sent this WhatsApp message – ‘Today has been tough but God is good.’ Definitely summed up my day. Whatever my life is like, God is there and God is good. He’s the constant.

And God, who, when He brought this world and us humans into being, declared it all to be GOOD, has invited us all to share in His new life, this GOOD life.

What a God we serve!

Paul recognises that the way that Jesus demonstrated is the best way to live, God’s way, and he is happy to known as a servant of God. This life that we can begin to share in now will last forever – we can look forward to an eternity in God’s presence, living the perfect life God intended when He created a perfect world. This is the sure and certain hope that we can live in the reality of every single day.

Paul refers to Titus as his ‘true son in the faith that we have in common.’ As Christians, we all share in one faith, one hope. There is so much that unites us. We are family. We are called to live as brothers and sisters, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters – to nurture and care for one another, to share with one another what it is to live this GOOD live into which we have been invited.

What are we waiting for?