LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?
THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Like people, like priest. In many cultures across the world, throughout Church history, there has been a sharp division between the "holy" religious officials and the regular people. In many places a priest or bishop or monk claims a sort of special status or connection with God. But that's not the pattern that we find in the Bible. Yes, the priests and Levites in the Old Testament have special duties involving the sacred things of God, or later on to teach the people. But, in Leviticus 20:26 God says to the people "You shall be holy to me," and in Leviticus 21:7 he says to the priests "the priest is holy to his God." Both are holy to God -set apart, sacred- not just one or the other. In fact, back in Exodus 19:6, Israel as a whole was called to be "a kingdom of priests." This pattern carries on to the New Testament. Of the qualifications for Elders listed in Titus 1, all are either repeated or echoed in the instructions for various groups of believers in Titus 2. This even includes the instruction to be sound in faith and to teach others: the older men are to be sound in the faith (Titus 2:2), and older women are to teach and train younger women (Titus 2:3-4). This doesn't lessen the expectations of Elders or put an unfair burden on the backs of regular Christians; instead it calls all people from every walk of life to grow in their relationship with God, their knowledge of God's Word, and their witness to others.
RESPOND | WHAT IS OUR PART?
As a culture, we are fairly egalitarian--so this word would not be as much of a shock to us as it would be to other cultures or generations. (In fact I've experienced a much more status-conscious culture before: I once served as an interim pastor at a baptist church where an older Filipino man would only call me "pastor"--never my first name. At the same time, I mispronounced his first name the first time he told it to me, and he never corrected me. So for nearly six months I called him by, and he happily answered to, the wrong first name, because I was the pastor and he didn't want to correct me.) But still, today's reading is a good reminder that we are all on the same level at the foot of the cross. No one can claim a special status above others. And no one can, as is the case specifically in some African cultures, try to "bless the man of God" as a substitute for living a holy life on one's own (see Samuel Ngewa, 1 Timothy and Titus). We can apply today's reading by humbly coming before Jesus and realizing that our own faith, and our faith only, is the basis for our relationship with him.
PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US CLOSER TO GOD?
Here is a suggested prayer prompt: "God, thank you for calling me to a special relationship with you, and for making me holy in your sight. Help me to depend on you, and to grow in my walk with you."
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