Bible Stories for the Young
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As Paul traveled around spreading the good news and helping the churches grow strong, he often had other believers of Jesus travel with him. One of these trusters of Jesus was a young man named Titus.
At this point in our story, Paul had left Titus on the island of Crete because the folks there were having, well… problems. Paul wrote a letter telling Titus that Cretans were known as “liars, evil animals, and lazy bums that stuff their faces with food.” Paul told Titus that even though that was the case, it is not okay for followers of Jesus to be acting like that!
Animals are really cool, but they pretty much do whatever their self wants. When a tiger wants to eat, it stuffs its face with food. When a monkey wants another monkey’s toy, it just snatches it. When a sloth wants to sleep, it just sleeps. Animals don’t really have much self-control.
Humans have selfish desires, too. But letting ourselves get out of control like an animal is NOT okay for humans--because we are made in God’s image! So it’s not okay for us to stuff our faces with food, or snatch other people’s things, or be lazy bums that doze the day away.
And that is EXACTLY what these Cretans had to learn. If they wanted to be like Jesus they had to take control of their lying, animal-like, face-stuffing self-wants. Because Jesus is not out of control.
But HOW are they gonna do that? Listen and find out.
Paul told Titus, “Firmly tell those people they are wrong, so that they may become strong in the faith. Their minds and their consciences have been ruined. They say they know God, but their actions show they don’t trust him. They are hateful, they refuse to obey, and they are useless for doing anything good.”
Then Paul gave Titus some pro tips to teach the people about how to line up their behavior with God’s accurate, complete, solid, life-giving truth. Paul said:
“Rebellious, tricky, and talkative people need to be hushed.”
“Older men must be clear-minded, dignified, and self-controlled with solid faith, love, and endurance.”
“Older women should be demonstrating holiness, controlling their tongues, and training the younger women to love their husbands and children, and to take control of their selfish-desires…… training them to be pure, to take care of things around the house, to be kind to others, and not let their desire to want to be boss get out of control.”
“Younger men need to be encouraged to control their bodies and think sensibly with their minds (that means not foolish). And Titus, you can be an example to the other young men by being upright yourself… so that no one can say anything bad about us.”
“If anyone is a slave, they should serve their masters without talking back and without stealing.”
“Everyone needs to obey rulers and government leaders”
“Don’t speak evil about anyone. Live in peace, and be gentle and polite to all people.”
(That’s a lot of helpful tips, isn’t it? Paul was encouraging every believer to stop making God look bad by acting like an out-of-control animal, and instead to show how good and right God is by what they do!)
Paul also told them (and us) something super spectacular and life-changing! He said,
“God’s grace has shown up on the scene to save people. It is this Grace that teaches us to say ‘NO’ to things that are not like God and to say ‘No’ to those tugging desires of the world. Instead, we live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our greatest dream to come true--our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ!”
“Jesus gave Himself to set us free from being an out-of-control animal. He came to make us pure so that He can have a people who are truly his own, people who are eager to do good.”
Did ya catch HOW we learn to say no to our mammal animal cravings? His grace teaches us to say “No,” “Shhh!” or “Off” to our selfish thoughts and actions.
Grace is God’s undeserved kindness to us. Grace is Him giving us just what we need, to be who He wants us to be. (That doesn’t mean He gives us everything we want, but He gives us everything we need.)
God’s Grace appeared in our world in the person of Jesus. And now Jesus is stretching out His hand to us. If we are paying attention and looking for Him… If we will put our hand in His when He stretches it out to us, then we can learn to Trust and Love our very generous Creator and Father. And the closer we draw to Him, the less we want to chase the world’s pleasures like a dog sniffing the wind.
Have you noticed that when you love and trust someone, you learn how their smiles are worth so much more to you than the animal cravings you want so badly for yourself. When you love someone, you don’t want to make them sad. So that love and trust teach us to say “NO” to the animal.
Have you ever seen a little one or two-year-old child acting like an animal by throwing a fit with his or her mom or dad? Why do they do that? Because they haven’t yet learned the way of love. As you get older and you recognize how much someone loves you… like your loving mom or dad… then you don’t want to hurt them. You don’t want to be the cause of that tear in their eye. You want to make them smile, not frown.
That is a little relationship “shadow” of our relationship with God. If we pay attention to His undeserved kindness in our lives, we don’t want to hurt Him. That is one way how His Grace teaches us to say NO, Shhh, Off to our animalistic sins.
And then our hopes and dreams of Him coming back in the clouds for us…. will come TRUE!
Then Paul told Titus and the trusters of Jesus in Crete to: Be humble since we all used to be foolish, disobedient wrong-doers who were slaves to what our bodies enjoyed. We spent our lives doing evil and being jealous and junk.
“But then, God saved us because of His mercy, not because of any right things we did. He saved us through the washing that made us new people—regenerated, reborn, renewed through His Holy Spirit that He generously poured out on us. Once we were made right with God by his grace, now we have the hope of receiving the life that never ends.”
And remember little ones, even if you aren’t washed and made NEW in His grace yet, you still experience a touch of His grace each day as He extends His hands to you and has His very own angels watching over you. So open your eyes and notice all the undeserved kindnesses He sends your way. You may not get everything you want in life, but if you are watching He is giving you just what you NEED to become one of His Trusters.