A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Titus 2:7-10

When I started at Production Plumbing, I had never worked on a radiant heating system. We had several houses to plumb, but one needed the boiler system installed. My boss gave me a set of instructions and told me to install the system. If I had trouble with the instructions, the house next door had an identical system I could look at to see what they meant.

I quickly discovered it was a lot easier to understand the directions if I took them and looked at the other system before reading them. In fact, I could probably have installed the system without the directions by just looking at the example. My boss was surprised that I was able to install the system so quickly, because it had taken him far longer on the one I looked at. He hadn’t realized how much difference an example would make.

In developing people with a sound Christian lifestyle and attitude, a good example is crucial. Just as the directions for the boiler were difficult to understand until I saw an example, It is very hard to understand what God is describing until we see it demonstrated. This is the primary reason radio and television, or correspondence ministries are only marginally successful in developing sound Christians. They cannot provide a consistent examples.

A major part of the Pastor’s job is providing an example the people can learn from. This is why the requirements for pastors are so important. Unless he can do what is required, he cannot teach others to do so. Paul is explicit in his instruction to Titus.

“In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.” (Titus 2:7-8)

He is to demonstrate a useful accurate example of good works, in several specific areas. He must set the example for sound doctrine. II Timothy 2-3 are largely devoted to developing sound doctrine. As Paul has already stressed in chapter one, there are a lot of influences against sound doctrine, including tradition and false teachers.

The pastor or missionary must take his responsibilities seriously. He must also be sincere in his beliefs, not simply repeating what he thinks others want or expect. He needs to understand and believe that he is affecting lives both now, and forever. What seems a very small thing can hurt or help another throughout their life time. Humiliating or derogatory words, whether spoken in anger or in jest, may hinder or prevent spiritual and emotional development. Proper speaking can have tremendous effect in turning people to or away from the Christ.

It is not unreasonable to expect the teacher to be able to do what he is teaching others to do. In fact, he ought to be able to perform satisfactorily in any situation likely to arise in the level he is teaching others to attain. If he can’t, he is not qualified to teach to that level. A major cause of the decline in American education has been the growing number of administrators and college professors who have not taught children themselves. Their knowledge is purely theoretical and untested. They need to demonstrate their own proficiency before teaching or directing others. Failure to recognize this has resulted in the saying, “Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach.”

The same principle applies to those who are training others for ministry. While Timothy was pastoring, and Titus was training others to pastor, the instructions are very similar. Compare the instructions to Timothy with those to Titus.

“Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” (I Timothy 4:12-16)

As emphasis moves from Spiritual attainment to academic attainment for professors, and college administrators, the spiritual and doctrinal quality of the pastors they train can only decline. That will inevitably lead to spiritual decline in the church, resulting in the kinds of churches we find described in Revelation 2 and 3. The problems pastors are having and the scarcity of men willing to do the job attest to the change in focus of most training programs today.