So the first attempt at posting this failed, due to a vagary of the computer I'm using to write these. Hopefully the second effort works.
The senior pastor was on vacation today, so we were treated to some study in Titus. We spent a fair amount of time on the somewhat unique opening (to my knowledge, this is the only Pauline epistle in which he calls himself a bond-servant of Jesus, with the possible exception of another co-authored with Silvanus).
I was mostly intrigued by the use of the phrase "for the faith of God's elect" (as translated by the NAS and NIV). The word "for" here is KATA in the Greek and is usually rendered "according to" or "against" or "down" depending on the case of the object.
I think the translation is due partly to the content of the letter: certainly Paul's instructions to Titus would have an effect on the faith of those God chose. But I wonder if we might think about the faith here not as belief so much as doctrine, that is, the faith God delivered to the saints. In this way, we can read KATA as we usually do: "according to the doctrine delivered to God's elect...."
A consistent theme in our study this morning was soundness, in particular soundness of faith and of doctrine. Sound doctrine produces sound faith. This shouldn't be surprising, but considering how many churches have abandoned doctrine entirely, it is worth emphasizing.
I'm not a pastor, nor will I ever be one, in all likelihood, but it seems obvious to me that part of the duty of a pastor is to educate his congregants in sound doctrine. Having watched a small amount of Osteen's interview on 60 Minutes, it makes me wonder if he has ever considered the book (he apparently doesn't feel that teaching doctrine is his gift).
In any case, it was a good and interseting study, and one I hope to pick up again soon.
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