There is a description in Titus 2 that is a regular picture in my mind. Paul tells Titus to remind the slaves that they are to be submissive to their masters, that they are to be well-pleasing and faithful, “showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior” (Titus 2:9-10).
The “doctrine” or the teaching heading is God’s saving character, He is Savior; saving is His business. Salvation is His work exclusively, as in, there is no other savior. And salvation is His work exhaustively, as in, there is nothing we add to it. The truth of this is emphasized even in how Paul writes it: “in order that the doctrine – the of the savior of us of God (doctrine) – you may adorn in everything.”
The teaching is already glorious. God, our Savior, is glorious, essentially and beyond dispute. And yet, even these slaves could live by faith in such a way as to give the doctrine an attractive appearance. They could show its beauty by their work.
While this has application for every believer, not just bondservants, I think it also has application for the entire body of believers, so individual and corporate.
And, beloved, you continue to adorn the gospel. This doesn’t mean that everyone sees it. At the memorial service on Saturday, a young person was overheard expressing great thankfulness that his parent never takes him to church and makes him sing songs like that. But without question, to those with eyes to see, your heavy-joy and long hugs and tasty food and loud pirate-sounding-song-singing showed the goodness and beauty of our Savior.
Even as we come to the communion table together, as we share with one another, this is part of our proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes, and how we do it adorns the doctrine of God our Savior.
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