33. Those Who Watch and Care
Covering Titus and 2 Timothy Chapter 1:
Divorced from the mighty descriptions of the Church, of God made visible, and of sharing all with the Lord Jesus, as found in Ephesians and Philippians, Paul’s final three letters could become descriptions of outward performance. Yet we see in these final three letters the phrases and concepts coming out from the MIGHTY Gospel Paul has already presented clearly.
This “Flow of Gospel Word,” then, requires us to place every line into the revelation of Jesus Christ found in the greatest expressions of Paul’s Gospel, specifically, the Heart expressed by Romans 8:18-30 and Philippians 2:1-11, inside the Church as described in Ephesians 2:19 through 5:2. Everything else simply expands on these wondrous things, especially including the letters to Titus and Timothy.
Father Comes First. I have titled this writing of the Gospel Comments for Titus and 2 Timothy Chapter 1 as “Those Who Watch and Care.” We will see that I am not wrong in placing Paul’s pastoral letters, including Titus, as the bridge between Paul’s Gospel and the meaning of Revelation 11 & 12, the ministry of God over God’s final season of opportunity.
In just the same way that a steward places the pleasure of the master of the house as his sole purpose, before even thinking of ordering the work of the servants, so also do we. The Father comes first; the Church is His opportunity. Yes, those who watch and care are deeply compassionate towards every little believer in Jesus, but their purpose remains always that Father might be glorified in each.
Into Completion. Consider those who watch and care and their purpose.
But to each one of us has been given grace, according to the measure to each of the gift of Christ. – That He might fill all, that is, that He might make all complete by filling them to capacity with Himself. – And He Himself gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some shepherds and teachers towards the preparation of the saints for the work of service, into the building up, the construction of the body of Christ. – Until we all come down to the unity found in the faith and acknowledgement of the Son of God, into being a complete or perfect man, into the measurement of the maturity of the fullness or completion of Christ. – (Ephesians 4:7, 10, & 11-13). We preach Christ… that we might present every person perfect and complete inside of Christ… contending according to His energeia energeoing in power inside of me (Colossians 1:28-29).
Nothing Less. This is our stewardship over God’s final opportunity. Whatever grace is given to us, large or small, we are filled with Jesus to the full capacity of that grace. Whatever our role might be, our focus and the drive of our entire lives is a House in which God can dwell and be known. That House is believers in Jesus, our fellow Christians all across the earth, gathered together into Christ, into Christ Community, and learning to love one another with pure hearts fervently.
We settle for nothing less than completion, all of God in all His House, every person complete inside of God and inside the Church. We insist that every Word God speaks be fulfilled inside the life of each little one; we hold until all have entered.
Connecting Promise to Stewardship. (Chapter 1) • 2 This acknowledgment of truth is found in the hope of age-unfolding life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before age-unfolding time. • 3 This promise He has now revealed, in His own opportune times or seasons, in His word found inside of the proclamation entrusted to me according to the certain direction of God our Savior.
There is only one Truth to acknowledge, and that is Christ Jesus, who is our only life. Yet life, age-unfolding Life, is to know the Father. Thus Jesus Sent into us makes us like Himself in knowing the Father as He knows the Father. Paul’s words, “entrusted to me,” bring in his topic of stewardship. This hope inside of God, in the core of His being, that He would have a people who KNOW Him, is then entrusted to humans sent out from Him.
God’s Hope. Age-unfolding Life is every next step shared with God, thus age-unfolding time is a different way to say the same thing. Life is movement, within and without, and time is creation’s measurement of movement. God-with-us NOW is forever. Paul’s introduction then combines knowing the Father, with the Promise, that is Covenant, and with stewardship.
Ruling Verse 10 & Covenant: Knowing the Father is age-unfolding Life. It is also the Promise God holds inside Himself separate from all acts of creation, that He would have a people who know Him. That Promise is the Covenant.
Covenant & Kingdom: This Promise of the Covenant, this Hope God holds inside Himself, is then entrusted to those who are sent out from God, that we might watch with care.
Defining a Shepherd of the Flock. 5 …Set in order the things lacking and appoint watch-carers, shepherds of the flock, in every town as I directed you. • 6 Select [as a watch-carer] one who is irreproachable, the husband of one wife, one who has believing children, and is not under any charge of excessiveness or non-submissiveness. 7 It is necessary for the watch-carer to be irreproachable as the manager and guardian of God’s household; not self-pleasing, not prone to anger, not given to alcohol, not contentious, and not greedy of dishonest gain. 8 Rather select one who is hospitable, a lover of good, one who possesses a sound mind, that is, one who is calm, just, reverential, and temperate or modest, 9 one who holds firmly to the teaching of a faithful word, so that he may be able to encourage with sound teaching as well as to reprove those who contradict or speak against.
Inside Life Together. Paul adds this definition of the elders in each local assembly in all three of these “pastoral” letters, but I have marked it for Gospel Comments only here in Titus. For that reason, I think it is worthwhile for us to go through Paul’s list a piece at a time.
I am very grateful to God that He gave me years of experience inside Christian Communities that were anointed of the Spirit and true in heart devotion to God, for I am able to place personal meaning on all of these things, both that which is True and that which is not. More than that, it is inside of life together that these qualities become, not incidental, but vital. “Those who watch and care” then becomes a description of the second witness of Christ.
Family-Oriented. For that reason, we consider nothing in this list separate from our precious union with Christ, that Jesus actively makes us to be just like Himself. And we receive these things by the Spirit, that is, in Christ there is neither male nor female, etc. Thus we include women equally as watch-carers. At the same time, for Christian Community to work, we must be extremely practical, especially in the task of learning to love one another with pure hearts fervently.
1. Irreproachable. This basically means trustworthy, no hidden secrets, no excessiveness, no going contrary.
2. Strongly family oriented. Wording it this way allows single men or women to be recognized as elders, provided they think and walk as members of a family in the Lord.
Hospitable. 3. Without self-agenda. People know when an elder or pastor is “in it for themselves.” It stinks.
4. Without self-projection or self-escape. Anger is forcing one’s self on others; drunkenness is just one way to escape.
5. Hospitable. This says it all. Specifically, when you knock on their door, they welcome you into their home and family with joy, as if you belong. If the least is welcomed with open arms, so is the Father. This hospitality, then, goes out to become the most important quality of a community – Kindness.
6. Sound, wise, and just. One grounded in common sense, one who listens carefully and considers the options. One who is not partial, but who ensures that each one’s concerns are treated with respect.
Loves the Word. 7. Loves the Good-Speaking of Jesus and the Flow of Gospel Word. One who is devoted to that Word that brings forth, sustains, causes, and carries all. One who references the Flow of Gospel Word on a regular basis.
I think we can sum this up with the positives. Irreproachable – family oriented – hospitable – full of care – and a lover of the Flow of Gospel Word, that is, Jesus becoming each one.
Definition: Those who watch and care come out first from union with the Heart of Jesus. They are irreproachable and trustworthy. They are strongly family-oriented, expressing family love and faithfulness. They are examples of hospitality, inside the welcome of kindness and belonging. They are filled with care, careful to hear and wise in their speaking. And they love the Flow of True Gospel Word, Jesus through them.
To the Pure. 14 Do not give heed to Judaic fables, or to the injunctions or purposes of men who pervert the truth. • 15 To the pure all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and without faith, nothing is pure; instead, their mind and their consciousness are both defiled. 16 They speak the same word as if to know God, but they contradict Him in works…
Even though we include the context, as it gives us that which is not pure, our concern for the Gospel Comment is “To the pure all things are pure.” I wrote a whole lesson somewhere on this. In the flow of Gospel Word out from Ephesians and Philippians, this line becomes filled with great power. Indeed, it is speaking of our synergeoing with God making all things good – becoming our role as stewards over God’s opportunity, God made visible.
Synergeoing with God. The description we just went through of those who “watch and care” is a description of those who synergeo with God, making all things good, those who sit with Jesus upon the Mercy Seat, setting creation free. To the pure all things are pure – MEANS – to those who watch and care, every individual is Jesus to them. People are a MESS! People do stupid things. People get aggravated with one another. No matter. The heart of the Shepherd, the heart of every Community of Christ, is synergeoing with God calling all things into goodness.
Ruling Verse 1: Because we love God, we see as God sees, we see all things made pure by the propitiation of Jesus. For that reason, we synergeo with God to bring all things, including our brethren, into the knowledge of such pure goodness.
All Things Are Pure. The statement “all things are pure” does not mean “hide from reality, as in “hear no evil, see no evil.” It means the greatest point of costliness. It is the deepest level of travail and intercession. It is the core of what it means to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ.
For their sakes, I make Myself pure and devoted to You, that they also might be made pure and devoted inside of the truth (John 17:19). – It is Grace.
Ruling Verse 9: To see and to call all things pure is not “closing our eyes to evil actions and hurt.” Rather, it is sharing with Jesus in the fellowship of His sufferings. With Jesus, we devote our whole lives in all costliness to the Father, so that all creation might enter into Joy.
The Work of God. They speak the same word as if to know God, but they contradict Him in works… – ALL “obedience” framed in terms of “getting right with God” contradicts God in every action. It sounds right, but the end is death. Coming out from the tears of knowing God’s immense and aching desire as expressed through Paul in Philippians, we find ourselves in an “obedience” that is far different from what we once knew. Our obedience is the same as Jesus, the Ekenosis, carrying our brethren all the way through.
Kingdom: The work of those who watch and care is to give themselves to the Father for the sake of others, that each one might know the Father and find their good place inside His House, the Church, that each one might be free in giving of themselves inside the energeia of fellowship.
Grace Become Visible. (Chapter 2) • 11 For the gift and grace of God has become visible, bringing salvation to all humans, 12 teaching us that, having refused irreverence and worldly desires, we should live moderately, justly, and devotedly inside the present age, • 13 welcoming in every present moment the blessed hope and visible display of the great God, that visible display being our Savior, Christ Jesus, • 14 the One who gave Himself for us, for our sakes, that He might redeem us out from all lawlessness and might purify to Himself a people, His own personal treasure, who are zealous of good works.
How we define the words of Verse 11 will take everything in one direction or the other, into God through His Church or into “back then, up there, someday,” that is, into hades. Thus we apply Ephesians and Philippians to all of Titus.
The Ekenosis. Grace is the giving of God-Life. Grace is God welcoming each one into Kindness. Yet we welcome the visible display of God, God manifest in the flesh, into our lives BY welcoming each one who belongs to Jesus into our daily lives, as belonging to us in all liberty. The One who gave Himself for our sakes, that we might, inside of Him, give ourselves for one another’s sake. To call God into our world is to call our brothers and sisters into our hospitality, into our home, into our kindness.
Kingdom: The visible display of God and of our Savior, Christ Jesus, in our lives is our love for one another. To welcome God into our lives is to acknowledge Him in every mundane moment as sharing all with us AND to welcome each one whom He sends as Jesus Himself.
Assuming Union. The Form for God through Jesus: The Salvation of God is God at Home in His House, the Church. It is each local gathering together filled with the knowledge of God sharing all with us in Love and in fellowship. We live our lives in all devotion to such a God inside such a Church.
Ruling Verse 5: As those who watch and care, we assume always that Jesus, this One who loves us and who gives Himself for us, for our sakes, has already come into full union with each one with whom we fellowship. We always assume that Jesus has already rescued each one out of a life in which Jesus is not acknowledged (lawlessness) and has already made each to be utterly pure and clean in every part of their humanity. We teach, then, that each should offer all that they are, as God made them, to the Father for His service and Joy.
The Ekenosis Again. (Chapter 3) • 4 When, however, the kindness and love of the God of our Savior for mankind became visible, 5 not out of works of rightness that we did, but according to His mercy, • He saved us through the bath of the rebirth [regeneration] and through the renewing and making fresh of the Devoted Spirit 6 whom He poured out upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, • 17 so that, having been made pure and devoted by that grace [the gift of God Himself], we should be heirs according to the hope of age-unfolding life.
This is the Ekenosis, the kindness and love of God made visible. At the same time, we must expand on this word “heirs,” for truly to be an heir right now in the present moment is to carry the same Watch-Care that is Jesus towards all things. The Church is our inheritance.
The Power of Philippians. Because I did not know the power of Philippians, I could not know the extent to which Paul’s exact wording in his final letters matches the full unveiling of Jesus Christ. I wrote “Symmorphosed” and then I came again to these lines written by Paul to discover that he is saying the same as I. The unveiling of God, God made visible, God manifest in the flesh, God seen and known, is first Kindness and then Love. Love is deep and costly. Love is bedrock. But Kindness is the face of God upon our faces. (I see that this is what I want.)
Definition: The unveiling of God, God made visible, God manifest in the flesh, God seen and known, is first Kindness and then Love. Love is deep and costly. Love is bedrock. But Kindness is the face of God upon our faces.
Such an Inheritance. Life: God pours upon us, into us, all through our souls, the Devoted Spirit, the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of His Son. Life means that we are now one Spirit with Jesus. It is by this Spirit poured out in overflowing abundance that we are regenerated by the wash, the bath, of the living Flow of Gospel Word. God has saved us into Life.
We bring the thought of the inheritance into the issue of stewardship over God’s opportunity to come Home.
Kingdom: We are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus. As those who watch and care, this means that the Father at HOME in the gathering together of the Church belongs to us as much as it belongs to Jesus. We labor over such an inheritance as the greatest value we could possess, the very inheritance of God just being Himself inside creation.
Apostolic Stewardship. (2 Timothy Chapter 1) • 6 This is why I remind you to stir up the fire of the gift of God which is inside of you through the laying on of my hands. • 7 For God has not given us a spirit of reticence, but a Spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind.
We are continuing into 2 Timothy Chapter 1 inside the same definition – a description of those who watch and care. Consider that in writing to Timothy and Titus, Paul is describing their function as apostolic ministries in the Church. Thus, in speaking personally to them, he is outlining the deepest meaning of those who watch and care, of those who move in stewardship over God’s opportunity to be known. Yes, the meanings of verses 6 & 7 can be applied to all believers in Jesus, but they especially apply to those who watch and care.
Apostolic Authority. “The fire of the gift of God through the laying on of my hands” is a topic about to enter Being a Witness of Christ. I am thinking of a chapter titled “The Apostolic River.” In both verses, Paul is writing out from the meaning of Rivers of Spirit flowing out. Verse 6 is a description of the apostolic authority over the flow of that River into specific individuals, and Verse 7 is a description of that Spirit flowing into us.
Ruling Verse 9: Our care over creation comes out from the authority of Jesus inside of us, an apostolic authority operating in us at the level of the grace we have received.
What I just wrote is important. We differ greatly in the gift of God through us for others. But if someone is gifted only to wash dishes and sweep the floor, it is still a giving that comes out from the same Apostolic authority of Jesus inside of them.
Ruling Verse 3: Out from such an authority inside of us there flows a river of the Spirit that brings the power and love of God into each one who receives, and that enables them to think soundly, that is, just like Jesus thinks.
For the Gospel. 8 You should not be ashamed, therefore, of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner; • rather, you suffer hardships together [with Christ and me] for the gospel, according to the power of God, 9 the One who has saved us, who has called and summoned us with a calling of devotion, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace. These things have already been given us inside of Christ Jesus separate from the unfolding ages of time.
We are continuing entirely inside the description of “those who watch and care.” Everything we are is devoted to this Gospel Word.
Ruling Verse 9: The hardships we endure are for the gospel, for this precious Flow of Gospel Word into the lives of many, a Flow out from us in power. This is our calling, a calling of devotion to the Desire and Purpose of God, given to us separate from anything created.
The Wondrous Appearing. • 10 This gospel has become visible now as well, through the wondrous appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has indeed abolished death, rendering it inoperable, and now has fully brought life and the inability to decay to light through the gospel. 11 Into this gospel, I was appointed as a herald and an apostle and a teacher of the ethnic families. 12 This is why I also suffer these things. • But I am not ashamed, for I know the One whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep, to guard, and to watch over my trust into that day.
Verse 10 is one of those wild verses of Paul’s that no one ever brings into polite conversation. If someone does mention it, it is dismissed with reference to “go to” heaven and a bit of embarrassment.
Not Ashamed to Believe. But I am beginning to share Paul’s lack of embarrassment concerning the wild gospel that he preached, for the Flow of Gospel Word that God has placed us into is without compare.
Definition: The Gospel is very clear that Jesus appears as He is now, only as His Church, the fulness of Christ who fills all inside of all (see Ephesians 1:23). We take Paul’s words literally, that this Jesus inside of us has indeed abolished death in all that death might mean and has brought into our lives the inability to die through this very Gospel.
Ruling Verse 7: It matters not what we suffer for being convinced that God always speaks the Truth. We are never embarrassed in the presence of those who do not believe. We are persuaded that God keeps to all completion our full trust in Him inside the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Words and Trust. • 13 Possess the pattern of sound, reasonable, and pure words which you heard from me inside of faith and love inside of Christ Jesus. • 14 Keep that good trust through the Devoted Spirit, the One dwelling inside of us.
The “pattern of words” is the same thing as what I mean by “the Flow of Gospel Word. We are not speaking of words as ideas, but Words as Spirit, the very essence of God-Life. Again, this is the meaning and definition of the Gospel. We keep such a Trust through the Devoted Spirit given to us.
Life: This pattern of words is the Flow of Gospel Word out from the very essence and being of God, through the speaking of Jesus, into us, causing us to be. It is the Devoted Spirit that enables us to rest in full trust inside this wondrous Flow of Living Spirit Word. This is the essence and meaning of Life.
The Spirit Given to Us. I am really grappling with the meaning of the Spirit given to us. It is becoming more substantial and critical than anything I have known before, yet I still see only seemingly disconnected pieces, similar to the one who said “as trees walking.” God is opening our eyes – the Apocalypse. We know we are seeing glory, we just don’t know what it means – except this, Life is utterly different from anything we once knew.
I still don’t know what Spirit is, for the Spirit remains hidden as the wind, moving us seemingly where we know not, but always into the knowledge of Jesus connecting us to the Father and to one another as the dwelling place of God. But I do know this now. Only those who open their souls to all that God means by the Spirit flowing through, in daily interaction, can know the first thing about Life.
Stewardship. When I started this task of writing the Flow of Gospel Word, I had zero idea that the portion of Paul’s letters that would change me the most would be Timothy and Titus. Yet inside the present synergeoing of God with me as I offer myself to the Father for the sake of His Desire towards the Church, and coming out from Ephesians and Philippians, I find that Paul’s whole layout of those who watch and care, of those who give themselves to the stewardship over God’s final opportunity to be known, effects me deeply.
I see now that stewardship does belong to me, and that I now know what it is, how it works, and how I can give myself utterly to God that such a wondrous calling might become my entire reality of service. Indeed, I find in such stewardship the essence of goodness.
Paul’s Final Word. And here’s the cool thing about the calling of such stewardship, it matters not what might be the gifts God has given to each one, even if it is little by human measurement, it’s still the same calling, the same sharing of Hheart with God, the same watch and care, the same goodness.
The meaning of the remainder of 2 Timothy has been growing in importance to me personally, as Paul states in 2 Timothy 2:10, “Why I Persevere.” Indeed, inside the answer to that statement, we will find the full meaning of God for us in these final letters Paul wrote. And by that meaning, we will discover how the letters to Timothy and Titus are the most practical application of the Flow of Gospel Word through us for others there might be.