Titus 2:2 That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.

Is this behavior only expected of men of a certain age? Aged is vague but that isn’t the only thing that bothers me about lists. The tendency of people who are not included according to their own conscience, hey I’m not old, is to ignore the message as it does not apply to them. Secondly, if a behavior is not listed, then the general assumption is that only those things listed need to be considered.

Read Titus 2 for yourselves and you will find other lists for aged women (not going there), young women and young men. Those lists are not the same, nor are they all inclusive. Are we not all the same to God or are we not? According to Galatians 3:28 we are all one in Christ Jesus.

Titus 2:1 But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:

Then I remember the becoming. While doctrine is deemed to be a teaching in the strictest terms, if it does not lead the lives of the people hearing it, it is not sound. Paul was writing to Titus of a time and a people who did not have the full advantages of the whole gospels as we do today. Verbal traditions were still very much a part of the early church experience. Teachers were expected to speak to the problems of the day, not as it might apply to us two thousand years later.

We have the advantage of thousands of years of learned men, faithful to study and discuss all that has been laid out for us to build upon. It is not shortsighted of the author to overlook instructions that have not yet been written. Paul and John were still putting words to paper at the instructions of the Holy Spirit. The bible would not be canonized until the fourth century. It is/was a list.

So I withdraw my objection to lists and seek to hear what the spirit has to say about all things.

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Change is a scary thing, I get it. A new job, a new city, and an overseas posting, oh yes, I get it, change can be scary. Just how scary does it sound to have someone in your face saying, “You’ve got to change!” Not just jobs, friends, or neighborhoods, but you need to change your identity.

I never had that happen to me. I did it to myself. I was disgusted with myself, but not everyone feels that way. They feel secure with their identity, and may have worked very hard on developing that image. Then someone comes along and says a graven image is one created by self-effort and God says you shall have no graven images before Him.

If you are rather pleased with yourself, you would reject that opinion. OK, I understand, but isn’t self-pleasing pride? Is pride a word you identify with? Some do. If you think I am about to slam a particular type of pride, forget it. The issue isn’t about the identity in pride, it is that identity is declared and defined by others. It isn’t even who you are as a person.

People tend to focus on the word image in today’s opening verse, because it is the easiest observation point. The real focus of that verse is glory that changes, from glory to glory. Now I was much better looking as an eighteen year old. My wife has pictures of me then and now. What isn’t seen, what isn’t obvious, is how much more glorious I am now.

Glory is the essence of God. Glory is not the outward and seeming but the inward and real. It is who I am in the most personal and inner parts of me. It is who I am and not an image that fades in time. It gets stronger, better, bolder and more humble.

Ephesians 3:16-19 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.