Titus 3:5-7 says, “Not out of works in righteousness which we did but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, in order that having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” God has given us the Spirit, the holy One, and has poured out this Spirit upon us with the purpose that we may be heirs of the eternal life according to our hope, that is, that we may enjoy the eternal life as our inheritance. Today we are enjoying this life as a foretaste, and in the future we will enjoy this life as the full taste.
The Holy Spirit is continually doing a work to renew us. According to the thought of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, this renewing work of the Holy Spirit has much to do with the exercise unto godliness. In order to exercise ourselves unto godliness, we need to realize the renewing work of the indwelling Spirit. The indwelling Spirit is always working to renew us, and under this renewing we are able to exercise ourselves unto godliness.
Titus 3 speaks not only of the renewing of the Holy Spirit but also of the washing of regeneration. The word for washing in Greek is the word for laver, the vessel in the temple that contained the washing water. Regeneration here does not have the same meaning as being born anew in John 3:3. Here the word refers to a change from one state to another. It is a kind of reconditioning, remaking, or remodeling with life. To rebuild a typewriter or remodel a house does not involve life, but the change in condition produced by regeneration requires life. In John 3, life comes into us when we are born again, but in Titus 3 this new life reconditions, remakes, and reconstructs us into a new condition. We all need to be reconditioned, reconstructed, and remade by the new life. This renewing and reconditioning of the Holy Spirit is for our exercise unto godliness. The more we are renewed, reconditioned, and remodeled, the more we express Christ and manifest God, that is, the more we have godliness.
By all that we have said above, we can see that the Epistles to Timothy and Titus are not for us to “pastor” a church. Rather, they are for us to exercise ourselves unto godliness. God’s commission and good deposit are not for “pastoring.” Itis for us to exercise a strong spirit with Christ in it, trusting in the Spirit who justifies, warns, guards, renews, and reconditions. By this Spirit with our regenerated spirit we can exercise unto godliness, imparting and ministering life to others. First Timothy 4:6 says, “If you lay these things before the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, being nourished with the words of the faith and of the good teaching which you have closely followed.” These things refer to the things related to godliness. A good minister of Jesus Christ is not taught with theology in order to be a pastor of a church. Instead, he is nourished with the words of the faith and of the good teaching. We need to drop the thought of “pastoring” and be filled with the thought of being good ministers of Christ who are nourished in the word. If we are nourished in this way, we will be able to exercise unto godliness.
In the book of Philemon, Onesimus was a purchased bondslave who ran away from Philemon, his master. After being captured, he was put into prison with the apostle Paul, and while there, he was saved. This slave became a spiritual child of the apostle Paul and a dear brother in Christ. When Paul realized that he was the slave of Philemon, his fellow worker, Paul instructed Onesimus to return in peace with this Epistle to his master, with the hope that Philemon would forgive him and also receive him no longer only as a slave but also as a brother (vv. 10, 16).
In the ancient times, a master had the authority to put an escaped slave to death. However, this slave had now become a brother through the apostle who had brought Philemon to the Lord (v. 19) and who was writing to urge Philemon to accept this slave as a dear brother. This required much grace on the part of Philemon. Therefore, the last verse of this Epistle says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit” (v.25). Paul seemed to be saying, “Philemon, I am asking you not only to forgive him but to receive him back as a dear brother. Iknow that this is difficult for anyone to do, but I commend you to this good word: the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. You cannot do this in your flesh or soul, but if you turn to the spirit, grace will be there as the all-inclusive supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. By this grace you will be more than able to do what I ask. This grace is infinite, unlimited, and without measure, and it can accomplish anything. I,Paul, have learned the lesson and secret that I can do all things in this grace. Although I have charged you to do something difficult, His grace is sufficient for you.”
If a master in the church life can receive his slave as a brother, then he can receive anyone, regardless of their background, situation, condition, or stage of life. This is our need in the church life. In the church there is no Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free man, but Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:11). To say this is easy, but to practice it is not. According to a careful study ofthe Bible and of history, Philemon lived in Colossae, and the church there met in his home (Philem. 2; cf. Col. 4:17; Philem. 10; cf. Col. 1:2; 4:9). This means that in the church meeting Philemon might sit side by side with Onesimus. There was no such custom in the churches that masters sat on one level in the meetings but slaves sat on another. Both the masters and the slaves came together as brothers and satside by side. This is the proper way of the church life. Therefore, the church life requires an all-sufficient grace. If by grace a master can sit with a slave as a dear brother, then there is nothing he cannot do. We can do all things by the grace in our spirit, which is the all-inclusive Christ for us to have a proper church life. This short Epistle to Philemon is a strong proof of what we can enjoy in the church life by grace.