And yet in every generation God raises up his people to join this struggle, to live and speak from biblical truth and with gospel power against the crudeness and immorality and cruelty to which we sinful humans are so inclined.
This blog posting is a slightly edited version of a chapel message which I gave at Covenant earlier this spring. The message grew out of an increasing sense that Christians are highly susceptible to the same degrading trends that characterize the larger culture, and that we need to be reminded yet again that the gospel of Jesus Christ has profound implications and applications for daily life.
The apostle Paul’s instruction to the young pastor Titus includes authoritative and perhaps surprising counsel about the linkage between the gospel and our regard for others in word and deed. On Covenant’s campus, as well as in Christian contexts of all kinds, I believe this gospel-grounded truth must be trusted and obeyed, for the glory of Jesus and our effective gospel witness.
William Wilberforce is probably best known for his four-decade effort to bring an end to slavery in the British Empire. Converted to Christianity as a young man, he recognized the radical call of the gospel, resolving to be fully at God’s command and to risk his career, his relationships, and his life for biblical truth and justice. On his deathbed, he heard the news of Parliament’s act to free slaves throughout the empire. The resolute and purposeful direction of his life, fueled by his understanding of the gospel and the call to radical obedience and action, provided a legacy described by one writer as “proof that one man may change his times.”
But there’s another aspect of Wilberforce’s impact on British life and culture, described at length in Garth Lean’s biography. Just as his heart was broken by the wickedness of slavery and the suffering of slaves, so was his heart broken by the immorality and degradation he witnessed in British culture. It was an age of hedonism and coarseness, at all levels of society. Among the wealthy classes were many who were profligate, urbane, lewd, brutal, and heartless. Among the working classes and the poor, who suffered enormously under this regime of calloused selfishness, many drowned their sorrows in an ocean of gin, sought gross entertainments, abused and brutalized one another – it is said that townsfolk were kept awake at night by the screams of victims of assault and rape.
In an effort to stem the tide of this torrent of social ills and the disappearance of law and order, the government moved to impose increasing sanctions against the worst offenses. By 1800, there were 200 capital offenses, i.e. the death penalty for theft, vandalism, as well as more serious crimes, and applied in some cases to children as young as eight.
The established church was of little or no help, trapped in a web of patronage and privilege, nepotism, and personal power struggles. During Wilberforce’s life, the estimate is that 7,000 out of the 11,000 clergy lived outside their parishes, preferring a life of comfort over sharing the cares and concerns of their flocks.
But it was also the era of John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield, passionate preachers of the gospel with its implications for social reform. Prior to Wilberforce’s conversion, John Wesley had traveled some 225,000 miles, mostly on horseback, preached more than 50,000 sermons, and raised up 700 full-time lay preachers. While these preachers were certainly persecuted and attacked by mobs and gangs, often egged on by clergy and civic officials, nevertheless thousands of lives were changed by the powerful gospel they preached.
As one writer put it, this gospel faith “made selfish men self-denying, the discontented happy, the worldling spiritually minded, the drunkard sober, the sexual chaste, the liar truthful, the thief honest, the proud humble, the godless godly, the thriftless thrifty.”
In such a context the now converted Wilberforce found himself, grieved at the condition of life and culture in England. By working tirelessly in the government and throughout society, Wilberforce attacked cultural banality and crassness – profanity, immorality, lewdness, brutality, prostitution, bull-baiting and cock-fighting. Along with these efforts at raising the moral standards, he worked toward a revision of the penal code, to reduce the horrifying number of hangings and to correct economic and social injustice.
And again his efforts were not without opponents, who saw their livelihoods and positions of power threatened and raised up many obstacles to his work, not unlike that episode in Acts 16 where Paul released a fortune-telling slave girl from the possession of an evil spirit, and he and Silas were dragged before the rulers by the girl’s owners who “saw that their hope of gain was gone” – after which Paul and Silas were beaten severely and thrown into prison with their feet in the stocks.
Here’s how Lean summarizes Wilberforce’s impact:
“…in Wilberforce’s lifetime a fresh breeze was blowing away a deal of dirt and heartlessness from countless corners of national life.” A later writer says that “between 1780 and 1850 the English ceased to be one of the most aggressive, brutal, rowdy, outspoken, riotous, cruel and bloodthirsty nations in the world.”
Now of course we know that the gospel passion of Wilberforce and the Wesleys which moved so many toward a more compassionate and just culture soon gave way to the pretense and hypocrisy of the Victorian era. The struggle against banality and degradation continues in every generation. And yet in every generation God raises up his people to join this struggle, to live and speak from biblical truth and with gospel power against the crudeness and immorality and cruelty to which we sinful humans are so inclined.
Paul’s letter to Titus gives us the Apostle’s words to a young pastor taking on the role of shepherding congregations in the midst of a 1st century cultural context which may have been not unlike what Wilberforce confronted in Britain.
In Chapter 2, Paul instructs Titus how to teach and lead the people under his care to live and behave in ways that accord with the gospel they believe and proclaim, instructions for the older and the younger, for women and men, for slaves and masters, and for Titus himself. He writes in 2:7-8:
Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.
And in 2:10 Paul describes the desired outcome: “…so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.”
Is Paul here promoting some kind of prudish moralism, some old-fashioned prim-and-proper fussiness?
Certainly not. For in the next verses, Paul declares the foundational reason for such behavior: It’s the gospel.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (2:11-14)
Paul continues in this vein in the first verses of chapter 3:
Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
We can assume that these words sounded as counter-cultural in Titus’s day as they did in Wilberforce’s and as they do in ours, with such wide-spread celebration of crude language, crass humor, and harsh and hateful public discourse.
Again, is Paul just some stuffed-shirt, old-fogey killjoy?
No – and again it’s because of the gospel, in 3:3-8:
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.
According to Paul, the gospel breeds lives not just of ministry and mercy and cultural engagement and missions, but also of integrity, dignity, gracious speech, self-control, gentleness, perfect courtesy. That’s what the gospel does in the lives of the redeemed.
May I suggest that we face a very similar challenge as Titus did in the 1st century and as William Wilberforce did in 19th century England: a culture growing increasing banal, crude, disrespectful, discourteous, harsh, hungry for violence, and tolerant of brutality of many kinds?
May I suggest further that we who call ourselves Christians are susceptible to the same tendencies, which in our case represent an unbiblical separation between gospel faith and gospel life?
Surely you recognize such phenomena, not only in the wider culture but also, sadly, within Christian community:
- A delight in crude language and humor that exalt the degradation of sacred things;
- A verbal economy that relishes sarcasm and rewards the quick-witted who can skewer others with a clever phrase, in conversation or on a blog site;
- An increasing tendency to eschew responsibility and accountability for words as well as actions, and the consequences of hurt and harm which these bring about, especially on blog sites, where one can write whatever one wants and never have to look in the eyes of the targeted persons;
- Displays in media and the arts of increasing decadence, portraying violence, pornography, sexual sin, and banality as if they were acceptable culture;
- Lack of common courtesies toward one another, including an extreme casualness in dress – in fact an almost proud disregard for the sensibilities of others along with the attempt to excuse or justify it as freedom of self-expression;
- Scorn for authority of virtually every kind, glamorizing disrespect, rebellion, and even violence against parents, government, religious and church leaders, and historic convictions and beliefs;
- The elevation of “cultural heroes” – in sports, music, movies – who manifest these qualities and behaviors and attract disciples who go and do likewise.
What if, in stark contrast, our words and attitudes and actions were thoroughly tempered, conditioned, fueled by the gospel, which perpetually reminds us of God’s mercy and grace – his loving-kindness and courtesy — toward us? What if were to heed Paul’s call to Titus, on the basis of the gospel, to show integrity, dignity, sound speech, gentleness, and perfect courtesy toward all people? What if in our words and actions we relentlessly pressed toward elevating one another, even in those difficult conversations in which we disagree, but in ways that aim toward godliness and mutual respect and building one another up?
I recently attended a meeting during which a PCA pastor spoke of PCA-related websites and blogs where disagreements are characterized by anger and personal attack. On our campus, I am struck by the ease with which crude language and humor creep into our conversation, in both private and public settings. And I wonder why we don’t more faithfully apply Paul’s words to Titus in our ecclesiological and campus contexts.
How would we speak of and interact with those not of our faith, or not of our theological view or political persuasion, so as to build relationships of respect and trust, through which the Lord might move in surprising ways? This is not easy, of course, for nastiness seems to be the currency of the communications realm, on all sides of theological, political, and moral debate. Those who call for civility from their opponents often resort to the grossest incivility themselves.
I am very grateful for how Covenant students have so graciously interacted with campus visitors who are not believers, such as New Yorker editor Hendrik Hertzberg, who blogged almost with surprise that he found Covenant folks both firm and clear in their Christian convictions and kind and generous in spirit.
William Wilberforce was known to be a man of great civility and social graces, of kind speech and courtesy, so much so that even his political enemies were delighted to socialize with him. One author proposes that these personal traits were at least as important as his actual views in eventually winning the day for the abolition of slavery in Parliament. Some of you may also be familiar with the story of St. Francis, who resolved, because of his love for God, to show courtesy and good manners toward all – and with great effect.
What if Covenant and all our Christian communities could be contexts for the reformation of morals, not in a prudish Victorian sense, but in light of the gospel, so that as we interact with one another and with those outside the faith, it might be true that nothing evil can be said of us, and so that our words and deeds might adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
Some of you are probably thinking that I sound my age – a stodgy, nostalgic 57-year-old who longs for a sterile, clean – well, who longs for colorless, funless, boring Pleasantville. I don’t long for Pleasantville. But I also don’t long for that film’s answer to Pleasantville – which is the answer that our culture tends to give (you’re welcome to check it out for yourselves). I long for the coloration of the gospel in my own heart and life – for I am one who is inclined toward sarcasm; who too much loves the clever comment; who sometimes laughs at crude humor; who often has to edit the first draft of a reactive email message; who finds hockey fights strangely fascinating.
I don’t know all that should happen in you as you consider Paul’s words to Titus. What I need, more than anything else, as one who has received the washing of regeneration – I need the washing of renewal, of continuing renewal by the Holy Spirit, poured out so richly on me through Jesus Christ my Savior. I need to learn gospel-saturated laughter and delight, gospel-focused disagreement and debate, gospel-formed courtesy in word and deed. And, on the authority of the Scriptures, I will be so bold as to say that you need that too.
I believe that we have the opportunity to be witnesses to and agents of the gospel in standing against banality and coarseness and disregard for others, against sarcasm and crudeness and vicious attack in speech; and in standing for building one another up, elevating one another in our words and behavior, honoring one another in our humor and our clothing and our community life – so that in everything we may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
Neil Neilson is a Ruling Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He is the President of Covenant College (PCA) in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. This article first appeared in
The President’s Blog at www.covenant.edu and is used with permission.
Subscribe to Free “Top 10 Stories” Email
Get the top 10 stories from The Aquila Report in your inbox every Tuesday morning.