¹Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, ²to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.

Repeatedly hearing the truth—that is what we need: over and over, repetition, recurrence, reprising—again and again. The truth of God is not like a book that we read once and then put on the shelf to display to others, never to be read again. No! We need constant reinforcement of what we already know. That is why the Lord said during the Last Supper, “[D]o this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19), and Paul, many years later, reiterated the Lord’s command, “[D]o this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:25). Our Lord did not want us to forget the central truth of His death on the cross for us; we are to repeatedly review that truth in the symbolic breaking of bread and taking the cup. Not just once or twice, but as an ongoing practice. The early church took this seriously and incorporated the Lord’s Supper into a weekly observance, as many churches today do as well.

As he did with Timothy (2 Tim. 2:14), Paul instructs Titus to remind the Christians in Crete of the great truths he had already taught them. His list of reminders is an amalgam, a device Paul also uses toward the end of some of his other letters—a sort of catchall for add-ons that are last-minute, but no less important. Paul repeats what he wrote to the Romans: “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God” (Rom. 13:1). Indeed, that which is hard for us to do, requires more repetition, because the lie of the devil leads to disobedience of every kind—see the temptation in the Garden as the prima facie (that is, the first expression) of this reality. Those of us in a free democratic society struggle with how this applies, yet at its most basic level, Christians should be examples to the world as law-abiding citizens, whose focus is not on outwitting those over us in authority, but on doing those things that make for a peaceful environment.

So Paul writes Titus to remember and remind others that we should live a “doing-good-deeds” kind of life as our default mode of reaction, especially when our freedoms are jeopardized, rather than a knee-jerk reaction. We should never resort to maligning anyone, including our bosses or governmental leaders. We may have our opinions, and we may dislike those above us, but we should be “peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.” In other words, we should be characterized by Christlikeness, not by vehement denunciations.

Lord, help me understand how to be submissive to foolish governing authorities.