Monday • 9/19/2022 • pastorals_06
Today’s is the sixth of ten devotionals that treat Paul’s last three letters — those to his ministry proteges, Timothy and Titus. Last week, in the first three devotionals on the so-called Pastoral Epistles, 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus, we saw how God overcomes our lack of faith, hope, and love. Following those three meditations are four devotionals in which we show how God builds into us basic building blocks of human flourishing: godliness and temperance (which we treated last Thursday and Friday), and justice and courage (which we treat today and tomorrow). Finally, in the last three devotionals of this special series on the Pastorals, we will see how Paul inspires us to faith, hope, and love.
An audio or video version of this devotional can be found here: Apple Podcast, Spotify Podcast, YouTube
“Let justice roll down…!” There may be nothing more primal than the cry: “Let justice roll down!” There may be nothing more basic to the question of how people live together than that of “justice,” in other words, of making things right. From the playground (“Mommy, Johnny took my toy!) to the #MeToo movement. From caged children on our border to students with bloated college loans.
So important was the question of justice that Greeks wondered which came first, the gods’ decrees, or justice? Did the gods’ decrees establish justice, or did preexisting justice dictate the gods’ decrees? Hebrew prophets railed against prioritizing ritual sacrifice over social and person-to-person justice. Early Christian theologian Athanasius opined that the fall of humankind made it virtually necessary that God formulate a plan of redemption, because it would have been unjust for Him to surrender His creation to the devil.
Throughout his correspondence, the apostle Paul shows himself to be keenly attuned to matters of justice, both divine and human. In one of his most elevated paragraphs (Romans 3:21-26) he celebrates the setting forth of Christ as covering for sin (hilastērion), the place where God’s demand for justice is satisfied. Paul realizes, perhaps in a way that he never could have pre-Christ, that all the sacrifices offered from Moses to Christ — all the blood spilled out, all the whole burnt offerings lit up, all the scapegoats sent out — all these had simply amounted to a “passing over of former sins.” They had never satisfied God’s demand for justice against our sins.
Upon meeting Christ, Paul realizes this: now that the penalty for sin has been paid in full, God can “square” us without merely shrugging his shoulders: “boys will be boys” … “to err is human, to forgive divine.” No, that Christ is hilastērion means a just God can declare guilty sinners to be just, and still look himself in the mirror.
Accordingly, Paul laces his earlier writings with instructions on how believers may live lives-made-just, tinged with the mercy they had received at the cross of Christ. Christ-followers are to outdo one another in bestowing honor (Romans 12:10). Paul wants Gentiles to exchange the abundance of their wealth for the abundance of Jewish prayers and thanksgiving (2 Corinthians 8 and 9). He wants fellow congregants to work out legal disputes among themselves without resorting to the courts, even if it means voluntarily forgoing one’s rights (1 Corinthians 6). He wants husbands and wives to do the right thing by one another even in the bedroom (1 Corinthians 7). He expects believers, as citizens, to honor rulers and pay taxes (Romans 13).
Several aspects of Paul’s approach to justice come into full relief in the Pastoral Epistles — which, I think, is fitting, since these are his legacy letters.
God is just and justifier. God remains, for Paul, a “just Judge” (2 Timothy 4:8) who “justifies” his Son at the cross and in his resurrection (1 Timothy 3:16). Then God graciously saves and “justifies” us not by virtue of any “justice” or “justification” we have provided (Titus 3:5–7).
Prayers for just rule. In Romans, Paul says to honor rulers and pay taxes. In the Pastorals, he goes further. He says to pray for authorities, so that we might live in a climate of peace (1 Timothy 2:1–7).
Note: he does not say pray to authorities, but pray for them. Contrary to a mid-1st century B.C. inscription in Ephesus, Julius Caesar is not “God manifest and savior.” Jesus is! And contrary to the early 1st century A.D. proclamation from the same region, Caesar Augustus’s birthday is not the “beginning of good news (euangelion) for the world.”* Jesus’s birthday is the beginning of good news for the world! Paul does not have messianic expectations of governing authorities; thus, it’s not about praying to them. Nor does he encourage cynicism toward those authorities; thus, it’s praying for them, that they might create a climate for human flourishing and gospel-advancement.
Readiness to participate in civic life. In Titus 3:1–2, Paul goes even a step further. Here he urges, not mere passive obedience to authorities above us, but active engagement in the political process itself. In the context of civic responsibility, Paul calls upon us to be not only obedient, but also “ready for every good work.” Those are significant words because in Paul’s day, some people who were in a financial and social position to serve their cities were abdicating their (often quite costly!) public responsibilities and heading for the countryside.
Paul says: stay engaged. He goes on to specify how to do so. The word he uses for “be obedient” is probably better rendered here as “be persuadable” (peitharchein) — it means to listen, and to be ready to be convinced! (Even if that’s easier to do when some people are at the microphone, and harder to do when others are at the microphone!). He says that in the public square we are “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show every courtesy to everyone.” My goodness! What a difference we could make if that’s what the world expected of Christians seeking justice in the corridors of power! May it be so!
Be blessed this day.
Reggie Kidd+
Image: Adaptation, Pixabay
* For both of these inscriptions, see Horsley, New Documents 4.