by Peyton Jones: Self-controlled; upright, holy, and disciplined:Together, these make a complete picture. They represent a man whose eyes aren’t darting at every boob job at church, or streaming internet porn behind the office door. In the end, you’re known for being consistent throughout your life because the eyes of God are prized higher than the eyes of man, and you value what those eyes see more than anything else. If you’re into internet porn…get help, get anti-porn software, get rid of the computer. Seriously. I’ll never forget a conversation with a young man who sat in my office. His eyes bulged in disbelief when I told him that the days of a home computer were over for him. I pointed to a scripture verse “better to enter heaven without an internet connection than to be tossed into the flames of hell”. Okay, I took some liberty with that one, but you get the point. It was meant to be blunt, forceful, and drastic. Jesus wasn’t messing around with sin when he was on the cross, and he doesn’t want you messing around with it either. Barna reports that 70% of ministers look at pornography. Don’t be a statistic.

If you continue reading the passage from verse 9 onwards, it’s obvious that Paul is telling them that they need to rebel against the culture that they’re in so that they actually have something to offer the culture. In other words, if I’m addicted to porn, gambling, alcohol, rages, or any other vice, how can I proclaim a gospel of liberation. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed, but if we’re not walking in the liberty of a powerfully Spirit-filled life, we will just be talking at them. To a pagan sin-addicted cesspool society, Paul was able to say that he preached the gospel to them “not only in word, but in a demonstration of the Spirit’s power” as the dominion of sin was crushed by the all powerful Third Person of the Triune God.

To Timothy Paul says almost verbatim what he’s said to Titus, but then adds one more tick box to the “noble task” of eldership.

Not Quarrelsome:

Do you like to argue? Do you read a book and then think you’re an expert? Driscoll describes what he calls a “cage phase” for young ministerial students who start getting ahold of theology. At this phase they should be locked up in a cage because of all the damage that they do in their crusade for “the truth”. Although Jesus had some intense dialogue with the pharisees it wasn’t for a theological point on secondary issues. Isaiah says that “he shall not quarrel in the streets.” He was locked in a life and death struggle with them for their souls. Beware: internet trolls reigned even before the advent of the world wide web. Paul said “Don’t feed them”.

Well, you’ve gone from maggot to private, and enlisted to OCS. If you made it through OCS, jumped through all the hurdles, and completed your required training, then there’s only one thing to say…

Welcome you to the humble yet daunting task of leading a squad of God’s commandos on a jump. They’ll be looking to you, and we trust that you won’t let them down.

Buy Peyton’s newest book “Reaching The Unreached: Becoming Raiders of the Lost Art” over on Amazon.com. You can also download a free chapter and watch a cool trailer for the book HERE or click the image below.

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