We recently got an email that adornthegospel.com has passed 100,000 views! That’s really not much in the blogosphere, especially after 7 years, but it meant a lot to us. To celebrate, here are some more thoughts on the inspiration for this website, Titus 2:10:
Many of us have bought jewelry in a store before, whether that was a gift for yourself, your mom, a sister, or if you’re like me, I spent four hours in a large diamond store before I chose a ring to propose to my wife Sarah. I wanted to pick the perfect one, but I was also 20 years old, on a coffee shop manager’s budget. I think I was able to barter the price down to 40% off just because they wanted to make a sale and not have wasted their time with this kid who just spent 4 hours in their store.
But if you’ve spent time in a jewelry store, what you remember is usually the jewelry itself, and that’s on purpose. However, the jewelry is always displayed in a very special way. Diamonds are often displayed on a black velvet background to contrast the brightness and beauty of the diamond. Darker jewelry like sapphires might be on white silk. They are propped up beautifully, under crystal clear glass display cases, which is constantly cleaned of fingerprints from customers pointing at the jewelry. It’s clean and bright so you can look without hindrance. The most important thing in a jewelry store is the jewelry, but the fact is, not many people are going to buy it if it’s hard to see, or if it’s lying on a dirty display or under smudged and blurry glass. That’s an example of neglect.
There’s also the opposite issue of doing too much. The jewelry itself might go unnoticed if the store tries too hard to attract attention—imagine a jewelry shop with a petting zoo in the middle, a magic show by the entrance, and a concert in the back. They might draw a crowd that completely misses the point: the treasure inside.
So what does this have to do with God’s Word? Well today as we look at the book of Titus, the key verse we’re looking at today is Titus 2:10 and the main idea I want to communicate is this:
God’s Word and the gospel message is a powerful treasure that we can make more attractive to others by how we live.
The book of Titus is actually a letter from the Apostle Paul to his pupil Titus. Titus was the pastor Paul appointed to shepherd and lead the Christians on the Island of Crete.
The context around this particular verse is that the Apostle Paul is speaking to Titus on how to instruct Christian bondservants or slaves in how they should conduct themselves with their masters. How he said they should conduct themselves is really an example for all of us.
He says they should be, “showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” (Titus 2:10)
Listen to how the MSG paraphrases this verse:
“Guide slaves into being loyal workers, a bonus to their masters—no back talk, no petty thievery. Then their good character will shine through their actions, adding luster to the teaching of our Savior God.” MSG
Or the NIV: “make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.”
As a side note, some might wonder why Paul didn’t in the same breath tell all slave master’s, “hey, by the way, also set all your slaves free because that’s wrong, man.” Well it’s good to note here that the main goal of the Apostles was the spread of the gospel. Their main goal was not to end slavery. But also by focusing on the gospel, they did both things. The spread of the gospel not only saved souls for eternity, it has played a critical role in ending of slavery across the world ever since, because of the gospel-believing people who led the way. That’s the power of the life-transforming, freedom-giving grace of the gospel.
Paul was telling these Christians to show their faith instead of arguing or stealing. So we show our faith by doing right in everything we do. That’s how we make the gospel attractive.
Now, we read that phrase, “the doctrine of God our savior” and we can easily skip over that. What is the doctrine of God our savior? That’s a mouthful. Well, “doctrine” means teaching. But what do we as Christians all across the world unite on teaching about God our savior? It’s this:
God made the world good (Genesis 1:31) and created mankind upright and good in his heart (Ecclesiastes 7:29). But we have all turned away and broken God’s laws (Isaiah 53:6). As a good and holy Judge, God requires perfect obedience (Galatians 3:10; James 2:10). But all of us have sinned (Romans 3:23) and we continue to sin (that’s clear from 1 John 1:8), so without a miracle of some kind, our verdict from the heavenly courtroom is guilty, and the sentence is eternal death (Romans 6:23). The good news is that God had mercy. Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully man, lived the sinless life we couldn’t and died on the cross to pay the fine for our sins. He rose from the dead, proving his authority and defeating death, so that all who turn and trust in him alone, not in our own goodness, will be raised to eternal life with him (Philippians 3:8–11).
Now, what could be more beautiful than that? That’s the gospel. And Christians who have heard that a hundred times don’t get bored of it because that message is our lifeline.
How could we ever think we could make that more attractive? You may be thinking, of course we know that we should make the gospel attractive. But let’s hang out here a second.
The gospel itself is what the Bible says is the power of God, we know that from 1 Corinthians 1:18 and Romans 1:16. Both of those verses explain that the power to save souls comes from hearing that message by God’s grace through faith.
So can we decorate something that’s already divine?
Isn’t that like trying to shine up a gem that’s already perfectly shiny?
Well we have this verse in Titus telling us to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
It’s worth underscoring, that we can’t improve upon the power of the gospel itself. It’s a gem that is perfectly shiny and attractive on its own. It’s the main attraction.
And we know this from many other passages that God Himself is the one moving and drawing men and women to himself every day by a miracle of His grace.
So verses like these in Titus remind us how God draws people to Himself: He uses us, the Church, to do it.
God is granting understanding of the gospel message we preach, and God is empowering us to live holy lives, and He does it through His Church.
God is behind it all, so we can always only say, as Galatians 2:20 says and the Hymn we sing reads, quote
“When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat “Yet not I, but through Christ in me“
So having laid that foundation, let’s look closer at this word, “adorn” for a moment, the action we are called to do regarding the gospel.
We named our daughter Adah based on the Adah in Genesis 4, a wife of Lamech and the mother of Jabal and Jubal. But Adah comes from a word meaning decoration, ornament, or adornment.
It was around the same time we named Adah that I began to see every place in the Bible where the word adornment was used, including here in Titus.
κοσμέω (kosmeō) is the actual Greek word being used here which is where we get the word cosmetics or makeup
It also means to adorn, to put in order, to make beautiful, to decorate, to dress.
It’s possible to adorn and decorate the wrong things. In Matthew 23 Jesus used this word kosmeo to describe how the Pharisees like to decorate the tombs of the prophets more than they like to listen to what the prophets said.
In Paul’s first letter to Timothy he uses this word when he writes that “women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control” This is in contrast to how women might adorn themselves with an excess of makeup and jewelry and fine clothes.
So we see that there is a right and wrong way to adorn oneself at least according to what we wear.
Here is another example of where this word is used in a positive way in the Bible, from Revelation chapter 21:
“I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Revelation 21:2)
And then in verse 19, “The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel” (Revelation 21:19)
So I think we can see, there is a good way to adorn.
I’ll never forget that verse in Exodus that says, “And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.” The garments were not primarily for staying warm, they weren’t for getting God’s attention, their purpose was to be beautiful! That’s awesome.
If we look again at our verse in Titus, the context is holy living. And it says here, “in everything” so we’re talking about everything we do that is supposed to make the Christian life and the gospel attractive. But maybe we could end with some practical examples.
When we’re talking about “everything” that’s a wide net, and I think we could all probably think of good ways to love those around us so that the gospel is heard, with kindness and hospitality. I think it’s also wise to consider two extremes we can avoid.
One extreme this verse helps us to avoid is laziness. I think one extreme is thinking that we have no other part to play in sharing the gospel but letting God take care of that for us. There is a way to be lazy about how we live or how we share our faith. Like a shop owner who says, “Hey, it’s the quality gems that matter, not how I display them or how clean the shop is. People are coming for the jewelry after all.” That may be true, but they will soon doubt the quality of the product after looking at the store. Sometimes it’s the simple, seemingly non-spiritual things that really matter in our presentation of the gospel. Like how the genuine kindness is our tone, matters. Being vulnerable and sharing the personal details of our lives. Sharing our experiences and testimonies. How we look people in the eye. If our homes and churches and clothes are generally clean and not in disarray. If our church services are orderly and help people feel generally comfortable. Those are all ways to love people and set up the sharing of the gospel message well.
The other extreme, I think, is to see the gospel is not powerful enough on its own, so we have to do a bunch of things to make it powerful. I think that’s one of the biggest tragedies in Christian culture today. In many of our efforts to make Christianity attractive we’ve actually drowned out the life-saving message of the gospel. If you have to use lots of flashiness, and festivals or other gimmicks to get people to come to church, that’s what you have to use to keep them there. We communicate to those people that we don’t think the Word of God clearly spoken is enough on its own. I’ve seen so many folks worn out trying to bring more of the world to the world. The world does a better job of being world than we do. Really, if people want a good concert or a festival there are much better ones than our churches can provide, because people do those things for a living.
Instead we can spend our efforts bringing what the world can’t bring: a clear presentation of God’s Word, with the faith that shows we truly believe it’s power. The things we do, like being kind and helping our neighbor can’t ultimately save them. God may use that to help lead them to salvation but at some point, they need the gem, which is the gospel message. It’s the main event and the main attraction. Let’s show people we believe that.
I’ll end with a quote by Charles Spurgeon who spoke about how even our suffering can be a way we make the gospel shine. He said:
“When pangs show through our body, and ghastly death appears in view, people see the patience of the dying Christian. Our infirmities become the black velvet on which the diamond of God’s love glitters all the more brightly. Thank God I can suffer, thank God I can be made the object of shame and contempt; for, in this way, God shall be glorified.”
It’s easy to run one way or another with these two truths. Have you wrestled with a) the power of God’s gospel message versus b) the power of how we make it attractive? How has this changed how you share the gospel with others?
Adorn the Gospel 