Paul wants the churches in Crete and the churches everywhere to consist of God-loving, Gospel-centered, Bible-saturated, holiness-pursuing people. He wants the churches in Crete and the churches everywhere to consist of people like this. That is not what we are when we come to Christ. We're not any of those things. In coming to Christ, we are self-loving, idol-worshipping, sin-clinging, worldliness-pursuing people. And God works a miracle. He makes us, by His grace, a people who were not what they had become in Christ when they first came in their brokenness and emptiness and sin. in desperate need of salvation. Christians are those who have been made new. They are not the same. Their heart wants to glorify God that used to not matter to them, but they've come to know Christ and they know God has made me to know him and to enjoy him forever. And their hearts resound along with the earth. with thanksgiving to God. Their hearts resound with praise to God because they think about all God has saved them from. It is not lost on them. They can think about what they have done recently and over years where God's wrath would be their just deserving penalty and yet Christ has been put forward in our place. Believers are aware of what Christ has saved them from and they are filled with praise to Him. And if you follow Christ and learn His Word and love His people, you'll find that what Paul desires for the churches in Crete are the very things God has begun in us by His Spirit. What Paul wants to see in the people of God, God is producing in the people of God by the Spirit through the Word. So as we learn sound doctrine and as we grow in sound doctrine, we're becoming sound disciples in Christ. Sound doctrine and sound discipleship go together, don't they? We phrased it this way multiple times in our Titus study together. Now, so far in chapter two, Paul has been referring to groups of people. He has separated them by age range and by gender. He has talked about older men, and then older women, and then younger women, and then younger men. And that covers the church. We're surprised then to see a group addressed that's not about a particular gender or an age range. Notice how different this is. It's been older and younger, it's been men and women, and now all of a sudden, people who occupy a particular social standing. Slaves. Slaves, he says. We could call them bondservants or servants. There would be slaves in the first century Roman Empire who came to know Christ. In Titus 1.4, Paul speaks about a common faith, and you know who'd be part of that common faith? Slaves who come to Christ. The common faith is the teaching about Jesus for Jews and Gentiles, males and females, slave or free. It did not exclude people based on the social standing. The gospel says, whoever you are, come to Christ. Whoever you are in the household, you the slave, come to Christ. And these slaves would gather for worship with the church. Now that's something to think about. You have the Jews and Gentiles gathering in household churches, and in the pews, for a matter of speaking, you would have the slaves gathering for worship in Christ in the Christian households. That's amazing. In the Roman Empire, they were viewed so lowly. They would be singing with, and praying with, and rejoicing in Christ together with all the saints. Same standing before God. Heirs of the new heavens and new earth. That's astounding. That turns the worldly evaluation of people right on its head. Because at the cross, we are all leveled. We are brought low by sin. And the slaves are brought up, lifted by grace. in reading the word slaves from the Bible, we're immediately faced with an ethical question, an ethical question that's often raised, first of all, by unbelievers, unbelievers who might not take the Bible seriously at all, but unbelievers aren't the only ones who raise the issue of slavery in the Bible. Christians notice that slavery is mentioned multiple times in the Old and New Testaments. So I think there are at least three challenges with preaching on slaves which we're doing today. Challenge number one is somebody might assume the Bible endorses slavery. By seeing the word here, somebody might assume the Bible endorses slavery. Well, that's a challenge, and we need to respond by knowing not everything the Bible records it endorses. There is narration of and storytelling of multiple things that the Bible's not endorsing, but for the sake of what was going on in the centuries before Christ and even after Christ, you have the reality of slavery depicted. There is nowhere in the Bible that endorses the owning of a human being by another human being. But a second challenge exists. Somebody might assume, well, if the Bible maybe doesn't endorse slavery, it never challenges slavery. Somebody might assume that it never challenges slavery and that bothers them. Why can't we find this verse that says, thou shalt not have slaves. But I want you to notice Exodus 21 16. We looked at this when we were looking in the book of Exodus together. And this was a part of the text on Sunday mornings when we were looking at the laws to Moses for the Israelites that were after the 10 commandments. Exodus 21 16 says, whoever steals a man and sells him. And anyone found in possession of him shall be put to death. Because involuntary service is prohibited. You could not go to another human being and force them into labor. You could not sell them. You did not own them. Exodus 21 16 has no tolerance for the kind of slavery in our recent history, chattel slavery that occurred centuries ago when people were taken captive from Africa. The Bible actually challenges that whole enterprise. There's no tolerance of the Bible for that, no permissive room or loophole. In fact, Exodus 21, 16 is one of multiple verses to bring to bear to say that kind of worldview of condescension and demeaning approach toward fellow image bearers is not something the Bible endorses and outright rejects. When you look at the New Testament, I think you'll also notice that the biblical authors are sowing the seeds of slavery's demise. The biblical authors are sowing the seeds of slavery's demise. They esteem image bearers. They esteem women in the ancient world. They esteem children in the ancient world. They esteem slaves in the ancient world. The social and gender categories that people would break down others into from the world's perspective in terms of worth and value and status, that is not how the Bible treats people. The Bible treats people with an inherent dignity. No matter their status in society, no matter their skin color, no matter the country they're from, this is a human image bearer. The Bible brings to bear on our understanding about people a worldview of seeing the dignity of every human life. So both a theological framework, a biblical worldview about people, and also isolated verses as well, such as Exodus 21-16, we should not assume the Bible doesn't challenge slavery. From multiple angles, it does. Thirdly, third challenge, someone might assume that a passage like this is not relevant to a culture without slavery. But there are modern day challenges or modern day analogies rather that I think will help apply this passage. You see New Testament commentaries and scholars often appealing to the employer slash employee relationship. Because this was a case of contractual labor for someone else that you were performing work and labor on behalf of. And there were goods and money and wages in return, including housing and other benefits. And so there actually is modern-day relevance to the idea of the slave master language. And you might apply that to employee-employer language. More on that in a minute. There are also places in Paul's letters which explicitly address slaves. Here's some instructions for them. But in Ephesians 6 and in Colossians 3, the slaves are addressed along with the other members of the Christian household. That's because a slave in Christ is a member of the household of Christ. And when Paul writes a letter, there is no one excluded, including those that from the world's perspective might not have the kind of value that a free man might. When the gospel is proclaimed to households and people begin following Jesus, members of households included slaves and were not surprised that slaves within households had faith in Christ as well. Paul wanted everyone to follow him. And even if you were in a set of undesirable circumstances, or because life was especially difficult for you, did Paul say, well, there's no good news for you then. My goodness, you're in these circumstances. Too bad your social status is like this. When it changes, let me know. I've got a gospel for you. No, instead, this gospel was relevant for everybody, no matter who in society they were or how they stood in relation to others. Paul wanted everyone to follow Christ, even in their difficulty. And so not long before writing to Titus, Paul wrote a letter to Timothy, 1 Timothy. And in 1 Timothy 6, Paul speaks about slaves who should conduct themselves in God-honoring ways. And Paul also has an entire book in the New Testament that's filled with the subject of a slave. You ever heard of the letter of Philemon? The letter of Philemon is written concerning a man named Onesimus, who was a slave. Paul is not the only person who addresses slaves. Peter does in 1 Peter 2. So the New Testament speaks about this institution, this set of relationships and households in first century Rome. Let's think about verses 9 and 10 together with that introduction. Verse 9 begins with a call to be submissive. a call to be submissive. Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything. It isn't easy for us to hear about slavery without thinking about the race-based slavery in our recent history generations ago. But hear me now, there are significant differences between the kind of involuntary forced labor and kidnapping of people from Africa and taking them to North America and elsewhere. This is a different kind of enslavement. For example, slaves were slaves for various reasons, not based on race. This is a significant distinction. Slaves were sometimes born to slave parents. Some were captured in war. Others volunteered for slavery. This happened all the time. Why might somebody do that? Because in that world, becoming a worker in somebody's household and agreeing to perform labor and service for them would, in return, guarantee you food and shelter and wages. This was a big deal. So you could face great economic hardship that actually going into slavery for a season could give you great relief from. You could also, second distinction, notice that slaves would perform many jobs that would include being managers of households, teachers, artisans and craftsmen, musicians, some were doctors, some slaves were more educated than the household owners. This was a very significant facet of this labor institution in the ancient world. Third, slaves could be easily freed. They could purchase their freedom. The master could free them. They could complete their labor and go elsewhere or go do other jobs. It was a procedure called manumission, which was about their liberation. In fact, Paul actually says in 1 Corinthians 7, that if a slave could become free, that's a better status to pursue and therefore he should. Fourth, slaves could face great opposition if they converted without their masters being converted. In other words, if they're working for the household owner and the slave becomes a convert, what do you do there when maybe not everybody in the household has become a convert? So Paul wants to speak about slaves and to slaves in his letters. to help them live for Christ when maybe not everybody in their household loved Jesus. Maybe others in the household were avid idol worshipers. Maybe they were totally immoral. What is the slave to do and to be like? It's more than troubled a few people that the Bible nowhere says you shall not own slaves. But that should not trouble us with the absence of that kind of explicit language when we realize several truths. Number one, slaves are directly addressed in the Bible, which shows the elevated status in Paul's eyes. For Paul to speak to fathers, for him to speak to wives, for him to speak to children, for him to address slaves all on par with one another is to elevate the status in the letters of slaves with everyone else. This is an implied acknowledgement of moral responsibility. There were those who did use someone with the status of a slave to be less than a full person. You won't get that from the New Testament though. Paul treats slaves as fully responsible moral beings and image bearers along with anyone else in the society. In fact, he says in Galatians 3.28, that in Christ, there is neither slave nor free. You are in Christ, and that is your fundamental core identity as a Christian. Secondly, when Onesimus was returning to his master Philemon, Paul said to Philemon, you need to receive Onesimus back, no longer as a slave, but as a brother in Christ. Because Onesimus has become a convert, and Paul is sending Onesimus back as a believer, and he doesn't want Onesimus to remain a slave. Think about the seeds that Paul is sowing there against the institution. Thirdly, Paul wrote that slaves should gain their freedom when the opportunity presented itself in 1 Corinthians 7.21. If we have abiding concerns about slavery in the New Testament era and the church's perhaps lack of explicit verses other than what I've shared with you by implication in a larger pattern of treating people with elevated status, consider what the primary mission of the early church was. The primary mission of the early church was being conducted under a dictatorship. under the Roman Empire. The early church, beginning with few in number, first hundreds and then thousands, was not about to overthrow an age-old institution of slavery while trying to get the gospel out. The Roman Empire would have destroyed them. Thinking very strategically, the mission of the gospel going out no matter the evils and wickedness that men continue to perpetuate in the world, Paul knows that the good news of the gospel trumps all of that, and the Lord can work through even Roman dictatorships. Even Paul's imprisonment in Rome in Philippi, Paul says, I'm here for the furtherance of the gospel. Paul wanted believers to realize wherever they are, they have been deployed by God for the sake of the gospel. Even if from a world's perspective, somebody says, well, that just seems like, you know, a terrible, you know, I wish that this could change. And I wish those circumstances would be different. Paul says, how might we wield where we are for the sake of Christ? How might we be faithfully representing him and testifying of him for the sake of the gospel? So if Christians were perceived as rebels against Rome, Rome would have dropped the hammer flat on them, as one writer put it. So the New Testament letters encourage believers to not engage in rebellion against the governing authorities, but he gives them moral responsibility and duties to act for Christ and on behalf of the gospel where they are. So the slaves, he says in verse 9, are to be submissive to their own masters in everything. The labor and the commitment here is not for every household. Who's the slave submitting to? Their own masters. There might be household owners who have other servants. Those other household owners are not that slave's responsibility. It's to his own master, and look how comprehensive it is, submit in everything. This would not include, obviously, a submission to what was wrong, a submission to something dishonoring to God. Like Acts 5.29 says, they should obey God rather than man when it comes to submitting to men that would be disobedient to God. No. Submission within the household, if it ever meant disobedience to God, the slave's allegiance to God must be paramount. When Paul gives instructions for God's people, he always has the glory of God and the beauty of the gospel in view. And if slaves became disrespectful to their masters, if they came to Christ and their work became shoddy and unfaithful, what if the others in the household concluded that the thing wrong is the gospel? that the problem here and the reason for all the disrespect and the unfaithfulness and the lack of reliability is they've come to know Christ. This would bring revilement and blasphemy upon the gospel. So Paul has the clarity and beauty of the gospel in view when he says, I want you to conduct yourselves in the following way in the household. Now, I think what we've just looked at with the call to be submissive is a kind of banner under which four examples of faithful living will now follow. in the rest of verse 9 and into verse 10. Four examples of faithful living. What would it look like for them to be submissive? First of all, he says they are to be well-pleasing. This is an example of being submissive in everything. Be well-pleasing. This means that whatever their skills are and whatever their responsibilities are, they needed to try to perform their work in a satisfying way. The slaves would be administrators or teachers, they could be physicians, they could be farmers, they could be craftsmen, all kinds of different trades and all kinds of different roles. This means that they should want the masters to be satisfied. If there's been an agreed-upon time, an agreed-upon set of labor and work, the slaves should strive to complete those tasks accordingly. Secondly, they are to be not argumentative. The idea here is, don't talk back. Well, apparently, this was very tempting. And so Paul says, I want you to tell the slaves on the island of Crete, as you're going and dealing with churches and combating false teaching and appointing elders, I want you to tell the slaves to be well-pleasing and not argumentative. Would backtalk and being argumentative be in the slaves' best interest? Probably not. It would actually provoke the master unnecessarily, most certainly. He's calling the slaves here, I think, to be self-controlled. Let's put the banner out there of self-control once more. That's consistent with what he called older women to do, chapter two, three, not to be slanderers or slaves of much wine. They're to exercise self-control. In chapter two, he also said that the older men, in verse two, are to be self-controlled. The young women in chapter two, five, and the young men in two, six, self-control. This means self-control even if you were a slave. And a chief way, let's put it this way, a chief way we demonstrate self-control is by not saying everything we feel like saying. One way we demonstrate self-control is by not saying everything we feel like saying. So here's a slave that might be in a situation where he feels like arguing with or contradicting the master that could aggravate the situation or cause tension. Paul says, I know what you might be thinking inwardly, I want you to not be argumentative. I want you to control yourself so that your words will not make the situation worse, but instead your speech and conduct might facilitate conversations about the gospel. It would not bring revilement or blasphemy upon the good news of Christ. Thirdly, not pilfering. This is verse 10. The third example of faithful living and being submissive and everything is not pilfering. I don't use this word. Pilfer means to steal. But to pilfer something, it's a specific kind of stealing. To pilfer something means to steal something in small quantities. Just to take a little bit. This is not a grand heist. This is something small. The slave would typically have stewardship over various aspects of the household, including material goods and money, the financial affairs of household owners, were often associated in some way with their servants. In other words, they were entrusted and trusted for buying food, caring for materials and finances. There was plenty of opportunity to skim a little off the top. That's the idea here. Don't pilfer, he says. Maybe the slave would think, well, it's just some small quantities. Nobody's even going to know. It's not going to be missed. And so they begin to justify a habit of pilfering. Maybe they just resented some of their responsibilities. I don't want to do this. And so with a heart that feels retaliatory, they think, well, in order to kind of get back at this master, he won't even know. I'm going to take a little bit more than I should. And they enjoy a private thrill of taking something without someone's knowing. Paul doesn't want the slaves to engage in stealing. in any quantities. Pilfering here identifies that the small quantities of things that are taken are not to be something the slave seeks to justify. Certainly nothing on a grand scale, but if something doesn't belong to the slave, why would he seize it as if it did? Instead, he should be faithful, which is what the fourth example is by but showing all good faith there at the end of verse or into verse 10, still showing all good faith. The slaves should speak and conduct themselves in a manner that showed they are trustworthy, dependable and responsible. They were to behave with goodwill toward the household. Even if they felt one way inwardly, they were not to retaliate and not to be argumentative. They were to show themselves as those saved by Christ and seeking to testify of the good news of Christ in their manner of living. Paul realizes something. We can profess to know Christ, and yet something in our manner of speech and life be a flag that causes others to say, well, wait a second, though. If you're following Christ, why are you justifying this behavior, this trajectory of life, this habit, this pursuit? Wouldn't it be more in step with the gospel if you didn't have this, or if you pursued this instead? Paul's wanting the slaves to keep in step with the gospel, wherever they are. Here's the purpose at the end of verse 10. It's so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. Here's the motive then. The word doctrine here means teachings about something. Adorning the teachings about God our Savior. The teachings about God our Savior that are paramount in Paul's mind is the gospel. It's the declaration of God's saving act in Christ. It's the word, the message that's been trusted to the church and the church is to be stewards of and the elders are to guard and defend against false teaching. It is the gospel that they are to grow in and the depths of and the heights of and the breadth of to be what consumes and overwhelms the Saint for all our days. It is to be the thing we are rooted in and then walk and step with in manner of life. That in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. The Christian is someone who's come to know and embrace the Bible's teachings about God. The Christian loves and believes the Bible's teachings about Christ. And a Christian is someone who submitted to the Lordship of Jesus. It's not just a matter of whether you believe Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead. I'm saying to you that a Christian is someone who believes those things and submits to the Lordship of Jesus, submits to the Lordship of Jesus. And Jesus is Lord over everything. So when he says that in everything they may adorn the doctrine, why such a broad statement? Why in everything? Because that's how vast the Lordship of Christ is. And therefore, our manner of life must keep in step with the scope of His Lordship. And He's Lord of all. And that means no aspect of our life is excluded here. No area of our life is blocked off. All that we do, we do before the God who sees us, the God who is holy. So despite the social status of the slave, the attitude and the work ethic of the slave can adorn the gospel. Adorn the gospel. That means to make the gospel attractive. Does that seem like an odd concept at first, to make the gospel attractive? Now the gospel has a power when proclaimed. but our credibility to be sharers of the gospel and facilitate conversations of the gospel, that facilitation and conversations can be harmed by our carelessness, our offensiveness. The gospel's offensive enough. The gospel levels sinners and says, you cannot save yourselves and you're condemned before a holy God. You need to turn from sin, believe with your heart in Jesus, turn from evil and wickedness and walk in obedience before God who welcomes you by his grace. This is a gospel that calls sinners to humble themselves before God. Trusting God and coming to Christ is not an act of pride, it's an act of humility. And so the gospel is ready with a mighty sword to slay the pride of man and say, you must come humbly before your God who will receive you by your grace. But if you are righteous in your thoughts and in and of yourself, thinking you do not need God, there is no hope for you in that mindset. The broken and contrite, oh, he will receive them every time. He has never turned them away. He will welcome the broken in contract, the repentant, the humble, the trusting. He says, you come to me. But those who think they're healthy, they don't go to the doctor, Jesus says, I've come for those who realize they're sick and the great physician, and if they don't come to me because they think they're OK, well. So Paul knows that we, by our conduct and words, we can portray the news of the gospel in a certain way. We can beautify it or uglify it. I looked that word up yesterday. Is uglify a word? I thought I coined it. It was already a word. It's in a dictionary somewhere. You can beautify the gospel or you can uglify the gospel by the way you live. And I wonder if you consider what your priorities are and what you're treasuring in your heart, if others would look at your life and say, the good news this person believes, I know they believe it. Look at how they conduct themselves. Look at what they pursue. Look at their faithfulness. Look at the way they're turning from this or that. They're willing to say yes to what pleases God, no to what displeases God. They live for Christ. Christ is their treasure. Friend, let's not add extra offense by selfishness and by carelessness. Paul wants the Christian slaves to be marked by devotion to Christ, and devotion to Christ adorns the gospel. That's a great thing. Now, the gospel is a powerful message. He just means let's, with our lives, make that message clear in the way we live to other people. Let's not add additional confusion or fogginess. By adorning the gospel, the slave is making it attractive. In other words, by their work ethic and by their trust and by their perseverance and trials, perhaps somebody might say to them, what is it about you? Initially, they might've been hostile, but if they see faithfulness and endurance, they might say, what's going on? Why is it that you don't retaliate? Why is it that you pursue peace? What is it? I like that you're so faithful. I like that you're so hardworking. Why do you do what you do? And the Christian slave would be able to draw attention then to the gospel. They're living as salt and light in the household. Now we might think in general senses, yes, as Christians, we're called to be salt and light in the world. But let's practically realize that means wherever we are, and that includes our households. Salt and light, where we are. with our roommates and with our families, among our coworkers and with our neighbors, salt and light, on the ground, in relationships with other people. The news of the gospel is already good, and your life is either helping that goodness be clear, or your life is bringing confusion upon that gospel, because with your words you profess him, but by your life you deny him. And that's terribly confusing for people. Paul warned about this with the false teachers, Titus 1.16. They professed to know God, but they deny him by their works. They're detestable, disobedient, unfit. Here's what I think he means for the slaves. Oh, slaves, let them profess to know God and let them demonstrate that by their works. Let them not deny their profession by their works. Let the fruit confirm their faith. There is a danger here. Let's identify a misunderstanding that's very popular. This idea in verse 10, and I mean the motive that he identifies, adorning the gospel. This can sometimes be lumped into an unhelpful phrase that's sometimes wrongly attributed to Francis of Assisi, a phrase that says, preach the gospel wherever you go, and if necessary, use words. Now, I have a lot of problems with that phrase. It sounds good on the surface, but the gospel is news, and news must be proclaimed. Think about that phrase, which Francis never said, but the expression, preach the gospel everywhere you go, and if necessary, use words. The meaning behind that is, let's make sure we're obeying Christ in our life. Well, let's fully affirm that. It's the last part. The last part that if necessary, use words. What do we mean? This is news we're talking about. Is somebody gonna look at the way I'm living and all of a sudden understand exactly who the person of Christ is, what he's come to do, what the cross means? I have to tell them that. And you have to tell them that. They don't look at the way you're living and say, ah, I understand sound doctrine now. I'm just looking at the way you're working well and your work ethic and your faithfulness. I understand you've preached the gospel by your life and you didn't have to use words to do it. Friend, you have to use words to do it. You got to talk and you got to speak with people and you got to talk about sin and what God has done in Christ. That statement, preach the gospel everywhere you go. And if necessary, use words. It's well-meaning, but it's not sound. It's not sound. multiple issues with it. What Paul is saying is let our life be in step with the gospel we are professing, so that when we're drawing attention to our lives, when we are making the gospel attractive or beautifying it, when we can then have facilitated conversations, we use words to say, let me explain to you why my life is devoted to Jesus Christ. I want to tell you about him. Let me tell you what he's done. Let me tell you why God sent him. Let's think about some Bible verses together. Here are things that are upon my heart. And therefore you got to use words. The objective in verse 10 is to maintain a faithful testimony in a difficult situation. Now I think we can make applications about household labor to employees and relationships like that in our culture. Can't we see Paul saying this to employees nowadays saying you ought to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering and showing all good faith. Now, you might not have had to necessarily sign a document with those words when you got a job or in your interview, they covered those things, but this is a good practice as believers to recognize in our vocations, in our occupations, we're performing work for people. We're engaging in service, we're engaging in labor. How might we all do it? Well, how about showing yourself an example of being well-pleasing, non-argumentative, not pilfering and showing all good faith? That's a good way to think about working for a company. I mean this as strongly as I'm going to say it. Christians should be the best employees that a company has. Christians should be the best employees that a company has. There ought to be nobody that's more hardworking, dependable and responsible than the believers who work there. Why? because your devotion ultimately is to Christ and you want to live a life and conduct yourself in truthfulness and in faithfulness on the agreed upon labor. And you don't want to bring any unnecessary charge against the gospel because you profess to know him, but in some way that you conduct and speak at work, you're calling into question your testimony. Christians ought to be the best employees that a company has. When you go to work, you should consider what motivates you above all. And if money is all that motivates you, then you might work with less devotion and faithfulness if you're not paid what you think you should be. If impressing others is what motivates you, then you might compromise your work ethic when no one else is looking. If being respected by others matters most to you, then you'll be less motivated when you feel disrespected and unappreciated. The work ethic of the believer must ultimately be based in our allegiance to Jesus Christ, who is our heavenly master. We have something greater than an earthly employee. We have a Lord to whom we are accountable, before whom we live and move and have our being, and he loves us, and our devotion to him should be expressed in our devotion to our work in an earthly sense. Our work ethic must be ultimately based on our allegiance to Jesus Christ. This also means we should avoid workplace sin. We should avoid slandering at the workplace, even if that's what everyone else is doing. Friend, living as a believer means not doing what everybody else is doing. It means living distinctly, speaking distinctly, conducting yourself distinctly in a world that all looks alike, dead in their transgressions. How else are you going to see light and salt? The whole point of the believer is that you are not living like or worshiping like everybody else. God's done a work of mercy in you. You think that changes when you walk into your company doorway? It shouldn't. It shouldn't. You're a believer wherever you go. Christ is Lord of all. We should avoid workplace gossip. We should avoid condescending attitudes. We should avoid slandering others, speaking about their work ethics or demeanors or attitudes in ways that are condescending simply because others might be doing it. Do you speak and conduct yourself at your job in a way that keeps in step with the gospel? That's what Paul wants for you. That in everything you would do this. In everything. Why? Because Christ is Lord of all. So there's no area off limits to His Lordship. Did you notice at the very end of verse 10 that the teaching about God has a little phrase at the end? I love this. He doesn't just say adorning the doctrine of God. It's the doctrine of God, our Savior. That's a great line in Titus. It's used a few times in Titus 1.3. God is called our Savior. Chapter 2.10. Here he's called our Savior. Chapter 2.13, Paul calls in that verse God, our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. In chapter 3.4, it's used again, God our Savior. I'll tell you what seems to animate Paul a lot in his writing with Titus, that God has done a rescuing work on sinners. The life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus means God is a particular thing for all who come to him. He's our savior. You know what Paul didn't say? The doctrine of God, our enemy, or the doctrine of God, our judge, God, our savior. That's a great term because the Christian life is the life that's experienced the salvation of God. And he's not just my savior individually, he's the savior of the people. So when God has redeemed us and saved us, he's brought us into fellowship, not only with his own son. but with the people of God redeemed. We are the delivered and the redeemed, and God is our Savior. And Cosmos, still listen to me. When we come to this church and we leave these doors, we're going out into a world where we are called to be salt and light here in Louisville, and we are to adorn the doctrine, beautify the doctrine of God, our Savior. We sing about Him being this for us. He's done this amazing work in Christ. We've been gathered together into everlasting life, and His grace came for us. when we wanted nothing to do with Him, when we didn't love Him and we didn't worship Him, His grace came for us and He's God our Savior. Our sins were many and our enslavement was deep. How could He do such a great work when we have such great sin? Puritan Richard Sibbes has it right. It's because there is more mercy in Christ than there is sin in us. We come with all of our iniquity to a God of even greater mercy, and he has become our savior. And in light of that, friends, let's walk in devotion to him and in neighbor love wherever our lives take us, including our workplaces, beautifying the gospel that we profess and love so dearly.