Titus

Humans are creatures of habit. That is not a bad thing; in fact it serves a purpose. Habits help us navigate the everyday events of life with a limited amount of focus. That releases our mental and emotional capacity to deal with those events and actions that require extra effort. Those of us who are autistic have a greater dependence upon habit, but everyone is dependent to some degree or another. The necessity of habits and repetitive actions and processes does not change just because someone becomes a Christian.

Becoming a Christian does give us an added responsibility to evaluate and assess the habits that are a daily part of our life. If a new Christian developed habits, such as being responsible, hard-working and honest in their life as a nonbeliever, those habits should remain and only become stronger in they walk with Jesus. However if a new Christian has habits that involve dishonesty, contention or irresponsibility, then of course, walking with Christ will require them to break their old habits and develop new ones.

Paul left Titus in Crete to appoint leaders and elders in all the churches in the different towns on the island. Titus had to make his decisions about who to appoint from among Christians that were all new to the Christian lifestyle. He had a very difficult task, and Paul wrote him to give him advice. The old habits of the new Christians were not guaranteed predictors because one of the first thing Christ does is help us to break bad habits and form new ones. However breaking and creating habits is time-consuming even with God’s help. Paul recognized and advised that it is not wise to give leadership responsibility to a new Christian who has too many old bad habits and not enough good habits to prepare them for righteous living.

We all come to Christ at different points in our life. That point is closer to righteousness for some than it is others. New Christians do not change spiritual location, they change direction.