Titus 1:10-16

Prejudices and ethnic stereotypes are not logical. We tend to believe that they are a modern invention; we are very wrong. Ancient writing credits a sixth-century BC Cretan thinker, Epimenides, as saying, “Cretans are always liars.” Paul referred to this when he quoted a Cretin prophet as saying “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes and lazy gluttons.” Paul was a logical man, and he knew that when he agreed with this saying he was illustrating the logic fallacy behind it. If Epimenides, who was a Cetan, spoke truth when he said that Cretans always lie, then what he said was a lie. I realize this is a brain twister, but Paul had a purpose behind it. He wanted the Cretan Christians to realize they had a reputation because they were Cretan. However, now they were also Christian, and they were going to have to build a Christian reputation. If their Christian reputation was going to be Christlike, then they would have to make an extra ordinary effort to not fulfill the expectations the world had for Cretans.

This placed a responsibility upon the church leadership to watch for areas in which the new Christians were slipping into old lifestyles. Paul said to rebuke them sharply. He did not say that because he liked being harsh; he said that because he understood the powerful hold expectations and traditions have on people.

A husband once told his wife, “I will live up to, or down to your expectations of me.” I believe that is true in many relationships. Father’s act brave in the face of danger because their children are watching and are expecting them to be brave. Mothers sacrifice because their families are expecting them to make everything work out the way it should. Paul wanted Christians to know that God was expecting them to live pure and be pure.

We can never satisfy everyone’s expectations for us; we should not even try. We should be living up to God’s expectations, not down to the world’s stereotypes.