Titus 3:15

Titus 3:15 (ESV)

All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.

 

“All who are with me” would be Paul’s traveling companions. They are Titus’s colleagues sending him greetings. These are the guys that Titus would know from his travels with Paul. They all trained together and did ministry together under Paul’s leadership. There is something about doing ministry together that unites people. It creates a common bond. Building a church together creates unity. Serving a meal together develops relationship. Cleaning or decorating the church together provides camaraderie. Traveling to another state, or another country to serve together for a short time develops fellowship. Sometimes working together causes us to see each other’s faults better, but it also helps us see past their faults. When we pray together, plan together, and serve together we are functioning as the church was intended to function.

 

“Those who love us in the faith” would refer to believers in Crete. They likely do not know Paul well. From all we know, he never spent much time there. But there is a common faith that they share. There are people that we have had come through our doors; who have ministered to us. I think of missionaries that we support. We don’t see them often. Thanks to modern technology, we hear from them more often than in times past. We can even have live video chats with them, but even with that, we don’t know them well. Still, we share a common faith. We love them and their ministry, and we look forward to the time when we can be together with them again. That’s what Paul is talking about here when he greets “those who love us in the faith.”

 

Paul’s closing words, though, are perhaps most significant. “Grace be with you all.” Is the “all” a reference to a broader group than “those who love us in the faith?”  I’m not sure. It is a broad statement. What I do know is that with that simple statement Paul is praying that the grace of God would rest upon each individual. Without the grace of God, we are nothing. Without the grace of God, we are lost. It reminds me of a quote from Shakespeare. “Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this sun of York.” But of course, Shakespeare was speaking metaphorically, not literally. He used the word sun, S-U-N, but he was referring to the S-O-N of York. But for believers, it is not the S-U-N or the S-O-N of York that moves us from a winter of discontent into a glorious summer. It is the S-O-N of God.  It is the grace of God through the Son of God that brings meaning, purpose, rest, and peace to our lives. Without grace we have nothing, and we are nothing. By the grace of God, we are forgiven. By the grace of God, we have life. By the grace of God, we are empowered to live lives of grace and peace. By the grace of God, we can extend grace to others, speak grace toward others, and live grace with others. The unity of ministry and the love of a common faith is only by the grace of God. If we attempt to build it on any other foundation, it all comes crashing down like a sand castle in a rain storm built on a foundation of sand. We are dependent on the grace of God. “Grace be with you all.”