In | Workbook: Secrecy, Ethical Teachings and Church Membership

Grab your Workbook Journal!

[Record your answers in the workbook provided at the beginning of this course.]

By the time the Pastoral Epistles were written, Paul had seen enough bad behavior from Christian leaders and churches for him to be deeply concerned over their commitment to look and act like the body of Christ. This concern is the driving message of these letters—that Christians not only claim their salvation but also live in Christ and the Spirit, “so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” (Titus 2:10 NIV).

At this point in history, the identity of the Church was not defined by doctrinal statements but by the life of local churches and the values they appeared to project. These churches were open to new members, but there was still a great deal of mystery surrounding the beliefs of Christians. In many cases, basic Christian teaching that might belong to a catechism today was not made available to new believers. This teaching would only be introduced after a believer had been baptized, which sometimes only happened after a period of years. 

In many cases, those who were not baptized were welcome to attend church services but would not be allowed to stay for the entirety of the service. When it came time to take the Eucharist they would be asked to leave, and only once they had left would those baptized believers, who had been “buried and resurrected with Christ,” partake of His Body and Blood at the table. This is all to say that the evangelical mission of the church depended heavily on the way that it lived and presented itself in society. We get a pretty clear picture from Paul in his Pastoral Letters that this was an ongoing issue, and that even right teaching was often a problem.

Reference: Walter L. Liefield, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, 1999, pp. 33-38.

4. The Greek word for “piety” or “godliness”—eusebeia—only appears fifteen times in the New Testament. Ten of the fifteen uses of this word appear in these three short letters. Use YouVersion to run a search for the terms “piety” and “godliness,” and briefly summarize the way Paul uses them in the pastoral letters.

5. Reflect on Paul’s message in the context of early church secrecy and the importance of presenting the gospel in the life of the church body and its members at a time when church creeds and doctrines would have been unavailable to outsiders.