Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.  Titus 3:1, 2

This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.  Titus 3:8

The believers in Crete, once much alive in enthusiasm for lifting up Jesus on the island, now, after many years, as is often the case, they found themselves tempted to shift their eyes to peripheral issues that have no importance at all.  I suppose some Judaizers raised questions about ancestry and the Law of Moses.    In any case, I have seen this happen, from a zeal to make Christ known to getting bogged down in what might look like important issues but are quite trivial and should not command our attention or, worse yet, divide us.

Paul keeps coming back to this “Do good.”  He wrote, “Be ready to do whatever is good.”  And “I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.”  The point is, stop nitpicking – do what is good.  “Do” is the key word.  Living in Jesus is a life of doing!  We can dicker on many issues; discuss pros and cons at length, and so forth, but that gets us nowhere.  A deed of kindness is worth a book of disputes.  Our enemy wants us to digress – to take our eyes off what is of greatest importance and focus all our attention to a point of disagreement.  Lord, forgive us.