Published: August 23, 2026 | Speaker: Tim Freitag | Series: The Law of Liberty 2 - Part 17 | Scripture: Titus 1:5-14
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We're trying to get back on to First Titus here, having dealt with a couple of excursions to deal with some of the related questions.
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As we were closing last time, I read from Hebrews chapter 13. And I'm going to be using Hebrews chapter 13 somewhat, although we may go into a couple of different places. Hebrews chapter 13 to
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help us explain the last of these um items that we did not get around to talking about. We talked about a lot of what are called the qualifications of an elder. Um
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elder. Um I think it's also just as fair to do what I've written on the board and call this the character of an elder. Paul seems to be enjoining on Titus to recognize men of character of these uh
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particulars and appoint them to the office of elder. And I thought about going on and not talking about this one because it's the
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only one we didn't get to, but I don't think that's fair because we talked about all of the other items that Paul lists out here um and most of the items that he lists out in First Timothy, but
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not this one, which is hospitality, to be hospitable,
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or at least that's how it's translated in the English.
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And if you look, and I'm going to ask for some audience participation here. If you look at Hebrews chapter 13, I'm going to read from the New American Standard the first couple of verses
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here. He says, "Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it." We remember the prisoners
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as though in prison with them and those who are illreated since you yourselves are also in the body. Does anyone have anything other than hospitality to strangers or kindness to strangers
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Okay. What I find curious about the English translation of this section of Hebrews chapter 13 is there's one word in the Greek and it's exactly the same word that we have here in Titus which is phosenas.
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a conjugation from phlo xenos xenos phloenos would be the direct opposite of uh xenophobia
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okay when we read in Titus show hospitality I think most people's minds jump to this one which is verse one in Hebrews
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I probably don't need to translate for
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Love of the brethren. Okay. And the writer of Hebrews here in his closing chapter, he's almost doing what we saw in the end of First Thessalonians in some respects here. He's listing off several things together
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almost in closing. However, he then builds another piece of theology out of it. But he seems to be listing things for them to remember. In fact, in in the more accurate translation of the verse
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two would be don't forget. I think my translation says don't neglect. But he says don't forget remember to show hospitality to show phoenon. There is no
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extra word in Hebrews chapter 13 to say to strangers. That is the word itself is to strangers. This is to your brethren. This is to strangers
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and the writer of Hebrews holds them both in listing the characteristics of the elder. I don't think that Paul left this one off because the elder isn't supposed to have this. He included this one
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because this is a particular thing that he needs to make sure that is in the character of the elder is to show kindness to strangers. Now, I found it very odd, perhaps troubling. Um, and
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I've put them in order here, so forgive me for a slight excursion here. It's not an excursion actually because it relates to this to this in various readings. Um been reading
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this book not specifically for this class and this is not Venet who wrote this. This is someone else who wrote an introduction but this is his take on hospitality. Okay. And let me know if
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you want the elders to do this. Okay. Um sorry I got the wrong reference. Go to my sticky note instead.
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He says here
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that the minister should visit people at their homes whether once a month, once a quarter or once a year that his conversations at all such times should be directly or indirectly of
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religious character. He says also that the minister should be as present
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as often as may be at family anniversaries, family reunions and the like in order to increase the domestic joy by sharing in it and to sanctify it by gently infusing the religious
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element. Thus making those occasions which too frequently develop a worldly spirit in the participants to tend to their improvement in knowledge. Job as priest of his family did well in sanctifying his children by offering burnt offerings
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for them for fear that they may have sinned. But he would have done better if he had also been personally present on all of those occasions. Okay, so there's one option.
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Option two specifically here in his discussion on these things to be hospitable. Okay. Okay. And this guy is a noted scholar of the Greek.
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[snorts] It is the duty of all Christians and must be evident as true of other characteristics in a heightened way in the overseer. the overseer. He who must teach others and take care of and exercise oversight over them must
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be open and loving to them. I'm sorry you just described Philadelphia, not Phoenon. Okay. This is not a problem that the
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elder has love of the brethren and sees to their needs that they love one another. He did not describe Phoeno. I had to go back to our Elizabeth and
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scholar here. Okay, so in the days of Elizabeth, Mr. Thomas Taylor wrote this
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in regard to poor strangers. Let the ministers and people be stirred up to a liberal heart towards them all, especially towards those whose land was unclean, but who come over to the land of the possession of the Lord, which is
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in which the Lord's tabernacle dwells. It is a pity that having such a cloud of examples in the scriptures to lead us in this duty this duty that it should seem so far out of
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request. How few children of Abraham there are among us who sit in the door of their tent to watch for strangers and to invite them to benefit from their
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entertainment. Few are our lots who will undergo any loss, any indignity before a stranger shall sustain any harm at all. We have few Jobes who will not allow the
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stranger to lodge in the street but will open their doors to him who passes by the way. We have an abundance of examples and we might be plentiful in reasons and motives to provoke our heart
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to this to avoid prolixity meaning a lot of words. By the way, this is his commentary on Titus. So we may have already failed.
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I will name but a few. Okay. He goes on to what I think is a very good summary. And so far in my references, he's about the only one that I've been able to find in commenting on this who actually goes on to describe
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love of strangers because that's what this means. It is literally the alien. Okay. That word is the same word that means alien. Ele
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Good. Yeah. [snorts] Yeah. So, good. Um, again, I think I don't think I don't have a problem. This is not me saying that I have a problem with the way that the the translation is in Hebrews. What I find curious is that every English reference I could find
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adds a word to explain this here and declines to do so in the other places where we read this word. It just uses the word hospitality when in fact kindness to strangers is what that
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means. Love or kindness to the stranger in your midst. Um that is what's what's enjoined here was he's talking about the character of an
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elder. But obviously it's not the only place that it's enjoined. We just looked at Hebrews 13 which is stated to all members of the body. Aaron,
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you're saying it refers
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It is both. And it is used both and I did go look through the not just this part of the Greek but the extra biblical Greek. It's used in both senses. Stranger is probably the closest way to do that but
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it means it means as Chuck points out without qualification people you don't know. Jerry you had your hand up.
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Yeah, but yes, it does. And you're right. And so that that word but I want to be careful to look at the word as it is in the context here because xenophobia is also a thing we we tend to think of strangers but it doesn't limit
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us to foreigners. It is both those who have come from another place but anybody who comes here from as far away as say California. No. Um Chuck I saw your hand
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first and I'll come back over here. The historical context in which most communities were very homogeneous. So you see the word
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translated and even cities of the Mediterranean they were almost entirely Greek entirely Roman or entirely something else. So a
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stranger was probably also
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Yeah. Also, the national boundaries were not necessarily thought of in the same way that we have, which is to say, um, a a stranger, a foreigner, a person from a different place might just be from the next Greek city across the way. Um, as
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far as you were concerned. Yeah.
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However, I will say I think um I do want to be careful with this word because as Erin is pointing out, it's not limited to those who have come from uh another country per se. As as you know, Chuck has pointed out that the context usually for them would have been that, but it's
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it's a more inclusive term in that sense. It's literally your strangers. Um, Jenny and I were talking about this and I I will come back to the hand here
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in a second, but Jenny and I were talking about this because when they ask Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" Okay, so theoretically, somebody that you know somewhat, who is my neighbor? He describes two people who don't know each
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other in which case our definition of a stranger
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is going as well because the foreigners were right and they were trying to convert their country and that played into his translation or
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his interpretation and I think that we have the same propensity
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It does say strangers. It does say strangers. I did find it curious. I did not go ahead and read all of his pieces, but I'm going to throw this one in since you've you've asked his context here. He holds this particular context. Consider that we ourselves may become
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strangers. The earth is the Lord's, and he might give our land over to other inhabitants, and then we would desire more kind and treaty than many show
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towards their strangers. Effectively saying, "Treat others as you want to be treated. I think the fundamental definition of a stranger is someone who makes you feel
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I can go with that. I can go with that. I've never felt that way if they only if they look like they might hurt me, but just a stranger in the street.
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the street. I like the word but the word itself in general obviously there are exceptions no strangers right
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in what we're talking about people who feel by other people who fear and are those whatever they may be.
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That's what the word means. They're not of us. Whatever us, ethnicity, nationality, Christianity, they are not
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of us. That's just trying to say that's what that's not everybody feels uncomfortable about people, but it is the essential emotional reaction to
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fear and distrust. Well, and that is the way we use the word alien is a thing that is different or uh like you said not of the same
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characteristic or basis. Uh, I think I saw a person. I'll come back to
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I can agree with you there because we are told to love and to love widely. The reason I bring this up is because here in Titus, it's one of our words. It's one of the characteristics that Paul singles out for an elder that they
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have this. Um Paul felt it was important to make it a particular thing. And again, we look at the context in in Hebrews chapter 13. He's enjoining on
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them, again, we're talking about this general context. He's enjoining on them characteristics of all believers to do these things. Now, the other piece I'll throw in here,
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and I guess I'll say it this way. I have no intention of drawing out specific people and saying you have to go out and love that person or this person or that class or that group.
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We do live in a day and in a context. And in our day and in our context, there is an awful lot of xenophobia thrown around. Not that that's been particularly rare in human history. Actually, it's always been around.
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In Matthew 25, the famous separating of the sheep and the goats. It's actually not the sheep and the
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goats, but the judgment here where Jesus uh describes when the son of man returns. Matthew 25 picking up in verse 31. When the son of man comes in his glory and his angels with him, he will
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sit on his glorious throne and the nations will be gathered before them and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Put the sheep on his right hand, the goats on his left. And the
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king will say to those who come, so on his right, sorry, come you are who are blessed of my father and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Why?
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For I was hungry and you gave to me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave for me to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. Naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in
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prison and you cared for me. And the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or naked and clothe you?
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And when did we see you in sick sick or in prison and come to you? Um, I would be very surprised if the writer of Hebrews did not have that in mind because the next thing that he enjoins
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on them after love of the brethren and love of the stranger is to visit those who have been imprisoned. Okay. It is something that Paul apparently
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felt necessary in Titus to highlight when talking about the character of an elder to say they have to have this characteristic. John Luke thinks
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for one reason you don't have to ask people for directions. [laughter] I just listened to a podcast about how would you explain to someone to get somewhere else if they didn't have maps
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ask this person at this town right okay yeah so there is a sense in which the the the technology we have limits
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our interaction with strangers or it can be limiting um but you'll notice here in these things especially in what Jesus highlights the actions being taken are to minister
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to those who are in need. Okay? And that's what we mean here. Um it kindness to strangers is not at all a bad way to have translated that because love of is
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to see that their needs are met. That's what that's getting at. And as Jesus describes, I metaphorically through my body had the following needs and you saw
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to them. Dad, your hand was up. Just looking at Titus verse seven has all the knots
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I mean that's how I think of Yeah, this is anything there. I did go through the the um verse seven and verse eight seem to have the don't do these things but do these
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things. Um and when I put them on the board several weeks ago, I tried to line up ones that I felt like you could put opposite to each other. One of the issues is you actually have more uh things you're asked to do than things
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you're asked not to do. Um so I couldn't make a one for one. Um, but I also didn't see
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I didn't see one here that I felt like tied into that specific. Certainly not being quick-tempered or not being pugnacious, not being intimidating, as we talked about in that sense could relate to this in the sense that you
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ought to be of a spirit and of a temperament such that you can see to people's needs. Um, Jenny, you had your hand up.
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Well, that's a very good thought. Thank you. Um, so yes, arrogance. Maybe if you want to put that one across from there.
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Go into the world. Yeah. Um and certainly if you look at the context both in in the first century in which these things are being written but also the subsequent um portions of history there was a significant amount of
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disruption at this time. Um this was going to be the time in which Jerusalem was sacked and they were sent throughout the land. Um you had a lot of of
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upheaval and disruption in terms of people being moved around in that specific time. Abigail first and then come back to discussing the terms
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particular characteristics on general. Yeah, it it is. And and this would tie in, I think, with what Abe was was
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saying earlier, which is we are supposed to be loving in a broad sense. We are supposed to be loving in the particulars in various people that you encounter whether within or without. I agree. The
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reason I don't want to skip over this one is it is one of the items enjoined upon the character of the elder is to have this characteristic. Uh Jerry
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Yeah. No, that's a that's a very good point. I I did appreciate Mr. Taylor's examples um as he gave his examples were the Old Testament examples. Abraham. I I think frankly I I don't know if the
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writer of Hebrews had other examples in mind, but certainly Abraham bringing strangers into his tent, accidentally entertaining the angel of the Lord as we're told, but also um you know, Lot
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seeing to the angels who came to him, but also Job is described as not let not leaving anybody outside. um when you have this is this is the point and this
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is where we're coming to with this is when you have means when you have opportunity to do those things show kindness to the people around you again
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drawing out here though as Titus as Paul is writing to Titus saying look out for these things to appoint these people to the ministry of the word
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having this characteristic having hospitality being loving to those that are around um whether known to you or not is an important aspect of the character of the elder. Uh Ariel first
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and then I think I saw another hand. Go ahead. Mark said Mark said he looked for a position of
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to those outside, right? would then present a false gospel because he insularity.
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Christianity. Yeah. No, that that's an excellent point. Um and and that would be presenting a false uh modeling uh not in in keeping with the character of what God enjoins on his people. Um related to
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that though is is just the and I'm not going to remember all the references now but we have told to the Israelites to take care of the strangers who come into their midst for you yourselves were
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strangers in Egypt. Right? We are told that we are strangers and sojourers because we are of a heavenly kingdom. There is a sense in which we are already these people. That showing love to the
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brethren is to show love to strangers because we are already strangers except not strangers to the promise. I think I saw Did you have your hand up? Oh, okay. Let me get Chuck and then I'll come back over here.
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over here. Contextualization is where I think this is most difficult. We now live in an age where has been ingrained into our society
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through government through government and has become quite an industry. We've experienced that as a church.
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Yeah. Understanding the concept is important different are all
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are all There's really no there were no hotels. Yeah. There was so much movement but not in
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thing. We're very much insulated from that. those that we consider in need are often systemically in need. And that presents I'll say presents the church with a real
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challenge because often times programs that are intended for the poor are are really just enabling continuation of that that whole life.
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It's really challenging how to actually not do it in a programmatical way but how to live up to it. How do you apply this concept to the
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21st century United States? Yeah. People don't walk up to my porch unless
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not sure those count under the Erin and then I'll come back to I was I was getting a lot of what went back to the prophets and what you mentioned there.
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So the definition of a stranger universal seems to emerge that it's those with no standing in the community
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because the sojourer is lumped in with those who are poor, those who are fatherless, those who are widowed. How can those be lumped together like that? Otherwise
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that? Otherwise what Jenny said that an arrogant man's not going to one who has no no standing right so stranger stranger love is simply love
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those with no immediate standing particularly those with no no greatness to speak of among us I would agree with that um and I think
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you can draw that out of a number of passages not least of which being um where we've just looked at in uh Matthew 25 right the the things that he says were the ministry this is question came
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up when I said the ministry of the word is the particular aspect of the elders whereas ministry in general is enjoined upon the church. Well, the things that Jesus seems to highlight there is meeting the needs of those who are unable to meet their own needs. Um I saw
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Elizabeth had a hand up and then I'm going to come back. Did I?
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Well, certainly we won't uh we won't take everything the news tells us in either direction at face value. Okay. Um, Chuck
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That's a widow. That's an orphan. That's a soldier. I I think the answer is yes. Now, to actually stand up all of the pieces that
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back that up, we have to go a little bit further and wider than specific context I'm in. But I do think it is those I I use the phrase unable to meet their own needs. Um,
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[sighs] what I want to be careful of as we look at this is to not add a whole bunch of caveats about why I get to not love this or that person or not show kindness to this or that person because it is actually very easy to line up a lot of
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reasons why not to do a thing. Um, to your point though without a structure
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I have a hard time answering that one straight up because of what you pointed out before. there's a lot of structures that float around ostensibly to meet those needs and yet often don't um or don't aid in that way. But what I I can
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agree with is for example, the church is supposed to be meeting the needs of its members. Yes. So a church body is supposed to be bearing one another's burdens. That doesn't mean if
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somebody comes to visit us from another church that I exclude them, but it does mean that their church body has a role or responsibility in helping meet their needs. I can give you an example here.
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Um we have at times given scholarships to students who come here to Milton Academy from other places, other churches. Um, at times actually I think
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every time we've done that, the deacons have reached out to the elders or leaders of their church and talked to them about that and whether or not their church is also able to help that student
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because it is that particular body's role and privilege in shephering to meet the needs of its members. We have though in I think every one of the cases I can
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think of gone on to extend a fellowship to some or a scholarship to somebody who is effectively a stranger to our body in order to meet their need academically. That's a relatively small thing but it
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it relates to I think the question of the structures that are around them. Um, Dad, you have your hand up. And I think maybe James again. I was just gonna guess something similar
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to that. Being hospital and it can be hard and it can be
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frustrating. We had a young man who did arrive not on my doorstep but in my backyard. Yeah. Homeless man. And over several months,
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uh and I we provided some clothes, food, uh transportation, different places, and
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it we had plan and we had to expect and he would come back and sometimes at the least convenient moment for us and I
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guess what I'm saying is it's just not Some of you are different from me, but it is not inherent in my personality to reach out to strangers.
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But when the stranger appeared, we couldn't help but follow the scriptures and say, "How can we help?"
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Yeah. And it turned out that my idea of helping wasn't his. And can be hard. And it takes prayer and you
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know the servants heart but you have to expect I don't really know how to define it but God has to lead you into
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how to respond so it doesn't become an enabling but at the same time it becomes so no that's a very valid point and again um I appreciate you bringing that up.
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I'm not trying to enjoin any specific behavior other than to outline that the scripture gives this to us relatively flatly. We do operate and and and just
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we've said this before the the baseline of the law of liberty is to operate from a place of God's wisdom. Okay. So I
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can't remember the name of the book. There was a book published goodness probably longer ago than I think it was um about a guy who was trying to do this. He was a believer, at least a professing believer, had done this, had
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invited uh homeless people into his house, basically made it his policy to do that, and eventually was robbed and actually beaten up. Like, okay, there has to be a certain wisdom
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in doing things. I'm not I'm not even faulting the man for what he did, per se. I'm just saying this does not mean that everybody has to put themselves at a particular kind of risk to do these things. Neither though are we
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necessarily excused from being at risk in the sense of doing what is right regardless of a consequence. Okay. Um I
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think I had James to get to Aaron and then back over here.
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Yeah. I mean, the thing that popped into my head while we were saying that was uh Scrooge in Christmas Carol for the poor. Are there no workhouses? Are there there's structures out there for them to be taken care of? Lauren, I
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think you had your hand up earlier and I missed you.
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Yeah, very much so.
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Yeah, that that's a very good point. I will say just to your question of of substance or addiction. I mean, it even comes up here in Titus when he says that the children of the overseer must not be accused of dissipation. That's that's drunkenness. That's that's substance
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abuse um in a general sense. So, that's been around for about as long as people have been around, honestly. Um, but to your other point, I mean, um, Lot
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as an example there risks his family. He risks his property. He risks a lot to take in the strangers off the street. Um, he does. I think I had Abigail,
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Aaron, and then I can come back over here. Go ahead.
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Yeah. I think that's basically what we're
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you know, bring people off the street who are homeless. I don't know. There's such a range, but it could be very Yeah. Well, and I I appreciate that point because I think it does help a little bit answer some of the the question that your dad had, which was
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Yeah. I mean, we're generally talking about people who are not able to meet their own needs, but to your point, it also just the way that we treat people, the love that we show, and that attitude reflects on the community as a whole.
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And I have unfortunately seen more than one comment saying from waiters saying, "I hate working Sunday afternoons because the crowd that comes in after church for lunch treats us the worst we
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get treated all week." Um, I've seen that more than once claimed. I've not worked as a waiter on a Sunday afternoon, so I don't know. Um, Erin, you had your hand up.
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I think the structures that we're talking about, the government structures and the church structures, there are Yeah, these structures help provide that
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wisdom and safety abuse. Also, it provides
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an expanded an expanded evangelism because feeding them is good.
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And so you want them obviously and come into the family and I think that's where the church needs to focus maybe less on the social
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Yeah. Well, that that's a good point. um that that it is a a means of of witness, but I will also say in conjunction with that, yeah, there the programs exist and and helping out with some of those
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programs is, you know, I'm not telling anybody not to go help in a soup kitchen, for example. I guess to Chuck's question of how do we apply this in our own lives? I'm looking for the the wisdom of scripture to guide
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us in those examples of saying um [sighs] how do I say it this way? Um
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I really don't think God is going to deny us the chance to minister to people according to his word. We have to have our eyes open for it. But I don't think he's going to keep those opportunities to follow his word
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away from us. We may keep ourselves away from those opportunities. But I don't think God will deny to you the opportunity to walk according to his word. Bill, you had your hand up a while
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in this way in the body. Uh that's a good question. I would say only in the sense that we talked about this overall the heading that Paul gives this as he's talking to um
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Titus. Uh it's an O even if it looks like an A.
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above reproach effectively spotless character. The responsibility is in the sense of being very visible as a minister of the word to the body. Ariel brought out the
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point if you don't have this in your elder things can creep into the attitude into the modeling. We are even told in scripture in various places to emulate
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those who are teaching in the things that they're doing right and as they are upright. So yes, because they stand in front of the body, but not more than the rest of the body is told to be
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hospitable. The context of Hebrews 13 is the whole body. I'm going to pick on two churches out in Colorado and kind of expand on that.
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When we were looking for a church nearby cross and there was a nearby one that was and we were thinking about going there
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going to be you know, with most of everything, but there was certainly a feeling of we're not going to be welcome. Unfortunately, they have a reputation for not welcoming outsiders.
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I've got some good friends. I'm not trying to pick on them. We found one that was that was born. They tripped over themselves being
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the only Yeah. We didn't even experience whether or not this fellowship would have been
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Yeah. We were withheld from going there from just a feeling of stand. of stand. Yeah. Well, and and I I'm going to close with this because we're out of time. Um
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dad was in first Peter [clears throat] 4, what is it? Nine. A little bit a little ways back where he says it it's actually the same word. He actually says show phoenon to each other.
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meaning the strangers that come to you from other places whether that's visiting or oftentimes in the context of the first century driven out of some other place because it's no longer safe
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for them there or they're on their way to move whatever like that is also an element of they may be your brother in the Lord but they may also be a stranger visiting you in that sense did you have
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a comment a comment I think I think that's where that's why I profered those with no inherent standing as the essential definition of stranger here because because love for the
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brethren does get put right next to stranger love and we we've talked a lot about how Paul indicates that that no
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matter how lowly there are no members of Christ who are without standing in your body and that that's the the bedrock of how
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we treat one another spilling out into our attitude towards others. Yeah, I think I think that's right in the sense of um yeah that that that
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we're it doesn't befit us or it doesn't benefit us in some sense to show love to those who are already widely loved or or upheld in their context or in their their circle. Not that we should deny
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love to any, but the particular love think about it from God's perspective. God has chosen to love us all. We who were his enemies, we who have
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certainly wronged him, we who certainly could not repay. Okay, without being too moralizing about it here, we are supposed to beam uh examples of the love
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that Christ has given to us. He loved those who were dust and actually dust that was actively working against him.
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So yeah, no status even your enemy Let's close in a word of prayer as we go upstairs to worship this morning.
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Our father, we do thank you for your word, for the instruction that we have here, for the reminder that you have loved us who were deeply unworthy of being loved.
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being loved. Father, we are so grateful to have received that. I ask that you would help us as we attempt to walk in accordance with the love that we have been given. That love entails a calling. A calling
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to show that love, to share it, to spread it far and wide and not to hoard it. So, Father, we ask that you would strengthen us to the work of loving, of
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being upright in the face of the world and of showing what it is to have been and be loved by our Lord Jesus Christ. In whose name I ask, amen.