Crete was not an easy place to minister. The name “Cretan” was synonymous with “liar.” they were also known as “evil brutes” and “lazy gluttons”. Epimenides joked of his own people that the absence of wild beasts on the island was supplied by its human inhabitants.
So it’s remarkable that these are the people Paul tosses these instructions about submission to authority to. We are called to be good citizens, seeking as best we are able to follow the laws and obey those who we find in positions of authority over us within whatever human structures we are engaged with.
We can temper this somewhat by looking at the behavior of the apostles in Acts 4, when they clearly state that they will serve God over man when the two are in conflict. But this is never too be our first instinct. We can look to Paul himself for an example of working within the Roman system to accomplish the things of God.
This is a complex question, with many different circumstances and contexts that may lead to very different behaviors and actions depending on those. But we clearly see the basic principles laid out here that we should use as our guide – not merely to submission, but also to “be ready for every good work.”
The story of Daniel and his compatriots is another window on this. When ordered to eat unclean food, they resisted and worked within the system to turn the entire circumstance to their own good. Then, when ordered to worship an idol, they refused and prepared themselves to be martyred for this refusal, before God miraculously intervened.
The police officer pulling us over is not trying to make us worship an idol. City regulations may be onerous and even absurd, but they are not contravening God’s command.
Paul also addresses how we should deal with difficult people who are not in authority. He lays out for key principles: speak evil of no one, avoid quarreling, be gentle and show “perfect courtesy” toward all people. In the latter term, now that it requires an outward demonstration of praÿtēs, a term also translated as meekness and gentleness. It is the same root used in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, “blessed are the meek,” and the same describing Jesus in the prophecy of the humble king riding on the donkey.
All this is an explication of the broader instruction from Christ to love our enemies. Sometimes we like that more vague statement more than this very clear outline that clarifies how we are to do this.
Ken Sande of the Relational Wisdom ministry outlines a method for conflict resolution, working first through our own internal inventory and thought processes, both being aware of ourselves and then engaging with our self, then doing the same with the other people in the conflict, both becoming aware and engaging- and finally doing the same with God.
This also touches on the nature of hard skills versus soft skills, the relational capabilities that are outside of the specific technical expertise. Most of the failures in business, in ministry, in families and elsewhere are not due to a lack of hard skills and technical expertise, but rather a breakdown in soft skills. The value of a person to an organization is not their hard skills plus their soft skills, but rather their hard skills multiplied by our soft skills. It is the soft skills that Paul is instructing Titus in here.
– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, February 9, 2020