“For your own part, what you say must be in keeping with wholesome doctrine.”

(Titus 2:1)

I was waiting at the airport for a plane that was late. The place was packed with people who were doing the same thing. It was one of those times when all the planes seemed to be late.

Presently a voice over the public address system announced that one particular flight, already quite late, would be delayed another couple of hours.

For some woman, standing not too far from me, this seemed to be the last straw. In anger she wheeled around, and with a high, shrill voice that sounded clear and strong above the waiting room hum she exclaimed: “Jesus Christ!” Everybody turned and watched as she strode up to the counter and for a full ten minutes stood there waving her arms, shaking her head and pouring out a steady stream of vehement language to the dumb struck attendant, denouncing him and everything connected with his airline.

Now what she said, I won’t say here, but I give you my word it gave every evidence of being in complete keeping with her mood, with the exasperating circumstances she said she was in, and with what she seemed to think the airline people had coming to them. I can only hope that what she was saying was not in keeping with her real nature, her true self.

When St. Paul wrote to Titus about the work assigned him in founding the church on the Island of Crete, one specific instruction he gave Titus: “For your own part, what you say must be in keeping with wholesome doctrine.”

Though this is an unfamiliar text in an obscure epistle, yet it is a great text, for it suggests four tremendous truths.

First, there is suggested here the centrality of the world within. “All great teachers,” says Oliavanna Wright, “have spoken to the inner world of men and women. They have taught that the external conditions of life would be taken care of if we did not neglect the inner world.”

“Keep thy heart with all diligence,” said the sage of Proverbs, “for out of it are the issues of life.”

“Know thyself,” said Socrates. “The unexamined life is not worth the living.”

“And finally, brethren,” wrote Paul to the Philippians, “whatsoever things are true and lovely, and honest and pure, and of good report, think on these things.”

Wholesome doctrine, true values, clear and enabling teachings which structure and motivate the inner world of people are the central values for every person, for every country, for every century.

So all great teachers and philosophers and leaders of men address themselves to imparting wholesome doctrine, which if learned and believed, and enshrined in the motivating control room of personality will revolutionize all life.

So, the Apostle Paul, as he counsels with Titus about beginning his work of building the church on Crete, starts with fundamentals —