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We must be those who are “holding to the faithful word, which is according to the teaching of the apostles”—Titus 1:9:
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The churches were established according to the apostles’ teaching and followed their teaching, and the order of the churches was maintained by the faithful word, which was given according to the apostles’ teaching.
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We must speak the things that are fitting to the healthy teaching of the apostles, the teaching of God’s economy—2:1, 7-8; 1 Tim. 1:4.
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Any teaching that was different from the apostles’ teaching was not allowed by the apostles; teaching “different things” was prohibited—Acts 2:42; 1 Tim. 1:3-4:
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Differing teachings refers to teachings that are not in line with the economy of God—6:3.
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The disorder in the church is due mainly to deviation from the apostles’ teaching—Acts 2:42:
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To counter this, we must hold to the faithful word taught in the churches according to the apostles’ teaching—Titus 1:9.
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In a darkened and confused situation, we need to cleave to the enlightening and ordering word in the New Testament—the apostles’ teaching—Acts 2:42.
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We must avoid differing teachings and concentrate on God’s economy concerning Christ and the church—1 Tim. 1:3-4; Eph. 3:9; 5:32.
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The apostle Paul taught the same thing in all the churches; we also must teach the same thing in all the churches in every country throughout the earth—1 Cor. 4:17; 7:17; cf. Col. 4:16.
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The crucial point of the healthy teaching of the apostolic ministry concerns the Triune God processed to dispense Himself as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit into His chosen ones so that they may be brought into an organic union to receive the divine transfusion and thereby become sons of God and members of Christ; as a result, they can become the Body of Christ to express Christ, the One in whom the fullness of God dwells—1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17; 12:12-13, 27.
Morning Nourishment
Titus 2:1 But you, speak the things which are fitting to the healthy teaching.7-8 Concerning all things presenting yourself as a pattern of good works: in your teaching showing incorruption, gravity, healthy speech that cannot be condemned…
The healthy teaching is always according to the truth (Titus 1:14) of the faith (1:13). It is the content of the apostles’ teaching, the content of God’s New Testament economy. It not only ministers the life supply to the believers and heals the spiritual diseases but in so doing also brings the church into a sound condition with a good order. Hence, it is very much stressed in these three books, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, books dealing with the disorder and decline of the church. In Titus 2:1 Paul charged Titus not to deviate from the healthy teaching, from the apostles’ teaching. (Life-study of Titus, pp. 21-22)
Today’s Reading
We…should be reminded to speak the things which are fitting to healthy teaching. The word healthy points to that which is hygienic and which can both inoculate others against spiritual poison and also supply them with life. Our teachings should not merely pass on knowledge to others, but should supply them with life. Often when I have been tempted to speak about a certain subject, I was stopped. I had the sense that there was not much of the hygienic element in what I planned to say. We need to remind ourselves and be reminded by the Spirit to give forth healthy teaching.Healthy teachings do not provoke debates or arguments. If we give adequate attention to feeding on the Lord, we shall not care to argue. A dining table is not a place for debate or argument; it is a place for feasting and nourishment.…We all need to learn how to put healthy “dishes” on the dining table to feed the saints. (Life-study of Titus, p. 22)
We take only the apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42) as the healthy words of the Lord Jesus (1 Tim. 6:3). First Timothy 1 speaks of the teaching concerning God’s economy, and chapter 6 speaks of the healthy words of the Lord Jesus. All the teachings of the apostles are for God’s economy, and these teachings are the healthy words of the Lord Jesus. The apostles learned these words from the Lord and followed the Lord to teach the same thing that He did…. In Ephesians 3:8 Paul speaks of the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel, and in verse 9 he speaks of God’s eternal economy. We must preach and teach these two items.
When Paul told Timothy to charge certain ones not to teach differently, he was referring to the teaching of myths, unending genealogies (1 Tim. 1:4), and the law (vv. 7-8)…. If we teach anything that has never been taught by the Lord Jesus or the apostles, we are teaching something other than God’s economy, something outside the apostles’ teaching. A teaching other than the apostles’ teaching will issue in division.
The apostles’ teaching is the teaching concerning Christ’s person and redemptive work (2 John 9-11). It is also the teaching concerning God’s economy in faith (1 Tim. 1:3-4). God’s economy is not to have a mission field for preaching the gospel or to have a Bible school to teach the truths. God’s economy is to dispense, or impart, the Triune God into His chosen and redeemed people to be their life and everything that they might be regenerated and transformed into the proper material for the building up of the Body of Christ so that God may have a corporate expression on the earth in many localities in this age with a view to the building up of the coming New Jerusalem for His eternal expression. If we limit ourselves to the apostles’ teaching, the teaching concerning God’s economy, we will be kept in oneness and will have one way for one goal. (CWWL, 1987, vol. 2, “The God-ordained Way to Practice the New Testament Economy,” pp. 436, 439)
Further Reading: Life-study of Titus, msgs. 1-3; CWWL, 1988, vol. 3, “The Building Up of the Body of Christ,” ch. 2