Surrender to the Spirit of Christ or to Fear

     In submitting to and cooperating with the Spirit of Christ, we must be careful not to engage with or re-engage with fear, aggression, or bodily cravings, but fear especially. Re-engagement with fear disengages us from the Spirit of Christ because we have voluntarily surrendered ourselves to our own devices, our own malfunctioning, neurologically based survival responses. This is why it is so important to let go of any attachment which can trigger a fear or aggression response, and the aggression response is itself a fear response. Where bodily cravings are concerned, the trigger stems from the subconscious fear that the body's needs or wants won't be met.
     Consider everything in our world which is practically designed to trigger the fear response in some way. Most of the time it is a fear response when the ego is threatened in some way, that is, when some component of our own self-identity is threatened, such as a belief, foundational or otherwise, or a relationship which we consider to be core to who we see ourselves as. Of course there are also more practical fear responses such as job loss, threats of bodily harm either imminent or imagined, environmental threats, and so on. But the fear responses by which we surrender ourselves most to our own malfunctioning neurology are those centered around who we believe ourselves to be, and what ideas, beliefs, and positions which we consider to be core or foundational to that self-identity.
     This is the purpose for the conditions of discipleship which stipulate that one must let go of anything and anyone which could come between the disciple and Jesus Christ such as possessions, relationships, and one's own self-identity. While all will trigger the fear response and the test or temptation to surrender oneself to that fear response, the biggest one is the fear which surrounds the ego and any threats to the ego. (And as one author wrote, the ego is fear. That is, it is an illusion composed entirely of fear, but I digress.) This is why Jesus was explicit that anyone who didn't "pick up their crosses," "destroy their psyches," or generally as Paul described it, die or be crucified together with Christ, couldn't be His disciples. It wasn't a matter of exclusivity, it was that the protection of one's ego or psyche literally interferes and obstructs being a disciple of the Way, because the Way requires surrendering to and cooperating with the Spirit of Christ rather than one's own malfunctioning psyche.
     As John writes, "Fear doesn't exist in love, but love brought to completion throws fear out." Consider also that the Apostle wrote, "The person not demonstrating love doesn't know God, because God is love." Those who are in submission to and in cooperation with the Spirit of Christ are not in submission to fear but the God who is love is manifested within and through them, but likewise those who are in submission to their own fear and other survival responses are not in submission to the Spirit of Christ and it is their own fear, aggression, and bodily cravings which are manifested as Paul described the difference between the "works of the flesh" and the "fruit of the Spirit." You are either in submission to one or the other, but not both at the same time. This is impossible. No one can serve two masters. To be in submission to the Spirit of Christ is to let go of fear, and to be in submission to your own fear is to let go of the Spirit of Christ.
     As we live our lives, with nearly every interaction, experience, and decision point, we are presented with these two options, surrender to the Spirit of Christ, or surrender to our own fear. The Way of Jesus Christ is to learn to consistently and always take the path of surrender to the Spirit of Christ.

What is Important to Understand About Jesus Christ

What understandings about Jesus Christ were important to His first disciples? We get so caught up in what is the "right" or "orthodox" theology about Him, that we emphasize that instead of what it actually means to be His disciple.
     The primary concern of the first disciples as far as understanding about Jesus Christ after His ascension in particular was heavily practical and tactical. That is, they were concerned about what they had seen, heard, and even handled. They knew Jesus Christ was a flesh and blood human being. They had eaten with Him, camped out with Him, walked with Him from Tyre down to Jerusalem, and everywhere in between. They were adamant that this not be misunderstood. He was real. They touched Him. Smelt Him. Saw Him. Heard Him. They knew Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Him. How did they know? Because she told them. They also knew that He referred to Himself as the Son of the God, and so did various spiritual beings when they encountered Him. Jesus consistently referred to God as His Father in more than a religious or metaphorical sense. They knew Jesus displayed powers that could only be ascribed to the Divine, and it would not have been lost on them that the powers He displayed the Greeks and Romans would have associated with their own deities. They knew that He had been arrested, tried, crucified under the authority of Pontius Pilate, and that they had physically seen Him alive the third day afterwards, as well as many times in many places over the next forty days until He was taken up into the sky from them on the road east from Jerusalem to Bethany. They also knew that they weren't the only ones to see Him alive after His death. They knew that He had blown on them and given them His holy Breath, and that on Pentecost that Breath had been triggered in a major way causing them to display His powers and personality for everyone to see (I'm pretty sure Caiaphas saw Jesus in Peter's eyes when he accused him of murdering Jesus). They also knew that two apparent men shining like sun reflectors told them that He would return the same way, before disappearing themselves. Aside from this, they remembered what He taught, memorized it and wrote it down.
     None of the teaching they refused to compromise on was speculative, or deduced from logic or Scripture. It was what they themselves had experienced. Even Paul who had come late to the party taught what he himself had been taught by Jesus Christ when he was in the desert before returning to Damascus. Furthermore, Paul in his writings was explicit that those disciples he taught not spend any time on speculations about things none of them had seen or heard, or as he put it "endless genealogies." And he was explicit on those followers of the Way not spending any time trying to keep the Torah, but focusing on submission to and cooperation with the Holy Breath they had all received from Him.
     And this was really it. This was all the teaching about Him which they insisted on, passing on what they themselves had experienced, and adding nothing to it, or taking away anything from it. They were adamant about keeping their story straight and grounded in what they had seen and heard and not letting it get twisted or "spiritualized."
     In other words, as far as they were concerned, you could hold whatever opinions about anything else that you wanted as long as you didn't insist on everyone else holding them as well. Those other opinions just weren't important enough to worry about unless they interfered with the truth about what they had seen and heard. The same was true of whether or not you kept certain feast days, fast days, and so on as long as you submitted to and cooperated with the Breath of Christ.
     In the modern churches, it is these opinions about everything else which we fight about, excommunicate for, and split ourselves into factions over, and the submission to and cooperation with the Breath of Christ is treated as an afterthought, if at all. Unimportant at best. This is why the modern churches don't function correctly, and haven't for a very long time. They have been corrupted and have been decaying from the inside out.
     If we are going to stand as a united body of Christ, that unity first begins with connecting to the Head through submission to and cooperation with the Breath of Christ. And when we connect to the Head who is Jesus Christ, we connect with each other as a unified body. We too need to get our story straight, and focus on what was seen and heard, as well as what we ourselves see and hear. Each person may have their own opinions on what they have neither seen and heard as long as they don't assume prominence over what was, and don't cause factions and disconnections from the Head through fear and anger.

WTH are These Churches Teaching?

“But, I sin all the time and I can’t seem to stop myself!”
“I have never been so disinterested in the Christian life as I am now. I love my sin too much. I still believe in Jesus, and I want to follow God, but I just can’t seem to give up these things I love.”

     I have heard nearly the same thing from two different friends in the last week. Both are churchgoing Christians. Both sincerely want to grow in their faith and practice. Both are struggling. And neither feels like they are getting the answers they need from their churches, instead feeling so guilty about their mistakes and errors that they don’t know what to do.
     What the hell are these churches teaching? How strong does my language have to be before it approximates the sheer incredulity, outrage, and near despair that these two dear ones aren’t being given the basic tools and teaching by their churches to understand what is happening and to be able to work through it and continue in their discipleship without this pitfall?
     What is even worse is that it’s not just these churches. Churches in general aren’t discipling their members to actually walk as Jesus walked, and to follow His path. And it’s not really the pastors’ fault per se either. I read an article a few years ago where a survey was taken of seminary students of what the one thing they wished the seminary had covered. It wasn’t church history, theology, biblical languages, or even how to run a non-profit. The one thing seminarians wished the seminary had taught, or taught better, was how to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
     Think about that fact. Ponder it for just a few minutes. The one thing pastors are responsible to not only be, but to teach others to be, is not covered in seminary according to most seminarians surveyed. And so these nascent pastors are sent out to teach people to do something they themselves don’t know how to do. They are left to their own devices to discover the Way, and many never do being so bogged down in the peripherals, doctrines, and trappings of being a pastor that they completely miss what it’s all about to begin with. And then they “fall,” “burn out,” and are rendered otherwise visibly disqualified for their position. As one friend put it, “But preachers aren’t supposed to sin, and I sin all the time!” The one thing that truly makes a person a “Christian” by the ancient and Biblical definition of the word, being a disciple of Jesus Christ, is not taught in seminaries.
     Where the forgiveness of “sin” is concerned, I’ll be succinct as I’ve written so copiously about this subject that I have literally filled books with it. Just admit it, confess it, and turn around. Every sin and blasphemy will be let go by God to human beings except one, and that one is because God is not going to force anyone to open their eyes and come to Him. Deliberate rejection and turning away from Him is the only thing He can’t let go of, because it’s not His to let go. It’s that person’s.
     Where the inability to stop sinning is concerned, I’ll try and be succinct here as well and for the same reasons. You’re human. Every human being has a malfunction in their brains which affects every thought, word, action, and intention. You literally cannot stop “sinning” as long as your responses originate with your own brain. This is why Jesus Christ died for us, so that we would be joined as one with Him, so that through voluntary submission to the Spirit of Christ He then would become the source of our words and actions. And if He is the source of our words and actions, then we literally cannot “sin” because our words and actions will originate with God Himself, in whom there is no “sin,” or darkness of any kind. This is what John was talking about in his first letter when he says, “That which is born of God does not sin.” This is our salvation in Jesus Christ.
     What is the point of churches or church structures that don’t actually teach people how to be disciples? What is the point of churches or church structures that weigh people down with guilt because of something they themselves cannot control, and then don’t teach them how to be free of it? There’s a reason why churches are dying and people are walking away. They’ve had enough B.S. They’ve had enough of churches that talk a lot about Jesus, but never reveal Him or demonstrate Him, much less teach anyone else how to do it.
     Yes, I’m ranting. More than this, it’s the Spirit of Christ ranting through me. I know it is. Do you even know how much of an outrage it feels like to have your name and image and very words thrown all over the place by people that don’t just not have a clue about what they’re doing, but are violating those very words and teaching others to do the same? The prophets in the Old Testament are explicit in how God felt about it when Judah did it.
     To all those who are truly sincere in your desire to follow what Jesus Christ taught, and to know Him better, know this, you are loved. You are treasured. Your errors and mistakes aren’t even on His radar. He rejoices, He is overjoyed with any progress you make, no matter how small. Just keep going. Recognize where you went wrong, and turn back to Him. Learn from it, and keep going. He’s waiting for you at the finish line.

Romans 2 for Today's Circumstances

Following up on one of my previous posts, there is a passage from Romans 2 which kept coming to my mind, but though it talks about Jews and the Law, what came to my mind with it is the application for professing Christians. Under an inspiration, I rewrote and paraphrased it for today and the equivalent parties today:

     “because it’s not those who hear the New Testament that are set right in the presence of God, but those who do what the New Testament says who will be proclaimed set right. Because when those who are not Christians and don’t possess the New Testament should naturally do the things which Jesus Christ taught, aren’t those who are not Christians making use of the Spirit of Christ regardless? Those who are demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit of Christ in what they say and do displaying their connection to the Head even without baptism or the trapping of Christianity?”
     “Yet if you are called a Christian, and rest upon the Gospel, and brag about God and are familiar with His will and test different things being instructed from the New Testament, having convinced yourself too to be a guide of the blind, a light for those in the darkness, a tutor for the mindless, a teacher of infants, having the embodiment of the knowledge and the truth within the New Testament… You who teach others, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach not to steal, do you steal? You who say not to cheat on your spouse, are you cheating on your spouse? You who abhor other religions, do you commit sacrilege? You who shout about the Gospel, are you dishonoring God through violating what Jesus taught? Because, “The name of God is blasphemed because of you among those who aren’t Christians.” Because baptism is on the one hand a benefit if you practice what Jesus taught; yet if you violate what Jesus taught, your baptism might as well be paganism. If then the non-Christian keeps the teachings of Jesus, doesn’t his unbaptized state count for baptism? And the non-Christian who lives as Jesus taught and walks as He walked will then decide about you, the one violating what Jesus taught even though being baptized and having the Gospel. Because it isn’t the person who is a visible or professing Christian nor the visible baptism of the flesh, but the person who follows what Jesus taught within the secret places of his soul, and the baptism with the Spirit of Christ not the written words, the recognition of whom as being one of His which comes not from other human beings, but from God.”
 

By the Charity of God through Belief by means of Jesus Christ

     I've written about this before, but it came back into my mind this morning. Our deliverance from our inherited neurological error through Jesus Christ is activated by belief for a very simple reason: because it's already available to every human being, but you can't make use of something which you don't believe exists. It's the same as having a perfectly functional car to take you places, but if you don't believe the car works right, you'll never make use of it. Or the much simpler illustration of a stool. The stool may be right in front of you, but if you don't believe it will hold your weight, you will never sit on it.
     I am coming to believe more and more that everything which is written in the New Testament that is true of and available to Christians is true of and available to the entire human race regardless of who they are, where they come from, what their past is, or any other thing. That when Paul was writing about "us" and "we" in almost all cases, he was writing about the entire human race. The only thing keeping a human being from accessing all of it is whether or not they actually believe it, not because this automatically or magically transforms them, there is nothing to transform, it's already in place, but because you can't use what you don't believe or don't know exists.
     Is it possible for someone to stumble into it? To make use of it without knowing what they're using? Actually, yes. We as human beings do it all the time with certain forces of nature, fire being a chief one. These folks may not know the Christian terminology or concepts, but they make use of the Spirit of Christ all the same and sometimes better than professing Christians because every human being has access to Him because of Jesus Christ even if they don't know the who, what, or how. They have recognized that something is going on, something is available to them, believe that it works with some incomplete knowledge about it, and are therefore able to make use of it.
     We know from what Jesus Himself said, that every error and blasphemy will be forgiven to human beings except one. So forgiveness and union with God, or entry into heaven, is not at issue. It is made freely available to everyone unless someone deliberately chooses to reject it. The "sin of ignorance" is easily forgivable and really isn't a thing for God. He'll still reach out and make Himself known in ways the person can understand and accept.
     We are saved by the charity of God through belief by means of Jesus Christ. God has given this charity to every human being whether they know it or not, and it only takes some kind of recognition that there is something there to make use of in order to make use of it.

The Way is a Discipline

The Way of Jesus Christ is a discipline. It is not a "practice once and you're set for life" thing.
     What do I mean by it being a discipline? Kung Fu is a discipline, but what is interesting about the term in Chinese is that it doesn't just apply to martial arts, but it can apply to any skill which someone has diligently studied and mastered. In Kung Fu, one takes a single movement or set of movements and repeats them over and over again. This movement or set of movements can be practiced a hundred times, a thousand times, or countless times. In truth, the practitioner never stops practicing. A good example is the Karate Kid remake where Dre is made to practice the motions of picking up his jacket and hanging it on a hook day in and day out by his Sifu, Mr. Han. It seems pointlessly repetitive to Dre and he becomes angry that Mr. Han hasn't taught him anything about Kung Fu. It is then that his Sifu walks him through each motion, showing him how the movements of a simple act of picking up his jacket and putting it on the hook translate into a full set of defensive blocks which his body is now employing without thought. A single movement or set of movements practiced over and over again until they are automatic, and then continued to be practiced after that.
     This is what is meant by the Way of Jesus Christ being a discipline. It is meant to be a "Kung Fu" practice. It is the single internal movement of disengaging from one's own self-originated responses and the submitting to and cooperating with the responses, actions, and words originating with the Spirit of Christ. It is to be practiced over and over and over again "ad infinitum." It is to be practiced until it is performed without conscious thought, and then it is to be continued to be practiced. If the practitioner makes a mistake, they are to recognized the mistake, or be shown the mistake, and then make the correction and continue practicing. One motion, submission to the Spirit of Christ, over and over and over again.

The Way of Jesus Christ

 What is The Way of Jesus Christ? I've written about it a lot, but what is it?
     Put simply, the Way or Path of Jesus Christ is voluntary submission to the Spirit of Christ with whom we are joined just as Jesus Christ voluntarily submitted to His Father with whom He is joined. It is the voluntary and intentional disengagement from one's own internal survival responses of fear, aggression, feeding, and the sexual drive and the voluntary engagement of the Spirit of Christ to respond, act, and speak through that person. In the New Testament, it is also called by John "remaining in or making one's home in Christ," and by Paul "walking in the Spirit." In so doing, the person following the Way remains connected through the Spirit of Christ to Christ and thus also to each and every other person who is also following the Way. One who is following the Way will manifest and demonstrate the person and power of Jesus Christ in their words and actions because it is Jesus Christ doing it through them just as the Head of a body is the one acting through the arm, leg, or mouth. In this way, the person will be demonstrating love in every action and word, as well as what Paul descibed as the "fruit of the Spirit;" joy, peace, patience, kindness, courtesy, trust, and self-control because these are the personal qualities of Jesus Christ. The person following the Way of Jesus Christ has no need for rules and regulations to censor his words or actions because he or she will not do anything to harm another person, but will only act in love towards the other person, no matter who it is.
      What the Way is not: the Way of Jesus Christ is not a set of rules, commandments, or religious regulations or traditions. It is not a certain set of theologies about God, the creation of the world, or political positions. The Way has nothing to do with any of these things. It's position on God is experiential and assumed. It's teaching on Jesus Christ is that He was born fully human while also joined as One with God His Father, of a virgin, lived and taught until He was crucified in 33 CE, was entombed, and then rose from the dead on the third day. Forty days later He ascended into the sky while on the road to Bethany across the Jordan. These things which His first disciples experienced ("what our eyes have seen, our ears have heard, and our hands have handled") are the only "theological teachings" which really matter to the Way.
     When someone practicing the Way re-engages with their own responses of fear, aggression, feeding, and so on, their connection with the Spirit of Christ is disengaged and they no longer produce or manifest Jesus Christ in their words or actions. They are still joined to the Spirit of Christ, but are choosing not to engage. In this case, they will begin to act and speak in fear, aggression, and so on, producing angry outbursts, lack of faith or trust, possibly thefts, discord with others, selfishness, and so on as Paul recorded what he called the "works of the flesh." The contrast will become clear, and there may be no warning as to the disengagement from the Spirit of Christ. When this occurs, the person may be ignorant of it and unable to see the contrast. Others who are still practicing the Way should point the contrast out to them. All this person need to do is acknowledge what has happened and return to following the Way. All errors committed while disengaged from the Spirit of Christ are seen equally, and equally dismissed once the Spirit of Christ has been re-engaged.
     The Way of Jesus Christ deals, not with the consequences of our errors, but the source of them and provides a way that those errors would not be committed in the first place as the Spirit of Christ is the One in control, and not the person's own responses.
     The Way of Jesus Christ is defined by love, kindness, and compassion, and where these are not found, then neither is the Way. The person who hates another cannot be a follower of the Way in that moment. The person engaged with Jealousy, hatred, cruelty, malice, lies, and so on cannot be a follower of the Way in that moment. The person engaged with greed and hoarding possessions cannot be a follower of the Way in that moment. The response of a follower of the Way is always to heal and never to harm. The follower of the Way is defined by "walking as He walked" and "living as He taught."
     To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to be a follower of the Way. To believe in Jesus Christ is to be a follower of the Way. How can you believe in someone you refuse to listen to? How can you be a disciple of someone you refuse to imitate?
     This is the Way of Jesus Christ.

The Terms of the New Covenant

The terms of the New Covenant are simple, but they are not what is commonly published. The terms of the New Covenant were laid out at the Last Supper when Jesus took the Bread and Wine, consecrated them, and declared them His body and blood which would seal the contract.
They are as follows:

"Make your home in Me, and I within you. Just like the branch can't bear fruit from itself if it doesn't make its home in the vine, so neither you if you don't make your home within Me. I am the vine, you the branches. This person making his home within Me and I within him bears a lot of fruit, because separated from Me you can't do anything at all. If anyone doesn't make his home within Me, he is tossed outside like the branch and is dried up and they collect them and toss them into the fire and they are burned. If you make your home within Me and My words make their home within you, you will ask whatever you would wish, and it will happen for you."

     That's it. That's the terms of the New Covenant as declared at its signing, so to speak. They aren't "believe in Me," but "remain in Me," "Make your home within Me," "Stay put within Me."
     Just like with the Old Covenant, there are natural consequences for not keeping its terms. Jesus illustrated these consequences with the analogy of a vine branch. As long as the branch is connected to and remains in its vine, it receives the life of the vine and can produce fruit. But it if it broken off or cut from the vine, it can no longer produce fruit, or do anything at all. Instead, it dries up and is fit for nothing but to be burned.
     The same is true of Paul's illustration of the Body where Christ is the Head. As long as the members of the body are joined to the Head, they can function. But if they are separated from the Head, dismembered, they can do nothing but sit there as dead flesh.
     The New Covenant isn't strictly about God dealing with the consequences of our mistakes and wrongdoing, but dealing with the source of the mistakes and wrongdoing. As long as we make our home in Jesus Christ, cooperating with the Spirit of Christ and submitting to it instead of our own malfunctioning neurology, then the life and presence of Jesus Christ manifests within and through us, enabling us to not produce the errors of that malfunctioning flesh, as well as enabling His powers and presence, because it is He who is acting and speaking through us. But when we stop cooperating and succumb to our own fear, aggression, or bodily cravings, then we cut ourselves off from the Head, and the natural consequences begin to kick in.
     The problems in the churches today stem from not keeping the terms of the contract, and even misrepresenting them. It was never about forgiveness. Jesus said every sin and blasphemy would be forgiven human beings except one. Forgiveness was the least of God's concerns. Rather it was about dealing with the problem itself, the source of our errors. 

Thoughts on Titus 3

I finished the raw translation of Titus last week (I think; the days tend to blur together on the farm). The last chapter of Paul's letter to his friend has been rattling around in my mind since, so I cleaned up the raw translation a little:

    " Remind them to be subordinate to the head authorities, to obey the one in authority, to be prepared towards every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be pacifists, tolerant, demonstrating every courtesy towards all human beings. Because we also were at one time without intellect, unconvinced, being made to wander off, being enslaved to desires and many different kinds of sensual pleasures, going through life with badness and envy, hated, hating one another. Yet when God our deliverer’s kindness and affection for human beings was manifested, He delivered us, not by works from a right state of being which originated with us, but, in line with His mercy, through the bath of rebirth and renewing of the Holy Breath, which He began pouring out upon us abundantly through Yeshua the Anointed our deliverer, so that having been made right by the charity of that One we became heirs in line with the hope of the life of eternity.
     The message is trustworthy; and about these things I would for you to insist on, so that those having trusted in God are mindful of good works to set them in front; these things are good and assistive to human beings. Yet avoid moronic searchings and genealogies and discords and legal battles; because they are disadvantageous and empty. Avert a factionalist human being by entreaty after one or the second warning, knowing that a person such as this has been turned aside and errs being self-condemned.
     When I would send Artemas to you or Tukhikos, be quick to come to me at Nikopolis, because I have decided to spend the winter there. Send Zenas the lawyer and Apollos ahead quickly, so that nothing would be lacking for them. And let those of ours also learn to set good works in front for the necessary needs, so that they wouldn’t be fruitless.
     All those with me embrace you. Embrace those who have affection for us with the faith. Charity with all of you."

     In the first paragraph Paul instructs Titus to emphasize right behavior among the Christians in Crete more than anything else while being pacifists and tolerant of everyone else's errors and mistakes, because it wasn't that long ago that the Christians were just like everyone else, and it is only because of God's charity towards them through Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Christ that they themselves can do anything that is right, not from any kind of keeping a moral code or keeping the commands of the Law. That is, it has nothing to do with their own rightness, but the change in origin of their behaviors to the Spirit of Christ.
     In the second paragraph, and what has been rattling around in my mind in particular, is where he says explicitly that those having trusted in God, that is, having cooperated with the Spirit of Christ for their right behaviors, are to be mindful of these good works or right behaviors first and foremost. They are to keep these out front. Whereas everything else, what he calls "moronic searchings, genealogies, discords, and legal battles" are to be avoided. More to the point, anyone who tries to create or perpetuate factions (likely based on the above searchings, geneaologies, discords, and legal battles) is just off. That is, he's wandered off the Path of Jesus Christ, and is in error and as such must be averted or avoided.  That is, if he is no longer living as Jesus taught, and walking as He walked, then he is no longer in communion and must be removed until he comes to his senses. This is how serious factionalism is.
      As Paul describes it, the unity of a church or The Church cannot be based on these searchings or investigations, genealogies, arguments, discords, or the "legal battles" (lit. Greek), which likely referred to the endless fights over what the Torah does and does not say (What other Law would they be battling over?). Much like the endless fights modern Christians have over Bible verses which appear contradictory when taken out of context.
     No, the unity of the church must be based on the personal cooperation with and submission to the Spirit of Christ as displayed in their behaviors, and most specifically, the fruit of the Spirit which Paul laid out in Galatians 5, that is, love (which Jesus specifically taught and commanded every possible way), joy, peace, patience, kindness, courtesy, trust, self-control, and so on. The unity of the church must be based on the members of that church manifesting and demonstrating Jesus Christ through their words and behaviors. The unity of the church must be based on the God who is love being expressed and yes, channeled, through them. Not on what they profess to believe about things in spiritual realms which they have neither seen nor heard, not on which Bible translation they prefer, not on their political party or position (which can be the very definition of hairesis, "heresy"), but only and solely on their union with and manifestation of Jesus Christ. Because it is only as we maintain connection with the head who is Jesus Christ that we have unity with one another, just as the unity of the members of a body comes from their connection with the head or brain through the system of nerves. If there is no connection with Jesus Christ maintained, then there is no unity of the body of Christ either, no matter how much someone tries to base that unity on creeds, doctrines, books, or whatever else they try to distinguish their faction with.
     Paul, from the beginning of his letter to Titus through to the end, was instructing him to not only find people to lead the gathering of Christians there who understood this principle and could teach it, but who practiced it and could be seen manifesting Jesus Christ by everyone. This understanding of remaining in Christ, connected to the head, had to be firmly ingrained in the members of that community before Titus' work was done and he could head for Nikopolis to meet up with Paul.