Deeds

Reading Titus recently as I read through the Bible -- Paul tells Titus that there is something needed. In the 46 verses of the book, Paul is explicit at least four times in that there is a need for "deeds" (2: 6, 14; 3: 8, 14). He says there needs to be deeds done to supply a need and as an example to others. Today we often refer to this idea as "deed ministry" or, sometimes, as "mercy ministry." I'm reminded of the mercy ministry conference I attended not long ago. I took sort of a crash course that weekend, also reading a few books on the subject. I had been involved in different occasions of deed or mercy ministry, but this was a time for study in the philosophy or theology of the concept. And I remember the case that Tim Keller makes in his classic text, Ministries of Mercy, The Call of the Jericho Road: in virtually every face-to-face that Jesus had with anyone outside his small group of disciples, He performed a deed ministry and then followed with words. Check it out. He set the example by meeting the physical need first.