Titus 2: 11-15
(11) For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
God never wanted anyone to be lost and destroyed; He made the human race to be His family, but He gave us a choice to want to love Him back. When Jesus came and fulfilled His first mission, the door was thrown open to every person to be able to seek Him and find Him, no matter who they are.
(12) instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
God's grace teaches us to turn away from the life we once lived in the world, and the hedonistic passions that ruled it then. Get rid of all the negative, then pay attention to the positive, looking in three directions: living sensibly, the inward, self-controlled; righteously, the outward uprightness that every believer should show to the world; and godly, upward reverence and devoted obedience to our loving God.
(13) looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,
This "glorious appearing" of our Savior is our present and constant expectation, always ready for His calling us out to Himself. This is our settled hope and goal of everything we are doing every day we live here as God's children. It is the reason for all we do, whether we're going to work or fixing dinner for the family or sharing with our neighbors what we have been blessed with. Everything we do is to bring God the glory for enabling us to do it. Without Him we can do nothing.
This verse also brings out the deity of Christ, as the Lord God of the Old Testament.
(14) who
gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify
for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
God the Son who had been given Lordship by the Father, gave the Law to Moses and the prophesies to the prophets, so we would recognize Him when He came to fulfill them. And He left His glory and became a Man, and as a human, submitted himself to the humiliation of Crucifixion, taking on Himself to pay our debt we owe, so that He could cleanse us with God's own blood sprinkled on the sides of His altar, the Cross, purifying and sanitizing us of all the disease of sin and rebellion. And He also purchased us all to belong to Him.
Those who also have submitted themselves to Him are the ones who are cleansed, so that He could live in us by His Holy Spirit, teaching us His ways and empowering us to do His will, to accomplish all the good things He wants done as His hands and feet. And He will give us the rewards for the good deeds He is doing in and through us.
(15) These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.
Paul tells Titus that he has the authority to boldly do these three things all in the present imperative:
--to speak, to teach, to proclaim the message; and
--to exhort, to encourage hearers to appropriate and practice it; and
--to reprove, to rebuke and convict those who are slack or fail to respond.
As the apostolic representative of Paul in Crete, Titus must let no one disregard you, or despise or look down on or belittle his message and authority; or be slighted or disdainfully rejected.
Since this letter was to be read in the churches, the remark was apparently intended as much for the Cretans as for Titus himself.
As I see it, Titus was like a bishop over all the churches in Crete, although this term is never applied to him in Scripture. Paul wanted him to appoint the local pastors over each assembly, and to oversee that they would all be preaching the pure Gospel to the congregations.
If they were ships, he would be the admiral over all the captains. Is this not the role of a bishop in the church?
As all the Epistles were to be read in all the churches to all the members of the congregations, then even we as parishioners in the pews need to know all of these things so that we can determine if we are sitting in the right assembly that will teach us the Pure Truth.
So many of our denominations have diluted the Word, denied crucial points and added in many of man's ideas instead of God's ways. We each need to know what we believe and why we believe it, so that we can discern if our leaders are leading us into that narrow path or out into some byway that leads away from God's path for us.
This is our personal responsibility. When we face Him at the Pearly Gates, He won't take the excuse that "it's what I've been taught!"
This is why I share this blog with everyone, for free. We all need to know the Truth, and if I put out here anything that you think is not according to God's Pure Truth, please call me on it! Comment your sources and I promise I will do further research.
I claim no authority as a teacher. I'm sharing what God is teaching me through His Word by His Holy Spirit who lives in me. But I am still human, and vulnerable to listen to my own heart, that lies to me.
O my Father, I pray for Your church. I pray for Your children all over the world, that they would know Your presence and Your Word, to discern whenever some teacher is teaching in error or in truth. To enable them to discern that their teachers are disseminating Your Truth, without adding in anything else, and without ignoring any part of it.
O Father, please let every one of Your children discern whenever some teacher is twisting something You have said, to make it mean something that You never intended to say. Give us boldness to call out that teacher, and share Your Pure Truth with him or her, and if they will not listen, then to exclude them from having any more influence on God's church.
Or to leave that erring congregation and find one that is true to Your Truth, Father.
My Father, please protect Your children from being influenced by the Enemy and his minions, and draw all of your embryonic babies to their birth into Your family.
Father, embolden Your sons and daughters to declare to the world Your Pure Word of Truth, so that every living person will hear and understand clearly to make a free and informed decision to choose You or to reject Your gracious and generous gift.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, please come quickly, Lord Jesus!
