In the Christian community and the home

Titus 1:1–4 NIV

1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness—2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3 and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior, 4 To Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

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Teach

Titus 2:1 “1 You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.”

Titus 2:2 “2 Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.”

Titus 2:3 “3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good.”

Titus 2:7–8 “7 In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8 and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.”

Titus 2:15 “15 These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.”

Titus 2:11–12 NIV

11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,

The grace of God… undeserved favour, generosity

Appeared… personifying grace, but Paul isn’t just personifying grace, like we talk about nature… mother nature. No the grace of God is Jesus Christ. Jesus is grace

John 1:14 “14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Ephesians 2:8 “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—”

Acts 4:12 “12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.””

offers salvation… bringing salvation

Titus 2:11 CSB

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,

for all people?

for all ‘kinds of people’… men, women, older, younger, slave, master, wealthy, poor… jew, gentile, australian, indonesian… etc.

Have you received God’s grace? His gift to you? Have you trusted in Jesus, full of grace and truth, receiving salvation?

Are you sure of your salvation? Are you certain that when you stand before the Lord he will welcome you?

But in light of this passage, has the grace of God had an impact on your life? To change you? To teach you, or instruct you?

Titus 2:11–12 NIV

11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,

The grace of God teaches or instructs us in how we ought to live!

Summary

Godliness

Let’s reread the instructions for godliness…

Three things:

Paul has in mind general has in mind general concerns for godliness among God’s people;

Paul also has specific concerns for a specific time and place; and

Our culture brings it’s own baggage that we need to own up to, repent of, and replace with godly living… drunkeness, greed (covered by security), selfish living, idolising pleasure, leisure, and comfort, a sexualised world, an “as long as I am doing no harm to others” attitude.

While we read, are their things here you need to work on in response to God’s grace?

Titus 2:2–10 CSB

2 Older men are to be self-controlled, worthy of respect, sensible, and sound in faith, love, and endurance. 3 In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not slaves to excessive drinking. They are to teach what is good, 4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, workers at home, kind, and in submission to their husbands, so that God’s word will not be slandered. 6 In the same way, encourage the young men to be self-controlled 7 in everything. Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. 8 Your message is to be sound beyond reproach, so that any opponent will be ashamed, because he doesn’t have anything bad to say about us. 9 Slaves are to submit to their masters in everything, and to be well-pleasing, not talking back 10 or stealing, but demonstrating utter faithfulness, so that they may adorn the teaching of God our Savior in everything.

Why live a Godly life?

We wait for the return of Jesus who has purified us (14) - waiting can be difficult, waiting brings temptation, waiting brings destraction… but we must remember Jesus while we wait, we must remember that he died to redeem us from wickedness and to purify us… we must remember that:

We were created to do good (14) - we weren’t saved just to ignore God, we weren’t saved to live however we like, we were saved for a purpose, we were saved as part of a plan to transform us and the world, we were saved to do good… to live as our creator has designed us, to live for his glory and our good… we live godly lives because of:

God’s reputation (5) - Each time we give in to sin, each time we have a loose word, each time we go along in comfort doing as Aussies do, we put at jeopardy the reputation of our glorious God. People do malign him calling him a fairytale, calling him a war monger, calling him untrustworthy, calling him a mere tool of oppression… people malign God and his word, because of our behaviour. The Lord doesn’t want his name dragged through the mud by his people; no He was us to be like him, he wants us to consider:

The spiritual well being of others (8,10) - the Christian life is about putting off and putting on, it is about adorning the gospel, it is about living in such a way that the gospel becomes attracted to the outsider, they may even be convicted of their sin; but the prayer is that they woudl have the hope as we do, the same faith as we do, and the same love that we do… all in the Lord Jesus Christ. Is this your hope and prayer for those around you?

We have a great teacher, which is the grace of God,

Titus 2:12–14 “12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”