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For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Titus 2:11-14
In part one of this article we saw that God has a plan for man and that the first phase of that plan is to save us. This month we will look at the second phase of God’s plan. Not only does God desire to save us, but in verse 12 we find out that he also wants to:
This verse basically breaks quite easily and teaches us some key thoughts when it comes to separation. To many of our modern day believers separation is a dirty word. Far to many have the attitude that we can live however, dress however and entertain ourselves however we so choose. All that this mentality does is make it harder to reach people with the Gospel. Everyone’s favorite excuse for why they don’t want to come to your church is that “the church is full of hypocrites”. The reason for this is that we profess a change, claim to be different and yet we look and act like the rest of the world. II Corinthians 5:17 tell us “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” And then consider Romans 12:1,2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” When we consider this mater of separation and ponder verse 12 it is clear that there are things we shouldn’t do, things we should do, and a reason for all of this.
1) Things we shouldn’t do.
“denying ungodliness and worldly lusts” The
fact that we are to deny these things bears witness to the fact that there is
within us a desire or an inclination toward wrong doing. This is our flesh
(often referred to as the old man, or the sin nature). This is the reason for
the inner turmoil and struggle that goes on inside of every believer every day.
There are those that believe it is possible to attain sinless perfection this
side of heaven, but this is not possible. The Apostle Paul was arguably the
best Christian that ever lived but the Scriptures bear record that he wrestled
with many of the same things we do “For I know that
in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present
with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I
would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Romans 7:18,19)
If Paul had flesh problems then it makes
sense that we will have flesh problems. This is why we need to learn to deny
ungodliness and worldly lusts.
2) Things we should do , we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; We should be sober (serious), righteous & godly. This is what the world needs to see and what our churches desperately need. Christians who are different from the world, honest and above board in their actions and dealings, and focused on the things of God.
3) Then lastly there is a reason why we should do these things. That is where verse 13 comes in which is where we will pick up next month.