Friday, December 10, 2010
Titus 2:12-13
Friday, December 10, 2010 |
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;
The portion for our reading today is one of my favorite writings of the Apostle Paul. Once again, as is the case with young Timothy, another young man comes alongside the experienced minister, Paul.
Young Titus will also be used to travel to the churches across the then known world to help build them in the faith. Paul has given Titus the instruction and information to take to these churches. These were churches that would benefit from the help needed to build their local churches.
This second chapter of Titus is further instruction for how individual members of these local churches should be involved in this church ministry, a church ministry that will develop the proper church leadership.
Always remember that these are new churches with a team of new leaders who actually do need to know how to build new churches. You can imagine that if these "pastoral epistles" are so needed for church leadership today, how much more important in the first century.
Paul gives Titus the instructions for the aged men and women in these new congregations as well as the young men and women of these churches. This instruction is applicable to those same people in our churches today and is found in verses 2-6.
There is much more in this chapter to appropriate for our own edification, but before I close, let's look at two more verses - verses 12 and 13 .
Paul, in these two very profound verses, tells us to lay aside some activities and to live others. The apostle tells Titus to lay aside ungodliness and worldly lusts, which is negative. Then Paul goes positive when he tells Titus to live soberly, righteously, and Godly. If you stop to think about this it is pretty hard to lay aside that which is wrong and live that which is right.
However, here is the part I love the best. Paul tells us how to do that which he told Titus to do. We can "lay aside" that which is wrong and "live" that which is right by "looking" for the "blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ". The "blessed hope" is the Rapture of the true believers in the church here on earth.
These two verses indicate to us that Godly living is produced in our lives by focusing on the future. We can focus better on the future and His call for us to join Him in the heavens as we look at current events in light of Biblical prophecy. A good knowledge of Bible prophecy comes with a committed study of the prophetic passages in His Word.
PRAYER THOT: Help me, Lord, to study Your word so that I have the understanding of the parallel between current events and Bible prophecy so that I can eagerly look for the blessed hope.
For further study - Titus 2:1-15
The portion for our reading today is one of my favorite writings of the Apostle Paul. Once again, as is the case with young Timothy, another young man comes alongside the experienced minister, Paul.
Young Titus will also be used to travel to the churches across the then known world to help build them in the faith. Paul has given Titus the instruction and information to take to these churches. These were churches that would benefit from the help needed to build their local churches.
This second chapter of Titus is further instruction for how individual members of these local churches should be involved in this church ministry, a church ministry that will develop the proper church leadership.
Always remember that these are new churches with a team of new leaders who actually do need to know how to build new churches. You can imagine that if these "pastoral epistles" are so needed for church leadership today, how much more important in the first century.
Paul gives Titus the instructions for the aged men and women in these new congregations as well as the young men and women of these churches. This instruction is applicable to those same people in our churches today and is found in verses 2-6.
There is much more in this chapter to appropriate for our own edification, but before I close, let's look at two more verses - verses 12 and 13 .
Paul, in these two very profound verses, tells us to lay aside some activities and to live others. The apostle tells Titus to lay aside ungodliness and worldly lusts, which is negative. Then Paul goes positive when he tells Titus to live soberly, righteously, and Godly. If you stop to think about this it is pretty hard to lay aside that which is wrong and live that which is right.
However, here is the part I love the best. Paul tells us how to do that which he told Titus to do. We can "lay aside" that which is wrong and "live" that which is right by "looking" for the "blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ". The "blessed hope" is the Rapture of the true believers in the church here on earth.
These two verses indicate to us that Godly living is produced in our lives by focusing on the future. We can focus better on the future and His call for us to join Him in the heavens as we look at current events in light of Biblical prophecy. A good knowledge of Bible prophecy comes with a committed study of the prophetic passages in His Word.
PRAYER THOT: Help me, Lord, to study Your word so that I have the understanding of the parallel between current events and Bible prophecy so that I can eagerly look for the blessed hope.