Titus 2 The Message
A God-Filled Life
2 1-6 Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives.
7-8 But mostly, show them all this by doing it yourself, trustworthy in your teaching, your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around.
9-10 Guide slaves into being loyal workers, a bonus to their masters—no back talk, no petty thievery. Then their good character will shine through their actions, adding luster to the teaching of our Savior God.
11-14 God’s readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation’s available for everyone! We’re being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.
15 Tell them all this. Build up their courage, and discipline them if they get out of line. You’re in charge. Don’t let anyone put you down.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Today, we seek, explore, the concept of Kingdom Leadership, emphasizing the importance of our view of God, our view of the empty tomb and the place of the Holy Spirit of God in influencing our actions, decisions, and leadership styles.
Let me begin this devotional by quoting a thought from one of the most respected Christian leaders and authors, Reverend Dr. A.W. Tozer.
He said, “A low view of God is the cause of a hundred lesser evils, but a high view of God is the solution to ten thousand temporal problems.”
It’s simple, y’all! Our view of God, how we perceive and understand Him, largely influences our actions, decisions, and leadership styles.
Today, we’re going to delve deep into the concept of Kingdom Leadership as outlined in Apostle Paul’s letter to Titus, particularly this text Titus 2:1-15.
This passage speaks volumes about the call to Kingdom Leadership, the character of Kingdom leaders, and the impact of Kingdom Leadership.
And today, we will seek to unpack some of these kingdom building truths and see how, in the vast complexities of today we can try to apply them in our lives.
The Call to Kingdom Leadership
The covenant call to Kingdom Leadership is a divine invitation that every single believer receives upon their baptism.
It is not a covenant call into any single position or into any single title, but a call into a radical lifestyle of influence and impact that reflects the Kingdom of God.
This call, as Paul outlines in his letter to Titus, is not exclusive to a select few but is extended to every believer, regardless of age, gender, or social status.
Titus 2:1-6 The Message
A God-Filled Life
2 1-6 Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives.
Teach what accords with sound doctrine:
This is the first aspect of the call to Kingdom Leadership.
It is a call to align our lives and teachings with the truth of God’s Word.
As Kingdom Leaders, we are not just called to know the Word, but to live it out in our daily lives. (2 Corinthians 3:1-6 The Message)
3 1-3 Does it sound like we’re patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our credentials, asserting our authority? Well, we’re not. Neither do we need letters of endorsement, either to you or from you. You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it.
4-6 We couldn’t be more sure of ourselves in this—that you, written by Christ himself for God, are our letter of recommendation. We wouldn’t think of writing this kind of letter about ourselves. Only God can write such a letter. His letter authorizes us to help carry out this new plan of action. The plan wasn’t written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing your spirit. It’s written with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives!
We are called to be living epistles, (2 Corinthians 3:1-6) known and read by all men meaning our lives should be a reflection of the sound doctrine we profess.
The call to mentorship and discipleship:
In Titus 2 verses 2 to 4, Paul gives specific instructions to the older men and women in the church.
They are to live lives of dignity, self-control, faith, love, and steadfastness.
But they are not just to live these lives for themselves.
They are to teach and train the younger ones in the church to do the same.
This is a call to intentional discipleship – Kingdom Leaders are called to invest in the lives of others, to mentor and disciple them in the ways of the Kingdom.
Titus 2:7-10 The Message
7-8 But mostly, show them all this by doing it yourself, trustworthy in your teaching, your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around.
9-10 Guide slaves into being loyal workers, a bonus to their masters—no back talk, no petty thievery. Then their good character will shine through their actions, adding luster to the teaching of our Savior God.
The call to exemplary living:
In verse 7, Paul instructs Titus to show himself in all respects to be a model of good works.
Kingdom Leaders are called to lead by example.
They are to live lives that are worthy of emulation.
Their actions, words, and attitudes should reflect the character of Christ.
The call to integrity and dignity:
In verse 8, Paul instructs Titus to show integrity, dignity, and sound speech in his teaching.
Kingdom Leaders are called to be people of integrity.
They are to be honest, trustworthy, and reliable.
They are to uphold the dignity that comes with being children of God.
Their speech should be sound, wholesome, and edifying.
The call to servanthood:
In verse 9, Paul instructs the bondservants to be submissive to their masters, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, to embrace integrity, show all good faith.
Kingdom Leaders are called to be servant leaders and servants.
They are to lead by “getting their hands and feet dirty in the soils of God’s Kingdom,” serving others, just as Christ came not to be served, but to serve. (Matthew 13, Mark 4, Luke 8)
For Today’s Church: Models of Christian Maturity
Titus 2:1-6 GOD’S WORD Translation
Guidelines for Christian Living
2 Tell believers to live the kind of life that goes along with accurate teachings. 2 Tell older men to be sober. Tell them to be men of good character, to use good judgment, and to be well-grounded in faith, love, and endurance.
3 Tell older women to live their lives in a way that shows they are dedicated to God. Tell them not to be gossips or addicted to alcohol, but to be examples of virtue. 4 In this way they will teach young women to show love to their husbands and children, 5 to use good judgment, and to be morally pure. Also, tell them to teach young women to be homemakers, to be kind, and to place themselves under their husbands’ authority. Then no one can speak evil of God’s word.
6 Encourage young men to use good judgment.
When life gets difficult, you won’t need a three-ring binder full of notes or a self-help guide to life.
No, you’ll need an arm around your shoulder.
You’ll need the tender eyes of an older mature Christian who understands.
You’ll need compassion.
Such ministry in a church is not programmatic; it is relational.
It is as a result of knowing people.
It is a result of being able to open up to people.
This is why every church needs older men and older women who are marked by maturity, who are not “going through the motions,” or coasting but growing in faith toward God, in love toward others, in steadfastness in the face of trials.
Paul writes to all churches that Titus’s role in the congregation to which he ministered was to encourage and exhort the older men to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, merciful, and forgiving and healthy in their faith.
He was to be no less concerned, but equally attentive, equally mindful, equally respectful, with the spiritual growth, and health of the church’s older women.
Just as older men have a significant role in the day to day life of a developing congregation, so too are the ministries of older women, being absolutely vital.
Churches need older men and women that have run the race and who have kept the faith to model for younger generations what it looks like to live for Christ.
The church needs older men and women because they can “teach what is good and wise and edifying” to those up and coming generations who are younger.
The teaching here is lifestyle teaching before it is any other kind of teaching.
When Paul wrote these words, he wasn’t anticipating any classroom setting with any textbooks.
This kind of lifestyle instruction takes place in the home, casual yet intentional conversations, as well as arranged meetings, and simply in rubbing shoulders with one another in our daily life, recognizing invaluable teaching opportunity.
Where are you going to go when, for example your marriage begins to struggle?
Who are you going to talk to when your teenager goes into the dreaded “I don’t ever want to talk to you again” mode?
Where will you turn when you don’t know where to turn?
You can seek out marriage professionals, You can visit and take counsel with your pastor, who can pray with you and give you some guidance, but you’ll also require an older man or woman who has walked on the same path and can say,
“Let me tell you how I lived through it. Let me tell you what I did. Let me tell you how I prayed. Let me tell you about the grace of God. Let me encourage you.”
Most of us can be such an “older man” or “older woman” to someone of a younger age and earlier stage in life than us.
Intentionally, even “unintentionally”, accidently stumble into some younger persons moment, accidently, on purpose, make yourself available in this way.
And most of us can find someone older and wiser than us and ask them to pray with us, counsel us, and be there for us – to intentionally seek out that kind of friendship, for it is one of the greatest blessings that the church of God gives us.
For the Next Generation: Giving The Gift of Hope
Titus 2:11-14 GOD’S WORD Translation
11 After all, God’s saving kindness [a] has appeared for the benefit of all people. 12 It trains us to avoid ungodly lives filled with worldly desires so that we can live self-controlled, moral, and godly lives in this present world. 13 At the same time we can expect what we hope for—the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 14 He gave himself for us to set us free from every sin and to cleanse us so that we can be his special people who are enthusiastic about doing good things.
In his short letter to Titus, a pastor on the island of Crete, the apostle Paul emphasizes how we are to live between Christ’s first and second comings.
Paul touches on many of the matters of living into, edifying God’s kingdom.
He says “our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities, not live unproductive lives” (Titus 3:14).
To help us stay on course in our Christian living, Paul also reminds us of a great gift we have each been given through Christ’s coming-namely, the gift of hope.
Because of this precious gift, this invaluable treasure chest of hope, we are each able to press on as God’s people, “eager to do what is right and good” in spite of the many complex obstacles and difficulties we face in our day-to-day lives.
Let us rejoice, and, as children of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, let us intentionally live in such a way that no generation will despise us.
May our generational lives always seek to bring utmost praise and glory to our Lord and Savior , whose coming we all look forward to with eager anticipation.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 16 GOD’S WORD Translation
A miktam [a] by David.
16 Protect me, O God, because I take refuge in you.
2 I said to the Lord,
“You are my Lord. Without you, I have nothing good.”
3 Those who lead holy lives on earth
are the noble ones who fill me with joy.
4 Those who quickly chase after other gods multiply their sorrows.
I will not pour out their sacrificial offerings of blood
or use my lips to speak their names.
5 The Lord is my inheritance and my cup.
You are the one who determines my destiny.
6 Your boundary lines mark out pleasant places for me.
Indeed, my inheritance is something beautiful.
7 I will praise the Lord, who advises me.
My conscience warns me at night.
8 I always keep the Lord in front of me.
When he is by my side, I cannot be moved.
9 That is why my heart is glad and my soul rejoices.
My body rests securely
10 because you do not abandon my soul to the grave
or allow your holy one to decay.
11 You make the path of life known to me.
Complete joy is in your presence.
Pleasures are by your side forever.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 