Sunday, March 9, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Titus 1-2
Key Verse
Titus 1:16 — “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.”
Devotional Thought
Paul writes to Titus, his “own son after the common faith,” and leaves him on the island of Crete with a task that would try any pastor’s patience: “set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city.” Crete was no gentle assignment. Paul quotes one of the Cretians’ own prophets—likely Epimenides—who described his countrymen as “alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies,” and Paul, rather than softening the charge, confirms it: “This witness is true.” Into that culture of deceit and appetite, Titus must raise up blameless men, “holding fast the faithful word,” whose lives match their doctrine. The qualifications Paul lists are not dazzling gifts but plain, steady godliness: not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, a lover of hospitality. In a lying land, the elder’s first sermon is his character.
Then chapter two turns from the overseer’s office to the household of faith, and Paul addresses every season of life. Aged men are to be sober and sound in faith. Aged women are to teach good things, and to teach the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be discreet and chaste, “keepers at home.” Young men are exhorted to be sober minded. Servants are to show “all good fidelity,” that they may “adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.” Notice the refrain: the word of God must not be blasphemed; the doctrine must be adorned. The gospel is not merely proclaimed in Crete—it is displayed in ordinary homes, in the way old women speak and young men carry themselves and workers do their work.
And underneath all this human effort lies something far greater. “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.” Grace is not a license but a teacher. It trains us here and now, even as we look “for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” The same Christ “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
We read this in early March, as winter loosens its grip and Lent presses us toward the cross and empty tomb. The season suits Paul’s word “teaching.” Grace is at work in us the way spring works on frozen ground—slowly, surely, bringing life out of what looked dead. Perhaps you are not a pastor setting churches in order, but you are someone’s example: an older believer, a parent, a worker, a neighbor. Someone is watching how you speak, how you love, how you labor. The doctrine of God our Saviour is adorned or disfigured by lives like ours. May this Lent find us sober minded, zealous of good works, looking for the blessed hope.
Reflection
- Paul says grace “teaching us” to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts—where in your daily habits is grace currently schooling you, and are you submitting to the lesson?
- In your home, work, or church, who is watching your example, and does your conduct “adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour” or give the contrary part something to say against you?
Prayer
Our Father, we thank Thee for the grace that hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men and teaching us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Forgive us for the times our works have denied what our lips professed. Make us, like Titus, faithful in the places where Thou hast set us, setting in order what is wanting and holding fast the faithful word. Teach the aged among us to be sound in faith and charity; teach the young to be sober minded. Purify unto Thyself a peculiar people, zealous of good works, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us. Amen.