Monday, March 9, 2026
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 sounds simple and is anything but: set in order the things that are wanting. Crete was no quiet parish. Paul quotes one of the Cretians’ own prophets—likely the poet Epimenides—calling them alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies, and then says, flatly, this witness is true. Into that culture Titus must ordain elders in every city: men who are blameless, the husband of one wife, not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine or filthy lucre, but lovers of hospitality and good men. The qualifications are not chiefly about charisma or cleverness. They are about a life that can be trusted.
Notice where Paul grounds all of this. Before a single instruction about elders, he speaks of the hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. The God who cannot lie is building a people who do not lie. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Paul says in chapter 2, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. Doctrine and daily conduct are not two subjects in Titus; they are one. Sound doctrine produces sober lives. That is why Paul moves so naturally from elders to aged men and aged women, from young men to servants, addressing every season of life with the same logic: the word of God must not be blasphemed, and the doctrine of God our Saviour must be adorned.
We read this in early March, when winter is loosening its grip and the church calendar turns our faces toward the cross and the empty tomb. Lent is a season of setting in order the things that are wanting—not out of grim self-improvement, but because our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. The self-giving of Christ is the engine of the ordered life. We are not tidying ourselves to earn His love; we are being made into the kind of people He died to purchase.
So the passage asks something concrete of us today. Perhaps you are an aged man or woman called to be sober, grave, temperate, and to teach what is good. Perhaps you are young, called to be sober minded and to show yourself a pattern of good works. Perhaps you serve in a home or workplace where fidelity and quiet obedience adorn the gospel more than any sermon. In every case, the call is the same: hold fast the faithful word, live so that no one can justly accuse you, and look for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour.
Reflection
- Where in your life is God asking you to “set in order the things that are wanting”—not in someone else’s conduct, but in your own habits, speech, or household?
- Paul says the grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. What is grace currently teaching you to lay down, and what good work is it making you zealous for?
Prayer
Father, we thank You that You are the God who cannot lie, who promised eternal life before the world began and manifested Your word in due time through preaching. Thank You for the grace that has appeared, bringing salvation and teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. Lord, set in order the things that are wanting in us. Make us blameless in conduct, sound in faith, sober and temperate, lovers of good. Let our homes, our work, and our words adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, that no one may have any evil thing to say of us. Keep us looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself to redeem and purify a peculiar people zealous of good works. Amen.