READING: Titus 1-3
TEXTS AND APPLICATION: I love the Word of God. It’s powerful. It speaks to my life today. It shows me how to live. It truly is good for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16). Follow along as we look at how it speaks to us today from Paul’s letter to Titus, whom he considered his son in the faith (Titus 1:4):
1. All of us were, as non-believers, caught in sin. We were enslaved to that sin, with passions that controlled us: “For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures” (Titus 3:3a).
2. But, God saved us by His mercy. He couldn’t save us according to our good works because we didn’t have any that could close the gap between our sinful selves and a holy God. Instead, He saved us by grace and gives us the Holy Spirit to empower us: “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4-5).
3. Now God calls us to live a life marked specifically by self-control. This word is used multiple times in this book, thus applying this standard to all believers. Leaders are to be self-controlled (Titus 1:8). Older men are to be self-controlled (Titus 2:2). Older women are to be self-controlled, and they are to teach younger women to be the same (Titus 3-5). Younger men are also to be “self-controlled in everything” (Titus 2:6).
Here’s what that mandate teaches us: when we are followers of Jesus, we no longer live in bondage to our passions. They do not control us any more; in the power of God’s Spirit, we control them.
That’s really good news!
ACTION STEPS: Be honest today: where do your passions control you? Fame? Money? Lust? Power? Selfishness? Greed? Recognition? Physical strength? Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the truth about yourself throughout this day.
PRAYER: “Father, reveal to me my idolatrous passions that control me today. Then, grant me this incredible truth that my passions don’t have to control me anymore. Instead, give me a day of phenomenal freedom and victory!”
TOMORROW’S READING: 1 Peter 1-5
