TITUS 2: 7

Sometimes, especially in today’s world, we often forget that right doctrine leads to right living. The fact is, when we truly know Jesus and His grace, it causes us to think and walk differently. Followers of the Christ do not just follow in theory, but they follow Him in word and deed. Their actions demonstrate their commitment to and relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s not just rhetoric but in lifestyle and action. It’s so much more than talk.

This is one of the distinctive characteristics of the book of Titus. Here, the apostle Paul places a repeated emphasis on “Doing what is good” (Titus 1:16; 2;7, 14; 3: 1,8,14). Six times in this very short epistle we find these words “doing what is good”. Christians are not just talkers, they are doers. They are people of action. They shall know that we are Christians by our fruit. As the disciples of the Lord moved about in Antioch, they so evidenced Christ that they were first called Christians there, people who walked and talked like Jesus (Acts 11:26).

In the last verse of Titus chapter one Paul points out that “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny Him.” He further discloses “They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for anything good”, in reference to the people of Crete where he had left Titus to help set the church in order (Titus 1:16 NIV).

What an insightful warning for the church in any age and certainly for us today “… their actions deny Him”. They say one thing, but their actions declare something else. Their actions tell the truth. As the redeemed people of God, the apostle reminds his son in the faith, Titus, that we have been redeemed and “purified unto the lord as a peculiar people, zealous of good works”, eager to do what is good (2:14).

The passage begins with the arresting thought that grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust (2;11,12). It teaches us to live self-controlled, upright, and godly in this present age. God’s saving work in us does not only redeem us from guilt and judgement but it produces in us moral purity and a commitment to doing always what is good. We are taught to do good!