The context of Titus
2 is about doing good for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Apostle
probably knows that believing in Jesus Christ is a vital aspect of life so he
wants to instruct Titus in doing good for the sake of the gospel, in order to
teach them to people he meets. Apostle Paul shows the importance of living for
Jesus Christ under the grace of God from the verse
11 to 14.
Grace of God is often known as “what we get which we do not
deserve.” I think our own selfishness takes over when misinterpret God’s love.
I believe I used to let my selfishness take over my life, especially when I was
enjoying television, playing games, etc. I think I get addictions quite easily
if I concentrate at anything for quite a while. Since I had several experiences
with this, I decided to take everything out of my life other than Jesus Christ.
However, I realised that having too much theology at once gives me a headache,
that I cannot cope with. Hence, I finally decided that I am going to use
television and computer games as a “relaxing my mind” tools and go for a walk
to relax and refresh my mind. If I get addictions other than Jesus Christ, I
have to cut them off but I am going to leave all of them into God’s hands to
see how He is going to use as a “relaxing my mind” tools. My motto is “I desire
nothing at all but Jesus Christ” and my main Bible verses for this are Colossians
3:1-4.
God wants us to interpret His love as an opportunity to
serve in in everything that we do. This does not mean that He needs us to
achieve His purpose, for He knows everything (Romans
11:33-36). It means that He wants us to be transformed in the image of God
and according how He wants to be. I believe this is the main reason that He is
doing good works within us through His Spirit (Romans
8:28-30). This is probably because we are created by God (Genesis
1:27). Therefore, we should let the Spirit of God overtake us and follow
the Spirit (Galatians
5:24-25), who has been given to us by God when Jesus Christ was crucified
and resurrected (John
16:7-15).
At one time we too were foolish,
disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We
lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the
kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of
righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the
washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us
generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by
his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a
trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who
have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.
These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. (Titus
3:3-8)
God desires us to know Him as much as possible and serve Him
all the time. Colossians
1:16 states that everything is made through and for Jesus. However, I do
not think that we have to completely deny ourselves, such as having any no room
for relaxation and enjoyment. God allows us to enjoy things other than Christianity
(Ecclesiastes
8:15). There are certain limits in the capacity of the human mind, in
regardless of how much we want our minds to be filled with theology or
anything. For instance, I watched two episodes of one of the Korean dramas to
relax my mind from theology and started to have a headache. It is interesting
to me that it is hard for us to let minds be filled only one thing, such as
theology. I guess the capacity of human minds grows as we grow in maturity.
Another example for this is when I was in a class of the computer servicing
course. I had only one class for a semester but it often was for eight hours on
Saturday. On Saturday afternoon, my mind often was overloaded with computer
information, that I could not do any theological stuff or anything. I needed to
relax my mind on something else that do not need much concertation.
Although recreation other than Christianity is allowed, I
believe Apostle Paul is instructing God’s holy people in Colossae and us to be
“Jesus Christ-centred.” Paul probably saying this in Colossians
1:15-23 because he knows how much Jesus Christ has done for every human
being. Jesus Christ announced that the kingdom of God is coming (Matthew
4:12-17), He healed “every disease and sickness among the people” (Matthew
4:23-25) and finally, He was crucified on the cross for
our sins and death penalty (Hebrews
2:14-15). After three days of Jesus’ crucifixion, He
ascended into heaven and has been sitting at the right hand of God, to work
God’s purposes on the behalf of us (Romans
8:31-34). In addition, God has poured His Spirit into us
as an advocate to help us to walk in and with God until the end of the age (John
14:15-27). “For it
is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s
handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in
advance for us to do.” (Ephesians
2:8-10)
Since, then, we
know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is
plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying
to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take
pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather
than in what is in the heart. If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is
for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels
us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And
he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but
for him who died for them and was raised again. (2
Corinthians 5:11-15)
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