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Do What Is Good: Titus
• Marie Cleveland • Titus 3:3–8, Ephesians 2:8–10, Titus 2:11–14
Have you ever been reading a Bible passage and a certain word or phrase keeps popping up over and over again? That happens to me with the word good when I read the book of Titus, and it’s why I think one of the main themes of Titus is “doing what is good.”
The book of Titus is known as one of Paul’s pastoral letters. Paul wrote it to instruct and give advice to Titus, who had been put in charge of organizing the churches on the island of Crete. In this letter, Paul gives Titus advice about choosing church leaders, about how those in the church should relate to one another, and about avoiding false teachings and division among believers.
Paul also focuses on the link between belief and behavior. Good works are evidence of a heart that has been changed through faith in Jesus. Doing good does not make you a Christian, but the more you get to know Jesus, the more you will desire to do what is good. Paul emphasizes this as he tells Titus that those who believe in Jesus should:
Love what is good (Titus 1:8).
Teach what is good (2:3).
Do what is good (2:7).
Be eager to do what is good (2:14).
Be ready to do what is good (3:1).
Be devoted to doing what is good (3:8, 14).
Yet even as Paul urges these Christians in Crete to do good, he also makes it clear that God’s kindness and love toward us are not dependent on anything we do. Rather, God saved us because He is merciful. Our own goodness can never be enough to save us from sin and death, but God—in His infinite goodness—sent Jesus to die and raise from the dead so that we could live with Him forever. When we confess our sins to Him and put our trust in Jesus to save us, He changes our hearts so that we overflow with His goodness. Then He calls us to share that goodness with others. • Marie Cleveland
• Have you ever tried to “do good” to earn God’s approval? In Titus, we see that God loves us no matter what we do. How might this knowledge affect the way we go about “doing good”?
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. Titus 3:4-5a (NIV)
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Jesus's Prayer for Unity
• Hannah Howe • Romans 15:5–7, 1 Corinthians 12:4–14, John 17:20–26
My heart aches for unity in the church. I see so many divisions—Christians disregarding each other, judging, shaming, excluding...and I feel powerless. Unity seems impossible.
One day I shared my feelings with my church small group, and then one of my friends shared John 17:20-26. In this passage, Jesus was sharing the Passover meal with His disciples, a hodge-podge group of fishermen, tax collectors, political radicals...you get the picture. Jesus knew that in mere hours, one of them would betray Him, another would deny Him, and the rest would abandon Him. So, what did Jesus do? He prayed for them. And not just for the people who were following Him that day, but also for everyone who would believe in Him in the future. That includes us. It brings tears to my eyes when I realize Jesus prayed for us, for me, thousands of years before we were born. He knew us even then. He knew that we would all betray Him, deny Him, and run away from Him...and yet He loved us (Ephesians 1:4-6).
When Jesus prayed for us, He prayed that we would be unified, that we would be one like Jesus and God the Father are one. Wow. When I look at the hodge-podge group of people who make up the church, many who I don’t agree with or even understand (and who don’t agree with or understand me), who have opposing perspectives on politics, how to interpret Scripture, and how to love others well—I think, "How could we possibly be unified?" But the freeing thing is, it’s not up to us to unify ourselves. God is the only one who can. And He wants to. He gives the Holy Spirit to those who’ve put their trust in Jesus, and the same Spirit empowers each of us to love and serve each other like Jesus loves and serves us. Unity in the church is possible because God’s love is stronger than anything. Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection from the dead have covered over every wrongdoing, every offense, everything that separates us from God and each other. We will experience complete unity when Jesus returns, and it will be beautiful. But I believe we also get to experience some of that unity here and now as we live in God’s love.
My friend from small group told us she’d begun reading John 17:20-26 daily and praying Jesus’s prayer along with Him. So, I started doing the same thing. As I read, I am agreeing with Jesus’s prayer, agreeing with what God wants to do, and asking Him to do it. • Hannah Howe
• Where have you seen unity or disunity in the church? Consider taking a moment to pray.
“I pray also for those who will believe...that all of them may be one...” John 17:20b-21a (NIV)