Living godly lives in a pagan world

It's difficult, isn't it?

We have so much pressing on us. So many responsibilities.

Supporting and caring for our spouse. 

Leading and guiding our children and our grands (even if they DON'T listen!).  (Grin)

Working hard at a job. Paying close attention to our finances and practicing good stewardship. 

Taking care of our health, and the health of those we love. 

Witnessing for the Lord at any opportunity.

Keeping our home clean and well-repaired. Making sure the car gets us where we need to go.

Supporting the work of the local church and the leaders there. 

Setting aside time to pray and study, and meditate with the Lord.

I could go on, right?

We are all in the same boat; it would be so very nice if we had a magic wand to add a few minutes to the day . . . . 

Paul knew that, even in his day. Moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, everyone has a ton of things on their checklist each and every day. And he was adamant that we needed to live our witness -- to live godly lives in the midst of a broken, pagan world. 

Our world today is broken and pagan, too.

How can we follow his instructions? How can we do the things that the Spirit leads us to do? Sometimes we are so tired. Totally exhausted to the point of feeling ill.

In the first four verses of Titus, we have read that first we must be saved, and then we must "proclaim" or witness to others about salvation. Then we must be careful to remember we "are not our own," but servants of God. Today, let's begin to look at godly behavior. We'll cover this in detail in coming passages, but in the first verse, Paul says that the knowledge of truth is what leads us to godliness:

........... the truth that leads to godliness— (Titus 1:1b, NIV) 

Other translations say the godliness "comes after" the truth. The scholars say that in the Greek, the thought is of purpose or intent. It's God's purpose that we will have knowledge of His truth, and that will lead us to a godly way of living.

We are all saved by God's grace:

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) 

It's God's precious gift to us:

 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  Galatians 2:20)

Good works. Good deeds. Good behavior. None of this actually saves us. Those verses up there show us that it's a gift -- we could never earn our salvation!

know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16)

Our "works" are evidence of our salvation, not a way to earn it! We will see that the second chapter of Titus talks a lot about how we should walk in this world. We will find practical advice to help us "adorn the doctrine of God our Savior" with our lives.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Tomorrow we will continue with verses one through four . . . . .