Titus 3:1-7
1 Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. 3 For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
1 Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. 3 For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
We who are called to Christ are called to obey not only Him, but the rulers He puts over us. Ultimately we answer to God in Christ above all, but submission to authorities is as unto God as long as it does not contradict God’s law. This includes not speaking evil of our leaders or others, being peacemakers in gentleness and humility. This therefore does not give us the right to verbally assail those we disagree with, which is neither godly nor peaceful nor humble. Before conversion, our unregenerate nature was bent on disobedient foolishness, hating and angry at some or all. We were deceived into hating and ill will as we ran after satisfying our misguided desires. We were disobedient to God and man, contrary to the two greatest commandments. This should change if we have been changed into new creatures; now we have experienced the merciful love of God our Savior who was kind and good to us when He had every right to continue hating us for our disobedience of sin against Himself. But He poured out grace in mercy by His righteousness alone, not requiring our holiness of obedience to salvation, yet calling us to respond with obedience because of that merciful deliverance from answering to justice in our own right, and calling us to show obedience and mercy in love to those around and over us. He regenerated us, gave us new life, by His Holy Spirit who was over flowingly poured into us to make us new to do these good works willingly in response. We are heirs to eternity in a living hope in Christ our Savior, justified by God’s unearned goodness, so we must follow in willing obedience to all things He commands, including this obedience to authority without railing against those He has put over us.
No comments:
Post a Comment