TITUS 2:11-14 – “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”
THEME OF THE DAY: WATCHING FOR HIM. In today’s scripture, the Apostle Paul encourages Titus toward the grace of God. First, it is the grace of God that saves, then it is the grace of God that trains us toward godliness and expands to the grace of God that produces a waiting on the Lord. Now a pop quiz. What does this waiting point to? The answer is “our blessed hope” which is further defined as “the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
The Second Coming of Jesus is a dominant theme in the New Testament. Rightly so because it serves as the strongest motivator toward two aspects of the Christian life: a life of zealous witness for the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, and the steady progress towards Christlikeness or personal holiness. The former is modeled by the believers in Thessalonica – “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:4-10). Visit this church in our minds, paying attention to what motivated their zeal for the Gospel. It is in the last verse – waiting for Jesus. Then apply it to us. Are we daily gripped with the appearing of Jesus that promotes a zealousness for His Gospel to get into our spheres of influence?
The second motivator from waiting and watching for the Second Coming of Jesus is towards personal holiness. We find this from the pen of the Apostle John in his first letter – “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:1-3). The more we live looking for Jesus, the more we are weaned from the world which is the chief foe against personal holiness.
Watching for Him. It is not only our blessed hope but the truth that transforms our daily walks with Him who is returning!
PRAYER: Father, thank You so much for the blessed hope of Your Son’s return to take His people home.
REFLECTION: Thinking daily about the Second Coming of Jesus is a strong motivator to a life of holiness.