"Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men."
Titus 3:1-2
Part 2
Yesterday:
“Put them in mind.”
Titus, remind them…
“To be subject to principalities and powers,”
Live lives in submission to authority.
“To obey magistrates,”
Comply with lawful leaders.
Today:
“To be ready to every good work,”
Believers “be ready!” “The ‘ready’ is exactly ‘whatsover ye do, do it heartily unto the Lord,’ Colossians 3:23.”[1] Do your best at what you are doing for others.
Paul used this phrase “every good work” several times. Believers are looking for things to do for others. We do not do “good works” to get saved, for our works can never be good enough to save us. We come to the Lord for salvation His way, by faith. We do good works because God has saved us, and we are looking for ways to serve others for Him.
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).
“A Christian should be always ready to do good as far as he is able. He should not need to be urged, or coaxed, or persuaded, but should be so ready always to do good that he will count it a privilege to have the opportunity to do it” [2] (Barnes).
“To speak evil of no man,”
Titus was to be reminding the Cretan believers to be very careful in how they spoke about other people. It turns out that your mother was teaching you a Bible principle when she said to you, “If you don’t have something good to say, don’t say anything at all.”
The Greek word for “evil” here has the root for the word “blasphemy.” The Greek word means, “to speak reproachfully, rail at, revile,…blaspheme,…to be evil spoken of, reviled, railed at.”[3] In other words, believers, be very careful what you say about another person! In the context, this is to be our practice with our elected officials, those “magistrates and powers” over us. We need to remember this when election time rolls around.
In addition to guarding our tongue when we talk about others, God’s Word says that we do not settle arguments with our fists. Come back tomorrow and let’s see how we deal with difficult people.
[1] Cambridge Bible, the electronic version in eSword.
[2] Albert Barnes, Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, the electronic version in eSword.
[3] J.H. Thayer, Thayer’s Greek Definitions, the electronic version in eSword.