Titus 2:11-15

Grace Appeared to All People

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. It trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who are eager to do good. So communicate these things with the sort of exhortation or rebuke that carries full authority. Don’t let anyone look down on you.”

— ‭‭Titus‬ ‭2‬:‭11‬-‭15‬‬

Titus 2:1 has a “but” to contrast instructions for Titus with the corrupt, destructive actions of the community around Paul’s young protege on Crete. Always have to keep in mind that Timothy and Titus are not exactly pastors, but they are sent by Paul to raise up churches/leadership in their respective areas. I believe, per Mounce’s commentary, the appropriate term is apostolic delegate.

Chapter 2 is a bunch of instructions for groups of people: husbands, wives, slaves, young and old men, so falls under the category of a household code. I think this is one reason Paul uses the term “all people” in v .11. Yes, this is perhaps also emphasizing all nations/races. All socio-economic classes. And all of this may be wrapped up in the first ten verses. (So I would not use this verse for any kind of universalism. Perhaps that’s my theology getting in the way of pure exegesis. Literally “all men” doesn’t mean “all nations,” yes, but I am using a more chapter approach to inform the phrase.)

Why would the church have different instructions? Or what motivates different lifestyle from ch 1? Grace of God appeared. This is classic — such were you, but not anymore. Now, grace teaches/trains you to live differently. You can now be self-controlled, disciplined, pure. On our own, we can’t be any of this. 

I think it’s important to note that what “changes” us — at least in this passage- is grace. A full understanding of God’s love and forgiveness. This is explained further in the passage.

We wait for the fulfillment of salvation when the Lord appears. Hope now waits for fulfillment of hope later. Hope is not just forgiveness of sins, but in the resurrection of bodies. The restoration of creation. The final and ultimate reign of Jesus for eternity. But that hope must have effects in the present.

Jesus gave Himself to redeem a people for Himself. A people willing to do good. A pure people. All of these statements must be taken in context of Titus. Nothing can be preached/taught as a proof text against random things we see on the daily. But yes, those who follow Jesus should become more pure in their pursuit of Jesus. Yes, we should do good works/ serve those around us. We should be eager for these things. This not only contrasts the society around us, but the people we used to be. None of this is possible apart from grace.

Paul exhorts Titus to preach these things boldly, and there’s a similar line as to Timothy (1 Tim 4:12) about being young. True doctrine and an example of godly living/humility/service is far greater than perceived authority by world’s metrics.

Ephesians 2:1-10

“And although you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience, among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest… But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! – and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭10‬ ‭NET‬‬

I was a lifeguard for seven years. It was a fantastic job, one of the best you can have as a teenager. I want you to imagine you all are sitting on separate stands around the pool with me. It’s super crowded, maybe a Spring Break party. And we see two people that need our help. One is about eighteen years old, but he’s floundering on top of the water, he can’t really swim. Maybe his floaties came off. He’s flopping and flailing, taking in mouthfuls of water, “Help! Help!” And his head’s is going under, but he’s struggling to stay above. Finally, he sort of dips under, and you stand up to go get him.

When you go, you see somebody else. You see a big guy, passed out, just lifeless on the bottom of the deep end. No movement, but he couldn’t have been there that long, because (1) you’re better at your job than that, and (2) there’s a million people in the pool and surely someone would have screamed for aid. Now I know I said we’re all lifeguards, but that’s really not realistic. Usually, there’s 1 guard for 25 people. So a max of 4. What do you do? Who needs you most? 

Now, do you remember around the time that you first understood the gospel and believed that Jesus was God, that you were a sinner, that needed forgiveness, that He loved you? That you placed faith in Him? That you accepted Him as Savior and Lord? Maybe not the exact time and place, but you know the general time. What were you like? How difficult was it for you to understand concepts like sin and forgiveness? 

Compare that to someone that you think is just despicable. Maybe you hear about all these mass murders around our country, and you think, Man, those are wicked, wicked people. Or those who abuse others physically or emotionally. Bullies who stuff middle schoolers in lockers, right? Or robbers. Those willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want. Those people are the ones who really need Jesus. But is it ever going to happen? Or those who are so against Christianity. Maybe they hate us. Or those who are so committed to another religion. You think, Man, their thinking is so far in right field, or they don’t even believe in God or that there is a God. Would you be terrified to talk to someone like them about God? A full blown pagan? Someone who really needs God? 

I mean I was just a little kid, and yea, I told a couple lies. I pulled my sister’s hair. I knew I was a sinner, but those are the people that it’s absolutely spectacular when they get saved. It’s like time stops. It’s like no wonder the angels rejoice, right? It’s a true miracle.

Is this how we think? 

Who needs Jesus more? The guy waving on top of the water, still drowning but not really as bad as the guy clear sunk on the bottom? Both thankful for being rescued, but he probably has the better story.

Ephesians 2 tells us who needs Jesus more, and it’s right on the heels of chapter 1 where we learn of all the blessings we have “in Christ.” Why? Because the Father chose us and adopted us His sons and daughters. He saw value in us, not because of how strong we are or smart we are. But because He wanted to love us. It’s that simple. And He gave us the Holy Spirit not only to enable us to live holy lives but also to guarantee that we will receive the promised inheritance, whatever that includes. So Paul is so thankful for God’s grace and blessings. And he’s also thankful for these believers and their pursuit of more knowledge of God and the gospel.

Now look at Ephesians 2:1. READ 1-3.

Wow, that’s encouraging! So I want to insert this here. Nerd moment in v. 2. See that phrase “spirit that is working in the sons of disobedience.” You might read that and think that it’s referring to what? (Satan) But that’s not true. The grammar here does not allow for “the spirit” and “the prince or ruler” to be referring to the same thing. 

        So let’s back up. What does “the prince of the power of the air” mean? It means that there’s a prince, and he’s doing what? Ruling over all that reigns in the world. And who is this? Satan. So Satan rules in the world. He manipulates the culture, the philosophies, the perspectives and worldviews to be against God, to oppose God. He deceives. 

And that “spirit” which now works in the sons of disobedience. That’s referring to mankind’s spirit. Our ability to reason. Our desire to obey. And guess what? Satan rules over that, too. He has terminally ruined and blinded us, 2 Cor 4:4 says. Now go back to v. 1. 

You were dead in trespasses and sins. You know what our problem is sometimes? We think, “Oh, yea I know I sinned a little bit. And Jesus came and died, and it was sad, but I wasn’t that bad. A little bit of forgiveness, and sure I repented of everything I had done, but it wasn’t that much. So just a sprinkle of grace, and I was good to go. 

No! No! No! No!

We were dead. What we picture I think is, Yea, my sin was weighing me down, but I could wave to Jesus, and when the rescue boat came by, I was waving and screaming, and He came and got me. No, it was a much more dire situation than that. Hands tied, weights dragging us to the bottom of the ocean, knocked out cold. And the only hope was for God to rescue us. 

We were dead. Flip on over to Romans 5. V 12. There is heavy debate on how to take that last phrase. Adam and Even disobeyed God, resulting in spiritual death for the rest of mankind? We are all eternally separated. And what do eternally separated people do? Live holy lives? Seek God? No, we sin. Sin is a symptom.

        Original sin is a concept that gets thrown around in conversation, and the term is debated. Sometimes “original guilt” is implied, as in Adam’s guilt was passed down as well as a sin nature. These are things the theologians enjoy arguing about. What I know is that all people sin. This disease affects everyone of all time, and it comes naturally. Nobody teaches children how to disobey or be stubborn. We’re very good at it.

        There are many people today uncomfortable with these concepts. And I still have a balanced approach. We can’t talk out of both sides of our mouth about how God “hates” people and then tack on a huge amount of “love and grace.” Do all people have value and inherent worth? Absolutely. But it’s not because of anything they’ve done. It’s because they’re made in the image of God. Naturally, they are sinners, and they are broken and long for healing.

So who needs Jesus more? The flailing drowning person, or the sunk passed out guy at the bottom? We are all passed out and sunk and hopeless on the bottom until we get to v. 4. Let’s look at it. READ 4-9.

What can a drowned dead man do for me? Or what can a spiritually dead man do for God? What could he possibly contribute to this situation? Nothing. 

This is why we say, and this is why Paul says, Gaining salvation cannot be by works. How silly to think that you can please God or receive eternal life by doing anything on your own merit or on your own power or with your own money or by any status you have in this world. That’s dumb. Because you’re dead. The only way that you’re getting an inheritance and the Holy Spirit and all these blessings is in v. 5—Jesus makes you alive. He offers you immeasurable grace and unthinkable mercy. Your sins are wiped clean! And all that you’ve ever done is forgiven.

        But once again, Paul offers the goal of these things. God didn’t dive to the bottom of the ocean, pull us to the top, set us on dry ground, and then say, “See you later.” 

        v. 10 — He has a plan for you. Rephrase, He has some things planned for you. Called good works. He’s working in your life, shaping, molding, cutting off sharp edges, and making you juuuust right. And as a response to the life that we received, the forgiveness we have received, the grace, and mercy, we were once children of disobedience, slaves to the prince of this world, with no other option than to rebel against God. Now what? We are adopted as children of God and given good works to perform. 

How do you view your testimony now in light of Ephesians 2? 

Do you appreciate God’s grace in  your life, when you realize how hopeless you really were?

Many scholars now also see Ephesians 2 not so much discussing individual salvation but more corporate, especially in light of vv. 11-22. Gentiles were dead, but Jesus raised them to life and gave them all spiritual blessings. Now they have access to God the same as the Jewish believers. 

My current thoughts are not to divorce the individual from the corporate. After all, individuals make up people groups. Paul’s original intention is always primary, so it’s worth continuing the discussion, but it may be slicing the pie too thin to separate the individual from the national. God loves people. Period.

Jonah 4:1-11

“This displeased Jonah terribly and he became very angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “Oh, Lord, this is just what I thought would happen when I was in my own country. This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish! – because I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgment. So now, Lord, kill me instead, because I would rather die than live!” The Lord said, “Are you really so very angry?” Jonah left the city and sat down east of it. He made a shelter for himself there and sat down under it in the shade to see what would happen to the city. The Lord God appointed a little plant and caused it to grow up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to rescue him from his misery. Now Jonah was very delighted about the little plant. So God sent a worm at dawn the next day, and it attacked the little plant so that it dried up. When the sun began to shine, God sent a hot east wind. So the sun beat down on Jonah’s head, and he grew faint. So he despaired of life, and said, “I would rather die than live!” God said to Jonah, “Are you really so very angry about the little plant?” And he said, “I am as angry as I could possibly be!” The Lord said, “You were upset about this little plant, something for which you have not worked nor did you do anything to make it grow. It grew up overnight and died the next day. Should I not be even more concerned about Nineveh, this enormous city? There are more than one hundred twenty thousand people in it who do not know right from wrong, as well as many animals!””

— ‭‭Jonah‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭11‬‬

What exactly displeased Jonah? Final verse of chapter 3 says that God’s response to Ninevehs’ repentance was to relent, not to judge/destroy them. He showed mercy. Jonah is now very angry. 

This is why Jonah is one of the most read minor prophets. Regardless of the historical debates, the narrative itself grabs us. It’s relatability is overwhelming. Emotions are flooding the characters, and they well up in us as well. It’s remarkably simple to place ourselves in the story and ask, “How would I respond?” 

Assyrians are the most feared/ruthless peoples of the day. They have and will be attacking Jonah’s people just like they have done to all the other surrounding nations. So these are national and religious enemies. God promised judgment—Israel would be rescued from even the threat of danger—and now God offers mercy. What do I think when “the worst person or group of people” (of course, in my own opinion) receives mercy?

Of course, the real message of the book of Jonah is that if Assyria can receive mercy, then God may just have enough grace and compassion for others living around Israel or among Israel.

I’m going to go ahead and call Jonah’s bluff. He didn’t go to Nineveh because he knew God would forgive? Maybe. This is the main message of Jonah. God is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger. Jonah knew all of this. So why get angry when God is true to His character??

But I still think Jonah ran away to save his own neck. 

And now Jonah wants to die because he’s so upset?!?! I’ve seen enough complaints on social media about kindness, goodness, and compassion towards certain groups of people that comes close to this. The entitlement is through the roof, but I also know there are hundreds and thousands of faithful, serving people who would sacrifice anything for anyone regardless of background or choices made.

Jonah goes east…never a good direction. Adam and Eve kicked out east. Cain exiled east. Israel exiled to Babylon which is east. East is bad. 

Jonah is illogical. He knows God’s decision. He has described God’s character, but he’s still hoping for some fire and brimstone. Meanwhile, he’s in love with a plant.

Back to “appoint/ordain.” God ordains things throughout the book (from ch. 1, the storm, the fish). Now the plant, the east wind, the worm. He is moving in sovereignty to stir Jonah’s heart.

Jonah complains again about the dead plant and wants to die, allowing God to question his motives.

Haven’t studied enough about the size of Nineveh. 120,000 may be accurate or making some other point. Needs more research. This also relates to Jonah’s three day journey in ch 3. This is obviously a capital city, but cities were built differently and obviously not as big as modern cities. 

There is power in leaving the book open with question. We don’t get Jonah’s response. Did he stop complaining or double down on his position. The book of Jonah is the Prodigal Son story of the OT. There the Father invites the elder son into the party because his love has been constant, and we don’t get the response of the other son. Did he go in, or did he stay outside and sulk?

The point of that passage is the same here…over one sinner who repents there is (and should be) rejoicing. God’s mercy is for all. And before God we all need equal measures of grace and compassion.

Ephesians 2:8-10

 “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.”

— ‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭8‬-‭10‬‬

Eph 2 is an amazing chapter, and I don’t think it’s so clear a break as vv 1-10 are individual salvation and 11-22 are reconciliation of ethnic groups through Jesus. The New Perspective of Paul may have too much emphasis on the latter but classic Reformation interpretation may have too much emphasis on the former in all the traditional “salvation” passages in the NT. The early church struggled mightily in understanding how to morph the Gentiles into the Jesus community. New Perspective has much to offer in at least being sensitive toward the background situation.

“Are saved” is perfect tense, so “have been saved.” Something has been completed and results continue, but many uses of perfect tense. In this case, NET is taking as intensive perfect which emphasizes results (translates as present tense in English “are”). See Introduction to Perfect Tense.

“Works” is NPP vs typical reformed understanding. Jewish boundary markers vs. all moral attempts. In light of second half of chapter, one can make case for the Jewish boundary markers. Looking at v. 10, one can argue it refers to any work, because we can’t do anything good until God enables us to do it.

Workmanship, word study fallacy to say it means poem, but that is the Greek word behind the translation. 

These first 10 verses are a marvelous trajectory of being dead, no hope, in sins, and God makes us alive in Christ. It’s all His doing and for His glory. Debate in v. 8 whether grace or faith is “gift” Both are feminine words, so gender doesn’t help the grammar. Most likely, refers salvation as whole—the entire sentence. 

God did not just rescue us from death period. He saved us for something. There’s purpose now, and that’s for good works. Would need more context to see how this passage fits in Paul’s thought through Ephesians as whole.

1 Peter 4:7-10

 “For the culmination of all things is near. So be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of prayer. Above all keep your love for one another fervent, because love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without complaining. Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God.”

— ‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭4‬:‭7‬-‭10‬‬

Beginning with “be self-controlled” vv. 7-10 are one long sentence in Greek. So the “verbs” in vv. 8-10 are participles, explaining how (at least in this chapter) Peter envisions his audience being self controlled and sober minded. 

By (a) keeping love fervent (b) showing hospitality without complaining (c) and using gifts to serve one another

“Love covers a multitude of sins” is quote from Proverbs, meaning true sacrificial love among believers is bathed in forgiveness. 

I don’t think I’ve reached the point of hospitality without complaining yet. Working on my generosity.

We are not reservoirs of God’s grace. We are conduits to share His goodness with others. Yes, we are given a gift per se, but really, God gives the church the gift “through” us. We are simply managers/stewards, and if we don’t edify and encourage others with how God has blessed us, then we are wasting the skills, abilities, and yes spiritual gifting that God has given all believers.