September 27, 2019
BIBLE READING: TITUS 3
Titus 3:3-5
[3] For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. [4] But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, [5] Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
I want to ask you to do something today as you read this devotional, and my point is to not open up old wounds, or to hurt you in any way. What I would love for you to do is to just for a moment remember what life was like before you accepted Jesus. What kind of person were you? Were you happy? Were you fulfilled? Did you have hope? Did you have joy? Paul paints a pretty accurate picture of the type of people we were before salvation. Notice the different adjectives he uses to describe life before Christ. He said we were foolish, that means not understanding, or unwise. God’s Word tells us that the things of God are a mystery to the unsaved person. we couldn’t understand the things of God. This passage tells us that we were disobedient. That is an understatement isn’t it? It says we were deceived, blind to our sin, blind to our need for a savior, deceived in every area of our life by Satan. It goes on to say serving divers lusts. That word serving literally means to be in bondage, to be a slave. We couldn’t do what was right even if we had wanted to, we were literally a slave to sin and our flesh. Next, it says living in malice, and envy. This means that we had made our home, we were comfortable in wickedness, depravity, and jealousy. It states we were hateful, and hated others. That is a pretty depressing picture of our past. You hear people say that we shouldn’t look behind us. That we should focus on the future, but sometimes maybe it does us good to remind ourselves exactly what Jesus saved us from. I love how verse four starts “But after that”. You would think verse four, after that laundry list of evil would say “But after that” God wanted nothing to do with us. Instead it says “But after that” the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Isn’t that incredible, that after that description of who we were, God still wanted to have a relationship with us? As we finish our devotion today let’s just take a minute to reflect, and let’s think about where we would be today, just how far our sin would have taken us had Jesus not shown us mercy and kindness. You’ve heard the old saying “I’m not what I ought to be but thank God I’m not what I used to be. Looking at verse three I think we can all agree with that. I’m thankful today, that despite my past He’s given me a blessed hope for my future.
Frank Newsome