September 26, 2019
BIBLE READING TITUS 2
14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
We all know the enormous price Jesus paid for us to have a relationship with Him. Here is a reminder of how much it really cost.
1 Peter 1:18-19
18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
Wow, what a tremendous price it was, and Hebrews tells us it was “the joy that was set before Him.” What a Savior! We all know we can never pay Jesus back for this, nor does He expect that, but I believe that this verse teaches us that there is something He wants us to do in response to this unspeakable gift.
1. He wants us to be pure people- notice that phrase again in verse 14 of Titus 2 “purify unto himself.” This word purify is the Greek word “Katharizo” and it means to cleanse, like a vine cleansed by pruning, and so fitted to bear fruit. God’s wants you to grow as a Christian, He wants you to mature. He wants us to allow Him to prune away those things that stunt our spiritual growth and allow the Holy Spirit to work and have freedom to clean us up, and then begin to produce fruit through us. Are you pure?
2. He wants us to be peculiar people- this word peculiar doesn’t mean what we typically think of. When I hear the word peculiar, I think strange or weird. The Greek word for this is “Periousios” and it means being beyond usual, one that is special, selected and purchased by God for His own possession.
2 Timothy 2:21
21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.
God literally wants us to be sanctified, or “set-apart” We are supposed to be different. There should be a difference in a Christian’s desires and attitude. We all know this truth, but how many of us actually are “peculiar”? I said earlier this word didn’t man strange or weird but thinking about it when the world looks at us, we should probably seem strange or weird to them. Are you peculiar?
3. He wants us to be passionate people – well I’ve given the Greek for the other 2 might as well make it 3 for 3. The Greek word for zealous is “Zeloo” and it means to burn with zeal, to be zealous in the pursuit of good. We are passionate about a lot of things but let’s be honest, are we that excited about living a pure and peculiar life? Paul is very clear as to the direction of our passion, and it’s not passion for our hobbies, or our careers, or even for our families. Although I don’t think there is anything wrong with being passionate about those things, Paul says we should be passionate about good works, passionate about loving people, and passionate about the gospel. Are you passionate?
Jesus wants us to be pure, peculiar, and passionate. A drop in the bucket compared to the price He paid for us.
Frank Newsome