Paul, a bondservant
of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect
and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness,
Titus 1:1
Dear Heavenly
Father, please help me to study Your Word.
Help me to remove the distractions and concentrate on Your message. Please be with me and my family as we gather
together to celebrate Your birth. Thank
You for everything You have given us. In
Jesus's name I pray, Amen.
As we have discussed
before, most letters written in the New Testament are written in the Epistle
style. This style is structured in the
following format:
- Sender
- Recipient
- Opening
- Body (focuses on doctrine, encouragement)
- Conclusion/Farewell
Not all letters have
every part of this format, but it is a good guide on how they created their
letters. These epistles were personal
correspondence between the writer and his audience. They were an opportunity to educate the
audience, convey information, answer a problem, and/or provide
encouragement. This verse details the
sender of the letter. To bring deeper
understanding to today's text, let's examine some key words and their companion
or similar verses.
"Bondservant"
in the Greek is doulos which means
slave, someone who belongs to another without any ownership rights of their
own, bondslave, willingly living under Christ's authority as His devoted
followers, one who gives himself up wholly to another's will.
"Apostle"
in the Greek is apostolos which means
messenger, personally chosen representative, one sent on mission, envoy,
delegate, one commissioned by another to represent him in some way, sent by
Jesus Himself to preach the Gospel, the 12 disciples that Christ selected. 2 Corinthians 1:1 states "Paul, an
apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother."
"According"
in the Greek is kata which means down,
against, throughout, day by day, from a higher to a lower plane, with regard
to.
"Faith" in
the Greek is pistis which means belief,
trust, confidence, fidelity, be persuaded, gift from God, involves belief but
goes beyond believing because it involves the in-working of God. James 2:19 states "You believe that
there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!"
"Elect" in
the Greek is eklektos which means chose
out, choice, those chosen by God for the rending of special services to Him,
selected especially as a deeply personal choice, people who follow the Lord,
chosen by God to receive salvation through Christ.
"Acknowledgement"
in the Greek is epignosis which means
recognition, knowledge of a particular point, perception, discernment,
intuition, first hand experiential knowledge, precise and correct
knowledge. 1 Timothy 2:4 states
"who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the
truth."
"Godliness"
in the Greek is eusebeia which means
piety, devotion, reverent, inner response to God showing reverence,
respect. It is from the words eu which
means well and sebomai which means venerate, pay homage. 1 Timothy 6:3 states "If anyone teaches
otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness."
Paul describes
himself as belonging to God with no ownership rights to his own life or
existence. Further, he states that he
was personally chosen by Christ to preach the Gospel, salvation through Jesus. Paul has the confidence in the fact and
reality of God with his whole life. Paul
is "all in." His passion, his
desire, his belonging is all focused on Christ and doing his work. Paul shows his humility by declaring himself
as a slave of Christ. In this first
verse, Paul describes his life. He
exists to serve humanity by sharing Christ and demonstrating the Christ-like
life.
What is our
purpose? Do our actions reflect who we
aspire to be? We are not perfect. We will fail, but we need to continuously
strive to be better, better than we were, and better than we are. The first step in that journey is to realize
it's not all about you. Everything is
about Christ. Once you learn that, your
direction will become clear and simple.
Be better, live for Christ.
Paul, a bond-servant
of God and an apostle (special messenger, personally chosen representative) of
Jesus Christ, for the faith of God’s chosen ones and [to lead and encourage
them to recognize and pursue] the knowledge of the truth which leads to godliness,
Amplified Bible
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