Titus 3:3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy… The whole sentence is in form a contrast. It reminds the Cretans of what they had been in their unconverted conidition. Against that it sets their present position as Christians. It grandly magnifies the Divine grace which had made them to differ. Out of this little biographical sketch there sprang two arguments for a meek behaviour. In the first place, these heathen neighbours, whose abusive attitude is so irritating, are not at all different from what you used to be. Recall what you were before God's grace changed you: precisely such as they are today. You did not then see your own foulness — not then, before the light came; neither do they see theirs now. Yet contemplate, the hateful picture! What is pagan life? 1. So dark on religious matters as to possess no true acquaintance with God nor any just apprehension of spiritual truth at all. 2. As a result in part of this ignorance, disobedient in practice to all the requirements of Divine law. 3. Deluded indeed and misled to false conceptions of duty and false superstitions in worship. 4. Worse than that, enslaved to the desire for enjoyment, given over to indulgence in what seems most pleasant, no matter how immoral. 5. Socially leading a life too selfish to be either just or generous to others, cherishing rancour against one another for imagined slights and jealousy on account of superior fortune. Is this a just picture of the natural life as it mirrors itself in the enlightened Christian conscience? Sum it up in a single word: Are not such men repulsive as well as repellant — hateful as well as hating? Yet such were you. By the recollection of your former state, remembering the old darkness out of which you indeed have been rescued but not they, bear with them tenderly, think of them kindly! To this argument, a second joins itself: Out of that universal degradation of unregenerate nature, how is it that you have been rescued? By an effort of your own, or by another's favour? Nay; not through any righteous actions or meritorious struggles to grow better, as you very well know; but through the mere mercy and cleansing and renewing power of "God our Saviour"; by a salvation which came to you unsought, found you helpless, surprised you with its benefits, and by its own virtue made new men of you in that day when you turned from your idols to become through Jesus Christ the heirs of life eternal! Saved thus by the sheer philanthropy of Heaven, have you none for your unsaved brothers? Changed by Divine mercy from a state like theirs, where is your mercy to them? They are as you were: treat them, then, as God treated you! How if He had been as resentful against us, as quick to take offence and ready to strike? Ah, how ill it becomes a Christian to speak evil of others, to brawl, to give back word for word and blow for blow! By the kindness your Saviour has returned for your wrong, show to your still wrongful fellows what is that love of God to man which has been manifested unto you; that they too may be won to taste that God is good! (J. O. Dykes, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. |
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