Issue 12 - Day 6

Titus 3

Titus 3:2-4
2)  To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.
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,

What is your attitude when someone is acting in an annoying manner towards you? How do you treat others when they treat you with disdain, or worse? These verses are conditional, as many commands and promises in the bible are, however they are conditional on the acts of Christ, not on the acts of your antagonist.

We have a neighbour with whom we have never got on. She has a habit of watering her garden, and soaking our washing at the same time. Our natural instinct is of course to soak her in return, maybe hurl a few choice words over the fence etc. However that is not what God wants, and it does not help the situation either. The response we are to show is one of forbearance, tolerance and love, not looking for a fight over it, and so on.

Paul teaches us that our response to the acts of others should be driven by Christ’s response to us, not the acts in question. The people of Israel, on behalf of all mankind, took Christ, and innocent man, had him beaten until he was no-longer recognisable, destroyed emotionally and physically, then led to a cross to die painfully. In all this he never opened his mouth, except to forgive. Nothing anyone does to us can come close, so how much more should we respond in love. Take Christ’s example and keep silent.