Paul is writing to Titus, giving him practical advice regarding the hearts and habits that characterize godly men and women: humble submission, obedience, readiness to serve, keeping one’s tongue from evil, avoiding quarrels, showing respect, courtesy and kindness to all people, including rulers and authorities. (It is timely and worthy to note that among the rulers and authorities that Paul had in mind were those who were opposed to all things “Christian.”) People who, not manifesting such hearts and habits, are divisive, Paul says, “have nothing to do with them.”

At the heart of Paul’s understanding of the godly character, is the kind character of God himself by which we, who one were foolish and disobedient, have been made new:

… But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so tha tbeing justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. Titus 3:4-8

The call to put on very specific, recognizable characteristics of heart and habit is not so that we might secure the approval of God or man; rather, it is because we are rooted in the very heart of God himself in Christ, we should be seeing such characteristics increasingly made visible in our lives. In this way, as Luke says, people note the living, authentic presence of the Christ among them.

Come, then, let us gather to practice the heart and habits of godliness through worship together in Christ – acknowledging the foolishness and disobedience from which we were rescued by the loving kindness of our God in Christ and giving voice to the joy and praise of the new life we enjoy togehter in Christ – all for the proclamation and portrayal of the glory of God’s kindness in Christ.
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