Week 07 · Ordinary faithfulness, done on purpose
Goodness
Read together: Titus 2:1-14
Also read: Galatians 6:9-10 · Micah 6:8
Goodness is not a feeling about God. It is a life so plain and consistent that the teaching of God looks believable to anyone watching your house.
The heart of it
Paul's instructions here are startlingly domestic: soberness, faithfulness, teaching the younger, being sound in speech, being a pattern of good works. And the reason given twice is that the word of God be not blasphemed and that the doctrine of God be adorned. Your ordinary life either dresses the gospel up or drags it down.
That God's grace teaches us is the engine of the chapter. Grace does not merely forgive; it teaches us to deny ungodliness and live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. Holiness of life is grace at work, not effort replacing grace.
Notice who is watching. Younger couples, children, neighbors, coworkers. A marriage is one of the loudest sermons either of you will ever preach, and it is preached mostly on weeknights when nobody is trying.
What to notice
- Sound doctrine is applied here to how households behave, not to a debate.
- The older teach the younger by pattern before words.
- Grace is described as a teacher, which means growth is expected.
- Looking for that blessed hope sets everything in this chapter against the horizon of Christ's return.
Talk together
- 1If someone watched our house for a week, what would they conclude about God?
- 2Where are we sloppy in something small that is quietly costing us?
- 3Is there a younger couple or a young person God may want us to be an example to?
- 4What is one good thing we used to do faithfully that we let slide?
- 5What does grace teaching us look like in our marriage in the last six months?
Your own journal
Answer these on your own during the week. They are yours; you are never required to read them out loud.
1. Where is my private life different from what people at church would assume?
2. What good thing do I keep meaning to do for my spouse and never do?
3. What am I modeling for anyone younger who is watching me?
4. Write down one small faithfulness God is asking of you this month.
5. Ask God to make you good in the plain, unglamorous sense of the word.
This week's challenge
Choose one small good thing and do it every day this week without being asked or thanked — a chore, a note, an errand.
"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world."
Titus 2:11-12
Pray together
Ask God that your ordinary life would make His teaching look true, and name one habit you want His help with.
Next week: Faith and Faithfulness