KJV Titus 3:3 “…Living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.”
NASB Titus 3:3 “…Spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.”
All three chapters of Titus remind us of the wonder of salvation. In Chapter One, we are told that God promised eternal life before time began! Then in Chapter Two, it is “our great God and Saviour” Who gave Himself to the death of the cross for us. Finally, in Chapter Three, it is the motivating virtues of God our Saviour, His kindness and love, which have brought salvation to us.
In the third chapter. There are three sets of “fours” that capture our attention. In verse 3, there are four sinful attitudes that marked us in our unregenerate condition:
Four Sinful Attitudes
Malice – The bitterness and self-advancing mentality that views everyone else as a competitor or adversary.
Envy – Our sense of self-entitlement that feels we deserve what others have and thus, desire to have it.
Hateful – Our life-long love affair with self, begun when Adam sinned in the Garden, has afflicted us with a sense of self-importance, resulting in everyone being secondary, or effectively “hated” —as love for self predominates.
Hating One Another – Our self-centeredness has led to the exaltation of self and the need for prominence.
The Spirit of God has painted a very unflattering picture of Man by nature. At war with God and with anyone who would dare to outshine us, our condition could not have been more desperate: hateful, hostile, and hopeless.
Four Amazing Attributes
But verses 4-7 contrast what we are with what God is. How thankful that we have a God distinct in every way from us.
Kindness – His moral excellence and goodness is seen against the background of our malice. There is not an atom of malice in the heart of God. How remarkable is that kindness in light of our own sinful and hateful hearts.
Philanthropic Love – The word for love employed here is unique in all of Scripture. It is the word from which we get our word, philanthropy. When we hated one another, when we hated other men, God loved Man. His philanthropic love has been displayed against the background of our hateful hearts. What a God!
Mercy – His mercy (or, compassion) has been operative in His great work of salvation. Our hatefulness has served as a foil for His great mercy.
Grace – Envy would like to take from others. Grace has given and given liberally.
Four Amazing Alterations
As a result of God’s actions – love, mercy, grace, and love — we are blessed in four amazing ways:
Salvation – We have been saved by His mercy. There was nothing we could do to deserve this compassion from God. In point of fact, we deserved the opposite. Yet we have been blessed with His salvation.
Regeneration – Into the redeemed heart, the Spirit of life has come with new power to create a new attitude. Instead of what once marked us, we are now marked by good works, gentle, meek, obedient. The transforming power of God has triumphed!
Justified – We were all wrong. Now we are all right. We could not be righter. We stand fit for His presence and fit for heaven.
Heirs – Haters have been heirs. Paupers have become princes. Grace reigns and has enriched us.
Consider
Can you find four activities in verse 3?