Titus 3:3 from bad to worse

…For we also were once foolish, stubborn, deceived, slaves of various desires and gratifications, leading a life in malice and envy, detestable, hating one another.

Believers have not the slightest reason to exalt themselves above the rest of humanity. For before we came to know the universal saving grace of God (Tit.2:11) we were no different from the others. Even if we are now different, this is not a merit but the effect of God’s grace and kindness (Tit.3:4).

The list listed in verse 3, like those in verses 1 and 2, has seven qualities. So a fullness. This time seven evil qualities because it typifies mankind who has no sense of God’s love for people. The first four qualities (foolish, stubborn, deceived, enslaved) describe our attitude in general, the last three qualities (in malice and envy, detestable and hating one another) describe the relationship to our fellow human beings. The deviance begins in the mind (foolish) so that we become averse to correction (stubborn) and go astray and become addicted “to desires and all kinds of pleasures”. Where common sense is no longer leading, feelings (desires) take over.

What Paul shows is that moral decay does not stand alone, but is the result of becoming detached from GOD. Where His light disappears, it automatically becomes dark.

Delen: