URC Daily Devotion for 01/01/2026

Titus 2:11-14

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.

Reflection

This letter emphasises teaching, telling, and training. In those early, post-Pauline days there were many challenges in encouraging churches to be consistent in belief and behaviour. Two thirds through the letter there is a reminder of the grace of God, giving a sounder reason for how followers of Jesus are to live their lives than the rather top-down, slightly frantic, efforts to keep human beings in order which characterise the letter to this point.

The letter so far has focused on directive learning, ensuring people do the right things because they’ve been taught the right things, and therefore know exactly how they are supposed to behave. That’s a valid approach in many cases, with echoes of practicing scales when learning a musical instrument or repeating hill starts during driving lessons. Recent learning theories suggest that repetition sets up neural pathways and muscle memory so that practice eventually becomes permanent.  So training and self-discipline can help us to behave well.

In these few short verses there’s a glimmer of different forms of learning, based less on being told what to do and more on an instinctive response to God’s love. Drawing out the truth that lies within human experience and learning from one another become possible, as believers turn to God in Christ and seek to shape their lives through love. It is not all about “do what I tell you, because I say so, and you will be alright, and in the process we will maintain social order”.

Scattered churches were exhorted in this letter to live disciplined lives in the here and now, while waiting for the point in the future when all would be fulfilled. While the rest of the letter goes on to lay down further clear rules for living, there is this pivotal moment when they, and we, are reminded that we are what we are, and we do what we do, because of our faith in God. 

Prayer

Give to me Lord, a thankful heart
and a discerning mind:
give, as I play the Christian’s part,
the strength to finish what I start
and act on what I find.
 
When in the rush of days, my will
is habit-bound and slow
help me to keep in vision still
what love and power and peace can fill
a life that trusts in you
 
Caryl Micklem, from Rejoice & Sing 497