In my quest to remember and reflect on why Jesus came this season, I came across some verses in Titus 2. Actually I read these a week ago, but posting took a back seat to life!! The verses are 11-14 and are in the New Living Translation:
"For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."
Jesus came to reveal His grace to all people. Ephesians 2:8, 9 teaches us that it is by this grace that we are saved. Jesus came to save us and it's only by His grace, not by anything that we do. The passage goes on to tell us that our role as believers while we live in this world is to be wise, righteous and devoted to God, hopeful of Christ's return.
As we celebrate the birth of Christ, the righteousness part of how we are to live has spoken boldly to me. Over the last week, I've truly been dismayed at the very critical nature of believers regarding stories in the media…namely Tiger Woods and Tim Tebow. I do not know either of these men and surely they don't need me to defend them. But neither do they need those of us called to a higher standard to belittle them. As believers looking forward with hope to Christ's return, our words and deeds must be about encouraging His kingdom, not tearing it down. I can't imagine how much God's heart broke over some of the blogs and facebook comments that were posted regarding these stories. As we look for more of Christ during this Christmas season, may we also be more Christ-like. And when we're tempted to be otherwise, let's remember that Christ gave his life so that we could be.
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