Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. (Titus 1:1-2)
In his letter to Titus, Paul begins by proclaiming his purpose as an apostle of Jesus Christ:to see people come to faith and grow in knowledge of the truth, which is the Gospel. Paul wants Titus and whoever reads this letter to know that growing our knowledge of the Gospel should not only transform our minds but our hearts as well.
It is very easy to fall into the trap that knowing a lot of things ABOUT God is the equivalent of actually knowing God. While it is important for Christians to study and be familiar with important doctrines taught in the Bible, it should not be just head knowledge. Studying theology should lead to doxology (or praise). To those who claim to have knowledge of the truth but it does not lead to godliness (Titus 1:1), Paul writes that they “deny [God] by their works…and are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work” (Titus 1:16).
Jesus had many strong words for the Pharisees and the scribes during his three year ministry. While the Pharisees and the scribes were experts and knew about the books that consist today’s Old Testament inside and out, Jesus compared them to whitewashed tombs. While they appeared clean externally, internally they were dead and full of impurity. Jesus proclaimed that on the outside they seemed righteous to people but in reality they were full of hypocrisy and lawlessness (Matthew 23:27-28).
While it is important to stress that we were created to do good works (Galatians 2:10) and that good works are evidence of a genuine faith (James 2); doing good works is not what saves us. As the apostle Paul writes to the Galatian church, we are “saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift…” (Galatians 2:8). We do not have to earn God’s favor because Jesus did all the work for us. It is through him that we can have hope for eternal life that God promised for us before time began. Let us use the knowledge of the Gospel that God has given us for his glory and honor.