What is God’s plan for His church in the world? According to His word, the Church is to be a force that shoves back the gates of hell, a sermon that declares the wisdom of God to the cosmos, a family that relates to one another as brothers and sisters, a temple that represents God’s tangible presence, and a bride that loves and is loved deeply by God. We live out these various facets in our gathering and scattering as we seek to demonstrate and declare the gospel together.

As Paul concludes his letter to Titus, we are reminded that the same God who caused unity and flourishing in the creation of the world is the same God who provides unity and flourishing in the Church today. In avoiding what sows disunity, we kneel together at the cross, embracing things that cultivate a kind unity that is from Jesus and for Jesus.

The world should experience us as we experience Jesus! Jesus extends goodness to all, even His enemies. He saves those that don’t deserve saving. As recipients of his loving kindness, we are to be gentle, courteous and devoted to good works as we live out our heavenly citizenship.

Grace has appeared in Jesus! Through Him alone are we saved and being trained in God’s life-giving ways. As those who belong to His Kingdom of life, we are called to exhort one another away from death toward the comfort of life with God.

As those who know and are delighted in by the God who does not lie, we can live lives that are a fitting adornment to the gospel. Even within our contextual limitations, whether older men or women, or younger men or women, we are provided the opportunity to point to God right where we are.

Paul reminds us that God has always intended Jesus’ church to be led—not by one leader—but by a plurality of them. Not only are the leaders to be plural, but godly and worth following. They must have character that stands both the test of time and the watchful eye of the entire church body. Ultimately, God’s desire is for godly leadership within the local church to be influenced by God’s character rather than the world’s culture.

Paul writes to his long-time disciple Titus in order to preserve the church in the strategic but rebellious island of Crete. Our trustworthy God, unlike the lying, false gods of Crete, will be made known when the church grows in the faith and knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness and hope. All of this is only possible as we are filled with the grace and peace of the gospel that overflows into a lost and broken world.

Life is full of long, hard labor. When it is tempting for us to take shortcuts or give up altogether, we can trust that God, in time, will bear fruit in our lives. The fruit may come in this life, it may come in even greater degree in eternity, or it may look like growth in deeper faith and greater joy in our hearts. So stay the course, Long-Laborer; your trustworthy God will see that your labor for Him is not in vain.

Peter closes his second letter by reminding us of God’s amazing, multiplied grace. This grace empowers us to sacrificially offer our lives to God as we await Jesus’ imminent return. Not only that, but we likewise keep ourselves from being carried away into lawlessness by growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. And where we stumble in living out God’s unwavering truth, His grace is greater still to catch us where we fall. Jesus has all the more grace to give and therefore all the more glory to have, both now and forever.

It is a fact that Jesus will return despite any disbelief. Although this is sobering, it also should compel believers to respond and live lives of holiness and godliness. The invitation to actively wait for His return while simultaneously hastening His coming by participating in our sanctification is beautiful! By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can move towards being more and more like Him – set apart, unique, different – Holy.