Lessons #63 and 64
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual exposition not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GWT = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Reasons to be considerate of others (Titus 3:3-7)
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
We are rational creatures of God so that we always want to know reason(s) for whatever we are instructed to do. In effect, it is an innate part of being human to want know reason(s) for any given instruction. Of course, there is no direct statement in the Scripture that states what we have asserted but there are two ways we can demonstrate this truth: from observation and from the Scripture.
The observation that helps us to recognize that it is inborn in humans to want to know reason(s) for a given instruction is with children. Once a child begins to be cognizant of self, able to speak, and able to reason although limitedly. that child begins to pepper the parents with the word “why?” Thus, a parent will tell a child “do not do this or that” the child immediately responds with the question “why?” Granting that children learn from the parents, but at such early stage it is unlikely that a child realizes that the parents ask questions for whatever instruction they themselves receive. The fact that a child will question a parent the reason for a specific instruction should lead us to conclude that it is inborn in humans to want reason(s) for a given instruction.
Another way to demonstrate that it is inborn in humans to want reason(s) for a given instruction is, as we have mentioned, through the Scripture. God created us and knows our makeup. The implication is that when He deals with human, He does so aware of our makeup. So, it is interesting that the first instruction the Lord gave to Adam and Eve that requires for them not to do something, He immediately provided the reason for the prohibition, as recorded in Genesis 2:16–17:
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
The Lord instructed the man not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Being the creator, He could have indicated to Adam that that is what He wants and stop there. However, He proceeded to supply him a reason he should not eat from the specific tree in the clause for when you eat of it you will surely die. The fact the Lord provided reason Adam is to obey the instruction given to him, implies that God created the man with inborn ability to want to know reason(s) for a given instruction. In subsequent interactions of God with humans, He continued to give reason(s) for either a direct or implied command either before a command or after it. For example, in the implied prohibition against murder, the Lord provided the reason for it in Genesis 9:6:
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God
has God made man.
Before the Lord gave the Ten Commandments, He gave implied reasons the Israelites should obey them. His implied reasons concern who He is and what He has done for them in delivering them from slavery. Hence, the Ten Commandments are preceded by the implied reasons given in Exodus 20:2:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
There were other instructions given to Israel that the Lord gave reasons for them. Take for example, the Lord instructed Israel to love the aliens among them which is followed by an explanation or reason, as we read in Deuteronomy 10:19:
And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.
Another example is the instruction given to Israel about taking care of the Levites. The Lord supplied reason for it in Deuteronomy 14:27:
And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.
We could cite more examples where God instructed His people and provided reason(s) for a given instruction but these are sufficient to support the point that it is because it is inborn in humans to want to know reason(s) for the instruction(s) given to us that God provides reason(s) for a given instruction. This fact is important in the passage before us.
The Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul had given instructions to believers concerning their response to ruling authorities in that we are to be obedient to the ruling authorities. This is followed by instructions of how to deal with others although the focus was on unbelievers. Having given these instructions, the Holy Spirit provides reasons for the instructions given with focus on the instruction concerning how to deal with people in general. We say this because the reasons that we will consider shortly do not directly relate to obedience to ruling authorities. We say this also because in another epistle of the apostle where he instructed believers to be obedient to ruling authorities, he provided a reason that is not found in our passage of Titus 3:3-7. Consider the command given in Romans 13:1–2:
1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
In this passage, the apostle supplied two reasons to obey ruling authorities. They are appointed by God and so to disobeyed them is to disobey God. In effect, you obey ruling authorities because God appointed them and because if you do not obey them then you have rebelled against God. But in the passage, we are considering, we do not have such reasons. In fact, no reason that is given in our passage that could be related to ruling authorities. Therefore, we believe that the reasons the apostle gave in Titus 3:3-7 are concerned primarily with the instruction regarding how believers should respond to others – especially unbelievers.
Be that as it may, it may not be clear from the translation of the NIV that Titus 3:3-7 is concerned with reasons for the preceding instructions given, specifically, in verse 2 because of the way the translators of the NIV began verse 3. They began verse 3 with no connective although the Greek has a connective between verses 3 and 2. Verse 3 has a Greek conjunction (gar) that is not translated in the NIV. Nonetheless, the Greek conjunction in verse 3 is used generally in three ways in the Greek. It may be used as a marker of cause or reason so that it may be translated “for.” Another usage is as a marker of clarification in which case it may be translated “you see, for.” Under this second usage, appears its use for continuing a narrative or to connect narrative portions or to signal an important point or transition to another point in which case it may not be translated. Still another usage is as a marker of inference leading to the translation “so, then, by all means, certainly.” In our passage, it is used as a marker of reasons so that verse 3 should begin with the word “for” as we find in majority of our English versions. If verse 3 begins with the word “for” in the English, then it is easier to understand that what follow provide reasons for the preceding instructions of verse 2 that concern being considerate or tolerant towards others, not insisting on one’s rights and that of showing respect or being courteous to everyone. Hence, it is because of the Greek conjunction used in verse 3 that we asserted verses 3-7 are concerned with reasons related to the preceding instructions. Anyway, there are two general reasons the Holy Spirit through the apostle provided for obeying the preceding instructions of how to deal with others, especially, unbelievers. In other words, we are saying there are two general reasons believers should be considerate of unbelievers as they deal with them.
A first general reason for believers to be considerate to unbelievers is that we were once like they are in the sense that we once behaved badly. This reason is important in our dealing with unbelievers. When people forget how things were in the past compared to what they enjoy at the present, there is the tendency to be insensitive to others. Take for example, suppose you enjoy a comfortable lifestyle because the Lord has provided you material resources to enjoy your life, if you forget what it used to be when you were without these resources then you are very likely to be insensitive to the suffering of others. I am saying that if you do not at this point struggle to meet financial obligations that you have, if you forget how it used to be for you when you were struggling to do this then you will not be able to be sensitive to those who are. Of course, we should be careful to distinguish suffering due to a person’s lack of judgment and that brought about by the general curse on mankind. By this, we mean that there is suffering that comes to all humans because of curse due to the Fall that may be evident in struggling to make ends meet. The Fall implies that humans will struggle to survive on this planet. However, this struggle is compounded by human lusts. This is evident with individuals who try to live above their means by getting into debts that are not necessary. When a person suffers because of this kind of poor decision then that is not the suffering that is general to humans due to the Fall but one that is due to lust. This is different from a case where a person gets into financial difficulty because of loss of employment or due to illness. It is easier to be sensitive to individuals in these conditions than the person who through bad decision comes under financial problems. Take another example. Suppose you enjoy great peace due to your learning and applying God’s word to your life then if you forget how it used to be with you when you did not have truth in your soul, when although you went to church but you were restless, you will not be sensitive to those who have not come to know the Lord the way you have. That aside, the point we are stressing is that if we fail to remember how things were with us prior to the state we enjoy now then we will have the tendency not to be sensitive to others who are struggling as we used to do.
In our present passage, the concern is that believers should not forget they were once unbelievers who behaved badly. In short, if we are going to be considerate of unbelievers as we deal with them we must not forget we were once like they are. It is this fact the Holy Spirit wants us to remember in the first sentence of Titus 3:3 At one time we too were. This sentence implies two things. It implies that the apostle reminds us that we were at some time in the past unbelievers. Furthermore, the sentence is given in an emphatic manner so that we should remember that the Holy Spirit puts emphasis on those who are now believers. To see the two implications that we have stated, let me give you the literal translation of this sentence in the Greek. It reads we were at one time and we. The Greek used the independent pronoun “we” that is not necessary since the Greek verb translated we were is sufficient to convey the sense of the first person plural pronoun that a second use of the pronoun “we” is unnecessary in the Greek. When this usage is given then the author wants to emphasize the person in view. Thus, the apostle wants to remind us that we indeed were like unbelievers at one time in our life. There is more, the apostle wanted to indicate that there is no exception to what he stated hence he includes himself by the use of the pronoun “we” although a Jew, who believed in God, his conduct was not the same as that of Titus and the Cretans who were Gentiles that did not believe in the true God of Israel. Nonetheless, it is true that all believers were once unbelievers and so behaved badly as the unbelievers do.
Our reminder that we were once unbelievers is conveyed in the word too used in the NIV in the sentence of Titus 3:3 At one time we too were. Before we get to the word “too”, we should note that the sentence we have is indeed one that says more than meets the eye. In effect, the sentence is a shortened way the apostle expressed the fact that at one time in the past, believers were part of all humans or in the words of the NIV of Titus 3:2 all men. With this understanding, we can then examine the word too that we indicated reminds us we were formerly like all unbelievers. The word “too” is translated from a Greek conjunction (kai) that is often translated “and” in our English versions. However, it has several other usages. We will consider only three of its usages that are potential candidates for our sentence. It could be used as a marker of an additive relation which is not equal in rank and function to the clause that it is joined and so means “also, in addition, and also, and.” It could be used as a marker to introduce result that comes from what precedes it with the meaning “and then, and so”. Another usage is as a marker of explanation of what precedes it hence means “that is, namely, and so.” These three usages make sense and state that which is true in our passage if we accept that the sentence is a shortened way the apostle expressed the state of believers as unbelievers. Take for example, the usage as a marker of result makes sense in that the apostle would be saying that we were like unbelievers as a result we were guilty of the failures mentioned in the context. The usage of a marker of explanation makes sense also in that it means that the apostle stated that we were like unbelievers prior to salvation and he proceeded to explain in what ways we were like them in what follow. Hence, we recognize that all three usages fit the context but because we believe the apostle used our sentence in a shortened form to describe the state of believers before they became saved, then the most compact word to use in the translation is either “also, in addition” as in some English versions or “too” as in the NIV and few other English versions.
We contend that the sentence At one time we too were is the apostle’s way of summarizing the state of believers as unbelievers. It is his way of telling us that we were originally spiritually dead as the unbelievers that we are supposed to be considerate in how we deal with them. This assertion is in keeping with what the apostle wrote to the Ephesians to remind them they were spiritually dead prior to being saved, as we read in Ephesians 2:1–3:
1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
Titus was to remind believers in Crete of this truth that they were once spiritually dead and so were immersed in sins like the rest of unbelievers. Of course, the epistle is given to the church so that all pastors are to remind believers of what they use to be as unbelievers. You see, as we have indicated, failure to remember what we were prior to salvation will lead us not to be sensitive to unbelievers in their failures. There is the tendency to become arrogant because of the privileges we now enjoy in Christ. We may also be arrogant because of the victories over sins that we enjoy through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit about which unbelievers know nothing. As a result, we may find ourselves insensitive to unbelievers as we interact with them since they would invariably behave in a way that is contrary to the Scripture. Anyway, we should not become intolerant of unbelievers because we have superior moral conduct as we enjoy the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
To ensure we do not become insensitive or intolerant of unbelievers as we interact we them, the apostle proceeds to remind us the way we were prior to salvation, that is, how badly we behaved. He listed six things about unbelievers that should remind us of our state prior to being saved. The first thing is our spiritual insensitivity as given in the verbal phrase of Titus 3:3 were foolish. The word “foolish” is translated from a Greek adjective (anoētos) that pertains to unwillingness to use one’s mental faculties in order to understand hence, means “unintelligent, foolish, without understanding, stupid.” It is a word used in the NT to describe both believers and unbelievers. It is the word that is used to narrate Jesus’ description of His disciples for their failure to understand that He had to die and rise again, according to the Scripture, so He called them foolish in Luke 24:25:
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
Apostle Paul used the word to describe the Galatians who did not recognize that justification is by faith or those who were going astray from the faith, as in Galatians 3:1:
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
Here the apostle used the word not to say that some Galatians are stupid but that some of them were failing to use their mental and spiritual abilities. In effect, those described as foolish are the ones who are not thinking right or using their minds to understand the truth that justification is by faith and not by works. Thus, the foolish in this passage is one that is not using the individual’s mind to think as the person should. The apostle used the word to describe the kind of thoughts believers who are lusting to be wealthy may have, as we read in 1 Timothy 6:9:
People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
The word “foolish” here has the sense of irrational so that the desire in view is irrational both from intellectual and ethical perspectives. The Greek word translated foolish is used especially for the inability to think clearly or reflect properly. Thus, when the apostle reminds us that we were foolish before salvation, he does not mean that we were naturally stupid. No! He means that we were unable to think clearly with respect to truth or ethical issues. We were unable to recognize anything spiritual let alone applying it to our lives. The point then is that unbelievers lack sound judgment when it comes to spiritual matters because they do not understand them and so could not use their mind correctly to analyze anything that is spiritual. In short, unbelievers are unable to understand truth from God since a spiritually dead person is incapable of understanding spiritual truth, as implied by the apostle in 1 Corinthians 2:14:
The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Hence, we should remember that while we were unbelievers, spiritual things made no sense to us. Based on these various usages of our Greek word, it is appropriate to state that as unbelievers we were insensitive to spiritual things. This recollection should enable us to be sensitive to unbelievers in our interactions with them.
The second thing that is a reminder of the way we were prior to salvation that should enable us not to become insensitive or intolerant of unbelievers concerns our previous life of disobedience as in the word disobedient of Titus 3:3. The word “disobedient” is translated from a Greek word (apeithēs) that means “disobedient” in the sense of not obeying or complying to the commands of an authority figure. Apostle Paul used it to describe unbelievers in Romans 1:30:
slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
The sentence they disobey their parents is more literally disobedient to parents. It is in the same sense of the word that the apostle used it to describe the behavior of people in the last days in 2 Timothy 3:2:
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
It is true that the word is used to indicate failure to obey the instructions of parents in the two passages we cited but ultimately the word is used to describe one who refuses to obey God’s word. For after all, the command to obey parents is one that comes from God. That aside, the point is that our word is used to describe in our passage of Titus 3:3 the person who is an unbeliever because the person has not obeyed God’s word. It is certainly because of this reality that the apostle used the verb form of our Greek word to describe what we did, as unbelievers in Romans 11:30:
Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience,
Apostle Peter also used the verb form of the world to describe unbelievers as those who do not obey the gospel message in 1 Peter 4:17:
For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
Anyway, Apostle Paul in using the Greek word translated “disobedient” in Titus 3:3 wants to remind us that as unbelievers we did not obey God. Firstly, we were ignorant of the gospel message and so could not have at that point obeyed it. Secondly, we had the consciousness of God’s law but we did not obey it. Unbelievers have the consciousness of God’s law, as implied in Romans 2:14–15:
14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15 since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
This passage in Romans indicates that God has put in the hearts of all persons the basic moral sense of right and wrong. Thus, humans know when they are doing wrong or right. Of course, it is by constant rejection of the dictates of the conscience that a human becomes insensitive to God’s moral requirements. The point is that unbelievers basically know what is right and wrong according to God’s standard but disobey God’s law or what God commands that is intuitively known by all humans. As unbelievers, we had the same consciousness of God’s demand but failed to obey. It is this truth that the apostle wanted Titus and so all pastors to remind every believer to enable us not to become insensitive or intolerant towards unbelievers who are at the present behaving badly as we used to do.
The third thing that is a reminder of how badly we behaved as unbelievers that should keep us from becoming insensitive or intolerant of unbelievers as we interact with them is deception that unbelievers experience. It is this experience of unbelievers that is given in Titus 3:3 with the word deceived. The word “deceived” is translated from a Greek word (planaō) that may mean “to go astray” or “to wander away” from the truth, as in James 5:19:
My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back,
It may mean to wander about aimlessly as it is used to describe persecuted believers mentioned in Hebrews 11:38:
the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
The word may mean “to be deceived, be misled”, as in 2 Timothy 3:13:
while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
It is in this sense that Apostle Paul used it to introduce the spiritual law of sowing and reaping that cannot be invalidated in Galatians 6:7:
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
It is in the sense of being deceived or misled from the proper conduct or even belief that the word is used in our passage of Titus 3:3.
The Greek implies that the apostle meant to convey that prior to salvation believers when they were unbelievers were habitual deceived or misled from proper conduct or belief in God that will affect a person’s conduct. Unbelievers are continuously being deceived, this explains their conduct or behavior. Of course, the apostle did not indicate who deceives unbelievers but the Scripture is clear as who does that; it is Satan since he is the one that is said to deceive or lead astray the world, as we can gather from Revelation 12:9:
The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
The way Satan deceives unbelievers is by keeping them in darkness or keeping them blind so that they do not come to the knowledge of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is this activity of Satan that the Holy Spirit mentioned through Apostle Paul, as he states in 2 Corinthians 4:4:
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
In this passage, the phrase the god of this age refers to Satan, the deceiver. Because he keeps unbelievers in spiritual blindness, they are unable to know the truth and hence their conduct that is contrary to God’s word. Believers who understand this truth are tolerant towards unbelievers but that does not mean that they accept their conduct.
The fourth thing that is a reminder of how badly we behaved as unbelievers prior to our salvation that should enable us not to become insensitive or intolerant of unbelievers, concerns preoccupation with passions and pleasures, as stated in the next verbal phrase of Titus 3:3 enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. The word “preoccupation” does not appear in the phrase so why did I use it? It is primarily because of the word “enslaved” used in the phrase. The word “enslaved” is translated from a Greek verb (douleuō) with several meanings. It can mean “to be a slave” in the sense of being owned by another, as it is used to describe Israelites serving as slaves to Egyptians in the Lord’s declaration to Abraham that Stephen quoted in his sermon recorded in Acts, specifically, Acts 7:7:
But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’
The word may mean “to serve” in a humble manner but not necessarily as a slave. It is in this sense that the word is used to encourage believers to be in service to each other in Galatians 5:13:
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
The Greek word figuratively may mean “to control” as that is the sense of the word in Romans 6:6:
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—
The clause that we should no longer be slaves to sin is to be understood to mean that sin will no longer control believers. It is in this sense of being controlled or that of being entirely dominated by some influence that the word is used in Titus 3:3. When a person is controlled or dominated by passions and pleasures, that is the same thing as saying that a person is preoccupied or obsessed by them. It is for this reason that we use the word “preoccupation” in describing the condition we were as unbelievers. There is more. The Greek used a present tense to describe the word translated “enslaved” in our passage. The present tense used here has the sense of habit or doing something repeatedly. Thus, if a person is constantly dominated or controlled by something other than a person that enslaves another, then it is proper to indicate that the person so controlled or dominated by something is indeed preoccupied with whatever it is that controls or dominates the person. A thing does not have power to control someone until a person submits to that thing so that we can say that it is because a person is obsessed by something that whatever it is that controls the individual could have that kind of power over the person. This being the case, we are correct to state that when we were unbelievers we were obsessed with passions and pleasures. Unfortunately, what we have described seems to the case for many believers in our society. In effect, many believers practice idolatry because there is something that they are preoccupied with other than the Lord. It may be difficult for many of us to accept this kind of declaration that I have made because they do not see themselves putting up wooden idols to worship. That notwithstanding, whenever a believer becomes preoccupied with anything more than with the Lord then the person is in idolatry simply because it is impossible to be devoted equally to things of this word and the Lord. It is for this reason that our Lord declared the impossibility of being equally devoted to Him and money, as implied in Matthew 6:24:
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Hence, you cannot be equally preoccupied with anything material and be equally devoted to the Lord.
In any case, the apostle mentioned two objects of preoccupation or domination of the lives of unbelievers. The first object is given in the word “passions” in the NIV. We should, however, be clear that the apostle is not condemning passion as a word since our English word may refer to strong and barely controllable emotion or an intense enthusiasm for something or intense sexual desire. It is certainly desirable for us to have intense enthusiasm for some things in life that are beneficial if we are going to have a life that is not boring. A person who does not have an intense enthusiasm for good things will find that the individual is rarely motivated to do things that are beneficial to the individual as well as to others. Thus, the word “passion” is not bad in and of itself, it depends on the meaning attached to it and its object. Our explanation is even clearer from examining the Greek word that is translated “passions” in the NIV. The word “passions” of the NIV is translated from a Greek word (epithymia) that basically means desire for something. It may mean a great desire for something hence means “desire, longing, craving”. It is used as neutral word to describe the desire for other things in Mark 4:19:
but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.
The desire can be for something good so that one has a longing for something, as Apostle Paul used it for his longing to depart from this life to be with the Lord, as he stated in Philippians 1:23:
I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;
This use of our Greek word in a positive manner notwithstanding, the word is used predominantly in the NT in a negative sense of desire for something forbidden or inordinate so means “lust, craving.” The translators of the NIV used the meaning “craving” to translate our Greek word in Ephesians 2:3:
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
The phrase the cravings of our sinful nature is literally the desires of our flesh. Our Greek word is translated “lust” by the translators of the NIV in the passage where Apostle Peter described the pagan lifestyle in1 Peter 4:3:
For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
In our context of Titus 3:3, the Greek word is used in a negative sense of desire for the things the word of God forbids. Thus, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul reminds us that as unbelievers we were consumed with sinful desires as we find in all unbelievers that we come in contact. Unbelievers are preoccupied with the desire for sex outside the marriage bonds, desire for revenge, desire for wealth at any cost, among others. The point is that the first thing the apostle mentioned that unbelievers are dominated by or controlled by is the desire to do things that are contrary to God’s word.
The second object of preoccupation or that controls the lives of unbelievers is the pursuit of all kinds of pleasure as in the phrase of Titus 3:3 by all kinds of passions and pleasures. The translators of the NIV imply that phrase all kinds governs both passions and pleasures although the Greek implies that the phrase all kinds is associated with pleasures since the literal Greek reads to desires and to pleasures to all kinds. However, because the Greek word (poikilos) translated “all kinds” is an adjective, it is probably that the apostle intended for the adjective to govern both the word “passions” and the word “pleasures.” This understanding is supported by the fact that the apostle used the Greek adjective only twice in his epistles and in its other usage besides our passage, it concerns “desires”, as in 2 Timothy 3:6:
They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires,
This usage will argue for the Greek adjective being used to govern both the Greek word translated “passions” in the NIV and the word “pleasures.” That aside, the apostle is concerned with the preoccupation of unbelievers with pleasure. There is no doubt in my mind that pleasure is one of the greatest tools today Satan uses to keep people away from focusing on their spiritual life. He uses it on unbelievers in such a way that they are preoccupied with pleasure to keep them from truly facing themselves in light of eternity. I mean that Satan uses the concept of pleasure to distract unbelievers so they could not evaluate their lives and find out why it is empty and unfulfilling in the ultimate sense. So, if an unbeliever is hurting, Satan will bring more things that are intended for pleasure so that the individual will not have time enough to reflect on life as to ask the important question of what life is all about and what is the final destination of all humans. Unbelievers are not the only ones that Satan uses this tool of pleasure to distract but he does so with believers. Of course, the passage we are considering is concerned with the preoccupation of unbelievers with pleasure in such a way to remind us that as unbelievers we were also preoccupied with it implying that we are not that way now or that we ought not to be individuals that are preoccupied with pleasures. Anyway, the subject of pleasure is important that we ask the question; what is pleasure? Time does not permit further consideration this subject but if you are interested in the answer then come back next week when if the Lord permits, we will give the answer.
09/15/17