Lessons #65 and 66
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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 ended our last study with a question of what pleasure is and promised to answer the question in our today’s study. The question arises because we were considering 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. This fourth thing concerns preoccupation with passions and pleasures as conveyed in the verbal phrase of Titus 3:3 enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.
Again, we ask: What is pleasure? We have considered this question in detail in our exegesis of Luke 8:14 that is available in our website under lesson 171 but we are going to briefly review it here with few modifications. According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, pleasure is “a feeling of happy satisfaction and enjoyment.” It goes on to elaborate this definition to include “enjoyment and entertainment, as opposed to necessity” or “an event or activity from which one derives enjoyment.” Thus, in a general sense pleasure is a gratifying emotion that is associated with the possession or expectation of what is good or greatly desired. To understand its meaning as it pertains to our passage of Titus 3:3, we need to consider the Greek word (hēdonē) translated “pleasures” in the verbal phrase enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures we are considering. The Greek word refers to that which someone is fond of doing because it produces enjoyment, hence the word means “pleasure, enjoyment, passion, delight.” It can also be used in a bad sense to mean “lust.” Originally, this word meant what is pleasant to the taste, then to the senses in general, then what gives pleasure, desire for pleasure. The word eventually meant that which kindles desire or pleasure, taking on the sense of “sensual lust” in the New Testament. Hence, in the NT, the sense is usually that which distracts the believer from fellowship with God while dragging him back again into the domain of the evil one or at least to the sphere of Satan’s influence.
The subject of pleasure although not much studied in the modern world but it was a subject of great study among scholars in the ancient world. They recognized that pleasure could be dangerous not only to the development of an individual but of a nation as well. They realized that pleasure has the tendency to produce an adversary attitude towards the spiritual. In contrast to the ancient people, the modern people seem not to recognize the dangers of pleasure since they are very much occupied with its pursuit. This explains the explosion in entertainment today. That aside, the modern people’s outlook on pleasure is somewhat different from those of the ancient people. Few people now give any serious thought of the influence of pleasure on their lives. This is, for example, the reason the people in the movie industry often do not consider seriously the negative impact they have on the society as they make movies to entertain people. For if they did, the movie industry would be careful in the message they portray through films and television.
A major problem with pleasure today is that many people perceive it to be a major means to happiness so they overindulge themselves thinking that the more pleasure they have the greater is their chance for happiness. But there is no true happiness in pleasure. True happiness is related to the person of Jesus Christ. This is evident from the fact that true happiness is first associated with forgiveness of sins as the psalmist declared in Psalm 32:1–2:
1 Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 2 Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.
The word “blessed” is translated from a Hebrew word (ʾǎšrę) that means “blessed, happy” but in this passage in psalm it has the sense of being characterized by happiness and being highly favored by the Lord. Forgiveness of sins is only through Jesus Christ, as the Holy Spirit indicated through the preaching of Apostle Paul in Acts 13:38:
“Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
Since forgiveness of sins is through faith in Jesus Christ then it follows that true happiness is related to the person of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, true happiness is that which comes through obedience to God’s word, as the Lord Jesus stated in Luke 11:27–28:
27 As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.” 28 He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
The word “blessed” is translated from a Greek word (makarios) that means “blessed, happy, fortunate.” Some English versions such as the TEV, the REB and the CEB used the meaning “happy” in their translation so that the sentence Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it of the NIV is translated in the TEV as “Rather, how happy are those who hear the word of God and obey it! Thus, true happiness comes through obedience to God’s word. Therefore, if your goal is happiness in life then your true goal should be to have the right relationship with Jesus Christ. I am saying to you that if you want to be happy then do not seek happiness through entertainments or pleasure; rather, seek to cultivate the right relationship with Jesus Christ that involves learning and obeying His word. Seek a life that is under the control of the Holy Spirit. If you find such a life then happiness would become yours. However, many do not understand this concept so they chase after pleasure with the hope of finding true happiness or peace in their souls and so miss true pleasure or happiness. As I have indicated previously and will continue to emphasize if the Lord permits me to do so; one of the greatest tools Satan uses today to distract people is pleasure. You can tell this because of the explosion in various forms of entertainment. Today, if you want people to attend certain events you promise great entertainments and they would show up in masses. The sad fact is that even local churches of today use entertainment to advertise themselves to draw young people, as they say, to their local congregations instead of the word of God. The early church was successful in drawing people into the church by preaching of the word and reliance on the Holy Spirit but today many local churches rely on different kinds of entertainments. The result is that they draw crowds alright but most of these individuals are not Christians. Those who are Christians are often not growing spiritually because there is limited teaching taking place in such local churches that use entertainment to draw and keep the young people.
Another problem with pleasure related to the major problem of pleasure is that pleasures sought in things are never satisfying. This fact is one that Solomon discovered in his search for satisfaction in life through various entertainments or achievements. Thus, he penned down the declaration recorded in Ecclesiastes 2:10–11:
10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. 11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
We should be clear that we do not mean that pleasure in and of itself is wrong since pleasure is an emotion that gratifies a person. We know that pleasure in and of itself is not wrong because firstly it is associated with God both positively and negatively. Negatively, God is said not to be pleased with Israel’s sacrifices when the people do not defend the helpless and practice justice and righteousness, as in Isaiah 1:11:
“The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
Positively, God is said to have pleasure in His work of salvation that starts with election, as stated in Ephesians 1:5:
he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
Secondly, pleasure in and of itself is not wrong because it is God’s creation for humans. In other words, God created the concept of pleasure associated with enjoyment of His creation. This fact is stated by the Holy Spirit through Solomon in Ecclesiastes 8:15:
So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.
It is echoed through Apostle Paul 1 Timothy 6:17:
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
Consequently, pleasure in and of itself is not bad. Furthermore, all pleasures are not wrong considering that there are two general types of pleasure – temporal and eternal. Temporal pleasure is associated with this life but eternal pleasures are what God would provide in the eternal state. It is eternal pleasure that the Psalmist indicates would belong to the believers in the future when he writes in Psalm 16:11:
You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Temporal pleasures are derived from various sources. These include food, wine, sex, sleep, entertainment, and various luxuries of life. Luke hints at some of these pleasures in his gospel. Consider the following two passages:
Luke 12:19
And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
Luke 16:19
"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.
Luke touched on pleasures associated with food, drink, luxurious living, and entertainment but the other sources such as sex are not far from the sources he listed. The point that we should underscore is that pleasure from these sources could be good or bad but the problem is that many people seek the pleasure from these sources in disobedience of God’s word. This is the reason Apostle Peter condemned the false teachers for their wrong pleasure, as we read in 2 Peter 2:13-14:
13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. 14 With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed — an accursed brood!
Apostle Peter says that false teachers’ idea of pleasure is excessive indulgence in eating and drinking even sexual activity. That same idea of pleasure persists to the present day. For many people when they think of pleasure, think of feasting and sexual activity. There is nothing wrong with feasting or sexual activity if it is done in such a manner to glorify God. If you glorify God in feasting you will be enjoying food with thanksgiving. If you glorify God in sexual activity, that also you will do with thanksgiving to Him. Someone may say, don’t be silly! How do you relate sexual activity with thanksgiving? Well, I am not being silly. Instead, I am applying what God’s word said in Col 3:17:
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Besides, you give thanks for the food you eat; consequently, it makes sense that you should give thanks to God for sex. Did you understand what I just said about thanksgiving in sex? If you do, you will realize that no one could fornicate or commit adultery and offer thanks to God for it unless his conscience is dead, so to say.
Do you understand that we are saying that all pleasures are not wrong? Do you wonder when pleasures from these sources we mentioned could become wrong? Pleasure is wrong only whenever it interferes with your spiritual life. The real danger in pleasure is that it is often used to replace the importance of God in the life of an individual. By this I mean that according to God’s plan, humans should have pleasure and joy but only as they are in continuous fellowship with God. However, Satan seeks to promote pleasure from these sources we have mentioned as means of attaining joy or even peace so that humans believe that the more pleasure they have from these sources the more peace or joy they would have. This to me is one of the great deceptions of Satan to humanity.
The wrong pleasure is certainly detrimental to both the physical and the spiritual well-being of an individual. For example, a person who loves pleasure generally never succeeds in anything. A businessman who is in love with pleasure can hardly be successful if he spends his time pursing pleasure to the extent that it causes him to neglect his business. A student who likes pursuing various forms of entertainment can hardly be a good student. I recall an experience I had several years ago when I was teaching in a university in Oregon. The best student in my class who was certainly expected to earn an “A” grade ended up with a “C” because he decided to pursue pleasure of drinking the night before final exam. Because of being drunk, he was unable to do well in the final exam that carries majority of the points for course. The point is that love for pleasure can lead to failure in life. This fact is the truth communicated in Proverbs 21:17:
He who loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and oil will never be rich.
The point is that if anyone is consumed with pleasure he would not be successful in any endeavor that he gets involved in because he remains distracted by pleasure.
Detrimental effect of pleasure is not only noticeable in individuals but also with nations that after all consist of individuals. History proves this point. A nation that is pleasure loving is a weak nation both morally and physically. Consider the Greeks. There was a time in their history when the Athenians became so fascinated with entertainments in the theatres that they appropriated the funds for their military defense for enhancing of their entertainments for which they paid heavily by losing their freedom through enslavement of Philip of Macedonia who defeated them in 338 B.C. in the war at Chaerone. The Romans were no different. Although they had conquered the world then, but when they became pleasure-loving people they lost their military edge over those they had previously conquered and eventually their love for the circus spelled doom for them because when the Barbarians attacked them they were ill prepared and so they suffered military defeat so that the Roman Empire ceased to exist. The point is that even nations suffer terribly when they become pleasure seeking. This illustration may sound farfetched to you so let me bring it closer home. You know that there are several communities today that spend millions of dollars to build high school sports stadium while the same high schools’ infrastructures are in shambles. Why is that the case? Is it not because of people’s preoccupation with pleasure?
We have mentioned an illustration of the detrimental effect of the love of pleasure in the physical realm, that is, poverty (economic and military), so we also need to mention an example of its detrimental effect on the spiritual life on this planet. We go back to the time of Noah to see the effect of loving pleasure. The people of Noah’s generation were so caught up with pleasure that they did not listen to the preaching of Noah. Their interest was towards entertainment that it did not occur to them that it was strange for Noah to be building an ark. It would seem to me that people would have passed by and noticed Noah building the ark but since they did not see the immediate pleasure that comes from his activity, they did not bother to ask question as to what he was doing. So, they kept on ignoring him as they pursued their pleasure until destruction overtook them. We know this truth because our Lord had said that the people of Noah’s generation were engrossed in pleasure up to the time the flood came, according to Matthew 24:38-39:
38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man
Of course, the illustration of impact of pleasure in the days of Noah is mostly applicable to unbelievers with respect to their spiritual life or lack of it. But let me mention one negative impact of pleasure seeking among believers. It is regarding the teaching of the word of God that the love of pleasure leads to failure in prayer life. This is because a person who is in love with pleasure would hardly have the right motive in prayer to the Lord, as asserted in James 4:3:
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
Believers motivated by pleasures do not consider what is God’s will for them when they pray, they are simply concerned with God supplying whatever they think would give them pleasures. Such individuals do not realize the illusive nature of pleasure without the proper spiritual life. Think about it, you would agree that the reason people keep looking for more pleasure is that they never get enough. This is because what they really seek is joy and peace, but these come not from the sources that give us temporal pleasures but from God Himself.
Pleasure not properly experienced has the detrimental effect of ensuring that a believer does not mature spiritually because of its distraction from the word of God. Thus, a believer who is pleasure driven hears the word of God but never follows through to truly obey the word so that it would produce the intended result in the believer. Anyway, it is our assertion that according to the Scripture that pursuit of pleasure may lead to a believer not being mature spiritually. This being the case, we need to examine how pleasure can keep a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ from following through with the word of God taught to such a person, by considering various kinds of pleasure.
The first pleasure we want to consider is sexual pleasure. This is perhaps one of the greatest distractions to following through with the word of God in our time. As we consider sexual pleasure, you should not think of it merely in terms of the physical act itself but everything that surrounds sexual pleasure. There are people who fulfill their sexual pleasure by watching women or men degrade themselves by the way they present their bodies. This being the case, we can state that generally, sexual pleasure often begins with the effort people make to attract the opposite sex. This would include the time, for example, women spend in beautifying themselves. There are many Christian women who think more of their physical appearance than they think of their spiritual condition. Consequently, when a person is constantly thinking of how to become physically more attractive that individual would have less time to spend contemplating on the person’s relationship with the Lord. It is this lack of contemplating on the word that causes a person not to carry through with the word of God a believer is taught. Of course, the physical act of sex itself can also keep a person from following through with the word if it is incorrectly done.
There are two cases to consider regarding the physical act of sex. The first case is the authorized sexual relationship between a husband and a wife. There are many husbands and wives who go along with their spouses in a direction they know is not in accordance with the word of God because they do not want to be denied sexual relationship. Such an attitude could cause a person not to carry through with the word of God, that is, for the sake of being able to have sexual relationship with their spouses they compromise the truth. The second case involves illicit sex. There are many single and married people who never produce fruit spiritually because they are enslaved to sex. They find themselves always being disobedient because they are having illegal sex (that is, sex outside marriage). The result is that such a person remains constantly out of fellowship. As a result, such individuals would find a way to avoid hearing the word of God or, if they expose themselves to the teaching of the word they turn off their ears to such a teaching that makes them aware that they are following the wrong path. As a person does this, the individual will never enjoy the true blessing of the Lord and hence would never reach spiritual maturity. I dare say that many people are afraid of truth as expounded by truthful teachers of the word of God because of sexual pleasures.
A second kind of pleasure is that associated with food and wine. How does this keep anyone from following through with the word of God in order not to attain spiritual maturity, you may ask? There are at least two ways in which this happens. First, a person could become distracted in his thinking as he pursues pleasures from food and wine. This means that such an individual is so occupied in his thinking as to how to attain this pleasure that he ignores the truth of the word of God. In other words, the person would develop the attitude that it does not matter how he obtains his food so he ignores every biblical principle in the individual’s effort to obtain food and wine. Secondly, excessive food and excessive use of wine often impede a person’s thinking capacity. If you are too full of food, you become uncomfortable that you do not have time to meditate on the word. Certainly, a person who is drunk could not reflect on the word of God. However, spiritual growth and maturity requires that a person reflect on the word of God but if the body is fatigued because of wine and food such a person could not possibly meditate on the word of God, hence such an individual would never remember the word let alone following it through.
A third kind of pleasure is that due to sleep. On the surface, it may appear that such pleasure that comes from sleep could not in any way endanger spiritual growth. However, the love for sleep can in fact keep a person from carrying through with the word. The damage sleep causes to a person begins to occur at the time when that individual is listening to the teaching of the word of God so that sleep keeps that individual from concentrating. We know that many people do not get up on Sunday morning to go to church or Bible study because they enjoy their sleep. It is the same person who gets up early in the morning every day to go to work but such a person is unable to wake up on Sunday morning to obtain the most important thing of life, the teaching of God’s word. Of course, such an individual reveal what is truly his or her priority. The other side is that there are those who would not go to evening Bible studies because that would delay the time they go to bed. That again is the devil’s subtle attack on a person to keep an individual from spiritual growth. Anyway, our concern for the moment is with how sleep can interfere with coming to spiritual maturity on hearing the word. As I alluded previously, the attack of the enemy begins when a believer is in a place of study of the word. Satan would use the human weakness to cause a person to sleep during the teaching of the word of God so that the individual does not get the full message. As a result, a person would not have much to contemplate. But then a person who enjoys sleep would not have the time to meditate on the word nor would such a person have the time to pray. If pleasure of sleep is not detrimental to anyone, then we will not have the command in Prov 20:13:
Do not love sleep or you will grow poor; stay awake and you will have food to spare.
Sleep, of course, will interfere with a believer’s prayer. Praying is an important aspect of the spiritual life because it involves our communication to God. It is an activity that is given to us to keep us conscious of our relationship with our heavenly Father. A believer who prays properly will think of God’s word to the extent it will enable such a person to know when the individual is praying according to God’s will. But if a person loves sleep, he would not spend time in fellowship with the Lord in prayer.
A fourth kind of pleasure comes from entertainment. Entertainment comes in various ways such as sports, movies or other activities that keep the mind occupied with pleasing or gratifying self. How can these things keep a person from carrying through with the word of God? The manner this happens is often subtle since a person’s mind may be occupied with entertainment instead of with the word of God. In other words, a person may attend a Bible study but before it is over the individual is already thinking of some form of entertainment. In this way, such a believer would not allow the mind to dwell long enough in the word that has been taught, to learn the implications of the truths taught. A person who thinks more of how to entertain self would not meditate long enough on the word to allow the person to follow through with the word of God learned, so the individual never comes to spiritual maturity. One reason the effect of entertainment is subtle is that a person may not allow entertainment to keep the individual from Bible study or Sunday worship but at the same time the person’s mind is on entertainment in such a way that the individual does not concentrates on the teaching of the word while in church.
It is not our intention to enumerate all kinds of pleasures that could become sinful since that varies from culture to culture; instead, we should state a fundamental principle that should help us determine when any pleasure is sinful. The principle is simply this: any pleasure that causes a person to put anything spiritual second place to pleasure is sinful. This principle should guide us in deciding when pleasure becomes sinful. For example, there are many forms of celebrations that humans have become involved with such as birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and many more. Some of these in and of themselves may not necessarily be wrong, but when any of these is placed over the spiritual life then the entertainment that results from it becomes sinful. Let me put it in a more practical manner. Suppose a birthday celebration (ignoring at this time the question of its appropriateness for believers) keeps a person from Bible study because the individual had to get things ready for the celebration, then that is placing pleasure or entertainment over the spiritual. Under this circumstance, pleasure that comes from such celebration becomes wrong. Of course, we can also rationalize and say, “well, it is just this one time so what difference does it make?” The problem with that justification is that it is supplied by the devil. For you see, what we sometimes fail to observe is that what Satan is interested is that we obey him or do what he suggests. We could easily obey him in something that we see no moral harm, but to Satan all that is important is to be obeyed. Remember that his first temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ was to turn stones into bread. What would have been morally wrong with turning stones into bread? Nothing, except that if our Lord did that He would have obeyed Satan, among other reasons. My point is that it is quite easy for us to justify placing pleasure above our spiritual life because Satan has convinced us to obey him. In any event, we have considered the subject of pleasure because preoccupation with passions and pleasures are the fourth reminder of how badly we behaved as unbelievers prior to our salvation.
The fifth 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 a behavior that is mean-spirited and resentful towards a person because of the individual’s possession or advantage in life. This behavior is described in the sentence of Titus 3:3 We lived in malice and envy. The word “malice” is translated from a Greek word (kakia) that may mean a state involving difficult circumstances hence means “trouble, misfortune,” as the word is used in Matthew 6:34:
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
The Greek word may mean “wickedness, baseness, depravity” so it is the word used to describe the denouncement of Simon the sorcerer by Apostle Peter where it is translated “wickedness” in Acts 8:22:
Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart.
The Greek word may mean a mean-spirited or vicious attitude or disposition and so means “malice, ill-will, malignity.” It is in the sense of malice that the word is used when Apostle Paul instructed the Colossians regarding the vices, they are to get rid of because of their new state as believers in Christ in Colossians 3:8:
But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
It is in the sense of mean-spirited or vicious attitude or disposition that the word is used in Titus 3:3 so that the meaning “malice” is proper. Hence, the apostle wants to remind us that prior to salvation our disposition was such that we were mean-spirited so that we find ourselves governed by behaviors that include being malicious towards others. Such disposition, of course, also involves being resentful of others because of their possessions or advantages of life. We desire to have what they possess or to deprive them of their possessions, that is, we lived in envy. By the way, envy is a terrible state to find oneself because it is destructive, as indicated in Proverbs 14:30:
A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.
Of course, envy is clearly that which belongs to the sinful nature as it is listed among the vices that are associated with the sinful nature or flesh in Galatians 5:21:
and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Anyway, the fact is that as unbelievers we lived is such a way that our lives were characterized by malice, that is, that desire to harm someone, and by envy. As believers, we should not live lives that are characterized by these. Therefore, the Holy Spirit continuously tells us to get rid of them. We noted such an instruction in the command of the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul to the Colossians. Similar instruction is given by the Holy Spirit through Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 2:1:
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.
The reason the Holy Spirit commands believers to rid themselves of such behavior that involves malice and envy is because we have been regenerated and He lives in us. Furthermore, through the word of God we realize that a behavior that involves malice and envy is not acceptable to God. Once we realize this, we can then rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to resist the thoughts that lead to malice and envy. In other words, because we have the Holy Spirit and because we know God’s will about these things, then we can filter our thoughts to reject any tendency towards these. If you remember that you use to have problem in these areas then that should cause you to be sensitive or tolerant of unbelievers as you interact with them. Again, this does not mean that you will endorse such behavior but that you understand why they are the way they are.
The sixth 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 a life of hatred. It is this life that is described in the last verbal phrase of Titus 3:3 being hated and hating one another. The expression “being hated” is translated from a rare Greek word (stygētos) that appears only here in the Greek NT; it pertains to being hated or regarded as worthy of being hated hence means “hated, despicable.” The word “hating” is translated from a Greek word (miseō) that may mean “to disfavor, to disregard” in contrast to preferential treatment of someone. It is in this sense that the Lord Jesus used it to qualify a worthy disciple in Luke 14:26:
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.
Jesus was not advocating the sin of hatred with respect to family members. No! The word “hate” is used in the sense of “to disregard” or “to love less” so that Jesus indicates that a person who could not disregard family members in favor of Him could not be His disciple. Or, if we put it in another way, if a person could not prefer Jesus to any member of the individual’s family then the person could not be His disciple. Another meaning of our Greek word is “to hate, detest” in the sense of having a strong aversion to someone or something. It is in this sense that the word is used by Jesus in His priestly prayer to describe the world’s attitude towards His disciples in John 17:14:
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
It is in this second sense of having a strong aversion or intensely disliking someone that the Greek word is used in our passage of Titus 3:3. Hate is malicious and unjustifiable feelings towards an individual. It is a deep-seated human hostility towards others. The Greek tense used translated hating in Titus 3:3 conveys a sense of habit or something that is done repeatedly. This means that unbelievers are characterized by this habitual intense dislike of others. The implication is that an unbeliever is an object of hatred by another unbeliever while that individual also hates another. Unbelievers are constantly doing things that would cause others to hate them and they also hate others for doing something that they disapprove. Thus, there is a whole lifestyle that is characterized by hatred. There is this madness of life whereby unbelievers go around with hatred in their souls so that one person hates another as the individual is hated by another unbeliever.
Hating can be either active or passive. If you have passive hate, it is in the inside, you probably do not talk about it or you can hide it very well. You bite your tongue and gnash your teeth to help hide it. This is passive hatred. Active hatred is one that a person does not hide; he shows it in more ways than one. He seeks to destroy the object of his hatred. In any case, whether you possess active or passive hatred, the result is the same. It is detrimental both spiritually and physically. Unbelievers are those whose lives are characterized by hate so that if a believer hates, such a person acts like an unbeliever and so does not have fellowship with God the Holy Spirit. Thus, a believer who hates is described as one who operates in the domain that Satan controls, as implied in 1 John 2:11:
But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
In any case, unbelievers are those whose lives are characterized by hate. This was our lifestyle prior to salvation. We are to look at what we use to be so that we can be tolerant with unbelievers who now live the way we use to do. Of course, it does not mean that a believer is incapable of hate but the word hating used in Titus 3:3, as we have indicated, implies that a believer should not be characterized by hate as that which habitually dominates the unbeliever. In any event, 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.
09/22/17