Living Between Grace and Glory
If you are searching for how to live a productive, purposeful life, you might be tempted to model your lifestyle after Facebook and Instagram posts, Pinterest boards, or X quotes. But rather than look to the world, I recommend you look to God’s word, and read the letter the Apostle Paul wrote to his young protégé Titus.
In this letter Paul emphasizes “the inseparable link between faith and practice, belief and behavior” (Introduction to the Letter of Paul to Titus, ESV Study Bible). Paul instructs Titus to teach believers that sound doctrine and godly living go hand-in-hand. In other words, to live a godly life that is productive and purposeful, base your life on the truth God reveals in the Bible. Paul does not leave us hanging with just a big overarching concept, but gives specifics to help us understand the concept and then work out the details in a practical way. He addresses where we live, what we should be doing, how we learn what we should be doing, and why we should live godly lives - all based on the foundation of sound doctrine.
Life in the Middle
Paul gives perspective on where we are living in Titus 2:11-14. He writes, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to …… live godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” This is where we are, my friends. We are living, today, between grace and glory. Think of that! The grace of God has appeared. Yes, Jesus, the Word in flesh, the one who was with God, who was God, who was sent from God, has already come, full of grace and truth (John 1:14-18). Jesus appeared, bringing salvation, and we live in the light and truth of that grace.
At the same time, we live with the blessed hope that Jesus Christ will come again. And he will! When our great God and Savior Jesus Christ comes again, he will come in all his glory (Mark 13:26). Yes, today we live in the age between the grace which has appeared and the glory that will appear. And how do we live in this tension between the already and the not yet? We live waiting. Waiting with blessed hope.
Active Waiting
Let’s be clear, this life of waiting is not a stagnant, stand-still kind of life. We’re not to cross our arms, roll our eyes, and drum our fingers on the table. No. We live!
Because of our salvation by grace and our hope of glory, we live godly lives. Paul makes it clear that there are negatives and positives to this godly life. On the negative side, we are to renounce all forms of ungodliness and worldly passions. And on the positive, we are to embrace what is good. Again, we are not left with generalities. Paul gets specific.
Before we zoom in to the specifics directed to women, here are two reminders. First, note that the categories are not “married” and “single,” they are “younger” and “older.” Second, although chronological age is what we most often think of here, we can also take into consideration maturity, especially spiritual maturity and length of experience with the Lord. The point is, Paul’s instructions are for every woman. None of us are off the hook. In fact, we all fall into both the younger and older category at the same time. There are always women or girls who are younger than us and there are always women older. Keep this in mind as we look at the details.
Intergenerational Influence
Once again, Paul speaks in terms of negatives and positives. On the negative side, he warns older women not to be slanderers nor slaves to much wine. Think of it this way, an older woman in the Lord needs to watch her tongue. Discernment can easily creep over the line into judgment and then slide over the tongue as slander. And what about wine? It’s interesting that this is a warning for the older woman, not the younger. I take this to mean that as we grow older, we must not let our guard down. Whether it’s wine or food, exercise, shopping, iPhone, or anything that can enslave us, a woman must stay alert and in tune with what goes in and out of her mouth, as well as in and out of her mind.
On the positive side, older women are to be reverent in their behavior and teachers of what is good. Godly women are called to be of good repute, reverent and mature in their behavior, willing to teach sound doctrine and train other women in godly living.
Mature women should not be afraid to teach and train, and younger women must not be too proud to learn. Some teaching is formal in nature, like a Bible Study. Or teaching can come through informal conversations when a woman knows her Bible well and biblical precepts and perspectives simply flow from her. When it comes to training for godly living, Paul centers on the home, family and heart attitudes. We model for one another how to love our husbands and children and how to manage our homes. We help one another foster growth in areas like self-control, purity, kindness, and submissiveness.
This beautiful interplay between older and younger women is the answer to how we live. We live alongside each other. Yes, sometimes this teaching and training is in a formal setting. But mostly, we are simply called to be together. We learn from each other when we share our lives, experiences, sorrows, challenges, joys, and hopes. We must know each other to do this. We often need to make a intentional effort to be with women who are not exactly in our age group. There is a richness to our lives when we know one another and can share our lives with one another. This shouldn’t make us self-conscious in every conversation we have or at every event we go to. No, this is simply the fabric of life when we touch one another.
Beautiful Doctrine
Dear sister, you and I live right now between grace and glory, waiting for our blessed hope. And as we wait, we live - teaching the Bible, training one another in godly living. There is a reason for why we are doing this, and this reason is significant and powerful. Putting it in the negative, Paul says we are living godly lives so that the word of God may not be reviled. Titus 2:10 puts the positive spin on why we live godly lives. We live godly, faithful lives to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. A godly life makes the gospel beautiful!
Where do we live? We live between grace and glory. What do we do? We live, actively waiting for our blessed hope, teaching sound doctrine and training in godly living. How do we do this? We do this together, learning from one another. Why do we do these things? We teach, train, and live godly lives so that the Bible will not be reviled, and the doctrine of God will be adorned.