Paul, a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life, which God who never lies promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in His Word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our savior.
– Titus 1:1–3
How’s that for an intro? This is how Paul starts his letter to Titus. And wow, what thick language. “Paul, a servant of God,” even just that, we could just stop there. This is how Paul identifies himself, like, This is who I am. I live to do whatever God wants me to do. Just think about that perspective on your identity today, on your every activity today. Just to say from the beginning of the day and all throughout, God, I live to do whatever you call me to do. I trust you as the master, the Lord of my life. I’m your servant.
Titus 1:1–3 teaches us about the hope of eternal life in Christ.
And then he goes on. We’d be here a long time if we just soaked in every one of these phrases. But there’s one other phrase that I really do want us to soak in. It’s in verse 2 when he talks about the hope of eternal life, Which God, who never lies, has promised before the ages began. So that’s verse 2.
And I just want to encourage you with it today. That you’re a servant, as a follower of Jesus, assuming you’re a follower of Jesus. If not, I encourage you to trust in Jesus for eternal life. And when you do, and for all who are followers of Jesus, servants of God, you have hope today, hope of eternal life. Not just in the future. Eternal life is from now to forever. You have hope of eternal life, and God has promised it to you. And God does not lie.
I was just meditating earlier this morning on the promises of God and how faithful he always, always, always is to his promises amidst all kinds of uncertainty in this world, all kinds of instability in this world, amidst the many unknowns that face us every day. None of us knows what today holds. But we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God will be true, faithful to all of his promises. And he never lies. God never says he’s going to do something and then he doesn’t do it. God always tells the truth. And as a result, we always, always, always have hope. No matter how discouraged, disheartened, dismayed you might be. Know that as a servant of God, you always have hope because God will be faithful to all of his promises. He does not lie, and he will be true.
Titus 1:1–3 teaches us about the trustworthiness of God’s promises.
Oh God, we praise you for your faithfulness, your perfect faithfulness, to all of your promises and to all of your people, all of your servants who trust in you. We praise you for the hope that we have. God, I know people listening to this right now are walking through all kinds of different things. I just pray that your hope would flood over them right now, hope that comes not from this world, not from the shifting circumstances and sinking sand that we sometimes see around us in this world, always see around us in this world.
God, we praise you that you are always faithful to all of your promises to be with us, to strengthen us, to give us peace that passes all understanding when we fix our minds on you, to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. For all of your promises, to lead us, to guide us, to give us the wisdom we need.
So God, we pray. We want all those things in our lives today. We want your peace and your strength and your joy and your leadership and your guidance and your wisdom, and we praise you that you do not lie, that you will be faithful to all those promises today. And as a result, we praise you for the hope we have of eternal life. Jesus, we praise you for making all of this possible. We are honored, overjoyed, thrilled, exhilarated to be your servants today, oh, God. So we say we want to do whatever you want us to do as we lean on, as we trust in, as we rest in your promises.
Prayer for the Sherdukpen People
And as we pray for people who don’t know these promises, God, for the Sherdukpen people of… Well, this Tibetan Buddhist people group that’s spread out in a couple of different countries from the Tibetan region to Nepal to Bhutan. God we pray, knowing none of them as far as we know, have knowledge of the promises of your love in Jesus. Lord, we pray that you would send workers to the Sherdukpen people that they might be reached with the good news of the hope of eternal life, which you who never lie promise to give to all who trust in Jesus. God, we pray, draw the Sherdukpen people to yourself. I pray all these things according to your Word, according to your promises in Titus 1:1–3. In Jesus’ name, as your servants, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
