… do your best …
Summary: Three little words in Paul’s instructions to Titus give us a clue to peace and contentment as we live our lives in service to Jesus.
Please forgive me for taking today’s text out of context. Paul is mid-sentence here. He is telling Titus to endeavor to come to him with diligence. The phrase the NIV chose was “do your best.” I like that phrase, so I thought we might spend a few minutes talking about it.
It seems natural that in talking about godly things we might find ourselves talking about godly standards. When we see things from God’s point of view, we see things as they should be.
When we look at things from our human point of view, we see a lesser standard. Even the best of us fall short of God’s standard. Paul himself, righteous under the Old Covenant, recognized the truth of this. Struggling with this conundrum, Paul writes:
“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24, Mounce)
What then? How should we live if we cannot please God by what we do? It is a problem that a sensitive soul might agonize over. Psalm 42:5 reads:
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Wrestling with our fallen nature is not new. It is an old, old problem. We live by faith, but we are still in the flesh. We strive for godly standards, but we meet with only human success, or more often, human failings. That can be depressing.
Yet, Paul’s words to Titus are encouraging. “Do your best.” That is a good motto for us to live by as well.
Application: Living in faith is trusting in God’s love and doing our best.
Food for Thought: What difference does it make if, through faith in Jesus Christ, your best is good enough for God?
I think every true believer wants to be commended by the Lord they serve (Matthew 25: 21, 23). We want to enter into the joy of our Master. I also think we can be hard on ourselves- not forgiving ourselves for sin that has already been confessed and forgiven, seeing our failures and feeling like we cannot measure up to the holy, perfect God we serve. While that is true and we depend on the cross, it is also important to realize that God does not expect more of us in our service than we have the capacity to do. In fact, faith requires trusting God in our shortcomings and growing through exercising that faith. But by exercising our faith and serving Him with our best, we are using our talents in such a way that we can hear, “well done, thy good and faithful servant.” Philippians 1: 6
Rich,
Thank you! I think you said what I wanted to say only you said it better. 🙂
Well stated Rich!
What difference does it make if, through faith in Jesus Christ, your best is good enough for God?
God gave His Best. His only Begotten Son, Himself for our salvation. Jesus tells us the parable of the talents, that we must wisely utilize what He has given us for the growth of His kingdom. We are to let our light shine so our good works will give glory to God.
John 3:16, Matthew 25:14-30, 5:16
To give our best to God we must first admit our worthless, helpless state of existence and accept Christ as our savior. Become His new creation, one transformed, empowered by the Holy Spirit, capable of good works of God. In faith we actually have a best to give as we return to God the fruit of what He has given us.
Romans 7:18, 2:12, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 2:8-10, 5:18, Philippians 2:13
Believers are called to an active life in Christ. We are to do everything in His name. In this way we give thanks to our Father. We are to be eager to work vigorously for the Lord, not men knowing our reward will come from Christ. We are to be an example, model of good works as we teach others by showing integrity in dignity. Do our best to present ourselves as one approved by Christ by daily living according to His revealed will for all mankind.
Colossians 3:17, 3:23-24, Titus 2:7, 2 Timothy 2:15
Thank you, Ron!
I like your construct:
1. God gave His Best! 🙂
2. We get our pride out of the way by admitting our unworthiness.
3. We serve as the vessels we were created to be, joyful in knowing that we are being used for God’s purposes.
Well said Grasshopper!