For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. Titus 2:11,12
Does the Bible teach us that we should live soberly, righteously, and godly today? Yes indeed, these are the ideal characteristics of the life of every person who knows God’s salvation, and we will find instructions for these three ideal characteristics throughout the New Testament. But it is not only the Bible that teaches us this, but it is also the grace of God that teaches us this. And that is important, because it is only by the grace of God that we are able to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this world.
Our text has a better known sister verse in Ephesians 2:8 – For by grace are ye saved through faith. Modern language translations of the Bible make a mess of this verse, destroying much of its value by placing it in the past tense: ‘by grace you have been saved’, they say. But in the King James Version, and in the original Greek text, both Ephesians 2:8 and our text today are in the present tense. Yes, it is gloriously true that the grace of God saved our souls from sin and eternal perdition forever at the moment when we placed our faith in the Saviour. But it is just as gloriously true that the grace of God saves our souls from sin’s defiling power every day that we live in this world as we daily placed our faith in our Saviour. And it does so by teaching us how we are to live in this world.
Our text declares that we have three things that we as Christians are to learn: how to live soberly, how we are to live righteously, and how we are to live godly. The term soberly simply refers to self-control, a disciplined life, something that many in the world around us know little about. Righteously means just what it says, doing what is right and decent in all of our behaviour. The term godly is also self-explained, directing our lives to show the holy and loving character of our Lord.
Living as a Christian should may not always be easy. But it follows a simple pattern of living soberly, righteously, and godly, as the grace of God teaches us to do. – Jim MacIntosh