Thought from today’s Bible reading from Titus 1-3.
Many religious people will declare that they know God. They will affirm that they have faith in Him. They will profess to others that Jesus is their Lord. Yet words are meaningless if they are not confirmed by actions. Sadly, too many will speak as though they are disciples of Christ, yet prove otherwise by their actions.
“They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed” (Titus 1:16).
Declaring to know the Lord is useless. We must do what He has commanded. “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3-4).
Professing faith is meaningless. We must display our faith by our works. “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works’” (James 2:17-18).
Claiming Jesus as Lord will not save. We must obey Him. Jesus asked: “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46).
If we disobey the Lord, we are declaring that we do not know Him. Paul said, “If we deny Him, He also will deny us” (2 Timothy 2:12). Do not deny the Lord. Confess your faith in Him in both your words and your deeds so that He will accept you.
Tomorrow’s reading: 1 Peter 1-5
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
