February 24, 2022

Titus 2: 14 (NIV)

Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.

The duty of the government is to protect us—not provide for us.*

We think of good works as doing things for others but Paul’s words to Titus indicate that doing good also includes providing for our own needs.

We live in a society that is becoming more and more dependent on government to meet our needs. I recently read a story that perfectly illustrates the modern mindset: a young woman who was in trouble with the law was asked by a counselor if her mother had ever had trouble with the law also. Yes, she said, her mother had been on welfare while holding down a job as well. When the counselor asked what happened to the mother when she got caught, the woman acted surprised that he even had to ask. “She quit her job,” she said.*

Dependency can come upon us in a sneaky fashion: the price of a school lunch doesn’t begin to cover the cost of the meal; when I worked for county government, for a short time they subsidized the employees’ insurance premiums for family coverage; immunizations are offered for free at county health departments, regardless of your financial status. I’m sure you can think of other ways we let our tax dollars work for us.

I don’t have the immediate solution to the mess we’re in but I can offer the ultimate cure: devote ourselves to doing good. (You thought I was going to say, “Get a job,” didn’t you?) Doing good involves submitting every area of our lives to God. According to Paul, a child of God who does good in general receives specific provision: daily necessities and productive lives. But it is a contagious way of life: devotion to doing good will never bless the doer only – it spills over into a world that desperately needs to know the force behind our good deeds – Jesus Christ.

If life on this earth were the end of the story, it would be easy to give up trying to do good.*