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| “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age…” |
| —Titus 2:11-12 |
In 1971, as a relatively new District Supervising Engineer in the Buffalo (NY) Office of the Factory Insurance Association (later known as Industrial Risk Insurers), I was flown to the Hartford (CT) Home Office on six successive Mondays to take an American Management Association course entitled “Supervisory Management II.” The class consisted of a dozen or so other DSEs from the 13 offices of the Eastern Region of the company. Incidentally, we never found out why we started with “II.”
On the very first day of this course, we learned certain key principles that held specific significance for me. First and foremost, these principles fueled what has become a lifelong interest in management processes and techniques. I probably have nearly 50 books on the subject of management in my personal library.
Secondly, these principles I learned on that fall day gave me a sense that managing people could become a way of helping individuals grow and develop. It would become an important side benefit that, as these people grew into especially effective employees, their personal achievement would markedly help the company achieve its corporate goals. By putting the people first, the company would benefit enormously.
One of these key principles states: “Generally, employees want to do the right thing. So, it becomes important for a manager to explain to employees exactly what he or she wants the employees to do—what are they to accomplish; what resources are available to enable that accomplishment; what feedback does the manager expect; what benefit will the employee personally receive, apart from a paycheck.” In other words, we were told, employees want to know, “What do you want me to do?”
Over the intervening years, whenever I have been hired by some organization to help them deal with personnel motivational issues, I have always—always—discovered that at the heart of the problem is the fact that management has not clearly told the employees what they want the employees to do. It’s just that simple.
In our lives as Christians—followers of the Lord Jesus Christ—God has graciously given us His precious Word, the Bible, to tell us exactly what He wants us to do.
Contrary to what some may believe, God does not grant us salvation from our sins because we adhere to rules and regulations and because we devote ourselves to good works. No. God freely gave us our salvation through the shed blood of His one and only Son. There is absolutely nothing we could ever have done, and nothing we can do now, to earn our salvation—especially by being “good.” Salvation is a free gift of God’s mercy, grace, and love.
In fact, there is one and only one thing God asks of us—once we come to understand this free gift of salvation that He has given us. And, that one thing is “obedience.”
Obedience requires us to permit the Holy Spirit to bend our human selfish wills to God’s perfect will. That’s where our so-called “free will” comes into play in the equation. It’s not a matter of choosing or not choosing to believe. For if God has chosen us to belong to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit to reveal what He has done in our behalf, we will believe.
However, allowing our selfish wills to be bent away from our own desires and toward what God desires, that requires a volitional act of our free will to allow the Holy Spirit to shape and mold us. The Spirit speaks to us through our “conscience” and through the Bible. He nudges us in the right direction. He encourages us when the battle against sin seems overwhelming.
All of this process at work within us explains why the Apostle Paul, when writing to one of his key ministers, Titus—a man whom Paul had sent to a truly awful place, Crete—offers this advice, as recorded in Titus 2:11-12:
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age…
Sanctification, or the process of becoming ever-more holy, is a lifelong adventure. Our relationship with the third Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, makes this journey even possible. The Spirit comes alongside us and offers God’s love, protection, encouragement, companionship, and grace for each day.
As another new day opens up before us, let us recognize that part of our worshipful response to God is to prayerfully, but determinedly, follow the pathway He has opened up for us. May we experience the joy of obedience every moment of this new day.
