Mahatma Gandhi wrote:  “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.”  Since the word “habit” is a synonym for pattern, this quote reminds me of the even higher calling that Paul issued to Titus when he wrote,

“In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works…” (Titus 2:7).

You see, the child of God is not called upon merely to achieve an admirable “destiny” for himself in life by the thoughts and actions that fill our everyday lives.  We are called upon to achieve an admirable destiny for others, by showing ourselves a pattern of good works to which they can look in order to mold their own destinies in life.  That’s an infinitely higher calling than just aspiring to better yourself!

It’s true that beliefs become thoughts.  If your belief is that salvation is “not by works of righteousness” (Titus 3:5), then that belief should become a thought in you, causing you to think “that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works” (3:8).  A life filled with habitual good works is exactly the kind of life that can serve as an excellent pattern for other believers. That’s why Paul exhorted Titus to be “zealous of good works” (2:14).

But you need to show yourself to be a pattern of good works in such a way that people know you’re not doing good works to pay for your sins, but instead to show your connection to the Savior who paid for your sins.  We see this illustrated in a striking way not long after the people of Israel entered the Promised Land.

Upon arriving in the land, God allowed the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh to take up residence on the wilderness side of the Jordan River because they were cattle-

men, and the land there was more conducive to raising cattle than in Israel (Num. 32:1-33).  But “when they came unto the borders of Jordan” they “built there an altar by Jordan” (Josh. 22:10).  This was a “trespass” (Josh. 22:16), for God had chosen a place in Israel for His “habitation” (Deut.12:5), and it was there that His people were to bring their sacrifices (vv. 5,10,11).

But when the other tribes in Israel took these cattlemen to task about their altar, they defended themselves by saying,

“Behold the pattern of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifices; but it is a witness between us and you” (Joshua 22:28).

These faithful tribes admitted that they had patterned their altar after the one God ordained in Israel, but they protested that they never intended to offer animal sacrifices on their altar.  That is, they didn’t raise that altar to try to pay for their sins, they raised it to show their connection to the altar in Israel that paid for their sins (vv. 21-27).

In the same way, the reason you want to be a pattern of good works in all things isn’t to pay for your sins, but to show your connection to the Lord who paid for your sins.  People need to know that that’s why you do good works, so they know that salvation is “not of works” (Eph. 2:9).

If you’re saved, you are in Christ, “and if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (II Cor. 5:17).  And Paul says that we were “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Eph. 2:10).  No creature of God is ever happy unless he is doing what God created him to do.  Birds were created to fly, horses were created to run, and fish were created to swim, and none of them are happy when they are caged.  And you’ll never know true happiness in life unless you’re walking in the good works “which God hath before ordained that we should walk in” (Eph. 2:10).

Before you were saved, you were “accustomed to do evil” (Jer. 13:23).  You were a creature of habit—bad habits.  Why not determine right now to become a creature of good habits?

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Apostle Paul gave some advice to a young man named Titus that all Christians would do well to take to heart:

“In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works…” (Titus 2:7).

If you’re not sure what a “pattern” is, do you remember reading about the “seven lamps” that made up “the candlestick” in the tabernacle (Num. 8:1-4)?  If so, you may remember that this candlestick was carefully made “according to the pattern which the Lord had showed Moses” (Num. 8:1-4).  It was a pattern that typified the Lord Jesus Christ, who later declared,

“I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).

When the Lord walked among men, He was the light of the world because—like the candlestick that typified Him—He was “made under the law” (Gal. 4:5), and He walked “according to the pattern which the Lord had showed Moses” in the Law, as He offered the light of eternal life to men.  But later He added,

“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5).

Now that the Lord is gone, the world has a different source of spiritual light, one that Paul described in Philippians 2:15,16.  Speaking to members of the Body of Christ, he wrote,

“…YE shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life.”

Now that the Lord is no longer here on earth, it’s our turn to be the light of the world, as we offer the light of eternal life to the lost!

But we don’t shine as lights in the world as our Lord did, by walking according to the pattern of the law.  “We are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:15), so we shine the light of grace by walking according to the pattern of good works we find in the epistles of Paul, the apostle of grace.  If you are still observing Israel’s sabbath, or adhering to the restricted diet of Leviticus 11, etc., you are telling people we’re under the Law!  And that’s not shining the right light of life to lost sinners.  It’s hard to get saved by grace if you think we’re under the Law!

We know that walking in good works is an important part of shining as lights in the world, for in telling the Philippians they were the light of the world, Paul prefaced his words by saying,

“Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:14,15).

That’s Paul’s way of saying that you shouldn’t be trying to shine the light of life to men if you yourself are walking in darkness!

But as you shine the light of grace, adorned by the testimony of your pattern of good works, it is important to let people know that you’re not walking in good works because you’re a good person.  You need to let them know that you’re doing it because you’re a child of God!  That’s what the Lord had in mind when He said,

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Now, you know why He had to say that.  When men see you do good works, they tend to glorify you instead of God, saying things like, “Isn’t he a good man for doing something like that!”  The Lord said not to let them think that way, to let your light shine in such a way that they will glorify God instead.  How do we do that?  There’s only one way to do it, and that’s to let people know that you belong to the Lord!  That way God gets the glory when men see your good works, and not you.  It’s the only way to cast the Lord in a good light, so tell someone today!

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

Back in 1993, professional basketball player Charles Barkley made headlines when he declared, “I’m not a role model. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.”  He was right about that last part, but he failed to realize that when you play in the NBA, being a role model to millions of aspiring young athletes just comes with the territory.  The only question for such men is, are you a good role model or a bad one?

The same is true in the Christian life.  You may not think you are setting an example for anyone, but no matter who you are, someone looks up to you.  And if you name the name of Christ, the only question is, are you a good example of what a Christian should be, or a bad one?

This is true even for young Christians.  That’s why Paul told a young man named Titus:

“In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works” (Titus 2:7).

As all Christians know, you can’t be saved by doing good works; you can only be saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8,9).  But as Paul went on to say in his letter to the Ephesians, Christians “should” do good works because God saved us freely by His grace (v. 10).  As he says there about good works, “God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Now, if you find that you need some incentive to choose to become a pattern of good works, let’s compare how God motivated His people to walk in good works in time past under the law of Moses.  He told Ezekiel to tell the people of Israel,

“…shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern… shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof…” (Ezekiel 43:10,11).

If the people of Israel in Ezekiel’s day weren’t ashamed of their sins, God told him to have them look at all the trouble that He had gone through to forgive their sins.  He told him to show His people the magnificence of His “house,” the temple that He had Solomon build to receive their animal sacrifices, and all the comings and goings of the priests in the temple, and all the intricate rules and regulations of the priesthood.  In other words, He wanted them to “measure the pattern” of their religion to remind them of the lengths to which He had gone to forgive their sins, and then ask themselves if they should continue in sin in light of all that He had done for them.

Of course, today we don’t look to the temple to measure the lengths to which God went to forgive our sins, nor do we look to Israel’s priesthood, or anything else in her religion.  Today we look to the cross.  In light of the unspeakable sacrifice Christ made there on our behalf, it would be the height of ingratitude for “we, that are dead to sin” to “live any longer therein” (Rom. 6:2).

That’s why, in learning to walk in good works, we study the cross and not the Law, and let “the love of Christ” constrain us, “that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again” (II Cor. 5:14,15), as Isaac Watts wrote in that sacred hymn centuries ago:

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small:
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

To teach his teenaged son about the dangers of alcohol, a father dropped a worm in a glass of water, and it just kind of wiggled around, the way worms do on your hook when you go fishing.  But then he dropped another worm in whiskey, and it promptly curled up and died.  He asked, “What does that teach you, son?”  The boy replied, “If I drink alcohol, I won’t have worms.”

Speaking of teenaged boys like that, the Apostle Paul had some advice for them that he wanted Titus to pass along to the young men to whom he ministered.  He wrote,

“Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded” (Titus 2:6).

After exhorting aged men to be “sober” (v. 2) and aged women “likewise” (v. 3), as well as young women (v. 4), Paul also tells Titus to instruct young men to be sober minded “likewise” (v. 6).  It is obvious from Paul’s emphasis on sobriety here that God would have all of His people rise above the frivolity of the world around us and be serious about the things of the Lord.

Of course, Titus himself was a young man, so it’s not surprising to read on and see Paul exhort him to lead the way in this important area:

“In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works…” (Titus 2:7).

The word “pattern” is the Greek word tupos, from which we get our word type.  I learned to type on a type-writer that was so old it didn’t have to be plugged in to the wall, and it didn’t have a rechargeable battery like your laptop either.  What it did have were keys attached to long hammers with little letters engraved on the end.  When I would pound the keys—and you had to pound them—the hammers would fly up and strike an ink ribbon stretched over a piece of paper.  Each hammer’s strike would leave an impression on the paper in the exact shape of the letter on the end of the hammer.

So in exhorting Titus to be a tupos, he was telling him to be the little letter at the end of the hammer.  He was asking him to be the kind of young man who would strike you as someone you’d want to pattern your life after.  Paul had lived an exemplary life like that, but he was about to pass from the scene, so he instructed Titus to become a pattern of good works for the next generation.

Our English word “pattern” has much the same idea.  When I was young, I dated a young lady who made her own dresses by laying a paper pattern over the cloth and cutting it to the exact shape of the pattern.  The lives of pastors like Titus should likewise be so exemplary that the members of their flocks should be able to use them as a pattern of good works.

And if you think about it, that’s not bad advice for all believers, not just pastors.  Especially when you consider that Doubting Thomas used the word tupos when he said,

“Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails… I will not believe” (John 20:25).

The holes in the Lord’s hands were an exact match to the nails that pierced them.  That reminds me of how our police departments have forensic doctors who can tell if your knife is the murder weapon by the shape of the wound in the body.  That’s the kind of pattern Paul was telling Titus to be, the kind that would be an exact match to the good works Paul lays out in his epistles.

You know, arrests are often made on the basis of such forensic evidence, arrests that often lead to convictions.  May I ask, if you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?  Does your life exemplify the good works that God has described in detail in His rightly divided Word?

If not, did you notice that Doubting Thomas declared that he would not believe unless he saw the tupos of the nails in the Lord’s hands?  There might be people watching you and thinking the same thing, that they won’t believe unless they see your hands engaged in the kind of good works in which God wants young men to walk, and the rest of us as well.  Why not start today?

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.