Dave’s Monday Blast – October 19, 2020

Children of God align their lives with Biblical Truth so that they are able to influence their culture. We are called to “Declare Biblical truth; exhort and rebuke with all authority” (Titus 2:15a).

There are three verbs in this verse. All three are present tense imperatives, which simply means they are ongoing commands from the Lord of the universe to His children. The verbs are “declare”, “exhort” and “rebuke”. To declare is to speak. To exhort is to encourage or implore people to obey what they hear. To rebuke is to correct and call to repentance those who do not. (It is important to understand that a rebuke is always done in love with the goal in mind to teach Biblical truth).

We are called to “do” these three things “with all authority,” regardless of the response. Where does our authority come from? Jesus was asked that very same question in John 8 by the religious and political leaders of His day and He assured them that His authority to speak the truth came from Himself. His reference was clear by the context…since He is God…the authority came from God. Their efforts to stone Him for blasphemy affirms they clearly understood His claim to be God.

Since the authority to declare truth, exhort to obedience and rebuke those who are non-repentant, is given to the children of God, Paul adds in the second half of this verse “Let no one disregard you.”. “Disregard” means to discount, speculate about, or despise. We are to share, encourage, and rebuke so authoritatively, and persuasively, that people and culture change as a result.