1. Be submissive (v.1) Be obedient citizens by paying taxes, behaving orderly, being honest and law abiding, and aiding society where we can. Paul is basically telling Titus that believers are not exempt from following civil laws & directives, unless such orders contradict the Word and Will of God.

What Paul is sharing is the Lord’s model on how we are to live in a pagan culture.  He didn’t spend a lot of energy teaching believers how to reform a pagan culture’s idolatrous, immoral, and corrupt practices. He didn’t instruct believers to exercise civil disobedience to protest the Roman Empire’s unjust laws or cruel punishments. Instead, his appeal was for Christians to proclaim the gospel and live lives that would give clear evidence of its transforming power. The Holy Spirit does a better job transforming culture than we can in our own power apart from what He can!    

1. Be ready to serve (v.1) (James 2:18-19) “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” A lost world needs to see action!
2. Be respectful in speech (v.2) (James 3:5-6) “So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.” toothpaste illustration.
3. Be running away from your former self (v.3) We were all disobedient at one time and we slip into our former self from time to time. We must run from it.

Reborn for His Delight (Titus 3:4-7) Pay special attention to verse 5 and the word regeneration. The word means new birth. Paul uses a different word for new birth than John uses in John 3:5. Regeneration is only used one other time in the New Testament and that’s by Jesus recorded in Matthew 19:28. Regeneration in the Matthew context means the new birth of the new heaven and new earth using Isaiah 65-66 as the basis. I believe the connection is that God is giving his children new birth in order to live in the new birth of the new heaven and new earth.

How does new birth or being reborn occur? Verses 4 and 5 share how this happens. 

1. By God’s goodness. The word for goodness which means kindness is also used in Ephesians 2:7. “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” It will take an eternity to truly know how kind God is.
2. By God’s loving kindness. The Greek term for this word is philanthropia, we get the word philanthropy or loving to do kindness from this word.
3. By God’s mercy. We see this example In Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved”