In Titus 3:1-8 having just written to Titus about the personal impact that a relationship with Jesus has with the individual believer through: Redeeming Grace, Reforming Grace and Rewarding Grace. Paul now speaks on how that personal transformation would impact society.
When you consider Christianity in the first century it doesn’t resemble what we see today. It was viewed within the Roman Empire with great suspicion as believers’ conduct was so vastly different from the accepted norms of society.
•The practice of their faith didn’t involve trying to keep immorality out of society. It was society that saw their lack of immorality as wrong. It was the believer’s personal lack of practicing immorality that made society suspicious of Christians and led to their persecution.
•Their participation in church life was not public, there were no facilities at every street corner, no advertising or promotion of the Church. The church met house to house underground in what was largely private meetings for believers only. There was virtually no thought of trying to get unsaved people to go to church in order to “save” them.
The emphasis was on transformed believers going into society and living their faith. This too added to the suspicions of the society with regards to the church.
In spite of these suspicions and prejudices, Christians and the Church were expected to be good citizens without compromising their faith. Their fellow neighbors may be practicing immorality condoned and accepted by the Government but where the Empire didn’t cause them to compromise their faith the believer was expected to be a model citizen.