A GOD-FEARING MAN

“And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue” (Acts 18:7).

Paul was in Corinth, a major port city and commercial and political center known for its luxury and vices. He was living there with a Jewish couple, Priscilla and Aquila. Paul was a great intellectual, a descendant of a wealthy family, and also an expert tent maker. Every Jewish family required their sons to learn a trade. Training in a manual trade was part of their religion, as expressed in the rabbinical proverb “He who does not teach his son a trade  teaches him to be a thief.” There’s another similar proverb that says, “Raise your sons with a little hunger and a little cold. “It’s not that you shouldn’t satisfy their needs, but that you should teach them to value what they receive. And for Paul, the art of tent making allowed him to preach the gospel while also supporting himself.

While working there, Paul devoted himself to convincing the Jews chat Jesus was the Messiah. Soon there was opposition: the Jews raised a disturbance against Paul, cursing him without any reason. They became so offensive, that Paul expressed his indignation toward them by shaking out his clothing (see Nehemiah 5:13) and saying to them ‘Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles” (Acts 18:6).

Paul made friends with a godly Gentile who lived in a house next door to the synagogue, Titus the Just (see Aces 18:7). There is no evidence that this was the same faithful helper that Paul mentions in Colossians 4:11, or to whom Paul sent a letter with the name ‘Titus” on it. What is clear in the Scriptures, though, is that he was a God-fearing man, from the Greek sebâ, which means ‘reverence, worship, manifest religious piety.” A literal translation could describe him as a godly proselyte, a godly Greek, a worshipper of God, reverent before God.*

Besides living next door to the synagogue, being Greek, and lending his house to Paul so he could preach to both Jews and Gentiles, the great thing about Titus is that he is mentioned in the Bible as a ”God-fearing worshipper. If someone described your personality, would they say that you are a God-fearing worshipper?

If the only thing people know about you is that you fear God, they know all they need co. To be God-fearing is to worship Him, and to worship Him is to be God-fearing.

*Blue Letter Bible, Lexicon: Strong’s G4576-sebō, at https://www.bluelettlerbible.org/lexicon/g4576/rvr60/tr/0-1,consulted in March of 2022

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Taken from: Devotional Thoughts for Women 2023
“DAUGHTER OF MINE” Do Not Be Afraid
From: Arsenia Fernandez-Uckele
Collaborators: Xiomara Perdomo & Esteban Cortes