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On Christ’s last night with His disciples, He said in John 13 that believers would be known by their love for each other. This type of love is supernatural, prompted by grace, empowered by the Spirit, and modeled by godly mature saints. Christ’s church was built from the start with this powerful nurturing love.

Paul wrote Titus saying that God desires to see all mothers expressing to their children. But this love is not merely found in Titus 2:4, this nurturing love of closeness, friendship, and tender care is the very same love with which God built Christ’s church from the very start.

When Paul described his discipleship method for encouraging believers to grow spiritually, he carefully used powerful nurturing terms. On our way to Titus 2 this morning, look with me at Paul’s very first letter to a church, captured for us by inspiration, and placed in our Bibles by the Holy Spirit in the book we call First Thessalonians. Here:

God Describes the Nurturing Heart:

Remember, this is Paul’s earliest letter and it reflects the plan that God gave Paul through the power of the Holy Spirit to deeply impact this pagan port city of the Roman Empire.

In chapter 2 Paul explains how these saints got so well nurtured and trained that their lives impacted the vast geographic area surrounding their city with the Gospel. The terms Paul uses should be very important to us, because they reflect the methods Paul used to reach a culture very similar to ours. This nurturing love should also be what we ask the Spirit of God to prompt in our hearts, lives, and ministries.