Much of life is taken up with waiting. Waiting in traffic. Waiting for a friend. Waiting to see what the future holds. Waiting sometimes sucks. I think that’s because we’re impatient and want everything now. The Christians life could even be characterised by ‘waiting’. For the Christian, it matters what you do while you wait.
The play Waiting for Godot (by Samuel Beckett) is all about 2 dudes, Vladimir and Estragon, waiting for another dude named Godot. While they wait – they do nothing of any real value, they just keep cycling through the same stuff.
In Titus, the Christian is in between two significant events: the first coming of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus. During this period, it matters how the Christian is to wait. Christians aren’t to just cycle through the same monotony, but rather are to live godly lives, focussed on Jesus. In Titus, it speaks of salvation in the past and to come in the future, but the emphasis is really on the present and what it will mean to wait for Jesus.
An understanding and knowledge of the truth should, naturally, lead to godliness. Leaders in God’s church and the people in God’s church are to devote themselves to doing good, while they wait. In Titus, it repeatedly says that Christians are to give themselves to good works. Is this opposed to the gospel of Salvation by Grace not Works? No, not at all. The basis and motivation for godliness is firmly rooted in the gospel. See here and here. We’re saved by grace, then we continue to live by grace.
I’d push even further to say godliness is knowledge of the truth, which is founded on the promise of eternal life