God acted kindly toward us and mercifully saved us, even though formerly we were behaving sinfully.

Titus 3:3-7

3 Remind your congregations about these things because formerly we believers ourselves were also foolish, just like all people who do not believe in Christ are now. We did not obey ◄God/God’s message►. We let others deceive us. We ◄spent all our time doing/continually did► what is evil and could not stop ourselves from doing all the things that our bodies liked [DOU]. We were ◄envying others/desiring to have what others have►. We were causing people to hate us and we were hating one another. 4-5 4-5Even though we were behaving sinfully like this, God our Savior acted kindly and lovingly to us [PRS], and saved us! He did this, not because we did things that are right, but just because he wanted to be merciful to us! He washed us inwardly and gave us a new way of living as a result of the Holy Spirit changing us inwardly. 6 Because we trusted in Jesus Christ our Savior, God put the Holy Spirit within us in order to wonderfully change us. 7 He wanted to erase the record of our sins even though we did not deserve that, and he wanted us to receive all that God desires to give us. These are the things that we confidently expect to receive when we live with him eternally.