Titus 2:11 - Meaning and Application

Here we see the reasons behind all the instructions just given. They come from the nature and purpose of the gospel, and from the meaning of Christ’s death.

The first reason is the gospel itself. Let young and old, men and women, masters and servants, and Titus too, do their proper duties. That is the very goal of Christianity, to teach, help, and shape people in every rank and relationship into a right way of living. For this reason, believers are placed under the grace of God, as the gospel is called (Ephesians 3:2). It is grace because it comes from God’s free favor, not from anything good in us. It also shows that favor clearly, and it brings grace into the hearts of believers.

Grace should lead to goodness. Scripture says, “Do not let sin rule over you, but give yourselves to God,” because you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:12-14). The love of Christ presses us not to live for ourselves, but for him (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). If grace does not produce that effect, then it has been received in vain.

This gospel grace brings salvation. It reveals salvation, offers it to sinners, and secures it for believers. It saves from sin and from God’s wrath, from death and hell. That is why the gospel is called the word of life. It leads to faith, and through faith to life now in holiness and later in happiness. The law brings death, but the gospel brings life and peace. So we must receive it as salvation, obey its commands, and follow its rules, if we want the salvation of the soul.

People are even more guilty if they ignore this grace because it has now appeared more clearly than ever before. The old covenant was dim and shadowy by comparison. The gospel is a clear and shining light, and it shines more broadly too. It has appeared to all people, not to the Jews only, as God’s glory did at Mount Sinai. Gospel grace is open to all, and all are invited to share it, Gentiles as well as Jews. Its message is freely and openly declared: make disciples of all nations, preach the gospel to every creature. The barrier is broken down. What was once kept secret is now made known through the Scriptures, according to God’s command, to all nations for the obedience of faith (Romans 16:25-26).

This message of grace and salvation is for people of every rank and condition, including slaves and servants as well as masters. That should encourage everyone to receive it, believe it, and live in a way that fits it, honoring it in every part of life.

This gospel revelation teaches us. It does more than give information, like a schoolteacher. It also gives commands, like a ruler making laws. It shows what to avoid and what to follow. The gospel is not mainly for study alone, but for practice and for ordering life well.

First, it teaches us to turn from sin: denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. We are to renounce them and have nothing more to do with them. We are to put off the old self, which is corrupted, meaning the whole life of sin. Ungodliness includes all irreligion, unbelief, neglect of God, not loving, fearing, trusting, or obeying him as we should, and treating his worship, name, day, and ordinances lightly. Worldly lusts are the corrupt desires that rule worldly people, including the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. These include sensuality, impurity, greed, ambition, and caring more about human praise than God’s.

An earthly, fleshly way of living does not fit a heavenly calling. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. They have done this by covenant promise, and they are going on in it day by day, cleansing themselves more and more from all defilement of body and spirit.

Then the gospel teaches us to be careful to do good. We are to live soberly, righteously, and godly. Religion is not only about avoiding evil. We must also do good. In both of these together, sincerity is shown and the gospel is honored.

We should live soberly in relation to ourselves, governing our desires and feelings with moderation and self-control, and avoiding excess. We should live righteously toward other people, giving everyone what is due, wronging no one, and instead doing good to others as we are able and as their need requires. This is part of justice, because we are not made to live only for ourselves. We are members of one another, and should seek one another’s good (1 Corinthians 10:24; 1 Corinthians 12:25). The common good, which includes everyone’s interests, should matter to all. Selfishness is a kind of unrighteousness because it takes from others what they should receive from us.

How lovely, then, is a just and righteous life. It protects and helps all interests, not just private ones, and so contributes to peace and happiness in the world. We should therefore live righteously as well as soberly.

We should also live godly toward God, in the duties of worship and service. Our thoughts of God should shape everything we do. Whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we should do all to God’s glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). Our personal duties and our duties toward others must be done in obedience to his commands, with the aim of pleasing and honoring him, from love and reverent fear of him.

There is also a direct duty we owe to God himself: believing and acknowledging his existence and his perfections, giving him inward and outward worship, loving him, fearing him, trusting him, depending on him, giving ourselves to him, and keeping all the religious duties and ordinances he has appointed. This includes praying, praising, and meditating on his word and works. That is godliness.

This means coming to God as we now can, not directly in ourselves, but through Christ, in whom God has shown himself. The gospel directs and requires this way. To approach God by any other path, such as through saints or angels, does not fit the gospel and goes against its authority. All God’s gifts come to us through his Son, and all our prayers and responses must also go through him.

We must look to God in Christ as the one we hope in and worship. That is how we train ourselves for godliness, without which the gospel cannot be properly honored. A life shaped by the gospel must be a godly life, showing our love, fear, reverence, hope, trust, and confidence in God as revealed in his Son.

We are the true circumcision, those who have what that sign pointed to. We worship God by the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and place no confidence in the flesh. Our duty is summed up very briefly: deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present world. The gospel teaches us not only how to believe and hope well, but also how to live well, in keeping with that faith and hope.

This present world is where our trial takes place. Yet it is not our final home, so we must live with our eyes mainly fixed on what is coming. The gospel also teaches us to look for the glory of the world to come, where a sober, righteous, and godly life here prepares us for what follows. We are to be “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

Here hope means the thing hoped for, namely heaven and all its joy. It is called “that hope” because it is the great thing we long for, and “blessed” because when we receive it, we will be fully and forever happy. The glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ points both to the time when our hope will be fulfilled and to how certain and great that fulfillment will be.

This will happen at Christ’s second coming, when he appears in his own glory, his Father’s glory, and the glory of the holy angels (Luke 9:26). His own glory is the glory he had before the world began. His Father’s glory is seen in him as the exact image of God’s being, and as the God-man, God and man united in one person, he comes as ruler and judge. The holy angels will also attend him as his servants and glorious escorts. His first coming was in humility, to satisfy justice and purchase our salvation. His second will be in majesty, to give that salvation fully to his people.

Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and he will appear a second time to those who wait for him, apart from sin, unto salvation (Hebrews 9:28). The phrase “the great God and our Saviour,” or even “our Saviour Jesus Christ,” speaks of one person, not two. Christ is therefore the great God, not merely in a loose or honorary sense, but truly and fully God (1 John 5:20), the mighty God (Isaiah 9:6), who, being in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God (Philippians 2:6).

In his second coming, he will reward his servants and bring them into glory with him. All true Christians share one blessed hope in the world to come. If their hope in Christ were only for this life, they would be the most miserable of all people (1 Corinthians 15:19). Here hope means the thing hoped for, Christ himself, who is called our hope (1 Timothy 1:1), and the blessedness found in and through him, even “riches of glory” (Ephesians 1:18).

The gospel’s aim is to stir up a holy life through this blessed hope. “Gird up the loins of your mind” means to be ready and disciplined, and “hope to the end” means to keep trusting until the end for the grace that will be brought to us at Jesus Christ’s revelation (1 Peter 1:13). In the same way here, we are to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, while looking for the blessed hope, not as hired servants, but as thankful and dutiful Christians. “What manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conduct and godliness,” while looking for and hurrying toward the coming day of God (2 Peter 3:11, 2 Peter 3:12). Looking and hurrying means expecting it and preparing for it with care.

At Christ’s glorious appearing, Christians will receive the blessed hope they have been waiting for. Their happiness will be this: to be where he is and to see his glory (John 17:24). Then the glory of the great God and our Saviour will shine out like the sun. Even though he will appear as the Son of Man when he exercises judgment, he will also be clearly shown to be the Son of God. The divine glory that was often hidden on earth will then shine out like the sun at full strength.

For that reason, the gospel’s work is to lift the heart to wait for Christ’s second coming. We are born again to a living hope of it (1 Peter 1:3), turned to serve the living God, and taught to wait for his Son from heaven (1 Thessalonians 1:9, 1 Thessalonians 1:10). Christians are marked by this, waiting for their Master’s return (Luke 12:36), and loving his appearing (2 Timothy 4:8). So let us keep our eyes on this hope, with our minds ready and our lamps burning, like servants waiting for their Lord. We do not know the day or hour, but he who is coming will come, and he will not delay (Hebrews 10:37).

The comfort and joy of Christians is that their Saviour is the great God, and that he will show himself in glory at his second coming. Then power and love, majesty and mercy, will appear together in full splendor. That will mean terror and shame for the wicked, but lasting triumph and joy for the godly. If he were not truly the great God, and not just a creature, he could not be our Saviour or our hope.

These thoughts support the instructions given to every class of people in their duties, based on the nature and purpose of the gospel. Another strong reason follows from the purpose of Christ’s death: “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a special people, eager for good works” (Titus 2:14). Christ died to bring us to holiness and happiness, just as much as he taught us how to live.

We see here, first, the one who purchased salvation, Jesus Christ, that great God and our Saviour. He saves, not simply as God alone, and not as man alone, but as God and man in one person. As man, he could obey, suffer, and die for mankind, and deal with us on our behalf. As God, he could uphold his human nature, give weight and power to his work, respect the honor and claims of the divine nature, and still bring good to his creatures for God’s glory.

We also see the price of our redemption: “He gave himself.” The Father gave him, but he also gave himself. The greatness of that gift, along with its freedom and willingness, is what made it acceptable and full of merit. “Therefore my Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again.”

No one took Christ’s life from him, but he laid it down willingly of himself (John 10:17-18). In the same way, he said, “For their sakes I sanctify myself” (John 17:19), meaning that he set himself apart and devoted himself to this work, to be both priest and sacrifice to God for human sin. His human nature was the offering, his divine nature gave the offering its worth, and the whole work belonged to his one person.

“He gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:6). He appeared once, at the end of the ages, to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He was both the priest and the sacrifice. We were redeemed, not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19), called the blood of God, that is, the blood of the one who is God (Acts 20:28).

Third, think about the people for whom he gave himself. It was for us, poor sinners heading toward ruin, who had turned away from God and rebelled against him. He gave himself for us, not only for our benefit, but in our place. The Messiah was cut off, not for himself, but for us. He suffered, the righteous one for the unrighteous, to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). He was made sin for us, meaning a sin offering, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). What amazing humility and grace! He loved us and gave himself for us, so we should love him and give ourselves to him.

Especially consider the purposes for which he gave himself for us. First, he did it to redeem us from all lawlessness. This fits the first lesson, to deny ungodliness and worldly desires. Christ gave himself to free us from these things, so we must put them away. To love and live in sin is to trample underfoot redeeming blood, to despise one of its greatest gifts, and to act against its purpose. But how could Christ’s brief suffering redeem us from all sin? Because of the infinite worth of his person. He who was God suffered, though not as God in the same way. The actions and qualities of either nature belong to the one person. God purchased his church with his own blood (Acts 20:28). If payment is made fully at once, there is no need for endless suffering. A mere creature could not do this because his nature is limited, but the God-man could. The great God and our Savior gave himself for us, and that explains it. By one offering he has forever made perfect those who are being made holy (Hebrews 9:25-26; Hebrews 10:14). He did not need to offer himself again, and death could not hold him once he had gone through it. What a blessed result of Christ’s death, redemption from all lawlessness!

Second, he gave himself to purify a people for himself, his own special people. This supports the second lesson, to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present world. Christ died to purify as well as to forgive, to give grace and heal our nature, as well as to free us from guilt and condemnation. He gave himself for his church, to cleanse it. In this way he makes a people for himself by purifying them. So they are set apart from the world that lies in evil. They are born of God, shaped to reflect him, bear his image, and are holy as their heavenly Father is holy.

Notice that redemption from sin and the cleansing of our nature go together, and both make a people belonging to God. They are free from guilt and condemnation, free from the power of sinful desires, and cleansed in soul by the Spirit. These are the chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and therefore a special people.

Third, he gave himself so that they would be eager to do good works. This special people must show what they are by doing good and by having zeal for it. The gospel is not a teaching of moral looseness, but of holiness and a good life. We are redeemed from our empty way of life so that we may serve God in holiness and righteousness all our days. So let us be sure to do good, and do it with zeal, while keeping that zeal guided by knowledge, stirred by love, aimed at God’s glory, and always used for something good. And so this is the motive for the duties already given, drawn from the purpose of Christ’s death.