Titus 2:12

Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) Teaching us.—Literally, disciplining us; educating us by life’s sad experiences. God’s grace is in truth a stern discipline of self-denial and training for higher things.

Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts.—More accurately, to the intent that, having denied, &c. The object of the loving discipline of our Father in heaven is that we, having done with those things in life which are offensive or dishonourable to God, having put aside as worthless all inordinate desires for the things of this world—all those things which exclusively belong to this life and have nothing to do with the life to come—having denied all this, that we should live as righteous men the remainder of our lives here.

We should live soberly, righteously, and godly.—In these three terms the blessed life our Lord would have His own to lead on earth is summed up—to ourselves, to our neighbour, and to our God. The first, “soberly,” to ourselves—wisely and temperately, keeping ever a mastery over our passions; the second, “righteously”—justly and honourably, having due regard to our duty towards our neighbour; the third, “godly”—piously, ever remembering to live as in the presence of the Eternal.

In this present world.—Or, in the present course of things. The Apostle adds these words to his summary of the life Christians should lead, to remind them that the present world was but a transitory, passing scene after all, and that there was another and a different “course of things” at hand; and this leads him on to another point. The manifestation of the “grace of God,” in the first coming of the Lord in humiliation (Titus 2:11), teaches us to live our lives in expectation of the second manifestation of His glory in His second coming in power (Titus 2:13). We must—in this great passage contained in Titus 2:11-14—bear in mind that there is a two-fold epiphany spoken of: the one, the manifestation of the “grace of God”—that is past (it was the first coming and the earthly life of Christ); the other, the manifestation of the “glory of God”—that is to come. It will be shown in the second advent when the Lord comes in glory with His holy-angels; and the first epiphany (manifestation) in humiliation is an ever-present reminder to us to live in continued expectation of the second in glory.

MacLaren's Expositions

Titus

THE PURPOSE OF GRACE

Titus 2:12.

To appreciate the full force of these words, we must observe that they are the Apostle’s statement of the ultimate design of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, and of all the wonderful powers and gifts which Christ brought with Him. In our text, the end for which that grace has appeared and exercises its corrective discipline is defined. It comes in order that, denying ungodliness, and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly.

Now, remember that Paul thought that the life and the death of Jesus Christ were the most stupendous of miracles, nothing less than the entrance of divinity in a human form into the limitations of our lives, and His participation in the darkness of our deaths.

Remember that he believed that Jesus Christ’s coming had led to a continual gift of an actual divine life to men who trusted Him; then you will see the grandeur and significance of the words of my text. What has this divine miracle of mercy been for? Nothing but this, to help men here to-day to live good lives. If there were no future at all, says Paul, the expenditure of the divine love is amply vindicated. The sun does not disdain to shine in order to ripen the vegetables in the humble cottage garden, and the love of God did not conceive that it had too small an object to warrant all that lavish gift which is in Christ, in helping us to live as becomes us. How dear we must be to God, and how infinitely important in His eyes must conduct and character be if such an abundance and variety of divine influences were set in motion to produce such an effect! Now, the first thing that strikes me about these words is the fair picture that they draw of what every life should be; and next, the hard conditions which they impose upon men who would live so; and then, what God has given us to make such lives possible. So I ask you to look at these three points.

I. The fair picture of what our lives should be.

Paul is saying nothing more than conscience, reason, the instincts of men everywhere endorse. His requirements in the rough division of virtues which he adopts, not for scientific accuracy but for practical force, are really said ‘Amen!’ to by every honest conscience ‘Soberly, righteously, godly’ - that is what everybody, if he will be fair with himself, feels to be the sort of life he ought to live. Let me just touch upon these three things very briefly. They may be said, roughly, though not very accurately, perhaps, to cover the ground of a man’s duties to himself, to his neighbours, and to God.

‘Soberly’ - that is what you owe to your own nature. ‘Righteously’ - that is what you owe to people round you. ‘Godly’ - that is what you owe to Him. I need not explain, I suppose, that the word ‘soberly’ has by no means the narrow signification which the besetting vice of England has given to it now - viz., abstinence from, or a very restrained use of, intoxicating liquors, nor even the wider one of a curbing of the desires of sense. But the meaning may be better represented by self-control than by any other rendering. Now if there were no man in the world but myself, and if I had no thought or knowledge of God, and if there were no other standard to which I ought to conform, I should have, in my own nature, with its crowd of desires, tastes, inclinations, and faculties, plain indication that self-government was essential. For human nature is not constituted on the plan of a democracy or an ochlocracy - a mob rule - but there is a clear hierarchy and order of predominance in it; and, as plainly as a ship is made to need a rudder, so plainly on your make is there stamped the necessity for rigid self-control.

For we all carry with us desires, inclinations, appetites - some of them directly connected with our physical frame, and some of them a little more refined - which are mere blind inclinations to a given specific good, and will be stirred up, apart altogether from the question of whether it is expedient or right to gratify them. To a hungry man the odour of food is equally enticing, whether the food belongs to himself or his neighbour; and if he had to steal for it, it would still tempt him. Because, then, we are to a large extent made up of blind desires which take no account of anything except their appropriate food, the commandment comes from the deepest recesses of each nature, as well as from the great throne in the heavens -’Live soberly.’

The engines will work on all the same, though the bows of the ship be turned to the rocks, and driving straight on the reef. It is the engineer’s business to start them and keep them going; it is their business to turn the screw; it is somebody else’s business to look after the navigation. We have our ‘humours under lock and key’ in order that we may control them. And if we do not, we shall go all to rack and ruin. So, ‘live soberly,’ says Paul.

The next requirement is, ‘righteously.’ Now, I said that that might, perhaps, be roughly explained as referring mainly to our duties to one another. But that is not by any means an exhaustive - and perhaps, a scarcely approximate - description. For the attitude expressed in ‘righteously’ does not so much point to other people as to the existence of a certain standard, external to ourselves, to which it is our business and wisdom to conform. I said that, if there were nothing in the world except a man and his own nature, the duty of sober self-government would necessarily arise. But the supposed isolation does not exist. We stand in certain relations to a whole universe of things and of people, and there does rise before every man, however it may be accounted for, or explained away, or tampered with, or neglected, a standard of right and wrong. And what Paul here, means by ‘live righteously’ is, ‘Do as you know you ought to do,’ and in shaping your character, have reference not merely to its constitution, but to its relations to all this universe of outside facts.

So far as the word may include our duty to others, I may just remind you that ‘righteousness’ in reference to our fellows demands mercy. The common antithesis which is drawn between a just man who will give everybody what they deserve, and not one scrap more nor less if he can help it, and a kindly man is erroneous, because every man has a claim upon every other man for lenient judgment and undeserved help. He may not deserve it, being such a man as he is; but he has a right to it, being a man at all. And no man is righteous who is not merciful We do not fulfil the prophet’s exhortation, ‘do justice,’ unless we fulfil his other, ‘love mercy.’ For mercy is the right of all men.

The last of the phases under which the perfect life is represented here takes us up at once into another region. If there were nobody but myself in the world, it must be my duty to live controlling myself; since I stand in relations manifold to creatures manifold and to the whole order of things, it is my duty to conform to the standard, and to do what is right. And just as plainly as the obligations to sobriety and righteousness press on every man, so plainly is godliness necessary to his perfection. For I am not only Bound by ties which knit me to my fellows, or to this visible order, but the closest of all bonds, the most real of all relations, is that which hinds us each to God.

And if ‘man’s chief end be to glorify God,’ and then and thus, ‘to enjoy Him for ever,’ then that end, in its very nature, must be all pervasive, and diffuse its sweetness into the other two. For you cannot sliver up the unity of life into little sections and say, ‘This deed has to be done soberly, and that one righteously, and this one godly,’ but godliness must cover the whole life, and be the power of self-control and of righteousness. ‘All in all or not at all.’ Godliness must Be uniform and universal. Lacking their supreme beauty are the lives of all who endeavour to keep these other two departments of duty and forget this third. There are many men - I have no doubt there are some of them among us - punctiliously trying to control their natures, and to live righteously; but all their thoughts run along the low levels, and they are absolutely blind and deaf to voices and sights from heaven-They are like some of those truncated pyramids, broad-based upon the solid earth, and springing with firm lines to a certain height, and then coming to a dead stop, and so being but stumps, which leave a sense of incompleteness, because all the firm lines have not gathered themselves up into the sky-piercing point which aspires still higher than it has reached.

‘Soberly,’ that is much; ‘ righteously,’ that is more; ‘godly,’ that is, not most, but all.



II. Secondly, notice what a hard task the man has who will live so.

The Apostle, very remarkably, puts first, in my text, a negative clause. The things that he says we are to deny are the exact opposites of the characteristics that he says we are to aim after. ‘Denying ungodliness’ - that is clearly the opposite of ‘godly’; and ‘worldly lusts,’ though perhaps not so obviously, yet certainly is the antithesis of ‘soberly’ and

‘righteously.’ I need not remind you, I suppose, that the word ‘lusts’ here has not the carnal associations cleaving to it which have gradually accrued to it in the changes of language since our translation was made, but that it implies simply ‘ desires,’ longings, of however refined and incorporeal a sort, which attach themselves to the fleeting things of this life. Pride, ambition, and all the more refined and less sensual desires are as much included as the grossest animalism in which any swine of a man can wallow. Worldly lusts are desires which say to earth, and to what earth can give, in any of its forms, ‘Thou art my god, and having thee I am satisfied.’ Now, says Paul, there is no good to be done in the matter of acquiring these positive graces, without which a life is contemptible and poor, unless, side by side with the continual effort at the acquisition of the one, there be the continual and resolute effort at the excision and casting out of the other. Why? Because they are in possession. A man cannot be godly unless he casts out the ungodliness that cleaves to his nature; nor can he rule himself and seek after righteousness unless he ejects the desires that are in possession of his heart. You have to get rid of the bad tenant if you would bring in the good one. You have to turn the current, which is running in the wrong direction. And so it comes to be a very hard, painful thing for a man to acquire these graces of which my text speaks. People talk as if what was needed was the cultivation of what we have. Aye! that is needed; but there is something else than that needed. ‘You have to turn out a great deal of bad in order to make room for the good. Not that the evil can be expelled without the entrance of the good, as I shall have to say in a moment. But still the two things must go on side by side.

And so it is hard work for a man to grow better. If we had only to advance in practice, or knowledge, or sentiment, or feeling, that would not be so difficult to do; but you have to reverse the action of the machine; and that is hard. Can it be done? Who is to keep the keepers? It is difficult for the same self to be sacrifice and priest. It is a hard matter for a man to crucify himself, and we may well say, if there can be no progress in goodness without this violent and’ thorough mutilation and massacre of the evil that be in us, alas! for us all I am sure, as sure as I stand here, that there are plenty of young men and women among my hearers now who have tried once and again, and have failed once and again, to ‘live soberly, righteously, and godly,’ because the evil that is in them has been too strong for them.

III. I come, lastly, on the strength of that grand first word of my text, ‘in order that,’ to remind you of what God gives us to make such life possible.

‘The grace of God, that bringeth salvation to all men, hath appeared disciplining us,’ for this purpose, that the things which are impossible with men may be possible with God. Christ and His love; Christ and His life; Christ and His death; Christ and His Spirit; in these are new hopes, motives, powers, which avail to do the thing that no man can do. An infant’s finger cannot reverse the motion of some great engine. But the hand that made it can touch some little tap or lever, and the mighty masses of polished iron begin to move the other way. And so God, and God only, can make it possible for us to deny ourselves ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to ‘live soberly, righteously, godly, in this present world.’ That Jesus who comes to us to mould our hearts into hitherto unfelt love, by reason of His own great love, and who gives to us His own Spirit to be the life of our lives, gives us by these gifts new motives, new powers, new tastes, new affections. He puts the reins into our hands, and enables us to control and master our unruly tempers and inclinations. If you want to clear out a tube of any sort, the way to do it is to insert some solid substance, and push, and that drives out the clogging matter. Christ’s love coming into the heart expels the evil, just as the sap rising in the tree pushes off the old leaves that have hung there withered all the winter. As Luther used to say, ‘You cannot clean out the stable with barrows and shovels. Turn the Elbe into it.’ Let that great flood of life pour into our hearts, and it will not be hard to ‘live soberly.’

He comes to help us to live ‘righteously.’ He gives us His own life to dwell in our hearts, in no mere metaphor, but in simple fact. And they who trust in Jesus Christ are righteous by no mere fiction of a righteousness reckoned, but by the blessed reality of a righteousness imparted.

He comes to make it possible for us to live ‘godly.’ For He, and He alone, has the secret of drawing hearts to God; because He, and He alone, has opened the secret of God’s heart to us. As long as we think of that Father in the heavens as demanding and commanding, we shall not love Him, nor serve Him, nor live ‘godly.’ ‘I knew thee that thou wast an austere man…’therefore I was afraid, and hid my talent in the earth.’ But when we learn that ‘God’ and ‘Love’ spell with the same letters, and that He gives us in Christ the power to be what He commands us to become, then our spirits are stirred into thankful obedience.

So, dear friends, you that have been, as I am sure many of you have been, trying over and over again to mend yourselves, and have failed, listen to this gospel. You that have been sitting at the foot of the mountain, and seeing the shining towers of the fair palace-temple on its summit, and have made two or three feeble and foiled efforts to reach it, and then have fallen back again, do not despair or fancy that the heights are inaccessible. Trust yourselves to Christ, and let His life come into your spirits, and He will ‘make your feet as hind’s feet, to tread upon the high places.’ He will be the path, and will show the path, and will give His angels charge concerning thee, to bear thee up in their hands, and to carry thee at last thither, whither He desires to bring thee.

‘Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend up into the heavens? The word is nigh thee.’ Trust thyself to that Son of Man who came down from heaven, and was in heaven when He came, and He will become the ladder, with its foot on the earth, by which even your feeble steps may rise to God.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:11-15 The doctrine of grace and salvation by the gospel, is for all ranks and conditions of men. It teaches to forsake sin; to have no more to do with it. An earthly, sensual conversation suits not a heavenly calling. It teaches to make conscience of that which is good. We must look to God in Christ, as the object of our hope and worship. A gospel conversation must be a godly conversation. See our duty in a very few words; denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, living soberly, righteously, and godly, notwithstanding all snares, temptations, corrupt examples, ill usage, and what remains of sin in the believer's heart, with all their hinderances. It teaches to look for the glories of another world. At, and in, the glorious appearing of Christ, the blessed hope of Christians will be complete: To bring us to holiness and happiness was the end of Christ's death. Jesus Christ, that great God and our Saviour, who saves not only as God, much less as Man alone; but as God-man, two natures in one person. He loved us, and gave himself for us; and what can we do less than love and give up ourselves to him! Redemption from sin and sanctification of the nature go together, and make a peculiar people unto God, free from guilt and condemnation, and purified by the Holy Spirit. All Scripture is profitable. Here is what will furnish for all parts of duty, and the right discharge of them. Let us inquire whether our whole dependence is placed upon that grace which saves the lost, pardons the guilty, and sanctifies the unclean. And the further we are removed from boasting of fancied good works, or trusting in them, so that we glory in Christ alone, the more zealous shall we be to abound in real good works.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Teaching us - That is, the "grace of God" so teaches us; or that system of religion which is a manifestation of the grace of God, inculcates the great and important duties which Paul proceeds to state.

That denying ungodliness and worldly lusts - "That by denying ourselves of these, or refusing to practice them, we should lead a holy life." The word ungodliness here means all that would be included under the word impiety; that is, all failure in the performance of our proper duties towards God; see the notes at Romans 1:18. The phrase "worldly lusts" refers to all improper desires pertaining to this life - the desire of wealth, pleasure, honor, sensual indulgence. It refers to such passions as the people of this world are prone to, and would include all those things which cannot be indulged in with a proper reference to the world to come. The gross passions would be of course included, and all those more refined pleasures also which constitute the characteristic and special enjoyments of those who do not live unto God.

We should live soberly - See the word "soberly" (σωφρόνως sōphronōs) explained in the notes at Titus 2:2, Titus 2:4. It means that we should exercise a due restraint on our passions and propensities.

Righteously - Justly - δικαίως dikaiōs. This refers to the proper performance of our duties to our fellow-men; and it means that religion teaches us to perform those duties with fidelity, according to all our relations in life; to all our promises and contracts; to our fellow-citizens and neighbors; to the poor, and needy, and ignorant, and oppressed; and to all those who are providentially placed in our way who need our kind offices. Justice to them would lead us to act as we would wish that they would towards us.

And godly - Piously; that is, in the faithful performance of our duties to God. We have here, then, an epitome of all that religion requires:

(1) our duty to ourselves - included in the word "soberly" and requiring a suitable control over our evil propensities and passions;

(2) our duty to our fellow-men in all the relations we sustain in life; and,

(3) our duty to God - evinced in what will be properly regarded as a pious life.

He that does these things, meets all the responsibilites of his condition and relations; and the Christian system, requiring the faithful performance of these duties, shows how admirably it is adapted to man.

In this present world - That is, as long as we shall continue in it. These are the duties which we owe in the present life.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. Teaching—Greek, "disciplining us." Grace exercises discipline, and is imparted in connection with disciplining chastisements (1Co 11:32; Heb 12:6, 7). The education which the Christian receives from "the grace" of God is a discipline often trying to flesh and blood: just as children need disciplining. The discipline which it exercises teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world (Greek, "age," or course of things) where such self-discipline is needed, seeing that its spirit is opposed to God (Tit 1:12, 16; 1Co 1:20; 3:18, 19): in the coming world we may gratify every desire without need of self-discipline, because all desires there will be conformable to the will of God.

that—Greek, "in order that"; the end of the "disciplining" is "in order that … we may live soberly," &c. This point is lost by the translation, "teaching us."

denying … lusts—(Lu 9:23). The Greek aorist expresses "denying once for all." We deny "worldly lusts" when we withhold our consent from them, when we refuse the delight which they suggest, and the act to which they solicit us, nay, tear them up by the roots out of our soul and mind [ST. Bernard, Sermon 11].

worldly lusts—The Greek article expresses, "the lusts of the world," "all worldly lusts" [Alford], (Ga 5:16; Eph 2:3; 1Jo 2:15-17; 5:19). The world (cosmos) will not come to an end when this present age (aeon) or course of things shall end.

live soberly, righteously, and godly—the positive side of the Christian character; as "denying … lusts" was the negative. "Soberly," that is, with self-restraint, in relation to one's self: "righteously" or justly, in relation to our neighbor; "godly" or piously, in relation to God (not merely amiably and justly, but something higher, godly, with love and reverence toward God). These three comprise our "disciplining" in faith and love, from which he passes to hope (Tit 2:13).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Teaching us that, denying ungodliness; all atheism or false religion, living without regard to any Divine Being, or according to our own erroneous and superstitious conceits and opinions of him.

And worldly lusts; and such inclinations, and unlawful desires, and lustings after secular things, as are commonly found in men of the world.

We should live soberly; we should live, with respect to ourselves, in a just government of our affections and passions.

Righteously; and with respect to others, giving to every one their due.

And godly; and with respect to God, piously discharging the duties and paying the homage we owe unto him.

In this present world; so long as we live in this world, where we have temptations to the contrary.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Teaching us,.... Not all men, to whom the Gospel appears in its outward ministry; for there are many who externally receive the Gospel, and profess it, who are never influentially taught by it to deny sin, or love holiness of life; they profess in words to know it, but in works deny it; they have a form of godliness, but deny its power: but the persons effectually taught by the Gospel are the "us", to whom it was come, not in word only, but in power; and so taught them, not only doctrinally, but with efficacy, both negative and positive holiness, as follows:

that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts; all impiety, or sin more immediately against God; or which is a violation of the first table of the law, as idolatry, will worship, superstition, perjury, and the like; and all sinful lusts, as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life; which fill the world, and are reigning lusts in it, and which are common to the men of the world; and they are under the power of: to "deny" these, is to abhor and detest them, and to abstain from them, and have nothing to do with them: and this lesson of self-denial, or of the denial of sinful self, the Gospel teaches, and urges upon the most powerful motives and arguments; and when attended by the Spirit of God, does it effectually: so that

we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; not, only "temperately", but wisely and prudently, as children of the light, on whom, and into whom the Gospel has shined; and "righteously" among men, giving to every man his due, and dealing with all according to the rules of equity and justice; as being made new men, created unto righteousness and true holiness; and as being dead to sin, through the death of Christ, and so living unto righteousness, or in a righteous manner; and as being justified by the righteousness of Christ, revealed in the Gospel: and "godly"; in a godly manner, according to the Word of God, and agreeably to the will of God; and in all godly exercises, both public and private, and to the glory of God: and that as long as

in this present world: which lies in wickedness, and in which there are so many strong temptations to a contrary way of living. The Gospel then is no licentious doctrine; it is according to godliness, and teaches and promotes it; it is an holy faith, yea, a most holy faith; wherefore it is a vile slander to charge it with leading to looseness of life and conversation.

Geneva Study Bible

Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and {d} worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

(d) Lusts of the flesh, which belong to the present state of this life and world.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Titus 2:12. Παιδεύουσα ἡμᾶς, ἵνα κ.τ.λ.] On this the chief emphasis is laid. By παιδεύουσα the apostle makes it clear that “the grace of God has a paedagogic purpose” (Heydenreich). Here, as also elsewhere in the N. T., παιδεύειν does not simply mean “educate,” but “educate by disciplinary correction.” Hence Luther is not incorrect in translating: “and chastises us.” This reference is to be noted here, as is shown by the next words: ἀρνησάμενοι κ.τ.λ. Ἵνα does not indicate the purpose here, but the object to be supplied, for παιδ. is not subjective, but objective; the sentence beginning with ἵνα might also have been expressed by the infinitive; comp. 1 Timothy 1:20; not therefore “in order that we,” but “that we.” On this use of ἵνα, see Winer, pp. 314 ff.[4] [E. T. pp. 420–426].

ἀρνησάμενοι] see Titus 1:16 : “denying,” i.e. renouncing, abandoning.

τὴν ἀσέβειαν] is not equivalent to ΕἸΔΩΛΟΛΑΤΡΕΊΑΝ ΚΑῚ ΤᾺ ΠΟΝΗΡᾺ ΔΌΓΜΑΤΑ (Theophylact), but is the opposite of ΕὐΣΈΒΕΙΑΝ: the behaviour of man, ungodly, estranged from God, of which idolatry is only one side.

ΚΑῚ ΤᾺς ΚΟΣΜΙΚᾺς ἘΠΙΘΥΜΊΑς] ΚΟΣΜΙΚΌς only here and in Hebrews 9:1, but there in another connection. The ΚΟΣΜ. ἘΠΙΘΥΜΊΑΙ are not “desires or lusts referring to the earthly, transient world” (first edition of this commentary; so, too, Wiesinger), but “the lusts belonging to the ΚΌΣΜΟς, i.e. to the world estranged from God,” which, indeed, is the same thing (so, too, van Oosterzee). Kindred conceptions are found ἐπιθυμία σαρκός, Galatians 5:15; Ephesians 2:3; ἈΝΘΡΏΠΩΝ ἘΠΙΘΥΜΊΑΙ, 1 Peter 4:2.

ΣΩΦΡΌΝΩς ΚΑῚ ΔΙΚΑΊΩς ΚΑῚ ΕὐΣΕΒῶς ΖΉΣΩΜΕΝ] see Titus 1:8 (ΣΏΦΡΟΝΑ, ΔΊΚΑΙΟΝ, ὍΣΙΟΝ). This denotes the life of Christian morality in three directions. Immediately after ἘΠΙΘΥΜΊΑΙ we have the opposing conception ΣΩΦΡΌΝΩς, which expresses self-control. ΔΙΚΑΊΩς denotes generally right conduct such as the divine law demands, having special reference here, as in Titus 1:8, to duty towards one’s neighbour. ΕὐΣΕΒῶς (opposite of ἈΣΈΒΕΙΑΝ) denotes holiness in thought and act.

Even the older expositors find in the collocation of these three ideas an expression for the whole sum of duties. Wolf: optime illi res instituunt, qui per ΤῸ ΕὐΣΕΒῶς officia adversus Deum, per ΤῸ ΔΙΚΑΊΩς officia adv. proximum, per ΤῸ ΣΩΦΡΌΝΩς vero illa adv. hominem ipsum indicari existimant; still it might be doubtful whether Paul regarded the ideas as so sharply distinct from each other.

ἘΝ Τῷ ΝῦΝ ΑἸῶΝΙ] Paul adds this to remind Titus that for the Christian there is another and future life towards which his glance is directed even in this;—still these words cannot be construed with ΠΡΟΣΔΕΧΌΜΕΝΟΙ.

[4] Wiesinger translates: “educating us, that we … live holily,” but thinks that ἵνα is to be retained in its proper signification as denoting the aim of the παίδευμα. In its proper signification, however, ἵνα does not give the aim, but the purpose. If it be taken in this sense here, we cannot but translate it “in order that.”

Expositor's Greek Testament

Titus 2:12. παιδεύουσα. erudiens (Vulg.), corripiens ([319]). Grace is potentially σωτήριος as regards all men; actually its efficacy is seen in the disciplining of individuals one by one; ἡμᾶς, to begin with. See notes on 1 Timothy 1:1; 1 Timothy 2:4; 1 Timothy 4:10. So Chrys. makes ἵνα depend on ἐπεφάνη more directly than on παιδεύονσα: “Christ came that we should deny ungodliness.” The connexion, then, is ἐπεφάνη … ἵνα … ζήσωμεν. “The final cause of the Revelation in Christ is not creed, but character” (J. H. Bernard). It is of course possible (and this is the view usually held) to join παιδεύουσα ἵνα; the ἵνα introducing the object (instructing us, to the intent that, denying, etc., R.V.), not the content (teaching us that denying, etc., A.V.) of the παιδεία.

[319] The Latin text of Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

ἀρνησάμενοι … ζήσωμεν … προσδεχόμενοι represent three successive stages in the Christian life. The force of the aorist participle must not be lost sight of, though it may be pedantic to mark it in translation. ἀρνησάμενοι κ.τ.λ., synchronises with the “death unto sin” which precedes the definite entry on newness of life, while προσδεχόμενοι expresses the constant mental attitude of those who are living that new life.

ἀρνησάμενοι: This indicates the renunciation of the Devil, of the vanity of this world, and of all the sinful lusts of the flesh. ἀρνέομαι means here to repudiate, renounce all connexion with. Cf. ἀποθέμενοι, 1 Peter 2:1. See on 1 Timothy 5:8.

τὴν ἀσέβειαν: εὐσέβεια being Christian practice (see below, εὐσεβῶς ζήσωμεν), ἀσέβεια is heathen practice, the non-moral life.

τὰς κοσμικὰς ἐπιθυμίας: saecularia desideria (Vulg.), “the desires of the flesh and of the mind” (Ephesians 2:3), “the lusts of men” (1 Peter 4:2); opposed to σωφρ. καὶ δικαίως; such as have relation to no higher sphere than that of the visible world. They are analysed in 1 John 2:16.

σωφρόνως: The reference of the three adverbs is well explained by St. Bernard: “sobrie erga nos; juste erga proximos; pie erga Deum”.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. teaching us that] Rather, ‘training us’; and the present participle implies a continued training, putting us under discipline; this form of the word is explained on 1 Timothy 1:20. The comma should be before ‘that,’ which has its proper meaning in order that. This ‘training,’ ‘discipline,’ ‘education,’ is through the means of grace. ‘The moral aim of the disciplining in question is expressed first in the negative then in the positive form.’ Fairbairn.

denying ungodliness and worldly lusts] Better, having renounced, though R.V. keeps ‘denying’, and Alford urges that the aorist participle and aorist verb cover the same extent, the whole life. This no doubt is a thoroughly correct use of the participle, but not a necessary use; and the position of the participle at the very beginning and the verb at the end of the clause suggests rather the other equally legitimate use of the participle, to express the priority of the renunciation. So ‘I renounce the devil, the world, the flesh’ is the first act in the first of the ‘means of grace,’ holy baptism.

ungodliness] The opposite of ‘godliness,’ see notes 1 Timothy 1:9; 1 Timothy 2:2. Our present word and its connexions occur three times in the Pastoral Epistles, three times in St Peter, three times in St Jude; otherwise only in Ep. to Romans.

worldly lusts] The adjective ‘worldly’ is only used once besides in N.T., in Hebrews 9:1, of the sanctuary in the wilderness, ‘a sanctuary of the world.’ Here the phrase covers the ground of 1 John 2:16-17, where see Bp Westcott’s full note. ‘The desire of things earthly as ends in themselves comes from the world and is bounded by the world. It is therefore incompatible with the love of the Father.… In themselves all finite objects, “the things that are in the world,” are “of the Father.” It is the false view of them which makes them idols.… The three false tendencies which S. John marks cover the whole ground of “worldliness,” the desire to set up the creature as an end.’ This word ‘worldly’ occurs in the Apostolical Constitutions, vii. 1, ‘abstain from fleshly and worldly lusts,’ apparently combining this passage and 1 Peter 2:11, though its original, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, has ‘fleshly and bodily,’ 1.4.

we should live soberly, righteously, and godly] The clause is adopted to describe a true Christian life in the Pr.-Bk. ‘General Confession’ and ‘Baptismal Service for Adults.’ See above and Titus 2:11. Bp Ellicott rightly; ‘Christian duties under three aspects, to ourselves, to others, and to God; but not to be too much narrowed, though the order and the meanings point to this;’ and see notes on 1 Timothy 2:9; Titus 1:8.

this present world] See note on 1 Timothy 6:17.

Bengel's Gnomen

Titus 2:12. Τὴν ἀσέβειαν, ungodliness) In antithesis to εὐσεβῶς, godly.—τὰς κοσμικὰς, worldly) which prevent men from living soberly and righteously.—σωφρόνως καὶ δικαίως καὶ εὐσεβῶς, soberly and righteously and godly) The three cardinal virtues, from which, either single or united, all the others spring.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - Instructing for teaching, A.V.; to the intent that for that, A.V.; and righteously for righteously, A.V. Instructing us, to the intent that. This is an unnecessary refinement. Huther is right in saying that the sentence beginning with ἵνα might have been expressed by the infinitive mood, as in 1 Timothy 1:20, and that we ought to render it not "in order that," but simply "that." The phrase in 1 Timothy 1:20, ἵνα παιδευθῶσι μὴ βλασφημεῖν, manifestly would justify the phrase, παιδεύουσα ἡμᾶς ζῆν δικαίως, "teaching us to live righteously." Alford surely is wrong in saying that the universal New Testament sense of παιδεύειν is "to discipline," i.e. teach by correction. In Acts 7:22; Acts 22:3; 1 Timothy 1:20; 2 Timothy 2:25, the idea of teaching, not of correcting, is predominant. But even if it was so, the pastoral Epistles are so decidedly classical in their use of words, that the classical use of παιδεύειν in such phrases as παιδεύειν τινα κιθαρίζειν or σώφρονα εἴναι (Liddell and Scott)is an abundant justification of a similar rendering of this passage And as regards the use ἵνα, such phrases as Αἰπὲ ἵνα οἱ λίθοι οῦτοι ἄρτοι γενῶνται, "Command that these stones become bread" (Matthew 4:3; Matthew 20:21; Luke 4:3; Luke 10:40); Διεστείλατο... ἵνα μηδενὶ εἴπωσιν, "He commanded them not to tell" (Matthew 16:20); Συμφέρει αὐτῷ ἴνα, "It is profitable for him that" (Matthew 18:6); Προσεύχεσθε ἵνα, "Pray that" (Matthew 24:20); Παρεκάλει αὐτὸν ἵνα μή, "He besought him not to send them away" (Mark 5:10); Παρακαλοῦσιν αὐτὸν ἵνα ἅψηται, "They beseech him to touch" (Mark 8:22, 30; Mark 9:9; Mark 10:37; Mark 13:34; Luke 1:43; Luke 7:36); Ἐδεήθην... ἵνα, "I asked... to" (Luke 9:40); Ἐρωτῶ σε ἵνα πέμψῃς, "I intreat thee to send" (Luke 16:29; Colossians 4:2;, etc.); - prove that the sense "in order that" is not necessarily attached to ἵνα, but that we may properly render the passage before us "teaching us... to live soberly," etc. Titus 2:12

Vincent's Word Studies

Teaching (παιδεύουσα)

Better, instructing or training. The saving economy of God is educative. Comp. Hebrews 12:4-11, and see on 1 Timothy 1:20.

Ungodliness (ἀσέβειαν)

In Pastorals only here and 2 Timothy 2:16. The contrary of εὐσέβεια, for which see on 1 Timothy 2:2.

Worldly lusts (κοσμικὰς ἐπιθυμίας)

The phrase N.T.o. Κοσμικὸς worldly, only here and Hebrews 9:1. On the ethical sense in κόσμος the world, see on Acts 17:24, and see on John 1:9.