Bible Commentaries
Titus 2

Verses 1-15

II Titus 1-40 The Christian Ideal for the Various Classes— Titus is called upon to remedy the disorder brought about by the fraudulent missionaries and that he may be successful in this the Apostle sets before him the duties of various classes of people with the ideals at which they are to aim. He is especially insistent on good family life, which had been disrupted by those pseudo-guides; cf. 1:11.

4. A tradition of wholesome family life is to be established and handed on from women of maturer years to those younger.

6. ’Sober’ —self-controlled—Youth must practise self-control in all things; there must be no yielding to youthful impulsiveness.

7. Titus himself is to set the example.

8. ’That he who is on the contrary part’—so that our adversaries may be put to shame, having no opportunity for speaking ill of us.

9-10. Slaves are again (cf.1 Timothy 6:1) urged to be submissive to their masters and indeed to give such good service that they bring credit upon the Christian religion.

11-15 form the Epistle read at the first Mass on Christmas Day. St Paul sets before his readers the reasons why they should respond to the call to reach the Christian ideal, namely because of God’s graciousness—this is the meaning of ’grace’ here, rather than sanctifying grace—towards all men, revealed in the Incarnation and the preaching of the Gospel. ’To all men’—On this account the Apostle makes his appeal to all classes of people in 1-10 above. All are, in fact, affected by Christ’s advent, the benefits of the Incarnation are not limited to any particular privileged body, but are meant to be shared by all. The effect of our Lord’s coming is now made known.

12. ’Instructing us’—Training us, guiding us continuously to regulate our lives by practising piety, justice, selfrestraint, i.e. by performing our duties to God (godly to our neighbour (justly) and to ourselves (soberly). This passage is aptly chosen for Christmastide, recalling as it does, the practical bearing of the Incarnation on our conduct. The blessed hope’—i.e. the object of hope; the hope to which correspondence with the blessings of the Incarnation will lead us, the glory of the second coming of Christ.

13. ’The great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ’—The liturgy in using these words at Christmas focuses our attention upon the divine Nature of the Child who is born for us. He is our Great God and Saviour. Both nouns refer to Jesus Christ: ’It is consoling to see the exegetes of our day coming back more and more to the traditional interpretation. If it were a question of the Father, the Apostle would not add to God the epithet of ’great’ which naturally is the principle of divinity. Moreover the Parousia is always the glorious manifestation of the Son coming to judge the world, never that of the Father. Finally—and this argument is decisive—the two titles ’great God’ and ’Saviour’ being included in Greek under the same article, must refer to the same person; to be able to isolate them and to connect the second only to Jesus Christ, this latter name would have to be placed between the two’, Prat, II, 127; cf. also WV and Bandas op. cit. 187.

14. ’Who gave himself for us’—Christ’s love, as manifested in his passion and death is a further reason for diligence in the pursuance of Christian ideals. Christ loved us and gave himself for us; in return, then, the Christian redeemed by Christ’s blood must spend himself in Christ’s service; cf.Galatians 2:20.14. ’A people acceptable’—a reference to God’s choice of Israel in the OT, cf.Deuteronomy 7:6; Deuteronomy 14:2; Deuteronomy 26:18; Exodus 19:5; 1 Peter 2:9. ’Good works’—those already pointed out above, 2:1-10. 15. Titus is urged to exercise the authority which he possesses the Apostle’s delegate and as a minister of Christ. He has the right to command and guide.