In the second chapter of his letter, Paul turns from the church’s leaders to its ordinary members: older men and older women, young wives and young men, and even slaves. Each is to live so that the gospel is honoured, not blasphemed. Then he explains where that kind of life comes from: “the grace of God that bringeth salvation,” which teaches us to say no to ungodliness while we are “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
A study in Titus 2 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 18 min read
The Things Which Become Sound Doctrine
“But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.”
Titus 2:1-2
“But speak thou.” Chapter 1 ended with false teachers whose lives denied the God they talked about. Titus is to be different, and so is his message. He is to teach “the things which become sound doctrine” — the kind of living that fits, suits, and grows out of true teaching. “Sound” means healthy. Healthy doctrine produces healthy lives.
Paul begins with the older men. They are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, and “sound in faith, in charity, in patience.” Age alone does not make a man wise, but a man who has walked with God for many years should show it: a steady faith, a love that has been tested, and the patience that only time and trials can produce.
That The Word Of God Be Not Blasphemed
“The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”
Titus 2:3-5
Notice who does the teaching here. Paul does not tell Titus, a young single man, to instruct the young wives himself. He tells the older women to do it. They are “teachers of good things,” and their classroom is life itself: showing younger women, by word and example, how to love a husband and children, how to manage a home with wisdom and purity, and how to live a life of kindness.
Before they can teach, the older women must first be the kind of women worth learning from: reverent in behaviour, “not false accusers” (the Greek word is diabolos, the devil’s own name, for the devil is the great slanderer), and not enslaved to wine.
“Keepers at home” describes a woman who is a faithful worker in her home, caring for her household rather than neglecting it. Scripture honours that work as highly as any work in the world.
“The king upon his throne has no higher work than has the mother. The mother is queen of her household. She has in her power the molding of her children’s characters, that they may be fitted for the higher, immortal life. An angel could not ask for a higher mission; for in doing this work she is doing service for God.”
Ellen G. White · The Adventist Home, p. 231
And “obedient to their own husbands” must be read alongside everything else Paul says about marriage. Husbands are to love their wives “even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” (Ephesians 5:25), and all believers are to be “submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God” (Ephesians 5:21). This is not a husband’s licence to dominate. It is a picture of a home where each lays down self for the other, as Christ did.
The same spirit that should mark a Christian woman in the church should mark her in the home. A Christlike woman builds up her husband and her household, as Christ would do. She does not lift herself up by tearing others down. And the reason Paul gives is not social custom but witness: “that the word of God be not blasphemed.” In a pagan world watching the new Christian homes on Crete, a loving, faithful, well-ordered family was one of the most powerful sermons the gospel could preach.
“Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.”
Titus 2:6-8
For the young men, Paul gives just one instruction: be “sober minded” — self-controlled, sensible, master of yourself. Titus himself was among them, and Paul tells him to be their example: “a pattern of good works,” teaching with integrity and seriousness, speaking in a way no one can fairly fault. The goal is that critics will be put to shame, “having no evil thing to say of you.”
Adorn The Doctrine Of God Our Saviour
“Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.”
Titus 2:9-10
Many of the first Christians were slaves. Paul does not command a revolution, which in the Roman world would have ended in crucifixions. But he plants principles that would eventually dissolve slavery from the inside: that a slave and his master are brothers in Christ (Philemon 16), and that masters answer to a Master in heaven (Colossians 4:1). Meanwhile, even a slave could do something wonderful. By honesty, faithfulness, and a respectful spirit, he could “adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour.”
“Adorn” is the word from which we get “cosmetic.” It means to arrange, to decorate, to make beautiful. The gospel is already true. But a faithful life makes it attractive. And if even a slave could adorn the gospel, so can any believer, in any job, at any level.
“The excellence of Jesus Christ will ever shine in the character of true believers, and they will adorn the doctrine of our Saviour. Thus the excellency and the power of the gospel are revealed.”
Ellen G. White · Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 531
The Grace Of God That Bringeth Salvation
“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;”
Titus 2:11-12
“For.” Here is the reason for everything Paul has just said. Why should older men, older women, young wives, young men and slaves live this way? Because of grace.
First, this grace “hath appeared to all men.” God’s saving grace is not reserved for a chosen few while the rest are passed over. It came into the world in the person of Jesus Christ, and it is offered to every human being. Ellen White pointed to this verse when describing how John Wesley answered the teaching that God had fixed each person’s destiny in advance:
“The doctrine of the divine decrees, unalterably fixing the character of men, had led many to a virtual rejection of the law of God. Wesley steadfastly opposed the errors of the antinomian teachers and showed that this doctrine which led to antinomianism was contrary to the Scriptures. ‘The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.’ … The Spirit of God is freely bestowed to enable every man to lay hold upon the means of salvation.”
Ellen G. White · The Great Controversy, p. 261
Second, this grace is a teacher. It does not merely forgive and then leave us as we were. It is “teaching us” — training us, the way a parent trains a child — to say no to “ungodliness and worldly lusts” and to live “soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” Soberly toward ourselves, righteously toward others, godly toward God. Grace that does not change the way we live is not the grace Paul knew.
That is why grace and God’s law are not enemies. The same holy standard written in the Ten Commandments is what grace trains us to live out.
“In the precepts of His holy law, God has given a perfect rule of life; and He has declared that until the close of time this law, unchanged in a single jot or tittle, is to maintain its claim upon human beings. Christ came to magnify the law and make it honorable. … The law, obeyed, leads men to deny ‘ungodliness and worldly lusts,’ and to ‘live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.’ Titus 2:12.”
Ellen G. White · The Acts of the Apostles, p. 505
Looking For That Blessed Hope
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.”
Titus 2:13-15
Grace looks in two directions. It looks back to the first appearing, when “the grace of God… hath appeared” (verse 11) in the coming of Christ. And it looks forward to the second: “the glorious appearing.” Christians live “in this present world” (verse 12) with their eyes on the world to come.
Notice who is coming: “the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” In the Greek, both titles belong to one Person. The One whose glorious appearing we await is Jesus, and He is “the great God.” Paul could hardly have stated the full deity of Christ more plainly.
And His coming is “that blessed hope” — not a secret disappearance, not a vague spiritual idea, but a real, visible, “glorious appearing.” It is the hope that has sustained God’s people ever since Eden.
“One of the most solemn and yet most glorious truths revealed in the Bible is that of Christ’s second coming to complete the great work of redemption. … The doctrine of the second advent is the very keynote of the Sacred Scriptures. From the day when the first pair turned their sorrowing steps from Eden, the children of faith have waited the coming of the Promised One to break the destroyer’s power and bring them again to the lost Paradise.”
Ellen G. White · The Great Controversy, p. 299
Between the two appearings stands the cross: He “gave himself for us.” And Paul tells us why. It was not only to forgive us, but “that he might redeem us from all iniquity” — to set us free from sin itself — “and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” “Peculiar” does not mean odd. It means a people who are God’s own special possession, the same idea as Israel being His “peculiar treasure” (Exodus 19:5). And they are “zealous of good works”: eager, even passionate, to do good. Good works do not save us. But the people Christ has saved are eager to do them.
“These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.” Titus was to teach these truths with confidence, because they are not his opinions but God’s word. And they are still the heart of Christian living: saved by grace, trained by grace, and waiting, with eager hearts and busy hands, for the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
