Titus 2:12, commentary and pictures

The saving grace of God has appeared to all, and it trains those who receive it to turn from ungodliness and worldly desires and to live disciplined, upright and godly lives in this present world. This means remaining in the world without sharing its ways, separate and distinct from its pride, display, pleasure-seeking and indulgence as a people purified for God. Sober living is shown in self-control of appetite and habit, in temperance, faithful conduct, good works and conversation that accords with Christ. This life belongs together with looking for the blessed hope of the appearing of Jesus Christ, who gave Himself to redeem His people from all iniquity and make them His own peculiar people eager for good works. Only God's supernatural power in Christ can effect this change, and the Spirit of Christ always produces this sober, upright and devout life, so that life is the test of every spirit.

Setting and Teaching Words

The verse belongs to Paul's message to Titus and comes directly after the charge to exhort young men to be sober-minded and for Titus himself to be a pattern of good works in uncorrupt doctrine, gravity, sincerity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned. It is part of the instruction in Titus 2:11-15 that ministers must heed in order to work circumspectly in sober-mindedness, good works, pure doctrine, and sound speech. Faithful ministers are to speak, exhort, and rebuke with authority as part of their responsibility for souls, holding fast sound doctrine and calling all who name the Lord to deny ungodliness and depart from iniquity.

The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men and teaches those it has appeared to to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. This teaching is not merely enjoining by force of command but communicating divine knowledge. The mission of Christ is to give salvation to all who will be reconciled to God.

That saving grace instructs at every step, teaching how to ascertain the will of the Lord and walk in harmony with it. This instruction is received through earnest labor and continual prayer, beginning with the fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom. It leads on to knowing the Lord aright, which is life eternal. This teaching must be known by experience through having the love of Christ in the heart in order to impart it to worn, weary souls longing for light and life and to sow the seeds of truth for eternal life. It comes through Christ, the Majesty of heaven, who clothed His divinity with humanity to stand at the head of the human race to make men and women partakers of the divine nature, giving them grace to overcome as He overcame.

The verse lays out duty plainly for young and old, rich and poor, with only one path to travel and one Saviour to serve, love, honor, and obey. It presents the standard of true Christianity, a blameless character. It must be carefully studied, not merely read, and practiced, and this gives a blameless character, soundness in the faith, and ever-increasing ability to defend and maintain the truth. It belongs to striving to win the imperishable, immortal crown of life.

The verse calls believers as believers to press together and to be aroused from sleepiness to understand the great work that is to be done. It shows the education needed for the day of trial coming as a thief in the night, training all powers to be consecrated to service. In that education youthful zeal and ardor are employed to glorify God and to do real, thorough, well-organized work to be a blessing to others.

Grace Trains Holy Life

The grace of God that brings salvation trains those to whom it has appeared to turn away from ungodliness and worldly desires and to live with self-control, righteousness, and devotion to God in the present world. That training belongs together with looking for Christ's glorious return, so that because its exact time is unknown believers live faithfully and watchfully rather than becoming careless or saying His coming is delayed. In these last days God by close and pointed truths is cutting out a people from the world and purifying them to Himself, and pride and unhealthful fashions and love of display and love of approval must be left with the world as part of that denial. This leaving is necessary to be renewed in knowledge after the image of the Creator and to become a purified peculiar people eager for good works, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of Jesus Christ who gave Himself to redeem from all iniquity.

This godly life is lived in the world without adopting its ways and without withdrawal from it. Believers remain in the present world while living distinct from it, kept from evil and sanctified by God's truth. Their godly life may bring hatred and reproach.

Through Christ's grace believers are to develop Christian character and represent Him now. They are not to wait for His coming to receive the virtue and grace needed for faithful living. That present representation is part of what the training toward self-control, righteousness, and devotion requires in this present life.

Grace calls for a changed life, not continued sin. This conduct belongs to the serious work of serving God and laboring for souls. To be taught by saving grace is therefore to reject ungodliness and worldly desires and to live with self-control, righteousness, and devotion in present life as service to God.

Denying Ungodliness and Desire

Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts means leaving pride and unhealthful fashions and the love of display and the love of approbation with the world. In these last days God by close and pointed truths is cutting out a people from the world and purifying them to Himself. This leaving is necessary to be renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created us and to become a purified peculiar people zealous of good works in preparation for Christ's return.

The same requirement of being separate and distinct from the world that rested upon ancient Israel rests upon the Israel of God in these last days. They are in constant danger of mingling with the world and losing all signs of being God's chosen people while God is purifying to Himself a peculiar people. They are warned not to provoke God as ancient Israel did by departing from Him, mingling with the world, and following the abominations of the nations around.

This separation requires leaving the Laodicean condition, reforming the home, and keeping conversation pure and elevating. Parents must be converted and let sanctification shine in clear rays, humbling themselves in repentance and confession of sin and drawing near to God. They must fear to continue in transgression while looking for the blessed hope of Christ's glorious appearing. This life requires faith and confidence in God to separate from the world, bear the cross, and obey God's commandments when convicted of the truth. It means turning from living for pleasure-loving, dancing, and amusement, which keep people from that obedience.

This teaching is special instruction to the church so that believers may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. They show their profession by modest apparel and good works and holy conduct, marked by holiness, self-denial, and good works while waiting for Christ's appearing. Living soberly includes rejecting intemperance in eating and drinking, and overeating is a form of intemperance. Attachment to coffee and tea as stimulants is a worldly lust loved like liquor because it briefly revives the mind and nervous system while worsening disorders such as dyspepsia and consumptive cough. Such appetite can be valued above health, sound judgment, conscience, and a sanctified heart, so living soberly requires giving up the habit.

Godly living includes temperance and rejecting selfish indulgence. True temperance and health reform come from Christ's grace abiding in a transformed heart. Pledges or dietary restrictions alone cannot cure a diseased appetite or make a person temperate.

Sober Righteous Godly Conduct

The sober, righteous, godly life is shown in temperance, faithful conduct, and good works, and in using the hours of life well. When truth takes hold of the soul it appears in conduct and conversation, so that life accords with the spirit of Christ. This rejecting of ungodliness and worldly desires for self-control, righteousness, and devotion to God in this present life is what God's saving grace teaches.

It is a whole sanctified life formed by looking to Jesus and taking His holiness as the pattern. The new life pledged in baptism represents redemption through daily faith in Christ and participation in the divine nature. It means denying selfish impulses and choosing steady, principled conduct, doing what is right and virtuous with duty and industry before pleasure, which brings the deepest happiness.

It describes the life that prepares people for heaven, lived soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world. It is not merely teaching God's commandments but practicing them, refusing deceit, fraud, and the covering of sin, esteeming others above themselves, and living for a heavenly country. By relying on Christ's strength and submitting thoughts and passions to Him, believers receive grace that purifies affections and sanctifies love. Living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present life requires wholehearted consecration to God, which prepares people for the great day of God. It is expressed in earnest, loving service as character is developed and the soul responds to Christ and is sanctified by truth.

Those with children under their guardianship must live this way for the good of the children, revealing the attributes of God and representing God in character in dealing with human minds. They are to give no evil example in spirit, word, or action to be reproduced in the child, and to impart no unsanctified attributes of character, wrong tendencies, or defective traits to offspring and through them to future generations. God's grace trains people to live godly lives by changing motives and character, with the Spirit working on fierce passions and defective traits to shape the soul after Christ's example. Thoughts lead to actions, repeated actions become habits, and habits form character, with the Bible to guide life in practice.

Power and Test of Grace

God's grace changes the natural disposition by subduing the desires that rule the unsanctified heart and turning a person from sin to life in Christ. This change makes the heart fit to love what is pure and holy and to enjoy heaven, without which heaven would hold no attraction. Grace does more than redeem: it works in people whom sin has debased, delivers them from suffering and the coming wrath, and makes those who give themselves to Christ subjects of His grace and agents of God's work who reveal it to others through service.

Holiness does not come from developing a power within oneself, for fallen human nature needs supernatural restoration. Only God's supernatural power in Jesus Christ through the blood of the Crucified One can break evil's hold and enable resistance to and subduing of fallen tendencies in order to live holy. Teaching that God is an essence pervading all nature and dwelling in all men makes this grace of no effect by replacing it with human self-development. Christ's grace changes people from willing captives of Satan into people who resist him, creating enmity against Satan and enabling resistance to his rule, seen when people abhor sin and conquer passions that once controlled them.

Obedience to God's law leads to this life, for God's law remains the believer's rule of life and the sinner's condemnation. Christ upheld it as resting on love to God and others, with demands reaching beyond outward actions to the thoughts, purposes, and intents of the heart. The Spirit of Christ always produces a sober, upright, and devout life in this present world, and that life is the test of every spirit by the word of God. Any spirit that does not produce it is not the Spirit of Christ but the power of Satan at work in wild movements, fanaticism, and pretended sanctification that follows human tradition while ignorant of truth. The Spirit and the word agree, with God's Spirit leading into truth in full harmony with God's law and book while the spirit of error leads away, and genuine inward piety appears in quiet heart change rather than noise.

This life of devotion and self-denial is a necessary fruit of genuine faith, made possible through Christ's grace and strength in taking up the cross and striving to overcome. The gospel refines, ennobles, and elevates its receiver as faith works through love and purifies the soul, making the believer Christlike in spirit and temper, meek and humble, sanctifying the judgment and shaping conduct so that life testifies to the power of Christ's grace. Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts through grace working on the heart is the evidence to be seen before heartily receiving anyone into the church on confession of faith, whatever their poverty, rank, tribe, nationality, name, position, or wealth. For all who are sons and daughters of God do this and live as branches of the True Vine receiving nourishment and bearing like fruit in cooperation with God, with sober, righteous, godly living meaning exercising unto godliness according to ability by walking in newness of life in daily repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hope and Peculiar People

The sober, righteous, godly life in this present world goes together with looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Because the exact time of that appearing is unknown, believers are to live faithfully and watchfully rather than become careless or say that His coming is delayed. This godly life belongs with looking forward to Christ's appearing because Christ gave Himself to redeem people from all iniquity and to purify them as His own peculiar people zealous of good works. That redemption from sin makes them His own, eager to do good.

This life of separation from the world prepares a people who belong to God and are zealous for good works. A profession of faith that is denied by actions contradicts this teaching, so accepting reproof must lead to real changes in character and conduct. The verse outlines the work of all who hold positions of responsibility, requiring that life and character undergo a process of education with heart and mind brought under God's control. Those in trust are to live in the light with righteous cheerfulness and to educate and train young men and women to be channels of light to the world, while looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of Christ who redeemed His people from iniquity to purify them zealous of good works.

People who turn from error to truth must reject ungodliness and worldly desires and live with self-control, righteousness, and devotion to God in the present evil world. This life is taught through personal work, instruction, and example. Those who learn from Christ are to receive this instruction and live accordingly.

Witness and Daily Application

Sober thinking and righteous living shape a good influence on others by reflecting heaven's atmosphere. Believers are not to live for themselves alone but to work out their salvation with reverence and to help others be saved. They are to cooperate with God in removing iniquity, to live in real relationship with Christ, and from love for God to speak of Him and lead others to the fountain of life.

The grace that brings salvation has appeared to all, and it teaches believers not to use God's blessings for selfish pleasure but to share divine knowledge with those who do not see their danger and responsibility. It teaches cleansing of the soul from all self-indulgence, pride, and vanity, and consecration of all the powers of the being to God's service in denying ungodliness and worldly lust. It teaches standing firm for pure and holy principles of right, obeying Christ and conforming the will to His will, and refusing the enemy's temptations. It teaches living with constant thanksgiving and gratitude, praising God by patience, tenderness, thoughtfulness, and eagerness to help others, working in Christ's lines to prove genuine love for Him, and faithfully and promptly realizing and improving every privilege as God's workers.

This godly life of self-control, righteousness, and devotion in this present world is part of forming character after the divine model. It is both a personal calling and a witness, for Christ's followers are to teach the truth by what they say and by how they live. Consecrated devotion makes a worker effective in God's service. God's people are distinguished from the world by reflecting His character of love, while Christ covers believers with His righteousness.

A life that practices the principles it teaches demonstrates the gospel's saving power. A Christlike example shows God's ability to restore lost self-mastery. This is connected with teaching about salvation, sin, and redemption from sin's bondage and defilement, and with instructing in self-denial and control of the passions rather than indulgence.

This teaching applies to temperance and reform, with grace to transform the whole person in body, soul, and spirit. Believers are accountable to share the light of true reform with others. Spreading temperance principles is one of the most important duties, and schools and sanitariums are to reveal this transforming grace and serve as important factors in the temperance cause. Its call to self-control applies to people in every station, including those in positions of trust and honor who risk ruin through harmful indulgences. Temperance protects physical, mental, and moral strength, and faithful stewardship turns money from harmful habits toward helping others.

Following Jesus means denying ungodliness and worldly desires and living with self-denial, sobriety, humility, holiness, and righteousness. True followers cannot take pleasure in frivolous, empty talk that reflects the spirit of the world. Those who indulge in worldly pleasure-seeking are separated from God and show themselves to be of the world rather than true followers. With the end of all things at hand, living soberly, righteously, and godly means being sober and watchful unto prayer, resisting the enemy, refusing his flattering seduction, and doing appointed work as constantly guarded sentinels strong not in finite human strength but in the Lord and the power of His might.