Commentary on Titus 2:11-14

This epistle reading suspends us between the appearance of the grace of God that has brought salvation to all and the “blessed hope and manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (2:11, 13) yet to come. The coming of Christ in the past heralds for us a future that is marked by hope and a sharing in divine glory! Being carried along in this in-between, we find that this salvation is experienced as a “training” in wholesome behavior (verse 12) and a “redemption” or “liberation” toward an eagerness for right living (verse 14). The coming of God means school is in session!

The verbal idea in verse 12 translated as “training” (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, English Standard Version) or “teaching” (New International Version, New King James Version) comes from the Greek verb paideuō, which reverberates with the ideas and practices of paideia, the Greek tradition of educating children in order to incorporate them into society as holistically healthy (in mind and body) and well-adjusted members. Paideia is a loaded term throughout the ancient Mediterranean context that would have resonated broadly. It is about identifying what a community values and the ways they construe and configure the world. 

Paideia is about holding up a mirror to the one receiving the instruction so they can be formed into the image of what the community wants to see among their own interactions and then in how they inhabit the broader spaces of the world. Paideia is precisely about determining what is the place of this community in broader society, where they fit, how they operate, what they can contribute, and how they can maintain this identity in the face of difference—especially when those differences draw hostility and opposition from groups and peoples who have competing values and contradictory visions for what truly matters.

Thinking about school may be the last thing we want to do during this festival season. A break from the typical drills, rhythms, schedules, and disciplines is a welcome respite for a weary pupil. Having graduated from classwork, few of us are eager to return to brow-wrinkling, finger-cramping tasks of methodical education. The shaping of young minds and the conditioning that comes along with forming productive habits is a noble work across most cultures, and yet we are often only too eager to leave that stage behind. 

Therefore, when we come to realize that learning and character-formation are never finished but in fact continue on in the cadences of our daily routines, we must stop to take stock of just how we are being formed in habit and desire. We must be aware of who the influencers are who are whispering in our ears and capturing our eyes. We must be honest about the teachers who continue to structure how we see the world and determine what is right.  

It is common to associate formal schooling with the acquiring of skills and the obtaining of information. However, we often look elsewhere for the crafting of character and the shaping of desire. 

When there is not a deliberate or intended custom for these essential identity-forming aspects, we can easily be swept up by currents that misshape us. They then erode our most cherished values while grotesque blemishes accumulate in the sediment of our personalities. Distractions slowly carve pock marks across our public- and private-facing motivations. Obsessions crane our necks, obscuring our line of sight from good and beautiful ideals. Addictions disorder our attentions and steal our most precious moments with friends and loved ones. A crippling disease affects everyone we know, and so, we cannot even imagine that there are other, healthier ways to be. 

The good news of the grace of God breaks in! Like the warm glow of piercing light into a chilling, heavy darkness, the grace of God has appeared, producing salvation for all peoples. In contrast to a miserable condition in which people are revolting to themselves and repugnant to one another, this letter heralds the salvation that is all a result of “our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us” (2:13–14). This healing re-education is rooted in a gift!

Paul characterizes the dismal human condition with a list of vices, terms whose sting may have been dulled by religious cliché: “impiety [or “ungodliness”] and worldly passions” (verse 12) and “iniquity [or “wickedness”]” (verse 14). 

The first term, asebeia, indicates actions and attitudes that show dishonor, especially to divine beings. So, in this way, being “ungodly” is not so much about being “ungodlike,” but rather about showing disrespect to a divine being and thus risking offense to the god, with all the possible ramifications of losing divine favor and suffering the consequences of divine displeasure. The opposite term, eusebeia (see use in Titus 1:1, and the adverb form later in 2:12), means the proper honoring of the god, which also indicates that one is acting appropriately with reference to the proper order of the cosmos. 

On the island of Crete, where Titus is being addressed (see 1:5), as well as throughout common Mediterranean cultures, honoring the gods was simply the right way to act and was part of ensuring that one’s life flourished socially and with the rest of creation. It comes as no surprise, then, when the vice of asebeia is associated with “lusts” (epithymia, disordered passions) and “law-violating acts” (anomia). We see here an association of a corrupted personal character and actions that violate social norms. 

However, as is common throughout the writings of the New Testament, what counts as reprehensible conduct and unacceptable interactions has been radically reformulated because these are now determined by their reference with regard to what God has done in Christ. Grace serves as the remedy for the disarray because Christ has self-sacrificially given himself for the purpose of liberating a people for himself who will be identified as enthusiasts for good deeds. “He … gave himself for us” (verse 14).

The context of divine grace, living in the divine embrace and reassured with divine favor, becomes itself the stabilizing context in which we can safely and boldly learn what it is to be whole persons and productive citizens for the benefit of all. Grace is our tutor. This contrasts with the many tacit and passive ways we surrender ourselves to tutors such as advertisements, commercials, and entertainments that tickle our fancy, and the myriad other influences that craft our desires, even when we are not self-consciously aware that this is happening. 

It is only from this posture, as those who are embraced by God‘s grace and nourished by the salvation offered in Christ, that the believing community can both distinguish itself from the world and still inhabit embodied dispositions that are directed toward the benefit of the world. Only when a redeemed community acknowledges that God wants the salvation “for all people” and desires to humbly bear witness to the invitation to share in the “blessed hope and manifesting glory,” can we identify that the training is taking root in us and the lessons are producing results consonant with the message being proclaimed in the gospel.