Titus 2:13-15
Titus 2:13
"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great
God and our Savior Jesus Christ;"
"looking": (prosdecomai). This verb means "to receive"
or "to expect to receive".
This word was used for receiving a gift, or receiving a guest into a household.
In every case, that which is received is a benefit or pleasure. Therefore,
this word has come to mean "to wait for something with keen anticipation."
Every believer looks forward to a time when he will have perfect environment,
a perfect body, perfect happiness. A Christian's present condition may be
one of frustration, unhappiness in details of life, suffering; yet the Lord
will return and there is heaven over the horizon.
"blessed": (makarias), "happiness".
This is the New Testament word for Joy, the happiness which is God provides,
the fruit of the Holy Spirit, a happiness which does not depend on circumstances,
people, or things.
Happiness is freedom from mental attitude sins, freedom from misery, freedom
from neurosis and psychosis, mastery of details of life, and the accompaniment
to many other benefits of the Christian life.
"hope": (elpis), "confident expectation".
The Christian's assurance is based on known facts concerning the future.
Heb. 11:1; Titus 1:2.
Topic: HOPE
"and the glorious appearance": The KJV renders "glory"
as an adjective, but in the Greek it is a noun. The word "glory"
is (doksa), used throughout the NT to refer to the perfect character of
God, or Christ, in this case.
The word "appearance" is (epifaneia) (English: epiphany), and
refers to the second coming of Christ at the end of this present age.
The translation, then, is "the appearance of the glory" [which
the NASB gives], which is the substance of our keen anticipation.
"of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ": a total description
of the joining of deity and humanity in Christ. The words "God"
and "Christ" refer to the deity of Christ. The words "Savior"
and "Jesus" refer to his humanity.
So there is a time coming when all believers will be totally happy in every
respect, when Jesus Christ will appear.
Topic: RAPTURE
Titus 2:14
"Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity,
and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."
"Who gave himself for us"
The relative pronoun "who" refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. The
verb "gave" (didomi) refers to a point in time when Christ provided
salvation, the time of His death on the Cross.
The active voice means that Christ took this action upon Himself. That is,
God the Father did not sacrifice the Son without Christ's being willing
to go through with it. In the Garden of Gethsemane Christ said, "Not
my will, but thine be done."
"for us"
This is a phrase indicating that Christ was our substitute on the Cross.
He paid our ransom price, to buy us out of the slave market of sin.
"that he might redeem us", or "For the purpose of" redeeming
us.
Redeem is (lutrow), which means "to release for ransom; to deliver
or set free for ransom".
Topic: REDEMPTION
"from all iniquity"
Iniquity is lawlessness. The source of lawlessness is the Sin Nature which
we received as a result of spiritual death, at the time the fall of the
human race with Adam. We practice lawlessness when we commit personal sin.
But we have been redeemed from that bondage. "Shall we sin the more
than grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin abide
any longer therein."
"and purify unto himself" (katharadzw). "to purify; to cleanse"
An English cognate is "catharsis".
Refers to ceremonial or religious or moral purification. It was also used
in Greek to refer to healing from a disease which was considered hopeless,
such as leprosy (Mt. 8:2,3; 10:8).
In this passage the word refers to cleansing at the point of salvation and
at times during the believer's lifetime when he confesses his sins and is
"cleansed from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
Topic: PURITY
READ Heb. 9:11-23; 1 John 1:6-10.
The subjunctive mood indicates that purification is potential and conditional
upon the faith of the individual in the work of Christ on the cross.
READ James 4:4-8. Positional purification is to be followed by temporal,
or experiential, purification.
It is very important to compare the very similar idea of cleansing in Ephesians
5:25-27.
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church,
and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the
washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious
church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should
be holy and without blemish"
Jesus Christ died for us to remove us from the sphere of "all iniquity",
in order to put us through a cleansing process. This verse in Titus says
that He did it if "for himself". The Ephesians passage shows that
He intends to present a spotless, pure church to Himself.
And the mechanics of the cleansing process are indicated in Ephesians -
"by the washing of water by the word..." Notice also that in Titus
3:5, regeneration is said to be a washing process.
The words "washing", "cleansing", "purifying"
indicate some of the most important teaching of the Christian way of life,
in terms of a Christian's actual walk with the Lord.
And there is a direct relationship between New Testament teaching about
purification and the Old Testament Jewish rituals of sacrifice, cleansing,
and purification that took place on a daily basis in the tabernacle and
the temple. It is imperative that a Christian understand these principles
from the Word of God, and be able to correlate the Old and New Testament
teachings so that they have a single message.
"a peculiar people"
The word "peculiar" means "something that belongs to an individual
as distinct from others", or "distinguished in nature, character,
attributes from others". This is the meaning chosen by the KJV translators
here.
A sect in England from 1838 into the early 20th Cent. was called The Peculiar
People, or Plumstead's Peculiars. The assembled mostly in London. They had
no preachers, no creeds, no ordinances, no church organization. The rejected
medical aid or medicine, relying entirely on prayer for healing.
An evangelical group at Oxford University in about 1839 was derisively called
"The Peculiars", although they were not of that sect.
"zealous of good works." (zeiloteis), "fanatical" for
"honorable works"
i.e., gold, silver, precious stones - divine good; the works which God has
"before ordained that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-10
states that good works are expected as a result of the salvation received
by grace.
Titus 2:15
"These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let
no man despise thee."
This verse is a continuation from verse 1, verses 2 to 14 having been parenthetical.
"These things" refers to the sound doctrine which Titus was commanded
to speak. And the rest of chapter 2 provides illustrations of the type of
teaching that is to be done.
"speak" the present active imperative of (lalew).
This is a continuous action imperative of the Greek verb. Titus's orders
are to keep on communicating Bible truth in order to straighten out the
problems on Crete. The content of his teaching is to be "these things".
In fact, these three verbs are all imperatives, commands to speak, exhort,
rebuke.
"exhort", (parakalew) "to comfort; to admonish"
Here is one of the key words of the Christian experience. The Holy Spirit
is called the Paraclete, because He comforts, and He admonishes and convicts
of sin.
Christians are commanded to "exhort" one another. Sometimes that
calls for a comforting ministry, and sometimes it calls for straight talk.
In this verse, it is the meaning "admonish" that is meant. The
Greek scholars say that this is true whenever the word (parakalew) is followed
by (elegkw) "rebuke", as it is here.
"rebuke", (elegkw), "to rebuke"
These are three approaches to making one point of doctrine.
There are several types of Christian. Some learn easily through teaching
and respond with faith as each principle is laid down.
Other require bracing, the pointed example, the warning, the admonishment.
A few require serious rebuke, amounting to a verbal slap to wake them up.
The sense of this verse is that, if speaking doesn't get the idea across
to the listeners, then move up to admonishment. And remembering that some
of the people Titus is dealing with are "gainsayers", he may have
to increase the intensity to the point of offering "rebuke".
Now this third method is not necessarily desirable, and it is the slow,
painful method of learning. But it is necessary in some cases, especially
with some believers who are already indoctrinated in some system of legalism
or emotionalism.
But we see in Titus 3:10,11 that the "heretic", who does not respond
to any teaching, must be "rejected", so rebuke is not too strong
a treatment if the alternative is to be made to leave the congregation.
Remember that it is Titus who is being commanded to "speak, exhort,
rebuke".
It takes a very discerning and advanced believer to know how to admonish
or rebuke properly. It takes experience and training, or other believers
can be blown out of the water by misguided "admonishment". A novice
believer's "rebuke" is often no more than self-righteous criticism.
"with all authority"
Titus's authority comes from God, so he can teach with dogmatic authority.
Topic: AUTHORITY
"let no man despise thee."
The verb here is (periphronew), literally "to think around". Combined
with the negative the meaning becomes "disregard", or "don't
let anyone disregard or reject what you are teaching with all authority.
This refers to anyone in the congregation. It would seem that the teacher
would find it impossible to obey this command, because there is no way he
can control the volition of all the believers in his church. While the objective
of the communication is to allow the Word to motivate the volition of the
Christians, the pastor does not have a key to turn a person's volition on
or off.
Anyone who teaches the Word of God must be as well prepared as possible
and be able to teach authoritatively. Authority, or regard, or respect,
is not a mantle one can put on. It is not a title that can be assumed.
People will listen and respond to the Word of God accurately and authoritatively
taught, because it *is* the Word of God, not the ideas of men.
That is why the emphasis in Titus is on "sound doctrine", "preaching",
so that the teacher can "exhort and convince the gainsayers".
It is the Word of God that is convincing, not the opinions, ideas, or sermonizing
of someone who just wants to hold an audience.
Summarizing the passage:
Titus 2:13, "Waiting with keen anticipation for that confidence along
with great inner happiness for the appearance of the glory of the great
God and our Savior Jesus Christ"
Titus 2:14, "Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all
iniquity and purify for himself a distinguished people zealous of good works."
Titus 2:15, "These doctrines speak, and exhort, and rebuke, with all
authority. Let no man disregard you."
|