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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Titus 2:12 - 2:12
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12. παιδεύουσα ἡμᾶς, ἴνα κ.τ.λ., schooling us, in order that &c. This is the point of stress in the whole paragraph. The ground of the foregoing exhortations to fulfil our several duties lies here, that “the grace of God appeared … schooling (or disciplining) us” for right living. The final cause of the Revelation in Christ is not creed, but character.
ἴνα ἀρνησάμενοι τὴν ἀσέβειαν καὶ τὰς κοσμικἀς ἐπιθυμίας, in order that having denied ungodliness and worldly lusts &c. The aorist participle seems to point to a definite act of renunciation, such as is made at Baptism, which is everywhere in the N.T. contemplated as the beginning of the Christian life. It is grammatically possible to take ἀρνησάμενοι as coextensive in time with ζήσωμεν which follows, and to translate denying (as A.V. and R.V.), the continual denials of the Christian course being thus described. But a reference to the baptismal vow (see on 1Ti 6:12 and cp. 1Pe 3:21) seems to be intended. ἀσέβεια (2Ti 2:16) is, of course, the opposite of εὐσέβεια; see on 1Ti 2:2. The worldly desires which we are called on to ‘deny’ include the lusts of the flesh, but are not confined to these; ἡ ἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ ἡ ἐπιθυμία τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν καὶ ἡ ἁλαζονία τοῦ βίου are all ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου (1Jn 2:16).
σωφρόνως καὶ δικαίως καὶ εὐσεβῶς ζήσωμεν, we should live soberly and righteously and godly. The three adverbs, taken together, express the Christian ideal of life (cp. the language of the General Confession), and they are so used in the Form for Adult Baptism and also in that for the Consecration of Bishops (see above on Tit 2:7). In a rough way they may be considered as pointing respectively to our duties, to ourselves, to our neighbours, and to God, but anything like a sharp division is not to be pressed (see on ch. Tit 1:8). For σωφροσύνη see on 1Ti 2:9 and for εὐσέβεια on 1Ti 2:2.
ἐν τῷ νῦν αἰῶνι, in the present world. For this phrase see on 1Ti 6:17.