Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Titus 2:11-14
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Homily V.
Titus ii. 11–14
“For the grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, Teaching them that,
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly, in this present world; 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.”
Having demanded from servants so great virtue, for it is great virtue to
adorn the doctrine of our God and Saviour in all things, and charged
them to give no occasion of offense to their masters, even in common
matters, he adds the just cause, why servants should be such:
“For the grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath
appeared.” Those who have God for their Teacher,1493
may well be such as I have described,
seeing their numberless sins have been forgiven to them. For you know
that in addition to other considerations, this in no common degree awes
and humbles the soul, that when it had innumerable sins to answer for,
it received not punishment, but obtained pardon, and infinite favors.
For if one, whose servant had committed many offenses, instead of
scourging him with thongs, should grant him a pardon for all those, but
should require an account of his future conduct, and bid him beware of
falling into the same faults again, and should bestow high favors
upon him,
who do you think would not be overcome at hearing of such kindness? But
do not think that grace stops at the pardon of former sins—it
secures us against them in future, for this also is of grace. Since if
He were never to punish those who still do amiss, this would not be so
much grace, as encouragement to evil and wickedness.
“For the grace of
God,” he says, “hath appeared, teaching us that, denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and
godly in the present world; looking for the blessed hope, and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ.” See, how together with the rewards he places the virtue.
And this is of grace, to deliver us from worldly things, and to lead us
to Heaven. He speaks here of two appearings; for there are two; the
first of grace, the second of retribution and justice.
“That denying
ungodliness,” he says, “and worldly
lusts.”
See here the foundation of all
virtue. He has not said “avoiding,” but
“denying.” Denying implies the greatest distance, the
greatest hatred and aversion. With as much resolution and zeal as they
turned from idols, with so much let them turn from vice itself, and
worldly lusts. For these too are idols, that is, worldly lusts, and
covetousness, and this he names idolatry. Whatever things are useful
for the present life are worldly lusts,1494
whatever things perish with the present life are worldly lusts. Let us
then have nothing to do with these. Christ came, “that we should
deny ungodliness.”1495
Ungodliness
relates to doctrines, worldly lusts to a wicked life.
“And should live soberly,
righteously, and godly in the present world.”
Dost thou see, what I always
affirm, that it is not sobriety only to abstain from fornication, but
that we must be free from other passions. So then he who loves wealth
is not sober. For as the fornicator loves women, so the other loves
money, and even more inordinately, for he is not impelled by so strong
a passion. And he is certainly a more powerless1496
charioteer who cannot manage a gentle horse, than he who cannot
restrain a wild and unruly one. What then? says he, is the love of
wealth weaker than the love of women? This is manifest from many
reasons. In the first place, lust springs from the necessity of nature,
and what arises from this necessity must be difficult to restrain,
since it is implanted in our nature. Secondly, because the ancients had
no regard for wealth, but for women they had great regard, in respect
of their chastity. And no one blamed him who cohabited with his wife
according to law, even to old age, but all blamed him who hoarded
money. And many of the Heathen philosophers despised money, but none of
them were indifferent to women, so that this passion is more imperious
than the other. But since we are addressing the Church, let us not take
our examples from the Heathens, but from the Scriptures. This then the
blessed Paul places almost in the rank of a command. “Having food
and raiment, let us be therewith content.”1497
(1 Tim. vi. 8.) But concerning
women he says, “Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with
consent”—and “come together again.”
(1
Cor. vii. 5.) And you see him often laying down rules for a lawful
intercourse, and he permits the enjoyment of this desire, and allows of
a second marriage, and bestows much consideration upon the matter, and
never punishes on account of it. But he everywhere condemns him that is
fond of money. Concerning wealth also Christ often commanded that we
should avoid the corruption of it, but He says nothing about abstaining
from a wife. For hear what He says concerning money; “Whosoever
forsaketh not all that he hath” (Luke xiv. 33.); but he nowhere
says, “Whosoever forsaketh not his wife”; for he knew how
imperious that passion is. And the blessed Paul says, “Marriage
is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled” (Heb. xiii. 4.); but he has
nowhere said that the care of riches is honorable, but the reverse.
Thus he says to Timothy, “They that will be rich fall into
temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts.”
(1
Tim. vi. 9.) He says not, they that will be covetous, but, they that will be
rich.
And that you may learn from the
common notions the true state of this matter, it must be set before you
generally. If a man were once for all deprived of money, he would no
longer be tormented with the desire of it, for nothing so much causes
the desire of wealth, as the possession of it. But it is not so with
respect to lust, but many who have been made eunuchs have not been
freed from the flame that burned within them, for the desire resides in
other organs, being seated inwardly in our nature. To what purpose then
is this said? Because the covetous is more intemperate than the
fornicator, inasmuch as the former gives way to a weaker passion.
Indeed it proceeds less from passion than from baseness of mind. But
lust is natural, so that if a man does not approach a woman, nature
performs her part and operation. But there is nothing of this sort in
the case of avarice.
“That we should live godly in this present
world.”
And what is this hope? what the
reward of our labors?
“Looking for the blessed
hope and the appearing.”
For nothing is more blessed and
more desirable than that appearing. Words are not able to represent it,
the blessings thereof surpass our understanding.
“Looking for the blessed
hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour.”1498
| 1498 This is the meaning, as Middleton has shown. The English Version,
“The great God and our Saviour,” is ambiguous. |
Where are those who say that the
Son is inferior to the Father?
“Our great God and
Saviour.” He who saved us when we were enemies. What will He not
do then when He has us approved?1499
| 1499 Edd. οὐκ
εὐδοκιμοῦντας
λαβών. The order does
not admit the sense, “Seeing He received us when not
approved,” so that this would be, “how will he not punish
us if he finds us not approved;” but B. has not the negative,
which Downes had rejected. |
“The great God.”
When he says great with respect to God, he says it not comparatively
but absolutely,1500
after Whom no one is
great, since it is relative. For if it is relative, He is great by
comparison, not great by nature. But now He is incomparably
great.
Ver.
14.
“Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all
iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people.”
“Peculiar”: that is,
selected from the rest, and having nothing in common with
them.
“Zealous of good
works.”
Dost thou see that our part is
necessary, not merely works, but “zealous”; we should with
all alacrity, with a becoming earnestness, go forward in virtue. For
when we were weighed down with evils, and incurably diseased, it was of
His lovingkindness that we were delivered. But what follows after this
is our part as well as His.
Ver.
15.
“These things speak and exhort, and rebuke with all
authority.”
“These things speak and
exhort.” Do you see how he charges Timothy? “Reprove,
rebuke, exhort.” But here, “Rebuke with all
authority.” For the manners of this people were more stubborn,
wherefore he orders them to be rebuked more roughly, and with all
authority. For there are some sins, which ought to be prevented by
command. We may with persuasion advise men to despise riches, to be
meek, and the like. But the adulterer, the fornicator, the defrauder,
ought to be brought to a better course by command. And those who are
addicted to augury and divination, and the like, should be corrected
“with all authority.” Observe how he would have him insist
on these things with independence, and with entire freedom.1501
“Let no man despise
thee.” But
Chap. iii.
1.
“Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to
obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no
man, to be no brawlers.”
What then? even when men do
evil, may we not revile them? nay, but “to be ready to every good
work, to speak evil of no man.” Hear the exhortation, “To
speak evil of no man.” Our lips should be pure from reviling. For
if our reproaches are true, it is not for us to utter them, but for the
Judge to enquire into the matter. “For why,” he says,
“dost thou judge thy brother?” (Rom. xiv. 10.) But if they are
not true, how great the fire.1502
| 1502 i.e.
hereafter. See Hom. i. on Tit. i. 4, p. 522, “how great a
flame.” | Hear what the thief
says to his fellow-thief. “For we are also in the same
condemnation.” (Luke xxiii.
40.)
We are running the same hazard.1503
If thou
revilest others, thou wilt soon fall into the same sins. Therefore the
blessed Paul admonishes us: “Let him that standeth, take heed
lest he fall.” (1 Cor. x. 12.)
“To be no brawlers, but
gentle, showing all meekness unto all men.”
Unto Greeks and Jews, to the
wicked and the evil. For when he says, “Let him that standeth
take heed lest he fall,” he wakens their fears from the future;
but here, on the contrary, he exhorts them from the consideration of
the past, and the same in what follows;
Ver.
3.
“For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish.”
Thus also he does in his Epistle
to the Galatians, where he says, “Even so we, when we were
children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.”
(Gal.
iv. 4.) Therefore he says, Revile no one, for such also thou wast
thyself.
“For we ourselves also
were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and
pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one
another.”
Therefore we ought to be thus to
all, to be gently disposed. For he who was formerly in such a state,
and has been delivered from it, ought not to reproach others, but to
pray, to be thankful to Him who has granted both to him and them
deliverance from such evils. Let no one boast; for all have sinned. If
then, doing well thyself, thou art inclined to revile others, consider
thy own former life, and the uncertainty of the future, and restrain
thy anger.1504
| 1504 Colb.
and Old Lat. “impulse.” | For if thou hast lived virtuously from
thy earliest youth, yet nevertheless thou mayest have many sins; and if
thou hast not, as thou thinkest, consider that this is not the effect
of thy virtue, but of the grace of God. For if He had
not called thy forefathers, thou wouldest have been disobedient. See
here how he mentions every sort of wickedness. How many things has not
God dispensed by the Prophets and all other means? have we
heard?
“For we,” he says,
“were once deceived.”
Ver.
4.
“But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward
man appeared.” How? “Not by works of righteousness which we
have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of
regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.”
Strange! How were we drowned1505
in wickedness, so that we could not be
purified, but needed a new birth? For this is implied by
“Regeneration.” For as when a house is in a ruinous state
no one places props under it, nor makes any addition to the old
building, but pulls it down to its foundations, and rebuilds it anew;
so in our case, God has not repaired us, but has made us anew. For this
is “the renewing of the Holy Ghost.” He has made us new
men. How? “By His Spirit”; and to show this further, he
adds,
Ver.
6.
“Which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our
Saviour.”
Thus we need the Spirit
abundantly.
“That being justified by
His grace”—again by grace and not by debt—“we
may be made heirs according to the hope of eternal
life.”
At the same time there is an
incitement to humility, and a hope for the future. For if when we were
so abandoned, as to require to be born again, to be saved by grace, to
have no good in us, if then He saved us, much more will He save us in
the world to come.
For nothing was worse than the
brutality of mankind before the coming of Christ. They were all
affected towards each other as if enemies and at war. Fathers slew
their own sons, and mothers were mad against their children. There was
no order settled, no natural, no written law; everything was subverted.
There were adulteries continually, and murders, and things if possible
worse than murders, and thefts; indeed we are told by one of the
heathen, that this practice was esteemed a point of virtue. And
naturally, since they worshiped a god1506
of
such character. Their oracles frequently required them to put such and
such men to death. Let me tell you one of the stories of that time. One
Androgeus, the son of Minos, coming to Athens, obtained a victory in
wrestling, for which he was punished and put to death. Apollo
therefore, remedying one evil by another, ordered twice seven youths to
be executed on his account. What could be more savage than this
tyrannical command? And it was executed too. A man undertook to atone
the mad rage of the demon, and slew these young men, because the deceit
of the oracle prevailed with them. But afterwards, when the young men
resisted and stood upon their defense, it was no longer done. If now it
had been just, it ought not to have been prevented, but if unjust, as
undoubtedly it was, it ought not to have been commanded at all. Then
they worshiped boxers and wrestlers. They waged constant wars in
perpetual succession, city by city, village by village, house by house.
They were addicted to the love of boys, and one of their wise men made
a law that Pædrasty, as well as anointing for wrestling,1507
| 1507 Lit.
“dryly,” i.e. without the bath, as in the case of
wrestling, which was practiced by all that were free. | should not be allowed to slaves, as if it
was an honorable thing; and they had houses for this purpose, in which
it was openly practiced. And if all that was done among them was
related, it would be seen that they openly outraged nature, and there
was none to restrain them. Then their dramas were replete with
adultery, lewdness, and corruption of every sort. In their indecent
nocturnal assemblies, women were admitted to the spectacle. There was
seen the abomination of a virgin sitting in the theater during the
night, amidst a drunken multitude of young men madly reveling. The very
festival was the darkness, and the abominable deeds practiced by them.
On this account he says, “For we ourselves also were sometimes
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and
pleasures.” One man loved his stepmother,1508
| 1508 Downes may be right in taking this of Phœnix, Il. ix. 452.
What follows refers to Hippolytus, of whom Montfaucon seems to forget
that this could not be said. |
a woman her step-son, and in consequence hung herself. For as to their
passion for boys, whom they called their “Pædica,” it
is not fit to be named. And would you see a son married to his mother?
This too happened among them, and what is horrible, though it was done
in ignorance, the god whom they worshiped did not prevent it, but
permitted this outrage to nature to be committed, and that though she
was a person of distinction. And if those, who, if for no other reason,
yet for the sake of their reputation with the multitude, might have
been expected to adhere to virtue; if they rushed thus headlong into
vice, what is it likely was the conduct of the greater part, who lived
in obscurity? What is more diversified than this pleasure? The wife of
a certain one fell in love with another man, and with the help of her
adulterer, slew her husband upon his return. The greater part of you
probably know the story. The son of the murdered man killed the
adulterer, and after him his mother, then he himself became mad, and
was haunted by furies. After this the madman himself slew another man, and took his
wife. What can be worse than such calamities as these? But I mention
these instances taken from the Heathens,1509
| 1509 His
object was probably to take familiar instances; these are chiefly from
the Greek Drama. |
with this view, that I may convince the Gentiles, what evils then
prevailed in the world. But we may show the same from our own writings.
For it is said, “They sacrificed their sons and daughters unto
devils.” (Ps. cvi. 37.) Again, the Sodomites
were destroyed for no other cause than their unnatural appetites. Soon
after the coming of Christ, did not a king’s daughter dance at a
banquet in the presence of drunken men, and did she not ask as the
reward of her dancing the murder and the head of a Prophet? “Who
can utter the mighty acts of the Lord?” (Ps. vi. 2.)
“Hateful,” he says,
“and hating one another.” For it must necessarily happen,
when we let loose every pleasure on the soul, that there should be much
hatred. For where love is, with virtue, no man overreacheth another in
any matter. Mark also what Paul says, “Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers
of themselves with mankind, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you.”
(1
Cor. vi. 9, 10.) Dost thou see how every species of wickedness prevailed?
It was a state of gross darkness, and the corruption of all that was
right. For if those who had the advantage of prophecies, and who saw so
many evils inflicted upon their enemies, and even upon themselves,
nevertheless did not restrain themselves, but committed numberless
foolish crimes, what would be the case with others? One of their
lawgivers ordered that virgins should wrestle naked in the presence of
men. Many blessings on you! that ye cannot endure the mention of it;
but their philosophers were not ashamed of the actual practice.
Another, the chief of their philosophers, approves of their going out
to the war, and of their being common,1510
| 1510 This
is an unfair view of Plato’s Republic, against which, however, it
is a real objection that it sets aside a law of nature, though with
political, and not sensual views. Some have seen a great truth
allegorized in this, and it may be justly, but ordinary Greeks would be
more likely to take it as St. Chrysostom does, and Plato perhaps hints
that it would be so in practice, b. viii. init. | as
if he were a pimp and pander to their lusts.
“Living in malice and
envy.”
For if those who professed
philosophy among them made such laws, what shall we say of those who
were not philosophers? If such were the maxims of those who wore a long
beard, and assumed the grave cloak,1511
what can be
said of others? Woman was not made for this, O man, to be prostituted
as common. O ye subverters of all decency, who use men, as if they were
women, and lead out women to war, as if they were men! This is the work
of the devil, to subvert and confound all things, to overleap the
boundaries that have been appointed from the beginning, and remove
those which God has set to nature. For God assigned to woman the care
of the house only, to man the conduct of public affairs. But you reduce
the head to the feet, and raise the feet to the head. You suffer women
to bear arms, and are not ashamed. But why do I mention these things?
They introduce on the stage a woman that murders her own children, nor
are they ashamed to stuff the ears of men with such abominable
stories.
Ver.
4.
“But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards
man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration, and
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Saviour, that being justified by His grace we should
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
What means, “according to
the hope”? That, as we have hoped, so we shall enjoy eternal
life, or because ye are even already heirs.
“This is a faithful
saying.”
Because he had been speaking of
things future and not of the present, therefore he adds, that it is
worthy of credit. These things are true, he says, and this is manifest
from what has gone before. For He who has delivered us from such a
state of iniquity, and from so many evils, will assuredly impart to us
the good things to come, if we abide in grace. For all proceeds from
the same kind concern.
Moral. Let us then give thanks to God, and not revile them; nor accuse
them, but rather let us beseech them, pray for them, counsel and advise
them, though they should insult and spurn us. For such is the nature of
those who are diseased.1512
But those who are
concerned for the health of such persons do all things and bear all
things, though it may not avail, that they may not have themselves to
accuse of negligence. Know ye not that often, when a physician despairs
of a sick man, some relative standing by addresses him, “Bestow
further attendance, leave nothing undone, that I may not have to accuse
myself, that I may incur no blame,1513
no
self-reproach.” Do you not see the great care that near kinsmen
take of their relations, how much they do for them, both entreating the
physicians to cure them, and sitting perseveringly beside them? Let us
at least imitate them. And yet there is no comparison between the
objects of our concern. For if any one had a son diseased in his
body, he could not refuse to take a long journey to free him from his
disease. But when the soul is in a bad state, no one concerns himself
about it, but we all are indolent, all careless, all negligent, and
overlook our wives, our children, and ourselves, when attacked1514
by this dangerous disease. But when it is
too late, we become sensible of it. Consider how disgraceful and absurd
it is to say afterwards, “we never looked for it, we never
expected that this would be the event.” And it is no less
dangerous than disgraceful. For if in the present life it is the part
of foolish men to make no provision for the future, much more must it
be so with respect to the next life, when we hear many counseling us,
and informing us what is to be done, and what not to be done. Let us
then hold fast that hope.1515
| 1515 So
Ben. from Colb. Sav. “this care.” | Let us be careful
of our salvation, let us in all things call upon God, that He may
stretch forth His hand to us. How long will you be slothful? How long
negligent? How long shall we be careless of ourselves and of our
fellow-servants? He hath shed richly upon us the grace of His Spirit.
Let us therefore consider how great is the grace he has bestowed upon
us, and let us show as great earnestness ourselves, or, since this is
not possible, some, although it be less. For if after this grace we are
insensible, the heavier will be our punishment. “For if I,”
He says, “had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had
sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin.” (John xv.
22.)
But God forbid that this should be said of us, and grant that we may
all be thought worthy of the blessings promised to those who have loved
Him, in Jesus Christ our Lord, &c.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
