Titus 2:14-15

Titus 2:14-15

14  who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.  15  These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

Verse 14

who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. 

who gave Himself

This is obviously pointing back to Christ's great sacrifice on the Cross.  Paul essentially lets the gospel out here, letting everyone know why we are waiting for the appearance of His glory.  We can wait in eager expectation of that time because we are purified by His Blood, by HIS action and by HIS sacrifice alone.  There is no other way that we would have anything but fear and guilt at his next coming.  Furthermore this is why unbelievers can take such great fear and so loath the idea of Jesus' return, because while we will be saved out of pain, and forever out of sin and death.  They, however, will be caught in sin and death and, like a burglar when the lights are flipped on, they will be caught red handed and with no excuse.

Redeem

Paul is putting the substitutionary nature of Christ's death in view here.  Earlier he says that Christ gave Himself FOR US, and here we find the word “redeem” to describe what that “giving” achieved.  This word, in Greek, means to pay a ransom, or to pay the price to free a slave or someone being held captive.  It tells about how Christ's sacrifice is the one currency that could pay the debt of sin and death that was counted against us.  This is very serious, and a very graphic word image telling us about the nature of our salvation in Christ and in Christ alone.

every lawless deed

This could more succinctly be translated “all lawlessness.”  It is important that Paul does not make a distinction here between when those acts of lawlessness were committed, whether before of after the believer becomes saved.  It is also important that he puts NO LIMITS on this forgiveness.  We attach different levels to our sins thinking this one is more sinful, or worse, than that one.  However, in Christ all sins are forgiven.  Christ's death, we find, is sufficient for every sin, every lawless act.  This is a great blessing and should be a relief to us all, as we cannot exhaust God's great grace.

to purify

The most important thing to realize is who is doing the purifying.  If we think we are to be doing the purifying we could drive ourselves to madness trying to “do salvation ourselves.”  This however is not what either the Greek or the English Grammar tries to convey to us.  Christ is the one who can purify us, further more He is the ONLY one who can purify us.  Even if we could suddenly stop sinning now and never sin again we would need to be purified from the sins we have committed before, and from our association with Adam.  But we see here that it is Christ and Christ alone that purifies.  In our position God looks at us and sees only the righteousness of Christ.  However, when we are called up to Him in Glory we will find ourselves purified fully and no longer afflicted by our Sin Nature, we will be forever free of it!  Praise the Lord!

for Himself

Paul also tells us why He has redeemed us.  He didn't do it for our sake, of just to be nice to us.  He has purified us for Himself, because he so much desires fellowship with us.  He wants us to take up the places before Him bringing Him glory, honor and praise forever and ever.  Whenever you wonder why you were saved realize that you were saved because God wanted to save you, not because you so badly wanted to be saved.  And nothing that God wants will fail, nothing that God has willed in your life can fall apart at the seams.

people for His own possession

Do you realize who's you are?  Who's possession you are?  We often here the phrase: “He is his own man!”  Or, in defense of someone's individuality they will say:  “I am my own person!”  However, this is not what the Bible teaches.  Here we see that God saved us, for His own glory, and for his own pleasure (Eph. 1:5,9), and such that we would be HIS possessions.  We find ourselves freed, but also belonging to Him who saved us.  What would it take for us, and what would be the result, if we truly based our self-perception on this fact?  How would we go about our day differently if we allowed ourselves to realize that our hands are not our own, but rather His?  How would we feel when attacked when we think that we are God's possessions?  How should we then live?

zealous for good deeds

Notice, it doesn't say “doing good deeds” or “willing to do good deeds” but “zealous for good deeds.”  Out of our own strength we could do good things, but it is only out of Christ's life in us that we can be truly, deeply zealous and passionate about doing good things!

Verse 15

These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

These things

This is a translation of the Greek word tauta.  Here it means everything that has come before it, all of the commands and the truth that has been given to him by the Holy Spirit through Paul.  Paul is about to charge Titus with his task.  This is not some simple issue where he is let off the hook, Paul sent Titus because he knew that he could get the job done, and he expected him to bring the truth to these people regardless of whose feelings were hurt, or who had to change their minds about what the faith is all about.

Speak

This word is the usual word for speak, however it is in the present imperative.  So it is a command.  In English commands usually involve leaving off the subject, ie: “Let the dog out!” or “Hand me that book.”  We can soften it with a “please” if we want to be more polite but it is essentially a command that is being uttered.  It is the same thing with these words here.  Paul is not suggesting that he should speak these things, but rather he is commanding him to speak these things.  Furthermore the present tense here give the sense of “right now and continuing.  So Titus is being urged to continually be speaking, even continually repeating these commands.

Exhort

This word translated “exhort” here is a word that can also be translated “council.”  So it means that he is to be speaking the commands and word that Paul has told him, as well as giving them wise council to apply and obey every word of it.  It was not simply to fall on deaf ears, nor simply to be accepted as abstract doctrine but he was to exhort them to live by it and follow the full Word of God.

 Reprove

This word “reprove” can also be translated “rebuke.”  It is definitely the most extreme of the three imperatives that Titus is given here.  This is not just to gently steer away from bad doctrine, or to “just let things slide” as so many pastors and elders do.  This is a serious and strict command.  It is strange that we are so ready to accept commands to love and forgive by so slow to hear these commands from the same source to correct, reprove and rebuke.  We find here that Titus is to be ready to reprove and remove bad doctrine.  He is not to tolerate or cater to bad doctrine, nor is he to make exceptions to bad doctrine because someone has some talent to offer the Church.  Here again we see that the elders aren't supposed to be “professional nice-guys” but strong, level-headed men of God who know the Word and are able and willing to spot bad teachings and bad theology that may be going around the church.

all authority

This Greek word is a powerful and forceful word.  It is not something thrown around lightly, but has the idea of someone giving orders as a military superior.  And as in the case of a military leader commands and decisions are not to be questioned, nor to be refused.  Surely, as a believer and as a responsible Christian leader Titus would have taught them with love and compassion, but at the same time, he was NEVER to water down the message that he had to give, nor was he to compromise that message.  We must remember that Titus was not preaching, or teaching, or working here under his own authority, but under God's authority.  So obviously he was not about to teach in any wishy washy way about the truth of God!

disregard you

“Disregard” here is translating  a word that would literally be translated “think around you” or “think beyond you.”  It has the idea of someone who would write off Titus as not being talented enough, or old enough or something that would disqualify him from having the authority that comes only from having the Word of God as his guidance.  This is essentially a warning against letting the scheming, plotting types have a foothold and destroy the church from the inside out by plotting against the Spiritual leadership that has been set up by proper Biblical authority.