Homily 5 — Titus 2, verse 11, to 3, verse 7

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly cravings, we should live self-controlled, righteous, and godly lives in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all wrongdoing and purify for himself a people of his own, zealous for good works.” [a]

He has demanded so great a virtue from slaves — for it is a great virtue to adorn the teaching of our God and Savior in all things — and has charged them to give their masters no cause for offense even in ordinary matters. Now he adds the reason why slaves ought to be like this: “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared.” Those who have God for their Teacher may well be such as I have described, since their countless sins have been forgiven them. For you know that, besides everything else, this humbles the soul and fills it with awe to no ordinary degree: when it had countless sins to answer for, it did not receive punishment, but obtained pardon and endless favors. Suppose a man’s slave had committed many offenses, and instead of flogging him with straps, the master pardoned him for all of them, asked only that he give an account of his conduct from then on, told him to beware of falling into the same faults again, and heaped high favors on him. Who, do you think, would not be overcome on hearing of such kindness? But do not think that grace stops at pardoning past sins. It also guards us against them in the future, for this too is grace. If God were never to punish those who go on doing wrong, this would not be grace so much as encouragement to evil and wickedness.

“For the grace of God,” he says, “has appeared, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly cravings, we should live self-controlled, righteous, and godly lives in the present world, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” See how he places virtue side by side with the rewards. And this too is grace: to set us free from the things of this world 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. [c]

“That, denying ungodliness,” he says, “and worldly cravings.” Here you see the foundation of all virtue. He did not say “avoiding,” but “denying.” Denying implies the greatest distance, the greatest hatred and loathing. With as much resolve and zeal as they turned away from idols, with just as much let them turn away from vice itself and from worldly cravings. For these too are idols — worldly cravings, and greed, which he calls idolatry. Whatever is of use for the present life is a worldly craving; whatever perishes with the present life is a worldly craving. Let us, then, have nothing to do with these. Christ came “that we should deny ungodliness.”

Ungodliness has to do with beliefs; worldly cravings, with a wicked life. “And should live self-controlled, righteous, and godly lives in the present world.” [d]

Do you see what I am always saying? Self-control does not mean only keeping away from sexual immorality; we must also be free from the other passions. So the man who loves wealth is not self-controlled. For as the sexually immoral man loves women, so the other loves money — and loves it even more beyond all measure, since he is not driven by so strong a passion. And surely the charioteer who cannot manage a gentle horse is a feebler one than he who cannot hold back a wild and unruly one. “What then? Is the love of wealth weaker than the love of women?” That is plain for many reasons. In the first place, lust springs from a necessity of nature, and what arises from this necessity must be hard to restrain, since it is planted in our nature. Secondly, the ancients paid no regard to wealth, but they paid great regard to women, where their chastity was concerned. No one blamed the man who lived with his wife according to the law, even into old age; but everyone blamed the man who hoarded money. And many of the pagan philosophers despised money, but none of them was indifferent to women. So this passion is the more imperious of the two.

But since we are speaking to the church, let us not take our examples from the pagans, but from the Scriptures. The blessed Paul puts this almost in the rank of a command: “If we have food and clothing, let us be content with these” (First Timothy 6, verse 8). But about women he says, “Do not deprive one another, except by agreement,” and “come together again” (First Corinthians 7, verse 5). You see him often laying down rules for lawful intercourse. He permits this desire to be satisfied, allows a second marriage, gives the matter much careful thought, and never punishes anyone on account of it. But everywhere he condemns the man who is fond of money. Christ too often commanded us to avoid the corruption that wealth brings, but about keeping away from a wife he says nothing. Listen to what he says about money: “Whoever does not give up all that he has” (Luke 14, verse 33). But nowhere does he say, “Whoever does not give up his wife,” for he knew how imperious that passion is. And the blessed Paul says, “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled” (Hebrews 13, verse 4); but nowhere has he said that the care of riches is honorable — quite the reverse. So he says to Timothy, “Those who want to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful cravings” (First Timothy 6, verse 9). He does not say, “those who are greedy,” but, “those who want to be rich.”

And so that you may learn the truth of this matter from ordinary experience, it must be put to you in general terms. If a man were stripped of his money once and for all, he would no longer be tormented by the desire for it, for nothing breeds the desire for wealth so much as having it. But it is not so with lust. Many who have been made eunuchs have not been freed from the flame that burned within them, for the desire resides in other organs and is seated deep within our nature. Why do I say this? Because the greedy man has less self-control than the sexually immoral man, since he gives way to a weaker passion. Indeed, greed comes less from passion than from meanness of spirit. But lust is natural, so that if a man does not go near a woman, nature does its own part and its own work. In the case of greed there is nothing of the kind. [f]

“That we should live godly lives in this present world.” And what is this hope? What is the reward of our labors?

“Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing.” For nothing is more blessed or more longed for than that appearing. Words cannot describe it; its blessings are beyond our understanding. [g]

“Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior.” Where are those who say that the Son is inferior to the Father? “Our great God and Savior.” He saved us when we were enemies. What will he not do, then, when he finds us proven? “The great God.” When Paul says “great” of God, he does not say it by comparison but absolutely, as of one next to whom no one is great. For “great” by comparison is relative, and if it were relative, he would be great by comparison and not great by nature. But as it is, he is great beyond all comparison.

Verse 14: “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all wrongdoing and purify for himself a people of his own.” “A people of his own”: that is, chosen out from the rest, and having nothing in common with them. “Zealous for good works.” Do you see that our part is needed? Not just works, but “zealous”: we must press on in virtue with all eagerness and fitting earnestness. When we were weighed down with evils and sick beyond cure, it was his love for humankind that set us free. But what follows after that is our part as well as his.

Verse 15: “Speak these things, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority.” “Speak these things and exhort.” Do you see how he charged Timothy? “Reprove, rebuke, exhort.” But here it is, “Rebuke with all authority.” For the character of this people was more stubborn, and so he orders them to be rebuked more sharply, and with all authority. There are some sins that ought to be checked by command. We may use persuasion when we advise people to despise riches, to be gentle, and the like. But the adulterer, the sexually immoral man, the swindler must be brought to a better course by command. And those who are given over to soothsaying and divination and the like should be corrected “with all authority.” Notice how he wants him to insist on these things independently and with complete freedom of speech. [i]

“Let no one look down on you.” Then chapter 3, verse 1: “Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey magistrates, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, not to be quarrelsome.” “What then? Even when people do evil, may we not abuse them?” No: “to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one.” Listen to the exhortation: “To speak evil of no one.” Our lips should be kept clean of abuse. If our accusations are true, it is not for us to speak them, but for the Judge to look into the matter. “Why,” he says, “do you judge your brother?” (Romans 14, verse 10). And if they are not true, how great the fire!

Listen to what the thief says to his fellow thief: “For we are under the same sentence” (Luke 23, verse 40). We are running the same risk. If you abuse others, you will soon fall into the same sins. That is why the blessed Paul warns us, “Let the one who stands take care that he does not fall” (First Corinthians 10, verse 12). [j]

“Not to be quarrelsome, but considerate, showing all gentleness to all people.” To Greeks and Jews, to the wicked and the evil. When he says, “Let the one who stands take care that he does not fall,” he stirs up their fear from what lies ahead. But here, on the contrary, he urges them on from what lies behind, and he does the same in what follows. Verse 3: “For we ourselves were also once foolish.” He does the same thing in his letter to the Galatians, where he says, “So we too, when we were children, were enslaved under the elements of the world” (Galatians 4, verse 3). So he is saying: Abuse no one, for you yourself were once like that. “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various cravings and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.”

So we ought to be like this toward everyone: kindly disposed. The one who was once in such a state and has been set free from it ought not to reproach others, but to pray, and to give thanks to the one who has granted deliverance from such evils both to him and to them. Let no one boast, for all have sinned. If, then, you are doing well yourself and are inclined to abuse others, consider your own former life and the uncertainty of the future, and hold back your anger. Even if you have lived virtuously from your earliest youth, you may still have many sins. And if you have none, as you think, consider that this is not the result of your own virtue, but of the grace of God. For if he had not called your forefathers, you would have been disobedient. See how he names every kind of wickedness here. How many things has God not arranged, through the prophets and by every other means? Have we listened? [l]

“For we,” he says, “were once led astray.” Verse 4: “But when the kindness and love for humankind of God our Savior appeared.” How? “Not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

Amazing! How were we so drowned in wickedness that we could not be cleansed, but needed a new birth? For that is what “new birth” implies. When a house is falling into ruin, no one puts props under it or adds anything to the old building; he pulls it down to its foundations and builds it again new. So in our case, God has not repaired us, but has made us anew. For this is “the renewing of the Holy Spirit.” He has made us new people. How? “By his Spirit.” And to show this further, he adds, Verse 6: “Whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” So we need the Spirit richly. [n]

“That, being counted righteous by his grace” — again by grace, and not as something owed — “we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” At the same time this spurs us to humility and gives us hope for the future. If, when we were so far gone that we had to be born again, to be saved by grace, with nothing good in us — if even then he saved us, much more will he save us in the world to come.

For nothing was worse than the savagery of humankind before Christ came. People were all disposed toward one another as enemies at war. Fathers killed their own sons, and mothers raged madly against their children. There was no settled order, no natural law, no written law; everything was turned upside down. There were constant adulteries and murders, and things worse than murders, if that is possible, and thefts. Indeed, one of the pagan writers tells us that this practice was counted a mark of virtue. And no wonder, since they worshiped a god of that character. Their oracles often required them to put such and such people to death. Let me tell you one of the stories of that time. A certain Androgeus, the son of Minos, came to Athens and won a victory in wrestling, and for this he was punished and put to death. So Apollo, curing one evil with another, ordered twice seven youths to be put to death on his account. What could be more savage than this tyrannical command? And it was carried out, too. A man took it upon himself to appease the mad rage of the demon, and killed these young men, because the deceit of the oracle prevailed with them. But later, when the young men resisted and defended themselves, it was no longer done. Now if it had been just, it ought not to have been stopped; but if it was unjust, as it certainly was, it ought never to have been commanded at all. [o]

Then, they worshiped boxers and wrestlers. They waged war after war without end, city against city, village against village, house against house. They were given over to lust for boys. One of their wise men even made a law that slaves were not to be allowed sexual relations with boys, nor to oil themselves for wrestling, as though it were an honorable thing; and they had houses for this purpose, where it was practiced openly. If everything done among them were told, it would be seen that they openly outraged nature, and there was no one to restrain them. Then, their plays were full of adultery, indecency and every kind of corruption. Women were admitted to watch at their indecent night gatherings. There one saw the abomination of a virgin sitting in the theater at night, in the midst of a drunken crowd of young men reveling wildly. The festival itself was the darkness, and the abominable deeds they practiced in it. That is why he says, “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various cravings and pleasures.” One man loved his stepmother; a woman loved her stepson, and hanged herself because of it. [q]

As for their passion for boys, whom they called their “darlings,” it is not fit to be spoken of. 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 they worshiped did not prevent it, but allowed this outrage against nature to be committed — and that though she was a woman of high rank. Now if those who might have been expected to hold to virtue, if for no other reason, at least for the sake of their reputation with the crowd — if they rushed headlong into vice like this, how are we to suppose the greater part lived, who lived in obscurity? What pleasure takes more forms than this one? The wife of a certain man fell in love with another, and with her lover’s help she killed her husband when he came home. Most of you probably know the story. The murdered man’s son killed the adulterer, and after him his own mother; then he himself went mad and was hounded by the Furies. After this the madman killed another man and took his wife. What could be worse than calamities like these? I mention these examples taken from the pagans for this purpose: to convince the pagans of the evils that prevailed in the world then. But we can show the same from our own writings. For it is said, “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons” (Psalm 106, verse 37). Again, the people of Sodom were destroyed for no other reason than their unnatural appetites. And soon after Christ came, did not a king’s daughter dance at a banquet before drunken men, and ask as the reward for her dancing the murder and the head of a prophet? “Who can tell the mighty acts of the Lord?” (Psalm 106, verse 2). [s]

“Hateful,” he says, “and hating one another.” For when we let every pleasure loose on the soul, there is bound to be much hatred. Where love goes with virtue, no one takes advantage of another in anything. Notice, too, what Paul says: “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate men, nor men who lie with men, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you” (First Corinthians 6, verses 9 and 10). Do you see how every kind of wickedness held sway? It was a state of thick darkness and the corruption of all that was right. For if those who had the advantage of the prophecies, and who saw so many evils brought on their enemies and even on themselves, still did not restrain themselves but committed countless senseless crimes, what would be the case with the rest? One of their lawgivers ordered that virgins should wrestle naked in the presence of men. Bless you all, that you cannot bear even to hear it mentioned! Yet their philosophers were not ashamed of the thing itself. Another, the chief of their philosophers, approves of women going out to war and of their being held in common, as though he were a pimp and procurer for men’s lusts. [v]

“Living in malice and envy.” If those who professed philosophy among them made such laws, what are we to say of those who were not philosophers? If such were the teachings of those who wore long beards and put on the solemn cloak, what can be said of the rest? Woman was not made for this, my friend — to be prostituted as common property. You who overturn all decency, who use men as if they were women, and lead women out to war as if they were men! This is the work of the devil: to overturn and confound everything, to leap over the boundaries set from the beginning, and to remove those God has fixed for nature. For God assigned to woman the care of the house only, and to man the conduct of public affairs. But you bring the head down to the feet, and raise the feet to the head. You let women bear arms, and you are not ashamed. But why do I mention these things? They bring onto the stage a woman who murders her own children, and they are not ashamed to stuff men’s ears with such abominable stories. [w]

Verse 4: “But when the kindness and love for humankind of God our Savior appeared, not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being counted righteous by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” [x]

What does “according to the hope” mean? That as we have hoped, so we will enjoy eternal life; or else, that you are already heirs even now. “This is a trustworthy saying.” Because he had been speaking of things to come and not of the present, he adds that it is worthy of belief. These things are true, he says, and this is plain from what has gone before. For the one who has set us free from such a state of wrongdoing and from so many evils will surely give us the good things to come, if we remain in grace. For it all comes from the same loving care.

So let us give thanks to God, and not abuse them or accuse them. Rather, let us plead with them, pray for them, counsel and advise them, even if they insult us and spurn us. For that is how the sick behave. But those who care about the health of such people do everything and bear everything, even if it does no good, so that they will have no negligence to accuse themselves of. Do you not know how often, when a physician gives up hope for a sick man, some relative standing by says to him: “Keep on attending him; leave nothing undone, so that I will have nothing to accuse myself of, and may incur no blame and no self-reproach.” Do you not see the great care close relatives take of their kin, how much they do for them, begging the physicians to cure them and sitting beside them without giving up? Let us at least imitate them. And yet there is no comparison between the things we care for.

If someone had a son sick in body, he would not refuse to make a long journey to free him from his illness. But when the soul is in a bad state, no one troubles himself about it. We are all lazy, all careless, all negligent, and we neglect our wives, our children and ourselves when this dangerous disease attacks. But when it is too late, we become aware of it. Think how shameful and absurd it is to say afterward: “We never looked for this; we never expected that this would be how it ended.” And it is no less dangerous than shameful. If in this present life it is the mark of fools to make no provision for the future, much more is it so with the next life, when we hear many advising us and telling us what is to be done and what is not to be done. Let us, then, hold fast to that hope. Let us take care for our salvation. Let us call on God in everything, so that he may stretch out his hand to us. How long will you be lazy? How long negligent? How long will we be careless of ourselves and of our fellow servants? He has poured out on us richly the grace of his Spirit. So let us consider how great the grace is that he has given us, and let us show as great an earnestness ourselves — or, since that is not possible, at least some, even if it is less. For if after this grace we are without feeling, our punishment will be the heavier. “If I had not come and spoken to them,” he says, “they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin” (John 15, verse 22). But may that never be said of us! May God grant that we may all be counted worthy of the blessings promised to those who have loved him, in Jesus Christ our Lord, with whom to the Father be glory, with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen. [y]