Titus 2.  God’s grace has appeared to all people, and has brought salvation (11).  It has appeared in the person of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works (13-14).  The salvation he brings is not simply legal justification, but moral transformation.

Titus is to serve as a model for that transformed community.  His works and teachings are to be so exemplary that they shame his opponents (8).  The sound doctrine he teaches should transform the lives of the whole community so that…

1. …the older men become “sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness (2),
2. … the older women become “reverent in behavior” and “teach what is good” (3),
3. … they train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands (6),
4. …the slaves become submissive to their own masters, well pleasing, and show all good faith (9-10).

Paul charges Titus to declare “these things” (15) – that is, not only the gospel part about what Christ has done for us, but also the transformation part about what grace does in us.  he is to “exhort and rebuke” when the church fails to model the transformation to their community context.

LORD, transform us by your grace that we might live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, as we wait for your appearing.