Titus 2

For: the household counsel is grounded in an appearing. The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. Wesley: the saving grace of God—so it is in its nature, tendency, and design—has appeared to all men, high and low. “All” is not a cipher for a secret few.

The note struck is a sincere universal saving appearance. Grace has come in Christ for every person; the ranks just named, including bondservants, are not a footnote to a narrower offer. The gospel that adorns a slave’s fidelity (vv. 9–10) is the same gospel held out to the master. Flattening “all men” into “all the elect” would empty the “for” that Paul just used to lift the low.

Calvin: bringing salvation to all men is expressly testified on account of the slaves of whom he had spoken. Yet he does not mean individual men, but rather describes individual classes, or various ranks of life. “All” here is all kinds: high and low, slave and free, not every person taken one by one.

Reformed commentators hear a gospel that has appeared without fencing off ranks, while actual salvation remains God’s effectual work among the elect. The verse fuels a wide proclamation—including to those in bondage—without requiring that grace savingly appear for every individual. Do not flatten “all”; do not, on this reading, turn it into a frustrated wish that every person be saved.

That grace trains us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. Wesley: instructing us—all who do not reject it. The training is moral and present; it is not a ticket postponed to heaven.

The same grace that appeared for all now instructs those who do not refuse it. Training is resistible; ungodliness can be clung to. Holiness is not optional decoration on a finished ticket. Those who receive the appearing are taught to say no, and they must actually say it.

Grace not only appears; it trains. Renouncing ungodliness and living self-controlled, upright, and godly lives is the curriculum of the salvation just named. The present age is the classroom.

This training is the Spirit’s work in those actually saved, not a bare offer left to chance. God effectually teaches His people to renounce what He has redeemed them from. The command is earnest; the power is His. Worldly passions are not the leftover liberty of the justified.

The first appearing (v. 11) trains; the second appearing is hope. Wesley’s saving grace already come does not cancel longing for the glory still to come.

Hope is for those who do not reject the grace that appeared. The title is high: our great God and Savior. Both camps can confess the deity and saving office of Jesus here without a fight. The wait is active holiness (v. 12), not idle speculation.

Blessed hope is the appearing of Jesus Christ, named our great God and Savior. The church lives between two appearings: grace already come, glory not yet.

Those He has purified as His people (v. 14) wait for a hope God will not fail. The Christ who appeared in grace will appear in glory. Confession of His deity and saving name is common ground; the wait belongs to the people He actually redeems.

Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. Wesley: He gave himself for us to die in our stead; that he might redeem us—miserable bondslaves—from the power and the very being, as from the guilt, of all our sins. Do not ignore “a people for his own possession”: the people are those who do not reject the grace that appeared for all (vv. 11–12).

Classical Arminians keep both clauses. The gift of Himself is sincerely for us as humankind under the appearing of v. 11; the purified people are those who respond and are actually redeemed from lawlessness. Zeal for good works is the mark of that people, not a second savior. Possession is not imaginary; it is the possession of a willing people grace has trained, not a secret list that empties “all men.”

Calvin: who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from the bondage of sin, and purchase us to himself as his heritage. A peculiar people, zealous of good works. “Us” and “a people for his own possession” name a particular people effectually gathered, not a potential crowd.

Do not flatten “all” in v. 11, and do not ignore this verse. The self-giving actually redeems and actually purifies a people for His possession. Zeal for good works is fruit of that purchase. The appearing was as wide as every rank; the possession is the elect He bought and cleanses. Heritage language is Calvin’s way of saying the people are His, not merely invited.

Say these things and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one despise you. The gospel of appearing grace, and the household life that matches it, are not suggestions. Titus is young (v. 7); he is still not to be ignored.

Declaration is a means of grace for hearers who can still receive or refuse. Authority here is the apostolic gospel, not a personality. Exhortation and rebuke belong together because the same people need both comfort and a holy sting.

These things—the appearing, the training, the possessed people—must be declared with authority. Exhort and rebuke: the same Word gathers and corrects. Let no one despise you.

God uses a charged mouth as a means. The authority is Christ’s in the gospel, not Titus’s age or force of will. A disregarded minister often means a disregarded Savior; the church is not free to treat this doctrine as optional color on an already settled life.