Titus 1:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

If, after receiving a benefaction from a friend, hearing a pleasant word from him, or receiving a good service, we become more warmly attached to him, then much more will we be zealous in obedience to God.

This happens when we see in what dangers we were, and from what dangers He delivered us.

"And the knowledge of the truth." He speaks here of truth in contrast to prefiguration. That too was knowledge and piety, but not of the truth.

In any case, it was not falsehood, but only images of the truth and likenesses of it.

The Apostle rightly said, "in hope of eternal life," because that piety was in hope of the present life. "The man who does it," Scripture says, "shall live by it" (Rom 10:5).

Do you see how, from the very opening, he shows the difference between grace and the Law? They are not the elect, but we are.

If they were once called elect, now they are no longer so.

"Which God, unchanging in His word, promised before eternal times," he says. That is, not now because of our repentance, but this was predestined from the beginning.

He affirms the same in many other places, for example, "set apart for the Gospel of God" (Rom 1:1). Again, "whom He foreknew, He also predestined" (Rom 8:29).

He indicates our nobility, namely, that God loved us not now, but from the beginning. To be loved from of old and from the beginning is no small thing.

"Which God, unchanging in His word, promised." If God does not lie, then what He promised will certainly be fulfilled. If He does not lie, we must not doubt, even if this is fulfilled only after death.

"Which God, unchanging in His word, promised before eternal times." By the words "before eternal times," the Apostle also shows the trustworthiness of the promise.

He says that this did not happen because the Jews did not turn to Him now, but that it had been marked out beforehand from of old.

"Which God, unchanging in His word, promised before eternal times." If He is unchanging, then He will undoubtedly give after death what He promised.

From of old, he says, He predestined this, and not as a result of repentance. He will give it to us not because the Jews did not turn to Him, but because it had been predestined from of old.

He loved us from eternity. That He loved us from the beginning indicates our nobility.

How else did He promise, surely promising to men who did not yet exist before eternal times, except in this way?

In His eternity and in His very Word, coeternal with Him, that which was to happen in its own time had already been predestined.

Joining a blessing to the opening, he draws it from the same source and links the name of the Son with God the Father, saying, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 1:7).

According to Bishop Theophan, the Apostle speaks as though saying: "I am an Apostle. This is what I am appointed to do: to plant faith, to dispose souls toward true piety.

I am to incline and inspire them toward both by the hope of the all-blessed life. In every epistle the Apostle repeatedly and variously mentions eternal life (Phil 3:20; 1 Cor 15:19).

Christianity in its spirit begins with detachment from the world and striving toward the eternal. It is strengthened throughout its whole course in the light of Jesus Christ.

The hope of eternal life is so essential that the Apostle did not think it superfluous to confirm it with indisputable proofs: the truthfulness of God and the fact that it enters into God's eternal plans.

Eternal life stands in the counsels of God as the initial principle and final goal of this existence of all created things."

"With God everything has its own time. The time came to reveal His hidden counsels, and He revealed them.

But He keeps these times in His own authority (Dan 1:7), as He does the very course of events. They too were appointed from eternity, and therefore are God's.

The Lord Jesus Christ, having accomplished and ordered all that was needed for receiving eternal life, sent the Apostles to call all to receive this life.

A special portion in this labor was assigned to Saint Paul, that he might call the Gentiles to participation in the inheritance of the promise.

He expressed all this in the words, 'by the preaching entrusted to me.' He considered it necessary to set this forth in order to dispose the Cretans to humble obedience to his words and to the fulfillment of his directions" (Saint John Chrysostom).

Christianity in spirit begins with detachment from everything temporal and striving toward the eternal. Then, through hopeful contemplation of this eternal life, the Christian is inspired and strengthened throughout the difficult course of following Christ the Lord.

The strength of martyrs and ascetics rested chiefly on this. The taste of our true and essential good in following Christ the Savior comes afterward. Yet it does not set aside hope in eternally blessed life, but raises it higher.

It transfers the one who hopes wholly into that age. Therefore the Apostle said επ` ελπιδι, "in hope," indicating in it the foundation both for faith and for life in the spirit of faith, or for piety.

I am, he says, an Apostle appointed for this: to plant faith, to dispose men toward true piety, and to incline and inspire them toward both by the hope of eternal and all-blessed life.

Blessed Theodoret briefly gathers all this in the following words: "The Apostle said that he was appointed so that those worthy of election might believe, know the truth of piety, and receive the hope of eternal life."

Hope in eternal life is so essential in the economy of salvation that Saint Paul did not consider it unnecessary to confirm it with incontestable arguments, even though he speaks of it as if in passing.

He confirms it by the truthfulness of God and by the fact that it enters into God's eternal plans, saying: "which God, Who cannot lie, promised before eternal times."

Saint Chrysostom says: "If God is truthful, then what He promised will undoubtedly be fulfilled. If He is truthful, then one must not doubt, even if this is fulfilled after death.

By the words, 'before eternal times,' the Apostle also proves the certainty of the promise. Thus, he says, it was predestined from of old. This was not predestined now because of our repentance, but from of old.

The Apostle says the same elsewhere, for example: 'Whom He foreknew, He also predestined' (cf. Rom 8:29). He indicates our nobility, that God loved us not now, but from of old.

To be loved from of old and from the beginning is no small thing."

All our interpreters understand the words "before eternal times" as God's pre-eternal determination. Others think it better to understand by this the times preceding Christ's coming.

In those times such a promise was spoken through the Prophets, beginning from the time of the fall of the first parents. Yet even these promises were not uttered as something new.

They were spoken because it had been so determined before all time, in the eternal counsels of God concerning the being of creatures.

The material world does not have its goal in itself. It is the arena and place in which rational creatures are appointed to be formed for eternal life.

Man was created for this life. For it he is also recreated in the Lord Jesus Christ. This was laid down in the counsel of God before the ages.

The visible world passes away. It will pass away as a means, when that which is mediated by it has been attained.

When spiritual creatures receive their proper beauty, then the world also will be transfigured in correspondence with them. It will cast off its present gross and corruptible condition.

Thus eternal life stands in the counsels of God as the first principle and final goal of the being of all that has been created. As it is impossible for God's eternal counsel to prove false, so it is impossible for the promise of eternal life not to be fulfilled.

So strong is the foundation of hope in it.