Titus 2:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For these too are idols, namely worldly desire and covetousness. He calls this also idolatry. Worldly desires are everything that benefits us only for the present life. Everything that disappears together with the present life is a worldly desire. Therefore we must have no part in it.

Christ came so that we might renounce “ungodliness.” By ungodliness he means impious teaching, and by worldly desires he means a vicious life.

“That we should live soberly, righteously, and piously in the present age.” Do you see that sobriety, as I always say, consists not only in abstaining from adultery, but also in being free from the other passions?

Consequently the covetous man is not sober. As the adulterer is attached to bodily pleasure, so the covetous man is attached to wealth. Indeed the latter is more incontinent than the former, insofar as the impulse governing him is weaker.

A rider is not considered especially weak because he cannot restrain a swift and untamed horse. Rather, he is weak if he cannot master a gentle and obedient horse. Is it really so? Is the passion for wealth weaker than the passion for bodily pleasure?

This is known to all and is evident from many things. First, the passion for bodily pleasure arises in us by necessity. Since it arises by necessity, it is restrained only with great labor, because it is implanted in us by nature.

Second, the ancients said little about the passion for wealth, but much about the passion for women, for the preservation of chastity. No one condemns a man who lives lawfully with his wife even into old age. But everyone condemns the greedy man. Even among the philosophers outside the Church, many despised wealth, but never women.

Thus this passion is stronger than that one. Yet because our word is addressed to the Church, let us bring proofs not from outside, but from the Scriptures.

Concerning covetousness, the blessed Paul speaks almost in the form of a commandment: “Having food and clothing, let us be content with these,” 1 Tim 6:8. Concerning wives he says: “Do not deprive one another, except by agreement for a time, that you may devote yourselves to fasting and prayer, and then come together again,” 1 Cor 7:5.

He often gives rules concerning lawful cohabitation. He permits this desire to be satisfied and allows a second marriage. He speaks of this matter with great care and nowhere imposes punishment for it. But everywhere he condemns those devoted to greed.

Likewise Christ often commanded concerning wealth that we flee the harm arising from it. He did not speak in the same way about abstaining from one’s wife. Hear what He says about wealth: “Whoever does not renounce all that he has,” Lk 14:33. But nowhere did He say: whoever does not renounce his wife. He knew what violence He would thereby impose.

The blessed Paul also says: “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled,” Heb 13:4. But he nowhere calls concern for wealth honorable. Rather, he says the opposite.

He writes to Timothy: “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge men into distress and destruction,” 1 Tim 6:9. He did not say, those who wish to acquire, but “those who desire to be rich.”

So that you may be convinced of this also from common judgments, we must offer such proofs as well. A man who has once lost wealth will not be troubled by passion for it, because nothing so arouses passion for wealth as possessing it.

The passion for bodily pleasure is not like this. Many, even after making themselves eunuchs, did not extinguish the inner fire that tormented them. This passion remains in the other members because it is implanted in us by nature.

Why have we said all this? To show that the covetous are more incontinent than adulterers, insofar as the passion troubling them is weaker. Most likely, in their case it does not come from passion, but from negligence toward spiritual goods.

There the desire is so natural that, even if a man does not approach a woman, nature acts and produces its own effect. Here it is not so.

Therefore Christ came so that we might renounce ungodly teachings and sinful life, hating both with equal force.

"That we should live soberly, righteously, and piously." "Soberly" means not only abstinence from fornication, but also from the other passions. If you are covetous, you are not sober, but still more incontinent, since this passion is not natural.

In general, anyone overcome by the passions is not sober.

"In the present age." This age is the arena of struggle, and the age to come is the recompense.

He also means, in general, everything impious and unworthy that they said about divine and human affairs. By "worldly passions" he means a corrupt life.

Worldly passions are love of pleasure, love of money, love of glory, and the passions that arise from them. In a word, "worldly passions" are everything material, confined to the present world, and ceasing with the present life.

What does "soberly" mean? It means not only restraining oneself from unlawful bodily intercourse, but also keeping one's very thoughts from every passion and every sin.

The word "righteously" is used in place of "virtuously." This word explains the preceding word, "soberly," and is itself explained by the following word, "piously."

Then he also points out the reward for such virtuous struggles.

Then the Apostle pauses over one action of this grace. It teaches us that, "denying ungodliness and worldly passions, we should live soberly, righteously, and piously in the present age."

This does not mean that Christianity consists only in teaching, as though Christ were only a Teacher and we Christians only His disciples.

Christianity is also redemption from sin by Christ's sacrifice. It is then a mystical union with Christ, who is the Head, while we are members of His body (Eph 5:23, 30; Col 1:18; 2:19).

This is stated in verse 14: "Who gave Himself for us, to redeem us from every iniquity." Christ does not accomplish our deliverance from sin by teaching alone, as the Tolstoyans think.

He accomplishes it also by offering Himself in sacrifice for us. By His sacrifice He reconciles us to God, so that no iniquity can separate us from God (Col 1:12-14, 20).

Yet the Apostle did not limit his depiction of Christ's work even to this. The divine Teacher and great High Priest willed Himself to be the Head of the people enlightened and redeemed by Him.

This is expressed in the Apostle's words: "to purify for Himself a special people." This people forms Christ's portion or possession, inseparably united with Him as with its Head and King.

What, then, is required in Christianity from men themselves? Can it be thought that everything has been done for them and in their place?

Is there nothing left for them but to rest, believing their salvation to be certain and inalienable, as the Pashkovites think? No. The Apostle cuts off this thought when he says: "a people zealous for good works."

By this he shows that, having learned from Christ, received redemption from Him, and placed blessed hope in Him as our King and Head, we must zealously devote ourselves to doing good works.

This is our part in our salvation. Without fulfilling it, we shall fall away from Christ and become unworthy of our calling.

The best proof of this is the passage cited above. Could the Apostle express more forcefully that the whole purpose of the divine economy, accomplished on earth by the incarnate Savior of mankind, is to introduce a new active principle into human life?

Its purpose is to reorder human life according to this new and living principle. It is not merely to calm men with a consoling hope of salvation because of His merits on the Cross.

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His redeeming merits must, of course, precede and condition our salvation. Yet for salvation actually to be accomplished, according to the Apostle, we also must truly deny ungodliness and worldly passions.

We must live soberly, righteously, and piously in the present age.

"The grace of God," says Bishop Theophan, "is the divine economy of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God became incarnate, suffered, died, rose, ascended into heaven, and sent down the Holy Spirit.

Through the Apostles, the Spirit established the Church of God on earth. The entrance into it is open to everyone: come, receive the teaching by faith, be sanctified by the mysteries, and then live holily under the guidance of pastors.

Whether you are a slave or free, adorn the teaching of our Savior God by a beautiful way of life and with zeal."

Drawing attention to the naming of Jesus Christ as God, St. John Chrysostom exclaims: "Where are those who say that the Son is less than the Father? He says, 'of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.'

When he calls Him the great God, he calls Him great not in relation to anything, but absolutely great. He is such that after Him no one is great, since every other is great by comparison, not by nature.

He is great without comparison."

"He who is born of the Spirit is a child of God. Sensing himself to be such, he senses that he belongs to God, has all that is God's as his own, and is a direct heir of God.

Thus the hope of eternal blessedness is an inalienable feature of the inner disposition of Christians, and they remain on earth awaiting Him. After death, the faithful enter the forecourt of this Kingdom.

Full blessedness will follow after the general resurrection. The blessed know this and await with longing the appearing in glory of Christ the Lord. They moderate this desire only by good will toward those living on earth."

Saving grace acts in the same way. It calls, yet the first step in response to the call is already a step in life. This means: renounce ungodliness and worldly desires, and begin a new life contrary to the former one.

Renounce them. Do not merely recognize the instability of the former order. Turn from it in feeling. Regard it as vile, hate it, and abandon it. The Savior had already said: “Let him deny himself” who wishes to follow Me, cf. Mt 16:24; 10:38. Still earlier the Prophet had foretold: “Go out from the midst of them, and touch no unclean thing,” cf. Is 52:11.

In this lies the foundation of active Christianity. Why are Christians poor in life? Because they do not have this renunciation and have not gone out from an evil environment. Saint Chrysostom says here: “Behold the foundation of every virtue. He did not say, that we should avoid, but that we should renounce. Renunciation means complete withdrawal, full hatred, decisive aversion.”

What exactly does the Apostle require us to renounce? Ungodliness and worldly desires. Ungodliness embraces every false conception of God and every mode of worship inconsistent with the true conception of God. It includes all false religions. “By ungodliness the Apostle means impious teaching,” says Saint Chrysostom, “impious dogmas,” says Oecumenius, and “idolatry,” says blessed Theophylact.

By worldly desires he means the self-pleasing life lived in the desires and passions of the heart. All the customs of the world are directed toward satisfying them, and all the laws of righteousness and love are sacrificed to them. “By worldly desires the Apostle means a vicious life. Or, more generally, worldly desires are everything that benefits us only for the present life, without relation to the future. Everything that disappears together with the present life is a worldly desire,” says Saint Chrysostom. Blessed Theophylact names “love of possessions, love of pleasure, pride, and the like.”

Saint Peter indicated all this when he wrote: “The time past of life is enough for you to have done the will of the Gentiles, walking in uncleanness, desires, drunkenness, revelings, greed, and abominable idolatries,” cf. 1 Pet 4:3. Enough. You have been filled, and more than filled. All this must be cast away and left behind.

Thus grace teaches, draws, and disposes us, so that we should live the rest of our time in the flesh “no longer for human desires, but for the will of God,” cf. 1 Pet 4:2. That means “soberly, righteously, and piously.”

Soberly: withdrawing from fleshly sins and being zealous for purity. Yet here purity may also be understood as freedom from all passions, both bodily and spiritual. These defile the soul and make it unclean before God and unfaithful to Him.

So Saint Chrysostom says: “Sobriety, as I always say, consists not only in abstaining from adultery, but also in abstaining from the other passions. Therefore the covetous man too is not sober. As the adulterer is attached to bodily pleasure, so the covetous man is attached to wealth. Indeed the latter is more incontinent than the former, insofar as the impulse that acts upon him is weaker. There the desire is so natural that, even if a man does not approach a woman, nature acts and produces its own effect. Here it is not so.”

What is said here about covetousness also applies to the other passions: pride, vainglory, hatred, envy, anger, self-will, disobedience, and the rest. All who act according to these passions act unsoberly. They act without soundness of mind, not as one endowed with the higher power, the mind or spirit, ought to live.

Righteously: as befits a Christian man. It befits a Christian not only to avoid violating the bounds of justice toward others, but also to do every good to them. The law of Christian righteousness is love, which in need requires even that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Sobriety, in its broader meaning, requires a self-denying life, with every form of self-pleasing trampled down, for self-pleasing draws everything to itself. Righteousness requires beneficent action, directing everything from oneself toward one’s neighbor.

Piously: with fear and reverence before God, who is everywhere present, all-seeing, and sustaining all things. It means dedicating everything to Him as one’s Master: great and small, spiritual and bodily, visible and invisible. It means zealously seeking in every way that His most holy name be glorified, not only in us but also through us.

Piety embraces the whole relation of our mind and heart to God. Above all, it means standing before Him always in prayer and doing everything for His glory.

Sobriety, righteousness, and piety embrace the whole holy life. They contain all the commandments and the whole will of God. Those who come to God in true faith undertake the obligation to walk in this will.

Christians who know this are zealous to live so during the whole time they live in this age, in the present life. Thus they prepare worthily for the blessed life in the age to come.

What is a Christian? He believes sincerely and, being sanctified by the Mysteries, is zealous with his whole soul to please God by a holy life. He does this in the undoubted expectation of blessed eternity. On earth he is present only with hands and feet. In consciousness, mind, and heart, he is wholly in heaven.