Titus 2:12

παιδεύουσα. erudiens (Vulg.), corripiens ([319]). Grace is potentially σωτήριος as regards all men; actually its efficacy is seen in the disciplining of individuals one by one; ἡμᾶς, to begin with. See notes on 1 Timothy 1:1; 1 Timothy 2:4; 1 Timothy 4:10. So Chrys. makes ἵνα depend on ἐπεφάνη more directly than on παιδεύονσα : “Christ came that we should deny ungodliness.” The connexion, then, is ἐπεφάνη … ἵνα … ζήσωμεν. “The final cause of the Revelation in Christ is not creed, but character ” (J. H. Bernard). It is of course possible (and this is the view usually held) to join παιδεύουσα ἵνα; the ἵνα introducing the object (instructing us, to the intent that, denying, etc., R.V.), not the content (teaching us that denying, etc., A.V.) of the παιδεία.

[319] The Latin text of Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

ἀρνησάμενοι … ζήσωμεν … προσδεχόμενοι represent three successive stages in the Christian life. The force of the aorist participle must not be lost sight of, though it may be pedantic to mark it in translation. ἀρνησάμενοι κ. τ. λ., synchronises with the “death unto sin” which precedes the definite entry on newness of life, while προσδεχόμενοι expresses the constant mental attitude of those who are living that new life.

ἀρνησάμενοι : This indicates the renunciation of the Devil, of the vanity of this world, and of all the sinful lusts of the flesh. ἀρνέομαι means here to repudiate, renounce all connexion with. Cf. ἀποθέμενοι, 1 Peter 2:1. See on 1 Timothy 5:8.

τὴν ἀσέβειαν : εὐσέβεια being Christian practice (see below, εὐσεβῶς ζήσωμεν), ἀσέβεια is heathen practice, the non-moral life.

τὰς κοσμικὰς ἐπιθυμίας : saecularia desideria (Vulg.), “the desires of the flesh and of the mind” (Ephesians 2:3), “the lusts of men” (1 Peter 4:2); opposed to σωφρ. καὶ δικαίως; such as have relation to no higher sphere than that of the visible world. They are analysed in 1 John 2:16.

σωφρόνως : The reference of the three adverbs is well explained by St. Bernard: “ sobrie erga nos; juste erga proximos; pie erga Deum”.