Godliness | Titus 2:11-14
Intro
Let’s play a little word association. What comes to your mind when you hear the word godliness? If I described someone to you as “godly,” what kind of person would you imagine?
Some immediately picture a self-righteous, strait-laced, stuffy person. Not necessarily the kind of person you would like to be around.
Others might have a more positive association, but imagine an elite, Navy-Seal-level Christian. There are ordinary, everyday Christians who are just happy to have their sins forgiven. And then there are godly Christians who pray for 2 hours every morning and do the 10-chapter-a-day (twice a day) Bible reading plan, besides fasting every other day, memorizing entire books of the Bible, and not owning a TV.
Godliness is the seventh and final virtue in our Shaping Virtues. What should we think of when we think of godliness? What is godliness? More personally, are you a godly person?
Titus 2:11–14
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 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.
Grace That Trains
The main point of Titus 2:11–14 is this: The grace that saves is the grace that trains.
The saving grace of God in Christ that saves you from God’s wrath against your sin is the very same grace that trains you to live a godly life in Christ Jesus.
When God saves you from the penalty and guilt of sin, that’s just the beginning. God’s grace is just getting started! The saving grace of God is the same grace that gets to work training you in godliness.
What Is Godliness?
So what is godliness? Godliness is more than the duration or intensity of personal spiritual disciplines—how much you pray or read the Bible or fast. The Greek word (eusebōs) describes a person who relates to God with reverence.
Sometimes it helps to clarify what a thing is not. And in Romans 1, Paul gives the most thorough profile of ungodliness. He says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Rom 1:18). The ungodly do not honor God or give thanks to God (Rom 1:21). They reject the glory of God (1:23). They suppress the truth of God (1:24). They refuse to acknowledge God (1:28). They do not obey God (1:32).
And those who scorn the glory of God sin against man. Paul says,
“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents” (Romans 1:28–30).
So godliness is the opposite of that. Godliness is reverence for God, delight in God, gratitude to God, humility before God, obedience to God overflowing in self-sacrificing love for others. Godliness is delight in God overflowing in love for people.
We have several examples of godliness right here in Titus 2. Our text begins in verse 11 with the word for (γάρ), indicating that this section is connected to the previous section and provides the foundation for that one. The main point is found back in 2:1: “But as for you, [Titus,] teach what accords with sound doctrine.” In other words, Titus should prioritize practical application of the gospel.
Then Paul specifically applies the gospel to different people within the church. Paul calls for old men who are “sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness” (v. 2). He urges older women to be “reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine” (v. 3). Young women must be trained “to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands” (v. 5). Young men are to be self-controlled (v. 6). Slaves must be submissive and not argumentative (vv. 9–10).
In describing the kind of people that Christians should be, Paul is talking about virtues. And all of these virtues could be summed up in the virtue of godliness.
And the good news according to Titus 2 is that you can live a godly life by God’s grace. You can grow in godliness because godliness is entirely the result of grace from beginning to end—grace in the present, grace in the future, and grace from the past.
Grace in the Present Trains You in Godliness
Verse 11 could be translated more literally, “For the saving grace of God has been displayed to all people, training us …” (vv. 11–12).
The saving grace of God is the subject, the thing doing the main action. And the main verb is training. The saving grace of God trains us.
But what is this grace? Before Paul gets to the effect of this grace on our lives today, he begins with this lengthy phrase describing the grace of God. In Greek, the first word in the sentence is appeared, which puts the emphasis on the display of God’s grace: “APPEARED the saving grace of God to all people!” Elsewhere in the NT, that word is used of light shining in the darkness (Lk 1:79) or sun and stars breaking forth through thick storm clouds (Ac 27:20).
When did God’s saving grace appear to all people? When the Son of God took on our humanity to glorify the Father and save sinners. One scholar notes that this verb is in a form that “is used in the NT to describe, among other things, the unique, great facts of salvation history.” “The grace of God has appeared” is a powerful way to speak of the incarnation. When God became a man, the grace of God became brilliantly visible in a dark world.
A few verses later, Paul says this in Titus 3:
“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures …. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy” (Titus 3:3–5).
The grace of God appeared in history in the person and work of Jesus. And then that grace became visible to you when God opened your eyes to see his glory.
And what does that grace do? Paul’s particular emphasis here is that the grace of God trains us. Verse 12: “... training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age ….”
This is tremendously good news to everyday (non-elite) Christians. It’s not that the grace of God merely teaches us that we ought to be doing better. Paul does not use the word most commonly used for “teach” in the NT (didaskō).
He says that the grace of God actually trains us (παιδεύω). The word means to correct, train, discipline, educate.
It’s the verb form of the word παιδεία, which means enculturation or “cultural nurture.” God’s grace actively nurtures you along in gospel culture. It’s more than a teaching or a lesson. It’s the entire process of training, like developing an immature child into a mature adult, or transforming an unhealthy person into a fit athlete. It has the whole scope of maturity in view. And that is what you need if you’re going to grow in godliness. You don’t need to try harder; you need to train.
I have run the Twin Cities Marathon twice. The first year, I trained. I followed Hal Higdon's 18-week marathon training plan. I ran 4 days a week, including a long run on the weekend. That long run gradually built from 6 miles and peaked at 20 miles before tapering for a couple of weeks prior to the marathon. Then I ran the marathon with my two brothers at a decent pace and felt great.
The next year, I did not train. A few weeks before the marathon, I told Barbara I was going for a long run, just to see how I felt. Since I was able to run 13 or 14 miles without training, I decided to register for the marathon again. I did finish, but I walked a lot and was considerably slower than the year before.
One year, I trained to run a marathon, the other, I tried to run a marathon. The second year, I had enough residual endurance leftover from the previous year. But imagine placing an untrained person at the starting line of a marathon and telling him, “Try your best!” His problem would not be a matter of trying hard enough. His problem is a lack of training.
Or imagine telling someone who doesn’t read music or play piano, “Just try your best to play Für Elise by Beethoven.” Again, it’s not a matter of trying, it’s a matter of training.
Godliness is the same way. You don’t grow in godliness by trying harder. You grow in godliness by training. And training in godliness is what the grace of God provides to everyone saved by Christ. That training has two parts: 1) renouncing ungodliness and worldly passions and 2) living self-controlled, upright, and godly lives (v. 12).
Renouncing Ungodliness
The first part of growing in godliness by grace is renouncing ungodliness and worldly passions. You cannot make real or lasting progress in godliness without forsaking your ungodly thoughts, attitudes, and habits.
Do you want to be trained in godliness by God’s grace? Ask yourself this week: What sinful habits do I need to overcome by God’s grace?
Do you gossip?
Are you disrespectful?
Are you impatient with your kids?
Are you selfish?
Do you complain about your situation, your spouse, your kids, the weather?
Are you lazy at work or irresponsible with money?
Do you waste time on your phone?
Are the reels and TikToks you watch filling you with worldly desires?
Do you avoid your responsibilities and make excuses or blame others?
Do you lie and exaggerate?
Are you rude or bossy?
Ask, What lies do I need to renounce? Listen to your self-talk and your thoughts. What do you regularly say to yourself? “I’m _____.” (Such a failure? So dumb? So ugly?) “My life is _____.” (A mess? Hopeless? Harder than anyone else’s?) “God is ______.” (Distant? Punishing me? Disappointed?)
Ask, What do I desire the most? Where do I seek satisfaction apart from God?
Being miserable and beating yourself up is not repentance. Renouncing ungodliness and worldly passions requires naming sin specifically so that you can confess it to God and others and turn away from it.
And once you confess your sin to God, get specific about putting it to death. Are there people or things that facilitate your sin? Take steps to remove them! Are there steps you could take that would hinder your sin? Begin to take them! The grace of God trains us to renounce—to refuse to give in to—ungodliness, and that looks like restructuring your life for godly change.
Living a Godly Life
The flip side of training is replacing ungodly habits and attitudes with godly ones. You can’t make progress in godliness without forsaking ungodly ways. But forsaking ungodliness without learning godly habits is not true change either.
Consider Tom. Tom is a blasphemer. He regularly takes God’s name in vain, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He denies God’s existence and calls himself an atheist, but he deeply resents God. He bristles when God comes up in conversation and enjoys seeing the surprise on the faces of others when he curses God.
But Tom respects his grandmother and is careful to hold his tongue around her. Is Tom still a blasphemer when he is with his grandma? Yes! Until his contempt for God is replaced with delight in God, Tom is a blasphemer.
Ungodly sinners become godly saints when they trust in Christ and learn—by his grace—to put off ungodliness and put on godliness. Put off and put on. Renounce and replace. That’s how you make progress in godliness.
Paul uses three words to describe the kind of lives the grace of God trains us to live: self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.
Self-control refers to your relationship to yourself. God’s grace trains you to be self-governing, to regulate your own thoughts, attitudes, emotions, and actions in a way that is pleasing to God.
Uprightness (or righteousness) describes how you relate to others. God’s grace trains you to treat others lawfully from the heart, which is love. That is a righteous life.
And godliness refers to your relationship to God. God’s grace trains you to delight in God, to love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. That is a godly life.
We don’t have time now to walk through all the practical ways to train for godliness by grace, but the point is to train, and train by grace. Identify one area you want to grow, then make a plan. Talk to your Huddle or reach out to a pastor for counseling. God’s grace will produce new, gospel-shaped, Christ-exalting habits in your everyday life.
Grace in the Future Motivates Godliness
This is what God is doing by his grace in the present age (v. 12)—training you in godliness. And that present work of God is motivated by the future grace of God. Follow the logic as the text unfolds. God saves us by grace (v. 11). Verse 12, God’s grace trains us to renounce ungodliness and to live godly lives right now, in the midst of this fallen world.
How? Verse 13 continues, “Waiting for our blessed hope [or our happy hope], the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
Here Paul points to the glorious future that awaits those who belong to Christ by faith. He calls it “our blessed hope.” And what is that hope? It’s another appearing.
When Christ first appeared, the light of God’s saving grace broke through the darkness. That glory is like the glory of the sun coming up over the horizon at the break of day. When Christ returns again, his glory will be like the full light of the noonday sun, intensely illuminating, blindingly bright.
The glory of that Day is worth meditating on, and our Statement of Faith helps:
“At the appointed time known only to God, Jesus Christ will return to the earth in power and glory as Judge and King to whom every knee will bow. Christ’s personal, physical, and visible return is the blessed hope of all who trust in him. … When the dead in Christ are raised, their perishable bodies will be redeemed and made like Christ’s imperishable, glorious, powerful, spiritual body. Those in Christ who are alive shall likewise be changed, and thus will all God’s glorified people forever bear the image of their Savior. …
“God’s glorified people will inherit the kingdom from which all sin, sorrow, suffering, and death will be banished. Christ as king will set all of creation free from its bondage to corruption, making new the heavens and the earth and establishing his eternal rule in his consummated kingdom. Surrounded by unimaginable beauty, we will enjoy unhindered communion with our triune God, beholding him, serving him, worshipping him, and reigning with him forever and ever. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”
Does that not stir your heart with longing? And Paul’s point is that this is the way to make progress in godliness—by looking forward in faith to that future grace. A vision of the future is key in any training. The musician rehearses for a concert or recital. The runner prepares for the marathon. And the Christian grows in godliness by grace with his eyes on that blessed hope.
Waiting for the return of Christ is not passive or idle. It is, as one commentator says, a “dogged confidence in God and his sure promises, however remote they may seem at times.” It’s “a waiting that is proactive, alert, and expectant.”
But how does waiting relate to training in godliness? The glory of that day motivates you to grow in godliness today in several ways.
First, having a finish line gives hope, and hope is vital to growth in godliness. Despair is the loss of hope. And hopeless people don’t try or train—they quit. Isn’t it a comfort to know that your struggle with sin won’t last forever? Just knowing that you will be glorified engenders encouragement and endurance. If you are in the Slough of Despond, if you feel trapped in Doubting Castle, look by faith to the glory that is to come.
Second, remembering the reality of eternity helps you triumph over temptation. You may be tempted by worldly passions, but the superior satisfaction of the glory that is coming has the power to kill temptation. Imagine you are starving-hungry, and you see a package of cheap bologna. Your hunger makes the bologna look much better than it actually is. Then someone says, “Wait 5 more minutes, and I’ll give you a USDA Prime ribeye, hot off the grill.” Do you take the bologna now or the ribeye in 5 minutes? That is how the hope of future glory kills worldly passions.
Finally, the anticipation of unending joy produces real joy and energy for your training today. Does your progress feel slow? Do your present burdens feel heavy? Are you discouraged by your sin and your circumstances? When you take time now to ponder by faith the joy and glory that is coming, you actually experience anticipatory joy now. The joy of anticipation is but a foretaste of the joy of consummation, but it’s real. And that joy gives you the strength you need to endure train with joy.
The return of Christ will be a stunning display of God’s glory. Today’s cares can make that Day feel so far off that it seems imaginary. But you are meant to lay hold of that future grace by faith today. Eagerly waiting for that Day motivates you to make progress in godliness today.
Grace in the Past Secured Your Godliness
Paul concludes, “... Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 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” (Titus 2:14).
This passage is shot through with grace from beginning to end! Your present progress in godliness is grace. Your future joy in glory is grace. And all of it is grounded in the finished work of Christ. Grace upon grace upon grace!
Before you take a single step of faith, before you ever put to death any sin, before you give a single thought to your training in godliness, Christ has already given himself for you. Jesus Christ “gave himself for us” (v . 14). That is the gospel—Jesus died for your sins and in your place as a substitute. And all your progress in godliness is grounded in the gospel and guaranteed by it. Paul mentions two specific purposes that Christ accomplished when he died for us.
First, he died in order to redeem us from all lawlessness. To redeem is to set someone free from bondage by paying a ransom. Apart from Christ, you are in bondage to sin. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (Jn 8:34). And Paul says just a few verses down, “For we ourselves were once … slaves to various passions and pleasures” (Titus 3:3).
Slaves to sin say things like, “I can stop whenever I want to.” But they don’t stop. Because they don’t want to stop. Because they are slaves to their own passions and pleasures. If you have ever felt unable to change sinful habits, you are familiar with slavery to sin.
The good news is that Christ died to redeem you from slavery to sin. The death of Jesus paid the penalty for all your sin—past, present, and future. And the death of Jesus sets you free from the power of sin.
The other purpose Jesus died to accomplish is to cleanse and set apart a people (not just individuals, but an entire community!) for himself who are zealous for good works. To purify means to be cleansed from defilement in order to make it fit for service. To be set free from slavery is good news. To belong to Jesus and to be commissioned by Jesus to do good works is even better news.
A freed slave doesn’t necessarily have a life to go to. He has freedom and nothing else—no protection, no provision. Think of Israel—freed from Egypt, but wandering in the wilderness. Christ died to set you free from sin so that you could belong to him.
In other words, Jesus died for you to make you godly. By the death of Jesus you are freed from sin and cleansed for service. The grace of God saves and the grace of God trains.
The relationship between faith and works is a point of confusion for many. And Titus 2:11–14 is one of the most clarifying passages in Scripture.
Christ died for you (that’s the gospel) to make you zealous for good works (that’s an implication of the gospel). You are not saved by good works, but you are saved for good works. You know how most apps have a free version and then there’s the paid version? Some people act like basic Christianity comes with saving grace, and then godliness and good works is a paid upgrade that you earn by your own effort.
But good works do not earn anything from God. Good works are grounded in the grace of the gospel. Christ died to make you zealous for good works. Good works are not an optional upgrade. If you have been saved by grace, you have the full, premium version—the forgiveness of sins and the ability to grow in godliness—bought by the blood of Christ.
The grace that saved you is the grace that will train you in godliness, and it all comes from Christ, who gave himself for you.
Conclusion
So, are you growing in godliness by grace? Rehearse the truth of the gospel. Direct your heart to the hope of Christ’s return. And take steps this week to live a godly life in the present age.