Titus 2

¹But you, speak what is fitting for healthy teaching. ²Older men are to be sober, dignified, self-controlled, healthy in faith, love, and endurance. ³Older women likewise are to be reverent in conduct, not slanderers or enslaved to much wine, but teachers of what is good, ⁴so that they may train the younger women to love their husbands and children, ⁵to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submitting to their own husbands, so that God's word may not be slandered.

⁶Likewise, encourage the younger men to be self-controlled. ⁷In everything, present yourself as an example of good works, showing integrity and dignity in your teaching, ⁸and healthy speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.

⁹Slaves are to submit to their own masters in everything, to be pleasing to them, not talking back, ¹⁰not stealing, but showing complete good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the teaching of God our Savior.

¹¹For God's grace has appeared with salvation for all people, ¹²training us to reject irreverence and worldly desires and live in this present age with self-control, righteousness, and devotion to God, ¹³awaiting the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. ¹⁴He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people of his own, eager for good works.

¹⁵Speak these things, encourage, and rebuke with full authority. Let no one disregard you.

Translation notes 7

2:1–8 — Health and self-control. The repeated “healthy” describes teaching, faith, and speech. “Self-controlled,” “train,” and “self-control” in verse 12 represent related Greek words for sensible, disciplined conduct. “Older men” and “older women” designate age groups; the word for older men here differs from “elders” in 1:5.

2:5 — Work at home and submission. The Greek base describes working at home; a textual alternative describes keeping or guarding the home. Neither explicitly says “never working outside the home.” The instruction to submit to their own husbands is retained without a supplied modern qualification.

2:6–8 — Example and speech. “In everything” is taken with Titus's example in verse 7; it can instead complete the instruction to younger men in verse 6. “Showing” carries forward the Greek participle into the teaching and speech qualifications. The base reads “us” at verse 8, not “you.”

2:9–10 — Slaves and adornment. The instructions address enslaved people, not merely employees. “Adorn” retains the image of making the teaching attractive through conduct. “Good faith” here means trustworthiness, in contrast to talking back and stealing. “In everything” in verse 9 can also modify being pleasing rather than submission.

2:11–14 — Grace, appearing, and salvation. “All people” retains the breadth of the expression without replacing it with “some people” or adding that everyone is already saved. Grace trains conduct; good works are also the aim of Christ's self-giving. “Appeared” and “appearing” connect grace's arrival with the awaited glory.

2:13 — God and Savior. The draft takes both titles as referring to Jesus Christ. Their shared Greek article and the construction as a whole strongly favor this reading. “The great God and our Savior Jesus Christ,” distinguishing two referents, is a significant but less likely interpretation. “The blessed hope and the appearing” most naturally describe the hope and its awaited fulfillment, not two separately dated events.

2:14 — Redemption and a people. “Redeem” retains the language of release; the stated bondage is lawlessness. “A people of his own” evokes God's treasured people without adding an unexpressed ethnic restriction.