Paul tells Titus to teach each group in the church how to live in a way that fits sound doctrine. God’s saving grace in Christ not only forgives sin but also trains His people to live holy, self-controlled lives as they wait for His return.

Titus 2 opens with a sharp contrast to the false teachers mentioned earlier in the letter. Titus is to teach what accords with sound doctrine—teaching that is spiritually healthy and that produces healthy Christian living throughout the church.

Paul then applies that doctrine to the different groups in the congregation. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, and sound in faith, love, and endurance. Older women likewise are to live in a reverent manner. They must not be slanderers or enslaved to much wine. Instead, they are to teach what is good and help train younger women for godly living in marriage and family life: to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, kind, faithful in their responsibilities at home, and subject to their own husbands. Paul gives a clear reason for this instruction: so that the word of God will not be discredited.

Younger men likewise are to be self-controlled. Titus himself must set the example through good works. His teaching is to show integrity, dignity, and soundness, so that opponents will have no evil thing to say about the Christian community. Once again, Paul shows that both conduct and speech affect the church’s witness.

Paul also addresses slaves, reflecting the real social setting of the first-century churches. They are to be subject to their own masters, not argumentative, not stealing, but showing complete faithfulness. In this way they adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. These instructions speak within the household structures of that time, so they must be applied with care today, especially in relation to slavery. Even so, the lasting principle remains clear: believers are to live with such integrity that the gospel is honored.

These commands are grounded in God’s saving work in history. The grace of God has appeared in Christ, bringing salvation. In context, “all people” is best understood to mean all kinds of people across the groups just mentioned, not every individual without exception or a promise of universal salvation. God’s saving grace reaches across social and demographic boundaries.

This grace does more than pardon sin. It trains believers to renounce ungodliness and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. Grace and obedience are not enemies. In this passage, grace itself produces the kind of life Paul commands.

The Christian life is lived between two appearings. Grace has appeared in Christ’s first coming, and believers now wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. This wording most naturally refers to one person, Jesus Christ, and therefore stands as an important testimony to His full deity.

Christ gave Himself for us to redeem us from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, eager for good works. This echoes Old Testament covenant language about God claiming a people as His own. The church, then, is Christ’s redeemed and purified people, and eagerness for good works is evidence of that identity.

Paul closes by telling Titus to speak these things with full authority, exhorting and rebuking where needed. He must not let himself be disregarded, because this teaching rests on apostolic truth and on God’s saving work in Christ.