Titus 2:10 Adorning the teaching

… that they may be adorning the teaching that is of God our Saviour, in all things.

None of the instructions Paul gives in this letter to the supervisors, men, women, old and young, are as brilliantly motivated as those to the slaves. All the directions Paul gives to the other groups are logical and in line with sound teaching (2:1), but what the slaves hear goes far beyond that in terms of motive.

The common idea is that the teaching of the Bible is about practice. Just like a theory exam mainly contains instructions for the actual driving. But in “the teaching of God our Savior” it is exactly the other way around! That teaching does not tell us what to do, but it teaches who God is and what He does. She teaches that “the saving grace of God made its advent to all humanity!” (2:11). That teaching is the subject. And our practice (in this case that of the slaves) serves to adorn that teaching!

In the Greek word for “to adorn” (“kosmeo”, lit. to order) we easily recognize our words “cosmetic” and “kosmos” (= order). “The teaching of God our Savior” is ultimate and deserves to be embellished exquisitely. No group is better able to do this than disenfranchised slaves!

Delen: