Titus 2:12 Disowning as biproduct

For the saving grace of God made its advent to all humanity, training us that, disowning irreverence and worldly desires, we should be living sanely and justly and devoutly in the current eon…

God’s saving grace has appeared to all humanity. Behold the Evangel! Those who recognize this saving grace are subsequently trained by that same grace. The purpose of this training (“that”) is negative on the one hand in that we begin to disown “irreverence and worldly desires” and on the other hand positive in that we “live sanely, justly and devoutly in the present eon”. The negative motive of disowning cannot do without the positive motive of being sane, just and devout.

To disown means: to negate or “not want to reckon with”. It expresses what our word “negative” also means: to ignore. Ignoring is, by definition, a “by-product”. You cannot consciously ignore something because that is exactly what makes you think of it (‘don’t think of a blue car’). Ignoring is the result of giving attention to something else. And so it is here. Awareness of God’s saving grace for all people makes us live sanely, justly and devoutly in the present eon and so we disown (or ignore) irreverence and worldly lusts. God’s grace makes us positive, shining people!

Delen: