John Calvin Commentary Titus 3

Remind them to be subject to principalities and powers. From many passages, it is evident that the Apostles had great difficulty in keeping the common people subject to the authority of magistrates and princes. We all by nature desire power, and the consequence is that no one is willingly subject to another.

Besides, perceiving that nearly all the principalities and powers of the world were at that time opposed to Christ, they thought them unworthy of receiving any honor. The Jews especially, being a rebellious people, did not cease to mutiny and rage.

Thus, after having spoken of particular duties, Paul now wishes to give a general admonition to all: to observe peaceably the order of civil government, to submit to the laws, and to obey magistrates. The subjection to princes and obedience to magistrates that he demands extends to edicts, laws, and other parts of civil government.

What he immediately adds, To be ready for every good work, may be applied to the same subject, as if he had said, “All who do not refuse to lead a good and virtuous life will cheerfully yield obedience to magistrates.” For, since magistrates have been appointed for the preservation of mankind, anyone who desires to have them removed, or who shakes off their yoke, is an enemy of equity and justice and is therefore devoid of all humanity. Yet, if any prefer to interpret it without any immediate relation to the context, I have no objection; indeed, there can be no doubt that in this sentence, he recommends to them kind actions towards their neighbors throughout their whole life.

To speak evil of no one — He now lays down the method of maintaining peace and friendship with all men. We know that there is nothing to which the disposition of every man is more prone than to despise others in comparison with himself. The consequence is that many are proud of the gifts of God, and this is accompanied by contempt for their brothers, which is immediately followed by insult. He therefore forbids Christians to glory over others or to reproach them, whatever may be their own superior excellence. Yet he does not wish them to flatter the vices of wicked men; he only condemns the propensity to slander.

Not given to fighting — As if he had said, “Quarrels and contentions must be avoided.” The old translation has therefore rendered it better, Not quarrelsome; for there are other ways of fighting than the sword or the fist. And from what follows it is evident that this is the meaning, for he points out the remedies for the evil when he enjoins them to be kind, and to show all meekness towards all men; for “kindness” is contrasted with the utmost rigor of law, and “meekness” with bitterness. If, therefore, we are disposed to avoid every kind of contention and fighting, let us learn, first, to moderate many things by gentleness, and next, to bear with many things; for those who are excessively severe and ill-tempered carry with them a fire to kindle strife.

He says, towards all men, in order to intimate that one should bear with even the lowest and meanest persons. Believers, holding wicked men in contempt, did not think them worthy of any forbearance. Such severity, which arises from nothing else than pride, Paul wished to correct.

For we ourselves also were formerly foolish. Nothing is better suited to subdue our pride and, at the same time, to moderate our severity than when it is shown that everything we turn against others may fall back on our own head; for he forgives easily who is compelled to ask for pardon in return. Indeed, ignorance of our own faults is the only cause that makes us unwilling to forgive our brothers. Those who have a true zeal for God are, indeed, severe against those who sin; but, because they begin with themselves, their severity is always accompanied by compassion.

Therefore, so that believers may not haughtily and cruelly mock others who are still held in ignorance and blindness, Paul brings back to their remembrance what kind of persons they formerly were. It is as if he had said, “If such fierce treatment is given to those on whom God has not yet bestowed the light of the gospel, with equally good reason you might have been harshly treated at one time. Undoubtedly, you would not have wished that any person should be so cruel to you; therefore, exercise the same moderation towards others now.”

In Paul’s words, there are two things that need to be understood:

1. That those who have now been enlightened by the Lord, being humbled by the remembrance of their former ignorance, should not exalt themselves proudly over others, or treat them with greater harshness and severity than that which they think ought to have been exercised towards themselves when they were what those others now are.
2. That they should consider, from what has taken place in their own lives, that those who today are strangers may tomorrow be received into the Church, and, having been led to turn from their sinful practices, may become sharers in the gifts of God, which they now lack.

There is a bright mirror of both in believers, who

“at one time were darkness, and afterwards began
to be light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8).

The knowledge of their former condition should therefore incline them to συμπάθειαν (fellow-feeling). On the other hand, the grace of God, which they now enjoy, is a proof that others may be brought to salvation.

Thus we see that we must be humbled before God, so that we may be gentle towards our brothers; for pride is always cruel and disdainful of others. In another passage (Galatians 6:1), where he exhorts us to mildness, he advises everyone to remember his own weakness. Here he goes further, for he tells us to remember those vices from which we have been delivered, so that we may not pursue too keenly those which still dwell in others.

Besides, since Paul here briefly describes the natural disposition of men, such as it is before it is renewed by the Spirit of God, we may see in this description how wretched we are while we are apart from Christ.

1. He calls unbelievers foolish, because the whole wisdom of men is mere vanity as long as they do not know God.
2. He calls them disobedient, because, as it is faith alone that truly obeys God, so unbelief is always wayward and rebellious; although we might translate ἀπειθεῖς as unbelieving, so as to describe the kind of “foolishness.”
3. He says that unbelievers go astray; for Christ alone is “the way” and “the light of the world” (John 8:12 and John 14:6). All who are estranged from God must therefore wander and go astray during their whole life.

Up to this point, he has described the nature of unbelief; but now he also adds the fruits which proceed from it, namely, various desires and pleasures, envy, malice, and similar things. It is true that each person is not equally guilty of every vice; but, since all are the slaves of wicked desires, although some are carried away by one desire and others by another, Paul includes in a general statement all the fruits that are anywhere produced by unbelief. This subject is explained towards the close of the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans (Romans 1).

Moreover, since Paul, by these marks, distinguishes the children of God from unbelievers, if we wish to be considered believers, we must have our hearts cleansed from all envy and from all malice; and we must both love and be beloved. It is unreasonable that those desires, which are there called “various,” should reign in us. In my opinion, they are called “various” for this reason: the lusts by which a carnal man is driven about are like opposing billows, which, by fighting against each other, turn the man here and there, so that he changes and vacillates almost every moment. Such, at least, is the restlessness of all who abandon themselves to carnal desires, because there is no stability except in the fear of God.

Either the principal clause in this sentence is that "God has saved us by his mercy," or the language is elliptical. Thus, it would be proper to supply that they were changed for the better and became new men as a result of God having mercy on them; as if he had said, "When God regenerated you by His Spirit, then you began to differ from others." But since Paul's words make complete sense, there is no need to add anything. He includes himself with others so that the exhortation may be more effective.

But after that the goodness and love towards man appeared. First, it might be asked, — "Did the goodness of God begin to be made known to the world at the time when Christ was manifested in the flesh? For certainly, from the beginning, the fathers both knew and experienced that God was good, kind, and gracious to them; and therefore, this was not the first manifestation of His goodness and fatherly love towards us." The answer is easy. In no other way did the fathers taste the goodness of God under the Law than by looking to Christ, on whose coming all their faith rested. Thus, the goodness of God is said to have appeared when He exhibited a pledge of it and gave actual demonstration that He had not in vain so often promised salvation to men.

"God so loved the world," says John, "that he gave his only-begotten Son" (John 3:16).

Paul also says in another passage,

"Hereby God confirmeth his love towards us, that, while we were enemies, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

It is a customary way of speaking in Scripture that the world was reconciled to God through the death of Christ, although we know that He was a kind Father in all ages. But because we find no cause of the love of God toward us, and no ground of our salvation, except in Christ, not without good reason is God the Father said to have shown His goodness to us in Him.

Yet there is a different reason for it in this passage, in which Paul speaks not of that ordinary manifestation of Christ which took place when He came as a man into the world, but of the manifestation which is made by the gospel, when He exhibits and reveals Himself, in a peculiar manner, to the elect.

At the first coming of Christ, Paul was not renewed; but, on the contrary, Christ was raised in glory, and salvation through His name shone upon many, not only in Judea but throughout the neighboring countries, while Paul, blinded by unbelief, labored to extinguish this grace by every means in his power. He therefore means that the grace of God "appeared" both to himself and to others when they were enlightened in the knowledge of the gospel.

And indeed, in no other way could these words apply, for he does not speak indiscriminately about the men of his age but specially addresses those who had been separated from the ordinary ranks. It is as if he had said that formerly they resembled those unbelievers who were still plunged in darkness, but that now they differ from them, not through their own merit, but by the grace of God, in the same manner as he beats down all the haughtiness of the flesh by the same argument: "Who maketh thee to differ, or to be more highly esteemed than others?" (1 Corinthians 4:7).

Goodness and love He has, with propriety, assigned the first rank to "goodness," which prompts God to love us; for God will never find in us anything which He ought to love, but He loves us because He is good and merciful. Besides, although He testifies His goodness and love to all, yet we know it by faith only, when He declares Himself to be our Father in Christ.

Before Paul was called to the faith of Christ, he enjoyed innumerable gifts of God which might have given him a taste of God's fatherly kindness; he had been educated from his infancy in the doctrine of the law; yet he wandered in darkness, not perceiving the goodness of God, until the Spirit enlightened his mind and Christ came forth as the witness and pledge of the grace of God the Father, from which, without Him, we are all excluded. Thus, he means that the kindness of God is not revealed and known except by the light of faith.

Not by works. Let us remember that here Paul addresses his discourse to believers and describes the manner in which they entered into the kingdom of God. He affirms that by their works they did not at all deserve that they should become partakers of salvation or that they should be reconciled to God through faith; but he says that they obtained this blessing solely through the mercy of God.

We therefore conclude from his words that we bring nothing to God, but that He goes before us by His pure grace, without any regard to works. For when he says, Not by works which we have done, he means that we can do nothing but sin until we have been renewed by God. This negative statement depends on the former affirmation, by which he said that they were foolish and disobedient, and led away by various desires, until they were created anew in Christ. Indeed, what good work could proceed from so corrupt a mass?

It is madness, therefore, to allege that a man approaches God by his own “preparations,” as they call them. During their whole lives, they depart further and further from Him, until He puts forth His hand and brings them back into that path from which they had gone astray. In short, that we, rather than others, have been admitted to enjoy the salvation of Christ is altogether ascribed by Paul to the mercy of God, because there were no works of righteousness in us. This argument would have no weight if he did not take for granted that everything that we attempt to do before we believe is unrighteous and hateful to God.

Which we had done. To argue from the past tense of this verb that God looks at the future merits of men when He calls them is sophistical and foolish. “When Paul,” they say, “denies that God is induced by our merits to bestow His grace upon us, he limits the statement to the past time; and therefore, if it is only for the previous righteousness that no room is left, future righteousness is admitted to consideration.” But they assume a principle that Paul everywhere rejects when he declares that election by free grace is the foundation of good works.

If we owe it entirely to the grace of God that we are fit for living a holy life, what future works of ours will God look upon? If, before we are called by God, iniquity holds such dominion over us that it will not cease to make progress until it comes to its height, how can God be induced, by a regard to our righteousness, to call us?

Away then with such trifling! When Paul spoke of past works, his sole object was to exclude all merits. The meaning of his words is as if he had said, “If we boast of any merit, what sort of works did we have?” This maxim holds good: that men would not be better than they were before if the Lord did not make them better by His calling.

He hath saved us. He speaks of faith and shows that we have already obtained salvation. Although, as long as we are held by the entanglements of sin, we carry about a body of death, yet we are certain of our salvation, provided that we are ingrafted into Christ by faith, according to that saying:

He that believeth in the Son of God
hath passed from death into life (John 5:24).

Yet, shortly afterwards, by introducing the word faith, the Apostle will show that we have not yet actually attained what Christ procured for us by His death. Hence it follows that, on the part of God, our salvation is completed, while the full enjoyment of it is delayed until the end of our warfare. And that is what the same Apostle teaches in another passage, that we are saved by hope (Romans 8:24).

By the washing of regeneration, I have no doubt that he alludes, at least, to baptism, and I will even not object to having this passage expounded as relating to baptism; not that salvation is contained in the outward symbol of water, but because baptism tells us of the salvation obtained by Christ.

Paul treats of the exhibition of the grace of God, which, we have said, has been made by faith. Since therefore a part of revelation consists in baptism, that is, so far as it is intended to confirm our faith, he properly makes mention of it.

Besides, baptism—being the entrance into the Church and the symbol of our ingrafting into Christ—is here appropriately introduced by Paul when he intends to show in what manner the grace of God appeared to us. So, the sense of the passage runs thus: “God has saved us by His mercy, the symbol and pledge of which He gave in baptism, by admitting us into His Church and ingrafting us into the body of His Son.”

Now the Apostles are accustomed to draw an argument from the Sacraments to prove that which is exhibited there figuratively, because it ought to be held by believers as a settled principle that God does not trifle with us by unmeaning figures, but inwardly accomplishes by His power what He exhibits by the outward sign. Therefore, baptism is fitly and truly said to be the washing of regeneration.

The efficacy and use of the sacraments will be properly understood by one who connects the sign and the thing signified in such a manner as not to make the sign unmeaning and inefficacious, and who nevertheless does not, for the sake of adorning the sign, take away from the Holy Spirit what belongs to Him.

Although by baptism wicked men are neither washed nor renewed, yet it retains that power, so far as relates to God, because, although they reject the grace of God, it is still offered to them.

But here Paul addresses believers, in whom baptism is always efficacious, and in whom, therefore, it is properly connected with its truth and efficacy. By this mode of expression, however, we are reminded that, if we do not wish to annihilate holy baptism, we must prove its efficacy by newness of life (Romans 6:4).

And of the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Though he mentioned the sign to display to us the grace of God, yet, so that we may not fix our whole attention on the sign, he immediately sends us to the Spirit, that we may know that we are washed by His power, and not by water, according to what is said:

I will sprinkle on you clean waters, even my Spirit (Ezekiel 36:25, 27).

And indeed, the words of Paul agree so completely with the words of the Prophet that it appears clearly that both of them say the same thing. For this reason I said at the beginning that Paul, while he speaks directly about the Holy Spirit, at the same time alludes to baptism.

It is therefore the Spirit of God who regenerates us and makes us new creatures; but because His grace is invisible and hidden, a visible symbol of it is beheld in baptism.

Some read the word “renewing” in the accusative case, thus: “through the washing of regeneration and (through) the renewing of the Holy Spirit.” But the other reading—“through the washing of regeneration and of the renewing of the Holy Spirit”—is, in my opinion, preferable.