Survey of the Letters of Paul

Lesson:  Titus 3:4
But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,

This section has 5 verses.
  
 Titus 3:3-7
 3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
 4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
 5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost [Spirit];
 6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
 7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
  
 We will begin with the Barclay commentary.
 
 THE DOUBLE DYNAMIC
 
 First, the paraphrase of verses 3-7:
 
 For we too were once senseless, disobedient, misguided, slaves to all kinds of desires and pleasures, living in maliciousness and envy, detestable ourselves, and hating each other. But when the goodness and the love to men of God our Saviour appeared, it was not by works wrought in righteousness, which we ourselves had done, but by his own mercy that he saved us. That saving act was made effective to us through that washing, through which there comes to us the rebirth and the renewal which are the work of the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out upon us, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. And the aim of all this was that we might be put into a right relationship with God through his grace, and so enter into possession of eternal life, for which we have been taught to hope.
 
 THE dynamic of the Christian life is twofold. It comes first from the realization that converts to Christianity were once no better than their non-Christian neighbours. Christian goodness does not make people proud; it makes them supremely grateful. When Christians looked at others, living life by the standards of Roman society, they did not regard them with contempt; they said, as the Methodist George Whitefield said when he saw the criminal on the way to the gallows: ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’
 
 It comes from the realization of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Perhaps no passage in the New Testament more concisely, and yet more fully, sets out the work of Christ for us than this. There are seven outstanding facts about that work here.
 
 (1) Jesus put us into a new relationship with God. Until he came, God was the King before whom people stood in awe, the Judge before whom they cringed in terror, the Ruler whom they could regard only with fear. Jesus came to tell men and women of the Father whose heart was open and whose hands were stretched out in love. He came to tell them not of the justice which would pursue them forever but of the love which would never let them go.
 
 (2) The love and grace of God are gifts which no one could ever earn; they can only be accepted in perfect trust and in awakened love. God offers his love to us simply out of the great goodness of his heart, and Christians never think of what they have earned but only of what God has given. The keynote of the Christian life must always be wondering and humble gratitude, never proud self-satisfaction. The whole process is due to two great qualities of God.
 
 It is due to his goodness. The word is chre¯stote¯s and means graciousness. It means that spirit which is so kind that it is always eager to give whatever gift may be necessary. Chre¯stote¯s is an all-embracing kindliness, which produces not only warm feeling but also generous action at all times.
 
 It is due to God’s love to men and women. The word is philanthro¯pia, and it is defined as love of someone as a human being. The Greeks thought much of this beautiful word. They used it for the kindliness of good people to their equals, for a good king’s graciousness to his subjects, for a generous individual’s active pity for those in any kind of distress, and especially for the compassion which made someone pay the ransom for another who had fallen into captivity.
 
 Behind all this is no human merit but only the gracious kindliness and the universal love which are in the heart of God.
 
 (3) This love and grace of God are mediated [removal of misunderstanding] through the Church. They come through the sacrament of baptism. That is not to say that they can come in no other way, for God is not confined within his sacraments; but the door to them is always open through the Church. When we think of baptism in the earliest days of the Church, we must remember that it was the baptism of grown men and women coming directly out of the ancient idolatrous religions. It was the deliberate leaving of one way of life to enter upon another. When Paul writes to the people of Corinth, he says: ‘You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified’ (1 Corinthians 6:11). In the letter to the Ephesians, he says that Jesus Christ took the Church ‘in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word’ (Ephesians 5:26). In baptism, there came the cleansing, re-creating power of God.
 
 Quoted verses:
 1 Corinthians 6:11 ...but I will read from verse 9
 9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
 11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
 
 Ephesians 5:26
 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
 
 In this connection, Paul uses two words.
 
 He speaks of rebirth (paliggenesia). Here is a word which had many associations. After baptism, converts who were received into the Jewish faith were treated as if they were little children. It was as if they had been reborn and life had begun all over again. The Pythagoreans [puh-tha'guh-REE-uns] used the word frequently. They believed in reincarnation and that people returned to life in many forms until they were fit to be released from it. Each return was a rebirth. The Stoics used the word. They believed that every 3,000 years the world was destroyed in a great fire, and that then there was a rebirth of a new world. When people entered the mystery religions, they were said to be ‘reborn for eternity’. The point is that when we accept Christ as Saviour and Lord, life begins all over again. There is a newness about life which can be likened only to a new birth.
 
 He speaks of a renewing. It is as if life were worn out and, when someone discovers Christ, there is an act of renewal, which is not over and done with in one moment of time but repeats itself every day.
 
 (4) THE grace and love of God are mediated to men and women within the Church, but behind it all is the power of the Holy Spirit. All the work of the Church, all the words of the Church, all the sacraments of the Church have no effect unless the power of the Holy Spirit is there. However well a church is organized, however splendid its ceremonies may be, however beautiful its buildings, all is ineffective without that power. The lesson is clear. Revival in the Church comes not from increased efficiency in organization but from waiting upon God. It is not that efficiency is not necessary; but no amount of efficiency can breathe life into a body from which the Spirit has departed.
 
 (5) The effect of all this is threefold. It brings forgiveness for past sins. In his mercy, God does not hold our sins against his sins. ‘Man,’ said Augustine, ‘look away from your sins and look to God.’ It is not that we should live our lives without being perpetually repentant for our sins; but the very memory of our sins should move us to wonder at the forgiving mercy of God.
 
 (6) The effect is also new life in the present. Christianity does not confine its offer to blessings which shall be. It offers us here and now life of a quality which we have never known before. When Christ enters into our lives, for the first time we really begin to live.
 
 (7) Last, there is the hope of even greater things. Christians are men and women for whom the best is always still to be; they know that, however wonderful life on earth with Christ may be, the life to come will be greater still. Christians are people who know the wonder of the forgiveness of past sins, the thrill of present life with Christ, and the hope of the greater life which is yet to come. ~Barclay Commentary
 
 Now to the other commentaries. We will begin with the general and move to the specific.
 
 We will begin with the Matthew Henry Main. The commentary discusses chapter 3 and verses 1-8. We will break in where it deals with verses 4-7. These four verses continue the statements of verses 2 and 3. Lets's read those.
 
 Titus 3:2-3
 2 To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.
 3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
 
 So God is commanding that we speak evil of no man but to be gentle and showing all meekness. Why? Verse 3 answers the why question. We were, ourselves, foolish, disobedient, deceived, hateful and so on. But then God did something. What He did is laid out in verses 4-7.
 
 Here is the Matthew Henry Main
 
 2. From their present state. “We are delivered out of that our miserable condition by no merit nor strength of our own; but only by the mercy and free grace of God, and merit of Christ, and operation of his Spirit. Therefore, we have no ground, in respect of ourselves, to condemn those who are yet unconverted, but rather to pity them, and cherish hope concerning them [the plan of God for all of mankind], that they, though in themselves as unworthy and unmeet as we were, yet may obtain mercy, as we have:” and so upon this occasion the apostle again opens the causes of our salvation, Titus 3:4-7.
 
 (1.) We have here the prime author of our salvation - God the Father, therefore termed here God our Saviour. All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:18. All things belonging to the new creation, and recovery of [sinful] man to life and happiness, of which the apostle is there speaking, all these things are of God the Father, as contriver and beginner of this work. There is an order in acting, as in subsisting. God (namely, the Father) is a Saviour by Christ, through the Spirit. John 3:16, God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him might not perish, but have everlasting life. He is the Father of Christ, and through him the Father of mercies; all spiritual blessings are by Christ from him, Ephesians 1:3. We joy in God through Jesus Christ, Romans 5:11. And with one mind, and one mouth, glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 15:5.
 
 Quoted verses:
 2 Corinthians 5:18
 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
 
 John 3:16
 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
 
 Ephesians 1:3
 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
 
 Romans 5:11
 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
 
 Romans 15:5
 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
 
 (2.) The spring and rise of it - the divine philanthropy, or kindness and love of God to man. By grace we are saved. The occasion [situation] is in man, namely, his misery and wretchedness. Sin bringing that misery, wrath might have issued out rather than compassion; but God, knowing how to adjust all with his own honour and perfections, would pity and save rather than destroy. He delights in mercy. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. We read of riches of goodness and mercy, Romans 2:4; Ephesians 2:7. Let us acknowledge this, and give him the glory of it, not turning it to wantonness, but to thankfulness and obedience.
 
 Quoted verses:
 Romans 2:4 ...a question
 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
 
 Ephesians 2:7
 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
 
 (3.) Here is the means, or instrumental cause - the shining out of this love and grace of God in the gospel, after it appeared, that is, in the word. The appearing of love and grace has, through the Spirit, great virtue to soften and change and turn to God, and so is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth. Thus having asserted God to be the author, his free grace the spring, and the manifestation of this in the gospel the means of salvation, that the honour of all still may be the better secured to him. ~Matthew Henry Main
 
 Let me give you this item 3 in language that may be more clear. Item 1 identifies the author of our salvation, God. Item 2 states how the salvation came, namely, the kindness and love of God to man. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance and the salvation process. This item 3 shows us how this plan of salvation works. The kindness and love of God was introduced and continues from the Word of God. Salvation is manifested in each of us by the power of the Holy Spirit. The elements of salvation are all laid out in the Word of God. They change us and lead us through the salvation process to eternal life. All this being done by God the Father, through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
 
 Here is something from the Biblical Illustrator that speaks to the kindness of God.
 
 But after that the kindness and love of God - The power of God’s kindness
 In the incarnation of Christ, His life and miracles and mercies and divinest teaching; in His sacrificial death upon the cross [stake], His resurrection and ascension, we have that manifestation of the kindness of God which is intended and calculated to lift us up out of our sins, and to bring us into His own most holy fellowship.
 
 And see how broad and far-reaching this kindness is; it is not for the elect nor for the Church, though these of course are included, but for man as such—for the whole human family, without exception. Wide as the world is Thy command, vast as eternity Thy love! We know something of this power of kindness to subdue the evil and develop the good even between man and man. It has many a time succeeded where everything else has failed, and where it fails we know of nothing else likely to succeed. ~Biblical Illustrator
 
 There is so much in the phrase, "the kindness and love of God." We have God's Holy Spirit but are still human and working with the limits of the human mind. It is not always easy to grasp the fullness of God or His love. We do get closer to it with every step we take toward spiritual maturity. These next two pieces from the Biblical Illustrator attempt to state this:
 
 God’s kindness
 The sun that shines on you shall set, summer streams shall freeze, and deepest wells go dry; but God’s love is a stream that never freezes, a fountain that never fails, a sun that never sets in night, a shield that never breaks in fight. ~Biblical Illustrator
 
 God’s kindness only partially seen by the soul
 The sun appears red through a fog, and generally red at rising and setting, the red rays having a great momentum which gives them power to traverse so dense an atmosphere, which the other rays have not. The increased quantity of atmosphere which oblique rays must traverse, loaded with the mists and vapours which are usually formed at those times, prevents the other rays from reaching us. It is thus that but a few of the rays of God’s love—like the red rays—reach the soul. Sin, passion, and unbelief surround it as with a dense atmosphere of mists and vapours; and, though the beams of God’s love are poured out innumerable as the sun’s rays, they are lost and scattered, and few of them shine upon the soul. ~Biblical Illustrator
 
 Now to the specific commentaries.
 
 The verse is broken down into five parts:
 
 1] But after that.
 2] The kindness.
 3] And love of God.
 4] Our Savior toward man.
 5] Appeared.
 
 1] But after that.
 But after that - Greek, when - The meaning is, that “when the love of God was manifested in the plan of salvation, he saved us from this state God appeared” after we had sinned in this way, but that when his mercy was thus displayed we were converted from our sins, and made pure in his sight. ~Barnes Notes
 
 2] The kindness.
 The kindness - “the goodness, or the benignity.” The word is rendered “goodness” and “good” in Romans 2:4; Romans 3:12; Romans 11:22, thrice; “kindness,” 2 Corinthians 6:6; Ephesians 2:7; Colossians 3:12; Titus 3:4; and “gentleness,” Galatians 5:22. The act of redeeming us was one of great kindness, or goodness. ~Barnes Notes
 
 Quoted verses:
 Romans 2:4
 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
 
 Romans 3:12
 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
 
 Romans 11:22
 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
 
 2 Corinthians 6:6
 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost [Spirit], by love unfeigned,
 
 Ephesians 2:7
 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
 
 Colossians 3:12
 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
 
 Galatians 5:22
 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
 
 3] And love of God.
 And love of God - Margin, “pity.” The Greek word is - “philanthropy - the love of man.” The plan of salvation was founded on love to man, and was the highest expression of that love; the notes at John 3:16. The Greek of this verse is, “When the kindness and love of God our Saviour to man was manifested, he saved us” Titus 3:5, to wit, from those sins of which we had before been guilty. ~Barnes Notes
 
 Quoted verses:
 John 3:16
 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
 
 Titus 3:5 [see Lesson]
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost [Spirit].
 
 4] Our Savior toward man.
 Of God our Saviour — Greek, “of our Savior God,” namely, the Father (Titus 1:3), who “saved us” (Titus 3:5) “through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:6). ~JFB
 
 Quoted verses:
 Titus 1:3 [see Lesson]
 But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;
 
 Titus 3:5 ...quoted above
 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost [Spirit].
 
 Titus 3:6 [see Lesson]
 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
 
 5] Appeared.
 Appeared — Greek, “was made to appear”; was manifested. ~JFB
 
 Note: What a glorious concept: "God manifested something." This is the hallmark of God. He is always and continually manifesting perfect things at the right time in the right situation. All His ways are perfect. His timing is perfect. His plan of salvation is perfect. His love and kindness are perfect. These are the lessons of verse 4.