Waiting For Our Blessed Hope- Titus 2:13

As we continue in our examination of Titus 2:11-14, we now will conduct a closer examination of verse 13, which reads in the NIV as follows: “while we wait for the blessed hope- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ”. The Greek word translated “wait” here is the present participle form of prosdechomai, literally to “receive from”. What is of note here is the use of the present tense, we are receiving from our paidagogos the “blessed hope”, both now and in the future. This phrase is tied directly to what precedes it through the use of this participle, and what Paul is telling us here is that as we “say no to ungodliness and worldly passions”, as we “live self-controlled, upright and Godly lives” we receive from Him more and more of the blessed hope here and now. The blessed hope of verse thirteen is tied to the way in which we live our lives here and now, the more Godly and upright our lives are now, the more we will receive from Him the “blessed hope”. So what is this “blessed hope” which we receive from Him? The Greek word blessed here is makarios. The basic meaning of the word as it was used in Paul’s time was to live a life beyond care, one who was blessed is one who lived his or her life “without a care in the world”. The primary focus of this state of blessedness was upon an internal blessedness, not on one who is blessed with money, power, possessions, etc., but one who was blessed with an internal state of peace and well being, of one whose internal blessedness was not shaken by the external cares of this world. Paul also ties this blessedness to the future through his use of the term “hope” with the blessedness. The Greek word hope here (elpida) refers to an expectation, we act upon what we expect to happen, and this expectation is based upon a future event, the blessedness of the eternal state of the believer, a state in which we will literally live without a care in the world, without the fear and anxiety which the cares of this world can bring. While this state of complete blessedness remains in our futures, we are also told here that a form of this blessedness can be ours here and now, and this blessedness is made reality in our lives in two ways. The first is through obedience to Paul’s exhortation in verse 12, through living self-controlled, upright and Godly lives. The second is through living in light of the blessed hope, through seeing the cares of this world in light of the eternal blessedness of the eternal state of the believer, in light of a future “life beyond care”. So what we find here is Paul exhorting us to live lives which are “self-controlled, upright and Godly”, to keep our focus on the hope of our eternal state of blessedness, and also showing us what taking heed to this exhortation will produce in our lives, that heeding his two part exhortation here will result in a state of internal blessedness in the believer, in a life in which the cares of this world do not produce fear and anxiety, but in which “our blessed hope” produces a state of peace and rest in the midst of the cares of this world..