Titus 2:14

ὃς ἔδωκεν ἑαυτὸν κ. τ. λ.: see note on 1 Timothy 2:6. As already observed, this is an appeal from the constraining love of Christ to the responding love of man.

λυτρώσηται : deliver. The language is borrowed from Psalms 129 (130):8 αὐτὸς λυτρώσεται τὸν Ἰσραὴλ ἐκ πασῶν τῶν ἀνομιῶν αὐτοῦ. The material supplied by this passage for a discussion of the Atonement is contained in ἔδωκεν … ἡμῶν, not in λυτρώσηται. See Dean Armitage Robinson's note on Ephesians 1:14.

ἀνομίας : Lawlessness is the essence of sin (1 John 3:4), self-assertion as opposed to self-sacrifice which is love. Love, which is self-sacrifice, is a dissolvent of self-assertion or sin. And to what degree soever we allow the love of Christ to operate as a controlling principle in our lives, to that degree we are delivered from ἀνομία, as an opposing controlling principle.

καθαρίσῃ ἑαυτῷ λαόν : This is a pregnant expression for “purify and so make them fit to be his people”. St. Paul has in mind Ezekiel 37:23, “I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God”, ῥύσομαι αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ πασῶν τῶν ἀνομιῶν αὐτῶν ὧν ἡμάρτοσαν ἐν αὐταῖς, καὶ καθαριῶ αὐτοὺς καὶ ἔσονταί μοι εἰς λαὸν, κ. τ. λ. There is in καθαρίσῃ an allusion to Holy Baptism, which is explicit in Titus 3:5. Cf. Ephesians 5:26, ἵνα αὐτὴν ἁγιάσῃ καθαρίσας τῷ λουτρῷ τοῦ ὕδατος ἐν ῥήματι.

λαὸν περιούσιον : populum acceptabilem (Vulg.). A people for his own possession (R.V.) is the modern equivalent of a peculiar people (A.V.). λαὸς περιούσιος is the LXX for עַם סְגֻלָּה. סְגֻלָּה means “a valued property, a peculiar treasure” (peculium), and occurs first in Exodus 19:5, “Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me.” Here the LXX inserts λαός, possibly from the references in Deut., in which the combination סגלה עם is found. סגלה alone occurs in Malachi 3:17 (εἰς περιποίησιν) and in Psalms 135:4 (εἰς περιουσιασμόν). The LXX of Malachi 3:17 is echoed in Ephesians 1:14, εἰς ἀπολύτρωσιν τῆς περιποιήσεως, (where see Dean Armitage Robinson's note) and 1 Peter 2:9, λαὸς εἰς περιποίησιν, in which λαός is a reminiscence of the LXX of the passages in Exod. and Deut. Perhaps περιούσιος refers to the treasure as laid up, while περιποίησις refers to it as acquired.

ζηλωτὴν καλῶν ἔργων : See Ephesians 2:10; 1 Peter 1:15; Hebrews 10:24.