Titus 2:11-3:8

How should our soon translation affect our living?

The blessed hope of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ’s appearing in glory, at the Rapture, also motivates the sensitive Christian to honor God by his or her behavior now. The Greek verb prosdechomenoi (“looking for”) is in the present tense indicating that this waiting should be our characteristic attitude. We should always be ready to welcome the returning Lord, and to be caught in the act of being ready! We do not want to be involved with activities or ways of thinking or being that cause us to be ashamed when we meet Him face to face (1 John 2:28; 3:3). In the Greek text a single article, translated “the,” introduces both blessed hope and glorious appearing. This suggests that Paul was viewing one event as having two aspects In other words,] the blessed hope is the glorious appearing of our Savior.

Guthrie says here, “In the New Testament hope does not indicate merely what is wished for but what is assured” Henry Theissen wrote, “Paul … does not ask us to look for the Tribulation, or the Antichrist, or for persecution and martyrdom, or for death, but for the return of Christ. If any of these events must precede the Rapture, then how can we help looking for them rather than the Lord’s coming? Such a view of the coming of the Lord can at best only induce a very general interest in the ‘blessed hope.'”