For we ourselves also were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
All Commentaries on Titus 3:3 Go To Titus 3
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Thus also he does in his Epistle to the Galatians, where he says, Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. Galatians 4:4 Therefore he says, Revile no one, for such also you were yourself.
For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
Therefore we ought to be thus to all, to be gently disposed. For he who was formerly in such a state, and has been delivered from it, ought not to reproach others, but to pray, to be thankful to Him who has granted both to him and them deliverance from such evils. Let no one boast; for all have sinned. If then, doing well yourself, you are inclined to revile others, consider your own former life, and the uncertainty of the future, and restrain your anger. For if you have lived virtuously from your earliest youth, yet nevertheless you may have many sins; and if you have not, as you think, consider that this is not the effect of your virtue, but of the grace of God. For if He had not called your forefathers, you would have been disobedient. See here how he mentions every sort of wickedness. How many things has not God dispensed by the Prophets and all other means? Have we heard?
