For the grace of God has manifested, salvific for all human beings, training us that, having disavowed irreverence and worldly cravings, we should live temperately and justly and reverently in the current eon, being ready for the happy expectation and manifestation of the great God and our Savior, Christ Jesus, who offered himself for us that he might ransom us from all lawlessness and might purify for himself a prized people eager for splendid deeds.
Tell these things, and exhort and reprove with full authoritativeness; let no one discount you.
[Titus 2:11-15, my rough translation. 'Wordly' is 'cosmic', i.e., 'of this world-order', and may connect with the 'current eon', an aeon being the world-epoch, a perpetuity, an age that has a unified structure and character, the world as a historical entity.
This passage seems clearly to refer to the cardinal virtues -- temperance and justice are explicitly mentioned, and eusebeia, reverence, has often substituted for or been associated with prudence in the list of cardinal virtues; so perhaps we should see the 'being ready for', which can also mean 'awaiting', 'abiding', or 'enduring', as a reference to fortitude.
Laon periousion, here translated as 'prized people', is used in several places in the Septuagint: Exodus 19:5 ('out of all nations, you will be my treasured possession'), Deuteronomy 7:6 ('The Lord God has chosen you out of all peoples on the earth to be his people, his treasured possession'), Deuteronomy 14:2, Deuteronomy 26:18. It has historically been translated as a 'peculiar people' because the Latin peculium means 'personal possession or funds'. Laon could also mean 'tribe', 'nation', or 'ethnicity'; it indicates a community with a common heritage. 'Eager for splendid deeds' is often translated as 'zealous for good works', but kalon means good in the sense of 'fine/splendid/noble' -- it's the kind of good associated with heroes and outstanding or exemplary people.]
