Sobriety is in the little New Testament book of Titus a response to penultimacy.
The counsel towards self-restraint that is reiterated for each of several social groups is predicated upon an eschatological assumption that defines the situation of the nascent Christian community with a kind of cosmic clarity:
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ …
Rarely is an ethic framed so explicitly as a matter of waiting for an historical denoument that will literally remake the world.
Self-control becomes a penultimate posture, like riding bent over in the back of a truck with stoic bemusement because the journey is short.
So will Titus instruct men older than himself to be temperate and worthy of respect. So will wives go lightly on the wine and busy themselves at home. So will young men ride herd on their sexual drive. So will slaves good-naturedly jump to the business that their masters set before them.
It’s all penultimate and gets fixed in the end.
Grin and bear it, the apostle urges his young son. You can do this. The journey is not long.
Canter Bridge 
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