Titus 1:1-16
1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;
2 Ina hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
3 But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;
4 To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.
5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting,b and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:
6 If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.
7 For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;
8 But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men,c sober, just, holy, temperate;
9 Holding fast the faithful word asd he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:
11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.
12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
13 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;
14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.
15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.e
Titus is not mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. From the letter we learn that he was a convert of the apostle. Moreover, we know that he was a Greek.
This letter reached him while he was in Crete, amid peculiar circumstances; his mission was to set the church in order. Therefore the apostle enjoined him to appoint elders. He defined the function of the elder as that of the steward of God, and showed that the function would be fulfilled by loyalty to "the faithful word which is according to the teaching." Only men of character were to be appointed to such office. The elder must be blameless as a family man, in personal character, and in his relation to truth.
There were Judaizing teachers in Crete, and the apostle laid down an important principle for dealing with them: "To the pure all things are pure, but to them that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure." This cut clean across the teaching of those referred to, which consisted in insistence on certain ritualistic commandments. Titus was charged to "reprove them sharply." There are forms of evil which demand the surgeon's knife. The reason for the severity is that the highest purposes of love may be realized.