III. (1) PUT THEM IN MIND TO BE SUBJECT TO PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS. — Very careful and searching have been the Apostle’s charges to Titus respecting the teachers of the _Church,_ their doctrine and their life; very particular have been his directions, his warnings, and exhortations to men and wome... [ Continue Reading ]
TO SPEAK EVIL OF NO MAN. — These commands of St. Paul to the Church of Crete breathe throughout the spirit of Christ, who “when He was reviled, reviled not again;” who said “Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” The Christi... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WE OURSELVES ALSO WERE SOMETIMES FOOLISH, DISOBEDIENT, DECEIVED. — Better rendered, _For we were once ourselves foolish, disobedient, going astray._ Surely, the Apostle argues, _Christians_ can never refuse obedience to one in authority, or decline to be meek, courteous, kind, and forbearing to... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT AFTER THAT THE KINDNESS AND LOVE OF GOD OUR SAVIOUR TOWARD MAN APPEARED. — Another thought now wells up in the Apostle’s mind. We of ourselves should never have become changed men, had not the kindness of God and His divine love for men shown itself. We, indeed, have no ground for self-exaltatio... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT BY WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. — This by no means asserts that such works ever had been done, and then produced, as it were, before the bar of God, and weighed and found insufficient; but it simply maintains that to _win_ salvation such _must_ be done. Sad experience, more forcibly than any theologi... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH HE SHED ON US ABUNDANTLY THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR. — In other words, _which_ — namely, the Holy Ghost — _the Father poured abundantly on us through Jesus Christ cur Saviour._ The argument continues thus: He (God) saved us first by the laver of regeneration and of renewal of the Holy Gh... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT BEING JUSTIFIED BY HIS GRACE, WE SHOULD BE MADE HEIRS ACCORDING TO THE HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE. — Here appears the glorious design of God’s salvation. We were in a hopeless and lost state, from which God’s love for man saved us by the laver of regeneration and renovation; and this was the end for... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS IS A FAITHFUL SAYING. — Then St. Paul, having, in those few but sublime words we have been considering, painted our present happy state — happy even on earth, where the glorious promised inheritance was still only a hope — and having shown how that this blessedness was the result of no efforts... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT AVOID FOOLISH QUESTIONS, AND GENEALOGIES. — The “questions” and “genealogies” have been discussed above (1 Timothy 1:4). The Apostle characterises them as “foolish,” because they were of an utterly unpractical nature, and consumed time and powers which were needed for other and better things. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
A MAN THAT IS AN HERETICK. — The Greek word translated “heretick” in the New Testament occurs here only. The term “heresies” occurs twice (1 Corinthians 11:19; Galatians 5:20). In neither, however, of these passages does the word signify there a fundamental or doctrinal error. This sense belongs to... [ Continue Reading ]
KNOWING THAT HE THAT IS SUCH IS SUBVERTED, AND SINNETH, BEING CONDEMNED OF HIMSELF. — Better rendered, _is perverted and sinneth, being self-condemned._ Inasmuch as thou knowest, seeing that thy reproofs and warnings have been of none effect, that he is “thoroughly perverted” — the expression is a v... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN I SHALL SEND ARTEMAS UNTO THEE, OR TYCHICUS, BE DILIGENT TO COME UNTO ME. — But Titus is here reminded — perhaps with _some_ reference to the question of the treatment of the factious or heretic persons just alluded to — that he is only the temporary ruler of the Cretan Church, on a special com... [ Continue Reading ]
BRING ZENAS THE LAWYER. — A name contracted, as it seems, from Zenodorus. The term “lawyer” might possibly indicate that this friend of Paul’s was a Roman jurist, but it is more likely that the law in which he was an expert was that of Moses. Hippolytus numbers him among the seventy disciples, and r... [ Continue Reading ]
AND LET OUR’S ALSO LEARN TO MAINTAIN GOOD WORKS FOR NECESSARY USES. — “Ours,” that is, those who with St. Paul and Titus in Crete called upon the name of Jesus. A last reminder to the brethren, whom with a loving thought he calls “ours,” constantly to practise good and beneficent works. In the expre... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THAT ARE WITH ME SALUTE THEE. — It is uncertain where Paul was when he wrote this letter. “All that are with me” include those with him, journeying in his company. They are not named, because the individuals composing the immediate following of St. Paul would be likely to be well known to Titus.... [ Continue Reading ]