Titus 2:6-15

Titus 2:6. Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.

They are full of spirits, they are very sanguine, they are apt to be carried away with novelties; exhort them to have that which is thought to be a virtue of age, namely, sobriety. Let them be old when they are young that they may be young when they are old.

Titus 2:7. In all things skewing thyself a pattern of good works:

Titus was himself a young man; he must, therefore, be a pattern to young men; and as a pastor or evangelist he must be a pattern to all sorts of men.

Titus 2:7. in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.

It is a pity when truth suffers at the hand of its own advocate; and perhaps the very worst wounds that truth has received have been in the house of its friends. You must be careful, therefore, «that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.»

Titus 2:9. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters,

They were mostly slaves in those days. A sad condition of society was that in which service meant slavery; yet even slaves were «to be obedient unto their own masters.»

Titus 2:9. And to please them welt in all things; not answering again; not purloining,

Not practicing petty thefts, as, alas! some servants do even now,--

Titus 2:10. But shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.

The life of the Christian, even if he be a servant, is to be an ornament of Christianity. Christ does not look for the ornament of his religion to the riches or the talents of his followers, but to their holy lives «that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.»

Titus 2:11. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Christians are not to run out of the world, as monks and hermits sought to do, but to live «in this present world.» Yet, while in the world, we are to be godly, that is, full of God. That kind of life which is without God is not for Christians. Those worldly desires, the pride and ambition, which are common to worldly men, are not to have power over us; we are to deny them, and to live soberly. This word relates not only to eating and drinking, but to the general sobriety of a man's mind: «Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.»

Titus 2:13. Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

See what Christ died for, see what Christ lives for, see what we are to live for, that we should not only be a people purified, but purified unto Himself. We are not only to have good works, but we are to be zealous of them; we are to burn with zeal for them, for zeal is a kind of fire, it is to burn and blaze in us until we warm and enlighten others also.

Titus 2:15. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

As I have already reminded you, Titus was a young man; and people are apt to despise the pastoral office when it is held by a young man. Yet they ought always to respect it, whether it be held by a young man or an old man. God knows best who is most fitted for the work of the ministry: and those of us who are getting old must never look with any kind of scorn or contempt upon those who are commencing their service, for we, too, were young once. You cannot measure a man's grace by the length of his beard, nor by the number of his years.

This exposition consisted of readings from Titus 2:6, and Titus 3:1.