Titus 1

Notes

Ver. 1. Paul—who, as a Christian and minister, is the devoted servant of the ever-blessed God, and who is graciously dignified with the commission, qualifications, and powers of an extraordinary messenger of Jesus Christ, to preach his gospel of salvation in all its extent to Gentiles as well as Jews—according to the doctrine of faith which is embraced by, and the means of working faith in all those who accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and by faith walk in him, and according to their knowledge, approbation, and confession of its infallible truth, which is suited, designed, and made real to them for promoting practical godliness in heart and life, in all the duties thereof towards God or man: 2. Which truth is believed and professed, and godliness practised, in the exercise of a lively hope of the incorruptible and undefiled inheritance of eternal life, which the infinitely sincere and infallibly faithful Jehovah promised to all in Christ, as their blessed head, before the world began, and quickly after the fall published to our first parents in paradise; 3. And which now, in the fulness of time, he has clearly made known by the publication of his gospel, which is revealed and committed to me, as his apostle, to dispense it to Gentiles as well as Jews, according to the express commandment of Jesus Christ our divine Saviour, from sin and wrath:—4. To his dearly beloved Titus, of whose instruction in the principles of the Christian religion, spiritual regeneration, and saving faith, God made him the instrument,—heartily wishes all the abundant manifestations of divine favour, and all peace and prosperity, in time or eternity, from God the Father as the fountain of all good, and from our Lord Jesus Christ as the revealer, source, and bestower of it. 5. You well know that I left you at Crete, when I departed from it, that you might complete whatever remained unfinished with regard to the doctrine, worship, discipline, and manners in the Christian congregation there planted; and particularly that, as an evangelist, you might preside in the election and ordination of teaching and ruling elders or bishops to take the oversight of the professed Christians in every city there, and feed them with knowledge and understanding according to the order: which I left with you: 6. Remember therefore that these overseers ought by all means to be persons of an unspotted moral character, unblemished with polygamy or causeless divorce; careful to bring up their children in the nurture, admonition, and ways of the Lord; and never suffering them to live disgracefully in a luxurious, dissolute, refractory, ungovernable, disobedient manner. 7. For the nature of an evangelical office, the honour of religion, and the good of souls, require that church-rulers, particularly ministers, be under no reproach or scandal in their life and conversation, be not chargeable with neglect, unfaithfulness, or partiality in dispensing the mysteries of God; nor of a headstrong conceited, obstinate, inflexible temper; nor of a hasty spirit, falling into a passion upon every slight provocation; nor lovers of nor addicted to immoderate drinking of liquor; nor contentious nor violent in their behaviour, ready to strike such as displease them; nor of a niggardly, sordid, covetous spirit, bent to catch and keep all that they can of base worldly gain, by which the consciences of men are so frequently defiled: 8. But persons who take pleasure, on all proper occasions, to exert themselves in acts of benevolence, particularly to religious strangers, travelling preachers, and persecuted Christians, being hearty lovers and encouragers of whatever is good, having a cordial affection for all sincere and pious men; and being modest and humble, grave and prudent, upright and faithful, in all they say and do; exemplarily holy in their whole conversation, and chaste and moderate in their desires and pursuits after the pleasures of this life.—9. They ought also to be well enlightened and established in their faith and profession of the pure truths of the gospel, as they have learned them from their inspired writers and publishers—that, by a due application thereof, they may be able to comfort believers, and excite them to their duty; and to confute the errors, silence the cavils, and rebuke the perverseness of opposers.—10. For in Crete, as well as in other places, I understand there are many pretenders to Christianity, especially Jewish zealots for the Mosaic ceremonies, who are refractory and disorderly, not submitting to any divine rule in their doctrines or manners; but are most pernicious, proud, self-conceited disputers about trifles, and crafty seducers of the simple: 11. Whose mouths ought to be stopped, and their errors confuted, by scriptural proofs, solid arguments, and good examples, since they are so indefatigable and subtle, insinuating themselves into Christian families, and carrying them off from Jesus Christ and the gospel to the ceremonies and law of Moses—teaching and urging upon them things utterly false, and inconsistent with the true method of salvation by Christ alone; and all this to procure for themselves the sordid and defiling treasures of this world, by methods suited to the lusts of the Cretians;—12. For you well remember that Epimenides, their own poet and supposed prophet, describes that nation as constantly addicted to lying, and as crafty and savage in their temper: luxuriously and even ravenously gluttonous, and exceedingly lazy and idle, and so exposed to every temptation. 13, 14. And indeed the perfidious, mischievous, and sensual conduct of the judaizing Christians and their disciples, still confirm the justness of that description. It is therefore necessary that you deal plainly and sharply with them, that neither seducers nor seduced may dare to persist any longer in their evil principles and practices, but be recovered to and settled in the true and uncorrupted doctrines of faith, and may no more attend to or believe, and be carried away with, the fabulous traditions of the Jews, or the imperious injunctions of men prejudiced against and gone off from the truth of the gospel—relative to ceremonial rites of clean and unclean meats or drinks, which are no longer obligatory under the New Testament dispensation.—15. By real Christians, whose hearts and consciences are, through faith, purged by the blood of Christ, every kind of wholesome food may be lawfully eaten; but by those who are still unregenerated, and under the power of unbelief with respect to gospel truths, and who are cleaving to Mosaical institutions instead of Christ, nothing, however good or lawful in itself, can be used without sin or defilement, as their own understanding and conscience, those leading and directive powers of their soul, are quite misguided and corrupted. 16. They indeed make high professions and boasts of their knowledge of God and his will; but their practices are a plain confutation of all such pretences, and manifest them to be detestable enemies to God and godliness, unbelievers of the gospel revelation, disobedient to its authority, and utterly injudicious and unfit for performing anything good; and so disapproved of God.

Ver. 3. In due times. Literally, 'in its own' or 'his own times'—the times eternally purposed in divine wisdom, and prophetically foretold by his Spirit through the prophets.—On comparing the phrase 'the commandment of God our Saviour' with the narratives of Paul's conversion and designation to the apostleship, Ac. 9. 15; 26. 16, it will be utterly impossible to deny that he believed Jesus Christ to be 'God manifest in the flesh.' C.

Ver. 5. After comparing ver. 3, in which Titus is appointed to 'ordain elders in every city,' with ver. 6, in which every such elder is required to be 'blameless,' and then with ver. 7, in which every such blameless elder is described as a 'bishop,' it will be difficult to deny that in the apostolic church 'elder' and 'bishop' were but two names for the same person—one the title of qualification derived from age, or its equivalents, wisdom and gravity; the other the title of office and duty, the rule and oversight of the church. C.

Ver. 9. Able—to convince, by refuting objections, unravelling sophistries, exposing misquotations, and establishing the truth on divine authority. C.

Ver. 11. Whose mouths must be stopped—not by secular power, for Titus had none, either on his side or at his command; but by quotation of Scripture, such as our Saviour employed against the Sadducees; and the unmasking of hypocrisy, such as he practised against the Pharisees, Mat. 22. 23-46. C.

Ver. 12. Jerome, Socrates, and Nicephorus apply this to Epimenides, who was born at Gnossus in Crete, and to whom several prophecies are ascribed, by Diogenes Laertes, Plato, and Cicero. The work in which the words are said to have been contained is lost. If he prophesied through mere human sagacity, and yet pretended to be an inspired prophet, the apostle merely gives him the title by which the Cretians recognized him; but if he was in any degree really inspired, and yet not a true follower of God, even so was Balaam, and so was Caiaphas: for the one 'loved the wages of unrighteousness,' and the other condemned to death the Lord of life and glory. C.

Reflections.—Nothing is of higher authority for our direction than such inspired epistles. Nor can anything be more honourable than to be a servant of God and an inspired messenger of Christ. Nothing is more answerable to our need or conducive to our happiness than grace, mercy, and peace: nothing more sure or comfortable than a promise of eternal life from God, who cannot lie. Nor can anything be better framed to convey these blessings to us than the gospel of Christ. As the work of preaching is of infinite importance, and the opposition to it strong and manifold, it requires many great qualifications in ministers, and great care in trying and setting them apart to their office.—False teachers and unruly professors create ministers much and hard work. But where wickedness abounds, professors are apt to be tainted with it. Men hardened in error need plain refutations; and stubborn sinners need severe rebukes. Such as have not right principles of grace abounding in their heart, and sound principles of truth in their belief, must necessarily err in their conduct. And it is not high professions, but holy lives, that characterize true Christians.