Titus 3

Notes

Ver. 1. And as the same judaizing teachers dissuade Christians from owning the authority of heathen magistrates, see that you earnestly admonish and charge your people to be peaceably submissive to their supreme or subordinate civil governors, as the deputies and ministers of God; and to pay a conscientious obedience to all their just laws; and to perform every duty becoming their stations, whether it relate to God or to men. 2. Caution them against reviling any, of whatever rank, nation, or religion, or charging things falsely upon them, or even exposing their real faults, but in so far as some valuable end is to be gained thereby. Warn them against a litigious quarrelsome temper and behaviour; and teach them, on the contrary, to be of an equitable, candid, yielding spirit; and to manifest a humble, mild, and good temper in all their words and actions towards all sorts of men, the very worst not excepted. 3. For indeed none can be worse than we once were, and should still have been, if left to ourselves; for in our unregenerate state we were destitute of all spiritual wisdom and knowledge relating to duty or happiness: were disobedient to God and his holy, just, and good laws; were wanderers from him and the way of life and peace—seduced by Satan, the world, and our own treacherous hearts; were perfect slaves to many diversified sinful inclinations and sensual pleasures; were foolishly spending our time in maliciously wishing and doing all the hurt we could to such as did not please us; and envying the honour or happiness of such as were above or around us; and, on the whole, were most hateful and detestable in ourselves to God and to all good men, and full of bitter and implacable enmity one against another, according to our different passions, interests, or nations. 4. But, while we were in these awful circumstances, the transcendent kindness and infinite mercy of God (the original Fountain of our salvation through Jesus Christ) towards men shone forth with reviving and almighty grace, in the preaching and power of the gospel, to make a holy and happy change on us. 5. And it neither was nor could be any good work which we, who were so detestable and wicked, had performed, but really of his own full, self-moving, undeserved, nay, abused and provoked mercy, and its compassionate propensions, that he brought us out of that deplorable condition into a state of salvation, through repentance, faith, and regenerating grace, represented in baptism, and effected by a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, 6. Whom, in his gifts and graces, God the Father graciously and abundantly bestowed upon us, according to his promise, through the mediation, merit, exaltation, and intercession of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; 7. That being, by the love of God, discharged from guilt and condemnation, and accepted as righteous unto eternal life on account of the righteousness of Jesus Christ imparted to us, we might be adopted into his family as his children, and made heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, according to the ground of hope laid down in the promises of the gospel given to us, and according to that grace of hope wrought in our souls by which we expect eternal life through our Redeemer.—8. The important things which I have mentioned are true and faithful, and to be firmly believed, and frequently insisted upon in your ministrations, that they who have believed in God through Christ, according to the gospel revelation, may be induced and excited, with all carefulness and diligence, to abound, excel, and lead the way to others, in all such works as are honourable to God, to Christ, and to their Christian character. And these doctrines, and the good works to which they manifestly tend, are every way excellent in their own nature; and though God cannot be profited by them, they are exceedingly useful and beneficial to mankind. 9. But avoid and discountenance all senseless and idle debates, of which judaizing teachers are so fond,—as about descent from this or that particular tribe or family of Israel, or about the sense and obligation of the ceremonial law, which they desire to introduce into the gospel dispensation.—10. If any professed Christian entertain and boldly assert such errors as overthrow the fundamental principles of the gospel, especially if he appear to do it from prejudice against the truths themselves, as directly contrary to his own lusts, or out of a proud inclination to make himself the head of a party, let him be, once and again, solemnly, and in the most convincing manner, admonished of his sin and danger; and if after all this he obstinately persist in his destructive errors, let him be excommunicated from the visible church, and all familiarity with him not required by the laws of nature be carefully avoided by her members; 11. For it is sufficiently manifest that such a man hath utterly turned away from Christ the foundation, and from all true goodness, and that he sins against his own soul, and against the divine authority, light, and truth of the gospel revelation, if not against the convictions of his own conscience. And his persisting to avow such error is sufficient proof against him; yea, thereby he practically condemns himself as not fit to have any fellowship with the true church of Christ.

Ver. 5. (1) Does 'the washing of regeneration' signify baptism, and does the apostle mean that 'the renewing of the Holy Ghost' necessarily accompanies or flows from it? or (2) Does 'the washing of regeneration' signify baptism as merely a ritual sign to all, and seal to believers of 'the renewing of the Holy Ghost?' or (3) Is 'the renewing of the Holy Ghost' merely expository of 'the washing of regeneration?' The first of these views is supported by Hooker, Beveridge, G. Ridley, &c.; the second, by Bishop's Bible, Hall, Wells, Brown, T. Scott, A. Clarke, &c. The first of these views we unhesitatingly reject; and to the second, though supported by such eminent names, we prefer the third, translating the passage 'by the washing of regeneration, even the renewing of the Holy Ghost.' See note on Jn. 3. 5. C.

Ver. 9. Foolish questions—on matters of mere idle curiosity; on points that can never be absolutely ascertained; or of no practical use if discovered. C.

Ver. 10. The heretical man was one who, either by the adoption and propagation of fundamental errors, or errors of a minor character, caused divisions in the church. P.

Reflections.—Nothing is more absurd than for princes to hate and persecute true Christianity, which so truly renders men good subjects. For nothing can more actually influence men to every good word and work than the believing consideration of their marvellously gracious redemption by God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Dreadful is the wickedness in heart and life of every man by nature; and transcendent the grace, precious the blood, and almighty the influence that can save such sinners—that can without, nay, contrary to, their own deserts, renew their hearts after the image of God, justify their persons before him, and through faith give them eternal life. Base is our conduct if, after all, we willingly employ either heart or tongue, hand or foot, in iniquity. The doctrines of the gospel, believed with the heart, are the most real and effectual means of making us careful to maintain good works. Honourable would it be if every professed Christian were thereby distinguished from others. And happy would be the church if all useless controversies were shunned and stifled; every erroneous and schismatical person, after due pains taken for his conviction, were solemnly excommunicated; and faithful ministers were all of one mind, heart, and way in the truth as it is in Christ.

Concluding Remarks on the Epistle to Titus.

How much Christianity is intended to cultivate the domestic, the political, and the social virtues, appears from the admirable precepts of ch. ii. iii.; and how much the success of their cultivation depends upon ministerial faithfulness is obvious from the personal charges addressed to Titus, ch. 2. 7, 15; 3. 8. This epistle has also a special value in the authority which it furnishes for the exercise of a careful and efficient discipline, not merely over church-members guilty of gross immorality, as in 1 Co. 5. 4, 5, but also over such as adopt, assert, or propagate erroneous doctrines contrary to the Word of God. These the apostle instructs Titus to admonish; but, if obstinate, he commands him to reject them from the fellowship of the church. C.