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But the character of the Cretans, and especially of the Cretan Jews, rendered the task one of great difficulty. As a people they were noted for their fickleness, avarice, sensuality, licentiousness, and mendacity; and they are thus characterized by even the heathen writers of that period. For some reason Paul is compelled to leave while in the midst, of the work, and the difficult and delicate task of completing it was devolved on Titus. Consequently, the apostle, after his departure, writes this Epistle, at once to certify the authority of Titus as acting in the apostle's place in the superintendence of the work in Crete, and to give explicit directions to him respecting the manner of performing the duties of his position. In this, as in the Epistles to Timothy, the subjects treated belong, for the most part, to all ages, and have therefore a universal interest and importance. The Epistle was probably sent by the hands of Zenas and Apollos, to whom it served as a letter of introduction and commendation. (3: 13.) Some, as Hofmann, regard this as the primary occasion of sending it; but, as these persons are not mentioned till the close of the Epistle, and then only in a single verse, it seems more natural to think that Paul was moved to write it by the needs of Titus and the Cretan Christians, and simply availed himself of the journey of Zenas and Apollos as a favoring opportunity to send it to the island.

THE CONTENTS.

Like the other Pastoral Epistles, this is a personal, familiar letter, and is without formal plan. The leading topics occur in the following order:

Chapter First.-Address and greeting (1-4); directions to Titus as to church order, particularly the qualifications of elders (10-16); the Cretan false teachers described (5-9). Chapter Second.-Titus is instructed how to apply the gospel to different classes in the church, as the aged, the young, and the slaves (1-10); the ground of the foregoing exhortations to holy living is shown in that the grace of God has for its end the sanctification of men (11-15).

Chapter Third.-The conduct to be required of Christians toward rulers and society in general (1, 2); the duty of showing such disposition and conduct toward others is enforced and illustrated by God's kindness and mercy to us (3-7); the doctrine of a gratuitous salvation is to be insisted on in order to incite believers to good works (8–11); closing directions and salutations, with the benediction (12-15.)

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1 Gr. bondservant.

faith in consequence of election. Compare Eph. 1: 4." (Ellicott.) Though God's elect, their election only attains its end "through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2 Thess. 2:13); and hence the gospel must be proclaimed, and they must believe, in order to be saved (2 Tim. 2:10). The truth is 'after (or, according) to godliness'—that is, it is not merely abstract, theoretical; but has a moral aim, leading men to practical godli

ness.

Ch. 1:1-4. ADDRESS AND SALUTATION. | election is not in consequence of faith, but -1. After announcing himself as a servant of God and an apostle of Christ, he states that the object of his apostleship is to bring God's elect to the faith and to the full knowledge of the truth which leads to piety. (1.) 2. This object he prosecutes in view of the hope, for himself and all believers, of eternal life, which God, who cannot prove false, promised in Christ before eternal ages, but manifested in his own appointed times through preaching; which preaching, the apostle declares, was intrusted to him by the appointment of God. (2, 3.) 3. Addressing Titus as his true child in virtue of a common faith, he invokes on him grace and peace from God and Christ. (4.) 1. Paul a servant of God—an expression not elsewhere used by the apostle in opening his epistles, the more usual form being a servant of Jesus Christ"; the fact may, perhaps, serve to attest the genuineness of the Epistle, since a forger would not be likely to depart from Paul's method in so conspicuous a place. And an apostle of Jesus Christ-presenting the special office and work of Paul as an apostle in distinction from his general position as a servant. According to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging (knowledge) of the truth, which is after godliness-"with a view to subserve the faith of God's elect." Compare Rom. 1: 5: "for obedience to the faith." Here the object of the apostleship is stated: it is to bring God's chosen to the faith and to the full knowledge of that truth which leads to godliness. (Acts 13: 48; 18:9, 10.) This, which was pre-eminently the end of the apostolic office, is the grand end of the ministry; for preaching is God's appointed means of faith. (Rom. 10: 14-17; 1 Cor. 1: 21-24.) 'God's elect,' or, "the chosen of God." "Acts 13 48 shows this - that

It is not a mere philosophy, but a spiritual power, purifying and uplifting the life. 2. In hope of eternal life-" he fulfills his task with or in hope of eternal life." That which he has in view in prosecuting the work of his apostleship is the hope, for himself and for all believers, of eternal life. This is the glorious goal set before him, and which, in leading men to faith and the full knowledge of the truth, he sets before them-eternal life secured in Christ. Faith and knowledge, in his view, "rested on a background of promise and hope, which, in a manner, stretched from eternity to eternity, having God's primeval promise for its origin, and a participation in his everlasting life for an end." (Fairbairn.) Which (eternal life) God that cannot lie, promised before the world began (eternal times)-that is, as 2 Tim. 1: 9, before the cycles, or ages, through which the world has passed, commenced; or in eternity, before time began. 'Cannot lie'- -a single word in the Greek (ȧvevons), added to heighten the certainty of the result, as Heb. 6: 18; compare Rom. 3: 4; 11: 29; 1 Cor. 1: 9. The unchanging truth of God is the foundation of all hope. Promised before eternal times-as "chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4), God gave the elect, in solemn promise, to Christ as his redeemed people

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 litus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.

3 lie, promised 1 before times eternal; but in 2 his own seasons manifested his word in the 3 message wherewith I was intrusted according to the command4 ment of God our Saviour; to Titus, my true child after a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour.

1 Or, long ages ago.....2 Or, its......3 Or, proclamation.

Jude 25.)

and as co-inheritors with him of eternal life. | not preach on his own authority, but as one (John 6: 39; 10: 29; 17: 2, 6, 8, 11.) This promise, made intrusted with a proclamation by the appointto Christ in eternity is assured by the un- ment of God. God our Saviour'-probably changing faithfulness of God; and resting on God the Father, according to the prevailing it as an absolute certainty, the apostle prose- Pauline usage. (1 Tim. 1: 1; 2:3; Titus 2:10; 3:4; cuted his apostolic work, and to that promise directed the faith and hope of men. "If indeed Christ be 'the chosen of God,' the Surety and Representative of 'all who were given to him' (John 6: 36-40; 17: 1-3), eternal life was promised to him before the world was,' in consequence of his engagement to become incarnate and to be obedient even to the death of the cross." (Scott.) Others explain it as "a contracted expression for purposed before the world began' (literally, before the ages of time), and promised actually in time, the promise springing from the eternal purpose." (Fausset.) Thus, also, Alford and most interpreters.

4. To Titus, mine own son after the common faith-or, in virtue of a common faith. Mine own,' genuine. (1 Tim. 1:2.) He was Paul's genuine son; by virtue, not of fleshly relationship, but of their sharing in a common faith. He was Paul's spiritual child, probably as having been led to Christ by him and as having thus been made a sharer of his faith. (1 Cor. 4: 15; Philem. 10.) Titus was a Gentile; and in 'common faith' there is possibly allusion to the higher bond of unity by which this common faith in Christ bound them, though one was a Jew and the other a Gentile.

(Gal. 5: 6; Col. 3: 11.) Grace, mercy, and 3. But hath in due times manifested peace. 'Mercy,' which occurs in the other his word through preaching-or, mani- Pastoral Epistles, is probably to be omitted fested in his own (appointed) times his word here, as it is wanting in the Sinaitic, Ephin the proclamation. (Acts 1:7; 1 Tim. 6:15.) His raem, and other ancient codices, as also in word of promise of eternal life, made to Christ important versions. It was probably interpobefore eternal ages and hid through those ages lated to conform the passage to the others. in the mystery of the divine counsels, God (1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:3.) It is found, however, in manifested, published, in his own appointed the Alexandrian Codex. From God the times, "when the fulness of time was come" Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our -that is, in the Gospel Dispensation. "Here Saviour. 'Our Saviour,' used here only of again we have the same antithesis between the Christ in an invocation, though often applied period of the revealed and the hidden mys- to him in other relations. "He applies the tery, as in Rom. 16: 25; Eph. 35. The same epithet, Saviour, to the Father and to time of this revelation is that which God fixed Christ, inasmuch as certainly each of them is and arranged in his own wisdom. See, also, our Saviour, but for a different reason; for 1 Tim. 26; Gal. 4: 4." (Van Oosterzee.) the Father is our Saviour because he redeemed Which is committed unto me. The proc- us by the death of his Son, that he might make lamation, or preaching, with which Paul was us heirs of eternal life; but the Son, because charged, was the vehicle, or medium, through he shed his blood as the pledge and price of which this great promise of eternal life in our salvation. Thus the Son has brought to Christ was manifested or published. The pro- us salvation from the Father, and the Father claiming of this he everywhere regards as his has bestowed it through the Son." (Calvin.) special trust from God. See Acts 20: 24; 1 5-9. THE APPOINTMENT OF ELDERS; Cor. 9: 16, 17; 2 Cor. 5:18–20; Gal. 1: 15, QUALIFICATIONS TO BE REQUIRED IN THEM. 16; 1 Tim. 1: 11. According to the com--1. The apostle's purpose in leaving Titus in mandment of God our Saviour. He did Crete; it was that he should further set in

5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:

order the churches, especially by the appointment of elders. (6.) 2. He prescribes the qualifications which must be required in elders, mentioning (a) the moral, or those pertaining to the character and life, and (b) the doctrinal, insisting especially on adherence to the sure, divinely taught word as necessary alike in exhorting believers and in convicting opposers. (6-9.)

5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee

complete, and must have required much additional instruction and training. This work Paul had begun, but, being called away, had left Titus behind to carry to completion.

And ordain (appoint) elders in every city. This was one of the "things that were wanting." There were Christian assemblies, doubtless with incipient forms of organization; but the churches needed to be fully organized and officered. The gospel becomes a permanent and aggressive power on earth only through the church, the divinely constituted organization, to which God has committed it, and through which it is appointed to act on men. The pietism which, in the professed interest of spiritual religion, undervalues the outward institutions of the gospel, finds no sanction in Scripture; on the contrary, the church, with its heaven-given ministry and ordinances, there stands in the foreground as God's agency for the conservation of his truth and the conversion of the world. (Matt. 18: 15-17; Acts 14 : 23; Eph. 4:11, 12; 1 Tim. 3:15.) Ordain elders.' The word ordain here does not signify, as it is now technically used, to set apart for the ministry by an ordaining service, but simply to institute, appoint. How the elders were selected is not stated. In Acts 6: 3, the selection of the Seven was made by the whole body of the disciples, and the appointment, or public setting apart to the office, was by the apostles. Thus also in Acts 14: 23, Paul and Barnabas "ordained them elders in every church," where the word rendered ordained denotes

5. For this cause left I thee in Crete. This large and populous island, the southernmost in the Grecian Archipelago, is now called Candia. Paul had labored here with Titus, but being obliged to leave, perhaps by the urgency of work in other fields, he left his assistant in the island to carry to completion the work they had begun. Of the time when this occurred we have no information; but as no allusion is made in the Acts to this visit to Crete, and as the style of the Epistle and the general circumstances indicated in it correspond in a remarkable manner to the First Epistle to Timothy, it must probably be referred to the same period, perhaps about A. D. 66 or 67. 'Left I thee' (behind). The expression does not imply the permanence of Titus' position there, but the reverse; and lends, therefore, no sanction to the tradition that Titus was 66 first bishop of the church of the Cretians," a wholly unfounded assumption. In fact, Titus was to remain there only till the coming fall or winter, and then come to Paul at Nicopolis (3:12), from which last place he probably accompanied the apostle to Rome, and thence went, not to Crete again,"to appoint by causing to stretch forth the but to Dalmatia (2 Tim. 4:10). There is no evidence whatever, in or out of Scripture, that Titus was ever again in Crete. That thou shouldest (further) set in order the things that are wanting. Christianity had probably been introduced on the island a number of years before. Some Cretans had been present at the Pentecost. (Acts 2: 11) Paul had stopped in Crete on his voyage to Rome (Acts 27:8, 9.) It is likely, therefore, that Christians were living there; but the gospel, received in this incidental way, must have been very imperfectly understood. The churches, in their doctrinal knowledge, Christian life, and church organization, must have been far from

I

hand," and the meaning, according to Alford,
Lange, Alexander, Barnes, and all the early
English versions, is "ordained them elders by
election in every congregation." In all cases
of the appointment of church officers in the
New Testament, so far as the process is indi-
cated, the selection was made by the whole
body of believers, and the formal setting apart
was the function of the ministry. (Acts 1: 15-26;
1 Cor. 16: 3.) 'In every city,' or, city by city.
Here was no diocesan episcopacy, but the
church in every city has its own body of
elders, each of whom is called in ver. 7 bishop
(ėniσKOTOS). As I had appointed thee-re-
ferring to directions orally given before the

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