These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. — These words are the conclusion of this part of the Letter of St. Paul to Titus. A new division of the Epistle begins immediately after this verse with the third chapter. He is to speak the words — many of them sharp and bitter — told him by St. Paul; he is to remember now to exhort, now to rebuke, and all this “with authority,” as chief pastor of the flock of Crete formally commissioned and appointed.
Let no man despise thee. — “Speak,” wrote the brave-hearted old man Paul, “speak with decision, and rebuke and punish if need be with vigour, remembering the dark character of the people with whom you have to do.” And perhaps in the background of this stirring admonition of the aged master to his disciple, placed in so difficult and responsible a position, there is the anxious warning again: Yes, but show all diligence too in your own words and doings, so that every word of thine may have its full weight, that none may despise thee on account of thine own life.