Directions given unto Titus, both for his doctrine and life. Of the duty of servants, and in general of all Christians.
THE apostle having directed Titus to ordain elders in every city, and described the character and qualifications of the persons whom he was to invest with offices in the church; also, having laid open the bad character and evil practices of the Judaizers in Crete, and ordered him to rebuke them sharply, he in this chapter gave him a short view of the duties of his office as bishop and superintendent both of the teachers and of the people in Crete. He was, in opposition to the Judaizers, to inculcate on the people such precepts only as were suitable to the wholesome doctrine of the gospel, Titus 2:1.—And with respect to the aged men who held sacred offices, he was to enjoin them to be attentive to the behaviour of those under their care; to be grave in their own deportment; prudent in giving admonitions and rebukes; and spiritually healthy by faith, love, patience, Titus 2:2.—In like manner, those aged women who were employed to teach the young of their own sex, he was to exhort to a deportment becoming their sacred character. They were neither to be slanderers, nor intemperate in the use of liquors, but to be good teachers, Titus 2:3.—In particular, they were to persuade the young women who were married, to do their duty to their husbands, their children, and their families, that the gospel might not be evil spoken of through their bad behaviour, Titus 2:4-5.—On young men he was to inculcate the government of their passions, Titus 2:6.—But above all, both in teaching and behaviour, Titus was to make himself a pattern of the graces and virtues which he enjoined to others, Titus 2:7-8.—Titus was to inculcateon servants obedience to their masters, diligence in their work, and honesty in every thing committed in trust to them, Titus 2:9-10.—Withal to make the Cretan bishops and people sensible of the impiety of the doctrine of the Jewishteachers,concerningtheefficacyoftheLeviticalsacrificesin procuring pardon for sin, the apostle declared that the gospel was given for this very purpose, to teach men that salvation was alone from the grace of God, and that the gospel required us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, &c. in expectation of a future judgment, Titus 2:11-14.—These things the apostle ordered Titus to teach in the plainest and boldest manner, agreeably to the authority with which he was invested as an evangelist, Titus 2:15.