Commentary on Titus

Contents

In a few places the lemma printed in a passage belongs to a neighbouring verse (the digital text misnumbers verses); the passage keeps its staged number.

1. 0.1Paul, having made Titus a bishop, warns him to take care in ordaining and to rebuke the heretics of the circumcision.
2. 1.1Paul greets Titus, his true son in the faith, as preacher of God’s long-promised mercy now revealed to the gentiles.
3. 1.5Titus is to appoint holy and able presbyter-bishops who can refute the judaizing teachers, who seek both money and converts to circumcision.
4. 1.13Paul quotes a Cretan ‘prophet’ on his countrymen’s vices, calling him a prophet because what he said was true.
5. 1.14The judaizers’ ritual rules, including those on foods and marriage, were not good commands but a yoke given as punishment for Israel’s stubbornness, now relaxed by God’s mercy in Christ.
6. 1.15All God’s creatures are good and pure; they were forbidden only for hardness of heart, and those who still insist on such rules deny God by their works.
7. 2.1Sound teaching is the saving teaching of God.
8. 2.2The virtues of older men mark sound teaching; their opposites mark unsound teaching.
9. 2.3Older women should model good conduct for young wives, whose obedience to their husbands, even unbelieving ones, honors God’s name.
10. 2.8Young men need restraint, and Titus must be the pattern of what he teaches so that opponents are shamed.
11. 2.9Slaves who serve faithfully adorn the gospel, and their masters may even rejoice in a faith that benefits them.
12. 2.11God’s grace revealed in Christ teaches us to confess the Creator in the unity of the Trinity and to live godly lives, awaiting the glory to be revealed at Christ’s judgment; faith without good works is vain.
13. 3.1Believers must obey authorities, do good, and show gentleness to all, so as to draw unbelievers to hope.
14. 3.3Christians, once foolish and hateful, now show by their changed lives that they worship God.
15. 3.4God saved us by mercy, not works, through the washing of rebirth and the Spirit poured out through Christ, who helps us do good works and so inherit the kingdom.
16. 3.8Believers must devote themselves to works of mercy, which bring praise now and a crown at the judgment.
17. 3.9Foolish questions include the Jewish fables about genealogies, ritual washings, Moses’ hidden grave, and Solomon’s demon-helpers, as distinct from the poisonous subtleties of Arius and Photinus.
18. 3.10Heretics who twist Scripture’s words should be warned once and then left alone, since repeated rebuke only makes them more zealous to mislead.
19. 3.12Paul asks Titus to join him at Nicopolis to strengthen him further.
20. 3.13The believers should provide for Zenas and Apollos, since those who give spiritual things should receive material support.
21. 3.15Paul closes with greetings to those who love him in the faith.