Titus 2:15

TITUS TO SPEAK WITH AUTHORITY

15. ταῦτα λάλει, these things, sc. what has gone before, speak; cp. 1 Timothy 6:2.

καὶ παρακάλει καὶ ἔλεγχε μετὰ πάσης ἐπιταγῆς, and exhort and reprove with all authority. The duties both of παράκλησις, exhortation (1 Timothy 4:13), and of ἐλεγμός (2 Timothy 3:16) are frequently commended to Timothy and Titus in the Pastorals (see on 2 Timothy 4:2). They are to be carried out μετὰ πάσης ἐπιταγῆς with all authority. “I verily believe,” says Bp Beveridge, “that the non-observance of this hath been, and still is, the principal reason why people receive so little benefit by hearing of sermons as they usually do. For they look upon sermons only as popular discourses, rehearsed by one of their fellow-creatures, which they may censure, approve, or reject, as themselves seem good.” It is not presumptuous, it is a plain duty, for the minister of the Gospel to speak μετὰ πάσης ἐπιταγῆς. For the word ἐπιταγή see on 1 Timothy 1:1, and cp. 2 Corinthians 8:8.

μηδείς σον περιφρονείτω, Let no man despise thee. This is in close connexion with the previous injunction to exhort and rebuke with all authority; the corresponding direction to Timothy (1 Timothy 4:12) springs out of a different context, and is suggested by the thought of Timothy’s ‘youth.’ see on 1 Timothy 5:1 and Titus 2:6.