CHAPTER II Ver. 1. In contrast to the false teachers mentioned in the preceding verses, and the pernicious results of their teaching, the apostle now urges, and with reference to all ranks and classes in the church, the sound practical teaching of the gospel. _But speak thou the things which become... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 2. In accordance with the rule, that after verbs of _saying, thinking,_ and such like, the infinitive sometimes expresses, not what, according to the speaker's assertion, is, but _what ought to be_ (since those verbs involve the notion of advising, requiring, or commanding, Winer, _Gr_. § 44, 3... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 3. _In like manner the aged women, that they demean themselves as becomes holiness_ (lit. that in demeanour they be holy, beseeming, ἐν καταστήματι ἱεροπρεπεῖς). The expression καταστ. is of comprehensive import, and has respect to everything in appearance and bearing which is indicative of the... [ Continue Reading ]
Vers. 4, 5. The apostle goes on to specify what more especially should be taught by the elderly female members of the church to the younger sisterhood, not intending thereby to supersede instructions of the same sort by the pastors of the church (comp. 1 Timothy 5:2), but coming in aid of them, and... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 6. _The younger men, in like manner, exhort to be sober-minded_ σωφρονεῖν, to accustom themselves to that becoming, prudent self-restraint, which is not inaptly expressed by being sober-minded see at 1 Timothy 2:9 a habit of mind which, when really formed, saves the young from many a vicious in... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 7. Not only teach and exhort so, but having respect to Titus, as himself comparatively a young man _showing thyself_ (the σεαυτὸν used with the middle voice, though it might have been dispensed with, for the sake of greater distinctness and emphasis; see Winer, _Gr_. § 38, 6, who points to a si... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 8. And now comes the character of the instruction itself: _sound discourse that cannot be condemned, in order that he who is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of us._ (ἡμῶν is the reading of א, C, D, E, F, G, K, L, Ital., Vulg., Syr., by much the best supported.)... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 9. The slave portion of the Christian community naturally presents itself for separate counsel: _Bondmen_ [exhort, supplied from Titus 2:7] _to be in subjection to their own masters, in all things to be well-pleasing_ (viz. to their masters; so that, written in full, it would be εὐαρέστους εἶνα... [ Continue Reading ]
Vers. 11-14. Taking occasion from what he had just said of the connection between the conduct of Christians and the doctrine they professed to have received, and the connection of both with the glory of God, the apostle proceeds in these verses to ground the whole of his exhortations respecting the... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 12. In this verse we have the main point presented to us of the apostle's testimony respecting God's grace the particular aspect under which he here presses it on our regard; and this, it must be remembered, takes quite naturally its hue from the preceding context, in which the Christian life,... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 13. _Looking for the blessed hope and manifestation of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ._ This statement, expressing the attitude of believers with reference to the future, can scarcely be regarded as included in the disciplinary action of the grace of God as now revealed... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 14. In this verse we have an expansion of the term Saviour applied to Christ, so presented as to bring out a fresh exhibition of the grand moral aim contemplated in the grace of the gospel: _Who gave Himself for us_ Himself, ἑαυτὸν, as contradistinguished from any inferior gift, and that _for u... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 15. _These things speak, and exhort, and reprove with all authority._ A short retrospective utterance, for the purpose of impressing upon the mind of Titus the importance of the things which had just been declared respecting the salvation of God in Christ, and of his bringing them to bear in ev... [ Continue Reading ]