Titus 1:9

Titus 1:9. So far of character: now of doctrine. The elder is to be one who (12) holds fast by the word, or doctrine, ‘which agrees with the teaching' of the apostles, as a word worthy of credit (so ‘faithful' means). The necessity for this qualification lies in another department of the presbyterial office. The elder has first to exhort (address for edification) the congregation of believers in that instruction, which being ‘wholesome' (‘sound,' another word of the Pastoral Epistles), tends to holiness, and next to convict or confute the opponents. This leads Paul to describe the Cretan errorists, whose teaching, instead of nourishing a healthy piety, fostered morbid and even immoral tendencies.