Titus 2

15. Unto the pure all things are pure.** The pure heart becomes a center of attraction round which similar atoms gather, and from which dissimilar ones are repelled. A corrupt heart elicits in an hour all that is bad in us; a spiritual one brings out and draws to itself all that is best and purest. We do not want a new world; we want new hearts. Let the Spirit of God purify society, and to the pure all things will be pure. F. W. R.—Let there be purity in the region of thought, desire, will, and then external things assume a corresponding character, because they receive an impress and a direction from the spirit of him who uses them. It is but a fresh enunciation of the truth long before uttered by our Lord, and laid by him as an axe to the root of the mistaken ceremonialism of the Pharisees: that everything depended on the state of the heart, from which proceed, as to good or evil, the issues of life. P. F.

All things are pure which God has given to man. And, therefore, if a man be pure in heart, all which God has given him will not only do him no harm, but do him good. All the comforts and blessings of this life will help to make him a better man. They will teach him about his own character; about human nature, and the people with whom he has to do; ay, about God himself, as it is written, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Yet there is not a blessing on earth which a man may not turn into a curse. There is not a good gift of God out of which a man may not get harm, if only his heart be not pure; as it is written, “To those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure.” C. K.—They have within a fountain of pollution, which spreads itself over and infects everything about them. Their food and drink, their possessions, their employments, their comforts, their actions—all are in the reckoning of God tainted with impurity, because they are putting away from them that which alone has for the soul regenerating and cleansing efficacy. P. F.

16. “They profess” should be “they make confession.” This is important. The English version admits the idea that they profess, without having, the knowledge, whereas the point of the apostle’s accusation is their own confession of the fact that they know God, and their denial of him in their works. A.

1. But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: that the aged men be sober, 2 grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that 3 they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teach- 4 ers of good things; that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their hus- 5 bands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their 6 own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise exhort to 7 be sober minded. In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shew- 8 ing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he 9 that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not 10 answering again; not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. 11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, 12 denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in 13 this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great 14 God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things 15 speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

THE grace of the gospel is an effectual principle of holiness in all who partake of it. This was the doctrine which Paul delivered to Titus. “The grace of God which bringeth salvation teacheth us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, and righteously, and godly in this present world.” I read of a dead faith, a presumptuous hope, a false peace, and a name to live. Whereas the true faith of the gospel is everywhere represented as “working by love” and “overcoming the world.” The hope of the gospel incites all who are possessed of it “to purify themselves, even as he” whom they hope to enjoy “is pure.” “The peace of God which passeth all understanding keeps,” or guards, “the heart and mind,” and fortifies the believer against the fierce assaults of his spiritual enemies. And it is the distinguishing privilege of those who “are not under the law but under grace,” that “sin shall not have dominion over them.” They show that they live in the Spirit by walking in the Spirit, and give proof that they are “risen with Christ,” and “know him in the power of his resurrection,” by “seeking those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.” These are the words of truth; they are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, and purified seven times. And they are written in such capital letters, and expressed with such plainness and precision, that no sophistry can either darken their meaning or impair their force: unless it be to those unstable souls who are “ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” R. W.

1. “Sound doctrine,” as so often, should be “the sound doctrine,” i. e., the apostolic setting forth of the Christian faith; not, any kind of wholesome teaching. A.

2. The various things mentioned in the exhortation are peculiarly appropriate for persons in advanced life: they are the qualities in which it behooves them in an eminent degree to adorn the Christian faith. P. F.

6. The term sobriety of mind, according to its original import, denoted a negation, the absence of intoxication. From this more sensual starting-point it proceeded to denote the removal of all such exciting influences as tend to blind and bewilder the mind, to weaken the power of judgment, to bring our nature under the dominion of passions which plead for immediate gratification. Thus, sobriety of mind came to mean moral soundness or health, the dominion of reason over desire. The word here used, strictly translated, means “sound-minded,” or healthy-minded, and implies the conviction that there is a certain standard of character or condition of the mind which bears an analogy to health of body, a condition in which all the functions of the mind are in their right state, in which sound or healthy views of things are taken, in which no part of human nature is inoperative or unduly developed.

This Christian duty of sobriety needs to be pressed with especial earnestness on young men, who are apt to fail just at this point. Without the lessons of experience, impulsive and incautious, proverbially hopeful, often dazzled by the colors which their own imaginations throw around the objects of pursuit, who need so much as they a voice of counsel and of solemn warning, drawn from the eternal issues of conduct? Their minds naturally, and by a divine appointment, take hold of life with a strong zest; and earthly desires are at their side, urging them, according to the design of their existence, to the fulfillment of earthly duties, and yet able to draw them away into every excess. Feeling is exuberant, temper quick, passion strong; the evil of indulgence is unknown, or lies afar off and may not be guarded against; restraint has not become habitual. Let all go on in an unchecked progress, let there be no light from the skies to reveal higher duties and a nobler life, and what preservative is there against the mad sweep of sensual passions, if the temperament lead that way, or against the insane thirst for gold or office? How precious then ought that fountain to be regarded from which sobering draughts may be continually drawn; which tells us of a blessed life, that is passed in calmness where no gusts of passion invade, and is to be measured, not by outbursts of wild joy, but by the depth of an inward peace; which tells us of a holy life, whose communings with an Infinite Father and a Divine Saviour curb, as by a wand of magic, every lust, and bring the soul into harmony; which tells us of a noble life full of great purposes, the least of which is worth more to the soul than all that pleasure ever promised; which tells us of a life looking out beyond the grave, and in its measurements finding all objects bounded by this world to be ineffably small. T. D. W.

10. In order that in all things they may adorn the doctrine of our Saviour God. Here again, as at verse 5, also at verse 8, the high spiritual aim of the gospel, in what it teaches of doctrine and exacts of obedience, comes prominently out. The glory of God’s name and character among men is involved in it. And the strongest expression given to this is precisely here where the lowest in social position are concerned. Previously it was that God’s word might not be blasphemed; but now it is that the conduct of the poor bondmen who avowed themselves believers might adorn the doctrine which is of God. “God thinks it meet” (to use the words of Calvin) “to receive an ornament from bondmen, whose condition was so mean that they were scarcely reckoned among men. But if their life (he justly adds) is an ornament of the Christian name, all the more should they who are in honor see to it that they do not mar it by their base behavior.” P. F.

—The Christian is called to adorn the doctrine of the gospel in whatever calling he is placed. He is to look upon the world as the field where the character of Jesus is to be manifested by his followers, and where God is to be glorified. He is to be a prophet, priest, and king, teaching truth and righteousness, proclaiming peace, and offering intercession, living in a royal spirit above the distractions and anxieties of time. He can be a missionary everywhere: Christ sends him into the world. The less he loves the world in its God-opposed character, the more he truly loves the world, and is a blessing to those around him. A. S.

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 behavior of Christians in the essentially moral nature and design of the grace of God as now manifested in the gospel: For the grace of God, having salvation for all men, was manifested, disciplining us, etc. P. F.—By the action of grateful motive and the operation of the Holy Spirit, grace persuades, impels, and educates to a new life of sobriety as respects self, justice toward others, piety toward God above. And this new life is no dull or melancholy thing. It has a blessed hope. It is indeed impelled by one epiphany of Christ, and attracted by another. From the first in grace it has its motive and instruction; toward the second in glory it stretches forward, and in the hope of that glory it is cheered and purified. We are schooled to moderation in all things by the thought that the Lord is at hand. We are kept from fainting in the trial of our faith by the assurance that it will be “found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” We turn away from sin, because we look for that Saviour who gave himself for us in order to deliver and cleanse us from all evil. We are his treasure-people, not our own, and he will come to claim us. Therefore we are under the strongest obligation and inducement to be “zealous of good works.” Such was the doctrine of salvation taught by Paul, and committed to Titus. D. F.

11. The whole controversy between man and his Maker may be reduced to a question between the pride of man and the grace of God. One may accept temporal benefits at the hand of God, and, instead of being humble and grateful, may be vain and boastful, as if he were in some way worthy. But one can not accept the grace of God which bringeth salvation without owning himself a sinner in need of grace—guilty, lost, ready to perish, unless God shall interpose to save. Only sinners have need of grace; only sinners can be saved by Christ; and, among sinners, such only as feel and confess their guilt, and therefore come to him for pardon, for justification, and for a new spirit. J. P. T.

12. The saving grace of God comes into consideration as the disciplining or molding power, by means of which our naturally wayward and corrupt souls are formed to that higher scheme of life. And this corrective influence, or internal discipline, is expressed first in the negative, and shows itself in a denial of ungodliness and worldly lusts. An active following after the good is the necessary counterpart to a renunciation of the evil; and this the apostle describes as a life marked by three prominent characteristics: soberly expresses the self-command and restraint which the Christian should always exercise over his thoughts and actions: justly, the integrity that should regulate all his dealings toward his fellow-men; while godlily or piously indicates the state of mind and conduct he should maintain in his relation toward God.

13. The hope, considered with respect to its realization, is here called blessed. But the hope itself is more closely defined by what follows—the manifestation of the glory. P. F.—The glorious appearing of the great God. Christ will then gloriously appear as the great God. Every knee shall then bow to him, and confess that he is the Lord of glory. The glory of his mediatorship will then appear. As a Saviour and Mediator shall be seen and known the all-fullness of his satisfaction, merit, and saving power. The glory of his manhood will then also appear. The very body of Christ will shine with a most glorious brightness. No heart can conceive the glory in which Christ will appear in that day. That day is called the day of Christ. The first coming of Christ was the night of Christ, a time of darkness wherein his glory was greatly hid from the world. But his second coming will be a day, a time of light wherein his glory will be fully revealed and shine forth. Increase Mather.

14. An expansion of the term Saviour applied to Christ, so presented as to bring out a fresh exhibition of the grace of the gospel: Who gave himself for us—himself, as contradistinguished from any inferior gift, and that for us, in our behalf. It was altogether in our interest that the great self-sacrificing deed was done; and in what respect is immediately stated: in order that he might redeem—by the paying of a ransom free—us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. It is what may be called the redemptive, not the atoning or propitiatory aspect of Christ’s work which is here brought into view, though the two are very closely interconnected, and the one now under consideration presupposes and is founded upon the other; for it is only by virtue of the reconciliation with God, effected through the propitiatory death of Christ, that there is attained by the sinner such a participation in the life of Christ, and such renewing and strengthening aid from the Spirit of grace, as may enable him to break the bonds of his spiritual captivity, and rise into the pure and glorious liberty of God’s children.