23 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Titus 1 This chapter contains the inscription of the epistle, the apostle's salutation and preface to it; an account of the qualifications of an eider, or pastor of a church; a description of these teachers; and a charge to Titus to rebuke the Cretians for their errors and immoralities. The inscription and salutation are in Titus...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Paul, a servant of God,.... So James styles himself, James 1:1 and others of the apostles, as Peter and Jude, call themselves the servants of Jesus Christ; and as does the Apostle Paul also; and both seem to be esteemed by them as high characters and titles of honour, by which they chose to be described and known. Paul, before his conversion, was...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Introduction; The Apostle's Charge to Titus. (a. d. 66.) 1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; 2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; 3 But hath in due times manifested his word...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; but hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
In hope of eternal life,.... Or "for the hope of eternal life"; in order to bring souls to the hope of it. This is another end of the Gospel ministry, as to bring God's elect to faith in Christ, and to the knowledge and acknowledgement of the truth, as it is in Jesus, so to the hope of eternal glory and happiness: in a state of nature, they are...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But hath in due times manifested his word,.... Either Christ, his essential Word; or the word of truth, the Gospel of salvation; or rather his word of promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus: through preaching; through the ministry of the word by the apostles; in which Christ is revealed in the glory of his person, and the fulness of his grace,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
To Titus, mine own son after the common faith,.... Not in a natural, but in a spiritual sense; the apostle being the instrument of his conversion, as he was of the conversion of Onesimus, and of many of the Corinthians, and therefore is said to beget them, Philemon 1:10 and so was their spiritual father, and they his children: Titus was, in this...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For this cause left I thee in Crete,.... Not in his voyage to Rome, Acts 27:7 but rather when he came from Macedonia into Greece, Acts 20:2. Crete is an island in the Mediterranean sea, now called Candy; [See comments on Acts 2:11]. Here Paul preached the Gospel to the conversion of many; but not having time to finish what he begun, left Titus...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, For there were many converts there who had two or three wives. Whatever position they might be permitted to occupy in the church, they could not...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If any be blameless,.... In his outward life and conversation, not chargeable with any notorious crime; [See comments on 1 Timothy 3:2], the husband of one wife; [See comments on 1 Timothy 3:2]: having faithful children; legitimate ones, born in lawful wedlock, in the same sense as such are called godly and holy, in Malachi 2:15 1 Corinthians 7:14...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For a bishop must be blameless,.... This shows that a bishop and an elder is the same; and the Syriac version here renders it, "an elder"; the character or qualification necessary to him is the same as before, and in like manner to be understood; unless it should more particularly refer to his faithfulness in the discharge of his office: since it...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But a lover of hospitality,.... [See comments on 1 Timothy 3:2] a lover of good men, or "of good"; the Syriac version renders it, "of good things"; as prayer, preaching, reading, meditation, spiritual conversation, and every religious exercise: or "of good men"; for such an elder or bishop has chiefly to do and converse with; and if he is not a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Holding fast the faithful word,.... The doctrine of the Gospel, so called because it is true, and to be believed; it is the word of truth, and truth itself, and contains nothing but truth; and because it never deceived any, that gave credit to its doctrines, and its promises; and because it is pure, unmixed, and unadulterated, and is the sincere...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For there are many unruly,.... Persons who are not subject to the law of God, or Gospel of Christ; whose spirits are not subject to the prophets; and who will not submit themselves to them that have the rule over them, nor attend to the admonitions of the church, nor be brought into any regularity and order; and there were many of this sort, who...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Whose mouths must be stopped,.... Or they be silenced, by reasons and arguments fetched out of the word of God; as were the Sadducees and Pharisees by Christ, so that they durst ask him no more questions; and as the Jews at Damascus were by Saul, who confounded them, proving in the clearest and strongest manner, that Jesus was the very Christ: who...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
One of themselves, even a prophet of their own,.... This was Epimenides, in whose poems stand the words here cited; the apostle rightly calls him "one of themselves", since he was a Cretian by birth, of the city of Gnossus; it is reported of him, that being sent by his father to his sheep in the field, he by the way, at noon, turned aside into a...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Said, The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. They were a degraded people; and hence, those who would teach them had a most difficult task, and needed great grace. Paul exhorts Titus that only specially fit men, men whose example would have influence, and whose characters would have weight, should be allowed to be elders in such...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
This witness is true,.... The apostle confirms what the poet had said; he knew it to be fact from his own experience, and by the observation he had made when in the island: he does not say, that all that Epimenides had said, in the poem referred to, was true; but this character, which he had given of the Cretians, and which he cites, and uses to a...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth. Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know...