49 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Not giving heed to Jewish fables,.... Concerning God himself, the angels, and the creation of man; concerning the giving of the law at Mount Sinai; concerning the Messiah and his earthly kingdom, and the feast that will be made for the righteous in his days, which will consist of flesh, fish, and fowl, Behemoth, Leviathan, and Zuz, and of wine...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Unto the pure all things are pure,.... The apostle having made mention of Jewish fables, and the traditions of the elders, takes notice of some darling notions, that these judaizing Christians had imbibed or retained; that there were some things, which being touched, or handled, or tasted, occasioned uncleanness, and which the apostle denies to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They profess that they know God,.... That there is a God; that there is but one, only, true, and living God, the God of Israel, as professed by the Jews; and that this God is Father, Son, and Spirit, as believed by the Christians: for the persons the apostle speaks of were judaizing Christians. Yet this knowledge was but notional; it lay in theory...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Titus 2 In this chapter the apostle exhorts Timothy to the discharge of his office with respect to all sorts of persons, of every age, sex; and condition, he was concerned with, giving reasons for it, taken from the nature of the Gospel of Christ: he exhorts him in general to insist in his public ministry on those things, which...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. Concerning sound doctrine, and the form of it, [See comments on 2 Timothy 1:13]. The things which become it are a good life and conversation, the various duties incumbent on professors of religion, according to their different station, age, and sex, which are observed in some following verses;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
That the aged men be sober,.... Or "vigilant", and watchful over themselves, their conduct and conversation, lest being evil, it should be drawn into an example by younger persons: this is to be understood not of men in office, of presbyters or elders; for their characters are described in the preceding chapter; but of men in years, of ancient...