AN
EXPOSITION,
W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E R V A T I O N
S,
OF THE EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO
T I T U S
THIS
Epistle of Paul to Titus is much of the same nature with those to Timothy;
both were converts of Paul, and his companions in labours and sufferings; both
were in the office of evangelists, whose work was to water the churches
planted by the apostles, and to set in order the things that were wanting in
them: they were vice-apostles, as it were, working the work of the Lord, as
they did, and mostly under their direction, though not despotic and
arbitrary, but with the concurring exercise of their own prudence and
judgment, 1 Cor. xvi. 10, 12. We read much of this Titus, his titles,
character, and active usefulness, in many places--he was a Greek, Gal. ii. 3.
Paul called him his son (Tit. i. 4), his brother (2 Cor. ii.
13), his partner and fellow-helper (2 Cor. viii. 23), one that
walked in the same spirit and in the same steps with himself. He went up
with the apostles to the church at
Jerusalem
(Gal. ii. 1), was much conversant at
Corinth
, for which church he had an earnest care, 2 Cor.
viii. 16. Paul's second epistle to them, and probably his first also, was sent
by his hand, 2 Cor. viii. 16-18, 23; ix. 2-4; xii. 18. He was with the apostle
at
Rome
, and thence went into
Dalmatia
(2 Tim. iv. 10), after which no more occurs of him in the
scriptures. So that by them he appears not to have been a fixed bishop; if
such he were, and in those times, the
church
of
Corinth
, where he most laboured, had the best title to him. In
Crete (now called Candia, formerly Hecatompolis, from the
hundred cities that were in it), a large island at the mouth of the Ægean
Sea, the gospel had got some footing; and here were Paul and Titus in one of
their travels, cultivating this plantation; but the apostle of the Gentiles,
having on him the care of all the churches, could not himself tarry long at
this place. He therefore left Titus some time there, to carry on the work
which had been begun, wherein, probably, meeting with more difficulty than
ordinary, Paul wrote this epistle to him; and yet perhaps not so much for his
own sake as for the people's, that the endeavours of Titus, strengthened with
apostolic advice and authority, might be more significant and effectual among
them. He was to see all the cities furnished with good pastors, to reject and
keep out the unmeet and unworthy, to teach sound doctrine, and instruct all
sorts in their duties, to set forth the free grace of God in man's salvation
by Christ, and withal to show the necessity of maintaining good works by those
who have believed in God and hope for eternal life from him.
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