Titus 1:4-5

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Titus 1:1-4

Here is the preface to the epistle, showing, I. The writer. Paul, a Gentile name taken by the apostle of the Gentiles, Acts 13:9, 46, 47. Ministers will accommodate even smaller matters, so that they may be any furthering of acceptance in their work. When the Jews rejected the gospel, and the Gentiles received it, we read no more of this apostle by his Jewish name Saul, but by his Roman one, Paul. A servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ. Here he is described by his relation and... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Titus 1:5

Here is the end expressed, I. More generally: For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting. This was the business of evangelists (in which office Titus was), to water where the apostles had planted (1 Cor. 3:6), furthering and finishing what they had begun; so much epidiorthoun imports, to order after another. Titus was to go on in settling what the apostle himself had not time for, in his short stay there. Observe, 1. The apostle's great... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Titus 1:1-4

1:1-4 This is a letter from Paul, the slave of God and the envoy of Jesus Christ, whose task it is to awaken faith in God's chosen ones, and to equip them with a fuller knowledge of that truth, which enables a man to live a really religious life, and whose whole work is founded on the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. In his own good time God set forth his message plain for all to see in the proclamation with which I have been entrusted by the royal... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Titus 1:1-4

Further, in this passage we can see the essence of an apostle's gospel and the central things in his task. (i) The whole message of the apostle is founded on the hope of eternal life. Again and again the phrase eternal life recurs in the pages of the New Testament. The word for eternal is aionios ( Greek #166 ); and properly the only one person in the whole universe to whom that word may correctly be applied is God. The Christian offer is nothing less than the offer of a share in the... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Titus 1:1-4

This passage tells us of God's purpose and of his way of working that purpose out. (i) God's purpose for man was always one of salvation. His promise of eternal life was there before the world began. It is important to note that here Paul applies the word Saviour both to God and to Jesus. We sometimes hear the gospel presented in a way that seems to draw a distinction between a gentle, loving, and gracious Jesus, and a hard, stern, and severe God. Sometimes it sounds as if Jesus had done... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Titus 1:1-4

We do not know a great deal about Titus, to whom this letter was written, but from the scattered references to him, there emerges a picture of a man who was one of Paul's most trusted and most valuable helpers. Paul calls him "my true son," so it is most likely that he himself converted him, perhaps at Iconium. Titus was the companion for an awkward and a difficult time. When Paul paid his visit to Jerusalem, to a Church which suspected him and was prepared to mistrust and dislike him, it... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Titus 1:5-7

1:5-7a The reason why I left you in Crete was that any deficiencies in the organization of the Church should be rectified, and that you might appoint elders in each city as I instructed you. An elder is a man whose conduct must be beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, with children who are also believers, who cannot be accused of profligacy, and who are not undisciplined. For he who oversees the Church of God must be beyond reproach, as befits a steward of God. We have already studied... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Titus 1:4

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 sense, his "own son", or a true son, a legitimate one; a true convert; one really born again; a sincere believer, an Israelite indeed: and this... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Titus 1:5

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 Gill 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 here for that purpose: that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting ; that is, form the young converts into Gospel order, into... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Titus 1:4

To Titus, mine own son - Him whom I have been the instrument of converting to the Christian faith; and in whom, in this respect, I have the same right as any man can have in his own begotten son. See the preface; and see on 1 Timothy 1:2 ; (note). read more

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