But do *thou* speak the things that become sound teaching;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
that the elder men be sober, grave, discreet, sound in faith, in love, in patience;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
that the elder women in like manner be in deportment as becoming those who have to say to sacred things, not slanderers, not enslaved to much wine, teachers of what is right;
Paul has just told Titus to speak what fits sound doctrine, and he now works through the household group by group. The older women come second, with three marks of character and one task — which raises the question of what dangers age brings, and what usefulness.
The first phrase reaches past clothing to the whole way a person carries herself.
Dress may not trap them the way it traps the younger. But it matters greatly that their whole bearing, and not only their clothing, should fit those who have to do with sacred things. That is the full, literal force of the word used. So it holds first place. Their age, and habits most likely picked up before their conversion to God, would leave them a little less restrained. But grace is greater than every difficulty. Grace forms by the truth what pleases the Lord; it does not find it there already. Irreverent bearing would shame the doctrine, however sound.
Grant asks why the instruction to the women differs from the instruction to the men.
If there is a difference here in the instruction to them compared with the men, it is because of the special tendencies and dangers in each case.
Older translations read "false accusers" here. Willis checks where else the New Testament uses that word, and turns the answer into a question.
This word is used many times. With three exceptions (1 Timothy 3:11; 2 Timothy 3:3; Titus 2:3) it is always translated "devil." This ought to pull some of us up pretty sharply. Are we doing the work of the devil — helping him in his own special work of accusing God's people?
Kelly connects the warning to how much emptier the days can get with age.
Idleness too — and at their time of life activity often stops — would leave room for damaging gossip. So the Spirit of God warns them, next, against abusive language, and especially against running others down.
Kelly argues that the verse rules out slavery to wine, not wine.
Whatever modern people may think, Scripture will not bend to a theory. It keeps the Christian free to use every creature of God. Our Lord Himself personally disproved the assumption that all such use is evil in itself. Here too we have clear proof that there is no absolute ban at all. Timothy was even told to use a little wine for his stomach and his frequent illnesses. Older women are simply warned not to be enslaved to much wine.
Gaebelein compares the wording here with what Paul wrote to Timothy, and points to who lived on Crete.
The First Epistle to Timothy tells deacons "not to be given to much wine." Here the original wording is stronger. The Cretans had a name for being slaves of strong drink, the women especially.
The verse closes with something positive. Kelly explains what "good" means here, and what age makes room for.
By "good" in this clause he does not mean kind deeds, but what is honourable — what suited them, and suited them in their relationship to the Lord. Older women would have considerable opportunities. Free from the demands of young and vigorous life, they have in old age a sphere of usefulness that fits them just as well. Let them see to it that they teach, with the weight that experience gives, what is upright and becoming.
Tachoires reads the phrase alongside the two warnings next to it, and draws a limit.
Placed alongside "not slanderers" and "not enslaved to much wine," it seems to mean simply that what elder women say and communicate should be good and wholesome... The qualifier "of what is right" points more to practical teaching than to explaining the Word of God.
This chapter addresses five groups. One of them Titus does not reach himself.
The Apostle instructs Titus about older men, older women, young women, young men and servants. Of these five groups, only four go directly to Titus. He does not receive one of them himself — it goes to the older women!
- Bearing first. The list starts with how they carry themselves, not with doctrine. The word fits people who handle sacred things, and irreverent bearing shames even sound teaching.
- Tongue next. The word behind "slanderers" is the one usually translated "devil." Running someone down is the accuser's own work.
- Appetite next. The verse forbids slavery to much wine, not wine itself. Scripture leaves the Christian free to use every creature of God.
- Then usefulness. The demands of vigorous life are behind them. Age opens a sphere that fits just as well: teaching what is upright, with the weight only experience gives.
- Then reach. Titus takes four of the five groups himself. One group he reaches only through the older women — so bearing, speech and self-control are what fit a woman to teach others.
that they may admonish the young women to be attached to [their] husbands, to be attached to [their] children,
Paul tells Titus to teach what fits sound doctrine, and then goes through the household group by group. Verse 4 is the turning point: Titus does not train the young women himself — the older women do, and the first thing they teach is love at home.
The instructions here are plain and everyday. One writer takes that as a mark of Christian teaching, not a lowering of it.
It is all wonderfully simple, down-to-earth, and wholesome. Nothing marks Christianity more than this very flexibility and breadth. Where humility or true greatness is missing, people are afraid of little matters. They shrink back from touching everyday details. The power of Christ makes everything sweet and precious. It gives dignity to the very smallest thing that fills the heart and mind.
Paul speaks to five groups in this chapter. One of them he hands to someone else.
In Titus 2:1-10 the Apostle instructs Titus about older men, older women, young women, young men, and servants. Of these five groups, only four go straight to Titus. One of them he does not commit to Titus himself, but to the older women!
That arrangement answers a complaint older believers often make about themselves.
How often do older sisters say, "I am not able to do anything for the Lord." That is a wrong thing for anyone who knows Him to say. But let the older sisters know that their age and sex make them fit and proper people to serve Christ in many things that some of the more exposed members of His flock badly need.
The verb behind "train" is unusual. Its meaning shapes what this work looks like.
The Apostle is telling Titus about the duties of the older women. Part of that duty is to "teach" or "admonish" the young women. It is a remarkable word, used only here in the New Testament. Its literal sense is to "call someone back to their senses." Very similar words appear three other times in this chapter, translated "discreet" or "sober".
The older women bring what a younger woman cannot supply for herself. The aim is affection that holds up under pressure.
How were they to use their opportunities? They were to "train the young women to love their husbands and children." Here they were exactly in place. With the Lord before their eyes, their experience would prove priceless to those who face the daily difficulties and dilemmas of human life. They were not only to teach the younger women to be subject to their husbands. Cultivating affection in the home is pressed with special force. Christianity was never meant to weaken the affections. If Christ governs, He is also the spring of sure, unfailing strength. There is no trial with the husband or the child to which His grace would not apply.
The teaching is meant to shape daily life, and the teacher's own manner is part of the lesson.
Without Scripture they could not teach the young women rightly. Yet this is not to be mere classroom teaching. It is to take effect in sober wisdom in their lives, and to encourage them to love their husbands and their children. This is wholesome work. More than enough divisive evils are already at work, trying to drive wedges into family life, without an older woman adding to the friction. The young need her solid, faithful teaching.
The two loves are not listed at random.
Notice what it says about love: the older women should teach the younger ones to love their husbands first. This order matters. It is never good for children to take such a large place in our affections that they come between wife and husband. No, love to the husband should come first, and then love to the children. It is the same, of course, for husbands in loving their wives and their children.
- Doctrine. Sound teaching shows itself in everyday details. The power of Christ gives dignity to the smallest thing that fills the heart.
- Teacher. Of the five groups in this chapter, only this one goes to the older women instead of Titus. Their age and sex make them fit servants for it.
- Training. The verb appears nowhere else in the New Testament. It means to call someone back to their senses — life-wisdom passed on, not a lecture.
- Order. Love the husband first, then the children. Then the children never come between wife and husband.
- Result. Christ strengthens affection at home; He never weakens it. No trial with a husband or a child lies outside His grace.
discreet, chaste, diligent in home work, good, subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be evil spoken of.
Paul is telling Titus what "sound doctrine" looks like inside a home. Older women pass on to younger ones how to live as wives and mothers. The list ends with a reason far bigger than home life. How a Christian wife lives affects the way people speak of God's word.
The instructions in this verse are ordinary, everyday things.
It is all wonderfully simple, down to earth, and healthy. Nothing marks Christianity out more than this flexibility and breadth. Where humility or true greatness is missing, people are afraid of little matters. They shy away from everyday details. The power of Christ makes everything sweet and precious. It gives dignity to the very smallest thing that fills the heart and mind.
Start with the word Paul uses for the older women's job.
The apostle is telling Titus about the duties of the older women. Part of that duty is to "teach" or "admonish" the young women. It is a striking word, used only here in the New Testament. It literally means to "bring a person back to his senses." This chapter uses very similar words three other times, translated "discreet" or "sober."
That training is meant to be lived before it is spoken.
Her teaching must come not only through instruction from the Word, but through her example too. We have to learn well for ourselves what we want to teach others.
The verse's first two qualities are "self-controlled" and "pure." Older translations call them "discreet" and "chaste." One writer explains both.
Notice how often the letter to Titus urges the virtue of discretion, or sober-mindedness. It means acting with proper self-restraint, and in a way that fits whatever situation a person is in. Purity too — no mixing of questionable things with what is good — is especially stressed for the young women.
Purity stood out sharply against the world these believers lived in.
Purity has a large place in what the older believers are told to urge on the younger. They were to press them to be "chaste" in action, in word, and in spirit. In this the Spirit of God, who reveals Christ, has all the power. How little the Greeks knew of purity, and the Jews too, to their shame! Their very religion defiled the Greeks. It made every corruption sacred... Purity is so strong and so necessary a quality in Christianity that it visibly and truly proved to be something completely new.
The older English wording "keepers at home" rests on a weaker text.
No one can fairly question that the oldest and best manuscripts support this word... The common word "keepers at home" is far weaker in moral force.
Either reading points the same way.
The meaning is much the same either way. Wives are reminded that their place of service is the home. No work or pleasure should be allowed to interfere with that place. God Himself has given them the home as their field of work. So working in it with care is a matter of faithfulness to Him.
Next comes a single word: "good."
This next instruction is of great value, and it follows diligence in home-work. The younger women are to be "good" in the sense of kindness. If Christ were not before their eyes, home-work might be looked down on as drudgery. But even if the work were done perfectly, is that all it takes to satisfy or please a husband? Goodness spreads happiness all round... There is no place where kindness is worth more, and no place where it is rarer. Only the Lord's grace could make it a settled habit, in a home where countless small things come up to test patience.
The word "own" in "their own husbands" is there to encourage a wife's heart (Leslie M. Grant). From that one daily habit, a writer traces a line straight to the reputation of God's word.
What irritates a husband more than a wife who is quick to question his authority or interfere with his plans? Nothing wins a husband's ear like the habit of subjection... Suppose a wife fails to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour by subjection, even in that close relationship. She is sure to bring reproach — not only on herself, or on the people around her, but on the word of God itself.
- Doctrine — sound teaching shows itself in everyday details, not in argument. Christ gives dignity to the smallest thing.
- Training — the older women bring the younger back to their senses, by example as much as by words.
- Character — self-control means proper self-restraint. Purity marked Christianity out as something completely new.
- Home — the better reading is workers at home, not merely keepers. God gave the home as a field to work in, and "good" means kindness while doing it.
- Reputation — every link runs to one end. A wife's refusal to submit brings reproach not on herself alone, but on the word of God.
The younger men in like manner exhort to be discreet
Paul has just addressed the older men, the older women, and the younger women. Now he turns to the young men, and gives them one instruction. Older translations call it being "sober-minded" or "discreet." Why is one word enough?
Paul asks one thing of them, and commentators say it is not one item on a list.
As for the young men, Titus is to urge them to be sober-minded, or discreet, as we have seen before. This, of course, is a covering virtue. It concerns the whole life. But Titus is also to show himself an example of good works, and that matters for the sake of the young men.
The word is wider than "sober" sounds today.
He was also to be "temperate." Our day has narrowed that word, and so far misused it. Its real meaning is self-control — not in one area, but in all. In a Christian, the sense of God's presence, His grace, and the fear of Him checks every way of expressing feeling or inclination.
Paul gave similar advice to another young worker. One writer draws on it to show what a young believer must hold back.
Avoid youthful lusts. Not only the worldly or bodily ones, but the "youthful" ones: acting on impulse, self-confidence, treating things lightly, impatience, and the like. It is not enough to guard against what older people would most resent. He was to pursue practical consistency, or righteousness. He was to walk in faith, not in mere human caution or policy. He was to hold on to love, not to selfish interests. He was to keep peace, not allow strife or push for his own will.
Young men might feel singled out. Read the chapter as a whole and the charge lands on everyone.
Titus 2 shows us the mind of the Spirit on sobriety in a very full and remarkable way. Read it, and you will find that every class of Christian here is plainly urged to be sober. Verse 2 urges that "the aged men be sober, grave," and so on; verse 3, that "the aged women likewise." Then verse 4 tells the older women to teach the young women to be sober. In verse 6 Titus is to urge the young men to be sober-minded, and in verse 7 Paul urges Titus himself to be serious. Finally, verse 12 speaks of the grace of God "teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world."
Pollock quotes an older translation, which says "sober" where the ESV has "self-controlled." That word keeps repeating here, and so does "sound."
"Soberly." This word appears five times in the Authorized Version of Titus. In one place it translates a word meaning watchful or vigilant (Titus 2:2). The other times, the word means self-control, good judgment and general soundness of mind. The word "sound" also appears five times. It translates a word with the sense of "healthful" — the word we have brought into our own language as "hygienic." The letter to Titus may well be called the letter of spiritual hygiene and sobriety.
The very next line turns from the young men to Titus himself, and the reason is easy to see.
Why this is fitting is obvious. He was to urge them to a right mind, or discretion. But his own example now comes to the front. Any failure of his in discretion would especially damage his godly influence with such young men.
Titus was a young man himself. Two things have to hold together in him, and losing either empties the other.
Young men are to be discreet in their words and ways. Titus himself, being a young man, is especially urged to act in a way that would be a pattern for the young men, in good works and in teaching. Again we learn how closely the life and the teaching are connected. On one hand, if the life is not right, the teaching, however correct, will have no power. On the other hand, let us beware of being content with good living while careless about sound teaching... If we act in the light of these instructions, those who want to oppose us will be silenced, with nothing bad to say about us.
- One word. Young men get one instruction. It is a covering virtue, and it reaches the whole life, not one corner of it.
- Self-control. The word means restraint in every direction. A sense of God's presence checks every feeling and inclination.
- Youthful. It curbs more than bodily sin. Impulsiveness, self-confidence, flippancy and impatience go too, and righteousness, faith, love and peace take their place.
- Everyone. Older men, older women, young women, young men and Titus himself all get the same call in this one chapter.
- Health. The word for "sound" means healthful. This is spiritual hygiene, taught by example, and it leaves opponents with nothing bad to say.
in all things affording thyself as a pattern of good works; in teaching uncorruptedness, gravity,
Titus has just been told what to press on the younger men. Now the charge turns on Titus himself: he must be a living sample of the conduct he urges, and a teacher whose manner matches his message.
The word behind "model" is the Greek τύπος. It shows up across the New Testament in several disguises:
The Greek word is τύπος, and from it comes our word "type." Older English versions translate it "print" in John 20:25; "figure" in Acts 7:43 and Romans 5:14; "form" in Romans 6:17; "fashion" in Acts 7:44; "manner" in Acts 23:25; and "pattern" in Titus 2:7 and Hebrews 8:5...
Titus is to be the pattern others copy. The "good works" he models are not simply kind-hearted acts. They are honourable ones. One commentator warns that the two can come apart, quoting the older wording of the verse:
That is why it says, "In all things showing yourself a pattern of good works" — that is, works that are right and honourable. Kindness is not the point here, though of course it would not be missing, and should not be. But kind people often fall short in what is fitting and worthy of the Lord's name. Too often they are softly agreeable, and ready to compromise for the sake of peace.
The charge lands on Titus at the point where he is instructing the younger men. Failure here does more than embarrass the teacher:
Young men are also to be sensible. Titus, who is charged with giving these instructions, was himself to be a pattern of good works. His example was to back up his words... When the preacher or teacher does not practise what he preaches, it does great damage to sound doctrine. What a stumbling block that is!
The verse ties conduct and teaching together in one sentence. The danger runs both ways:
Again we learn how closely life and doctrine are connected. If the life is not right, the teaching will have no power, however correct it is. But we must also be careful never to settle for good living while we care nothing for sound teaching.
Those good works have a source. They grow out of a new life:
They are the fruit of the new life and nature the Christian shares in. That life has its vitality in faith, and the Spirit of God is its power. They are the good fruit which grows upon the good tree.
The second half of the verse moves from life to words. Older versions call this integrity "uncorruptness": teaching nobody has watered down. Young hearers notice:
Practical conduct is not everything, however necessary it is. In his teaching he was to make sure of "uncorruptness."... The younger men above all had to be kept in mind. They watch fairly sharply, and any failure here would be sure to trip them up. Nothing damages Christianity more than compromising truth or holiness.
The man warned here was not an apostle. His honour did not excuse him from watching himself:
Titus was not inspired, and he did not hold the authority an apostle had, except where it was specially handed to him. Still, his position carried great honour and just as great responsibility. So it mattered enormously that he keep watch over himself.
The last word of the verse guards the manner of teaching. Older versions call it "gravity," and one commentator says only God's Spirit can keep it up:
Next, he was to show "gravity." Only the Spirit of God could keep up this high character while he worked among the younger men. There would be no shortage of chances for talk that was more or less light. Excitement is often very pleasant, to the speaker as well as to the hearers. But the grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ calls for gravity.
Older English versions add a third word, "sincerity," at the end of the verse. The ESV and others leave it out. One commentator explains why little is lost:
It is already assumed in the "uncorruptness" urged just before. But "uncorruptness" goes far beyond "sincerity," because it brings in what is due to God and Christ, and not just the honest character and manner of the man who teaches.
- Pattern. The word behind "model" gives us our word "type." Titus is not to describe good works. He is to be the pattern of them.
- Honourable. The works in view are right and fitting for the Lord's name. Being merely nice can turn soft and quick to compromise.
- Both halves. A wrong life drains the power out of right teaching. Good living with no care for sound teaching fails too.
- Uncorrupt. Young hearers watch closely. Nothing damages Christianity more than watering down truth or holiness.
- Grave. Excitement pleases speaker and hearers alike. But the grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ call for weight, not lightness.
a sound word, not to be condemned; that he who is opposed may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say about us
Paul has just told Titus to make his own life the model for younger men. Verse 8 adds one more mark: speech so healthy that no critic can find a handle on it.
The word translated "sound" is not a term for correctness alone. One writer points out that it is the ancestor of a word we still use every day about our bodies.
The word translated "sound" comes up again and again. It is worth noting that it is the word we get "hygienic" from, which is so often on people's lips today. It means healthful. Sound doctrine is doctrine that really makes for spiritual health.
Sound speech has an obvious rival: language that impresses.
"Sound speech" (Titus 2:8). What a fine exhortation this is for a servant of the Lord! What an antidote to the temptation that traps many — the temptation to sacrifice truth for misleading language or empty eloquence.
There is also the opposite danger of borrowing the world's vocabulary for holy things.
We are to be careful to use "sound speech." We must beware of words and expressions common in the world but completely out of place in divine things. Such words would make people condemn the teaching. If we act in the light of these instructions, those who seek to oppose us will fall silent, with no evil thing to say of us.
Verse 8 sits inside a call for Titus to be a pattern. His manner and his conduct are meant to carry the same weight as his teaching.
His example was to confirm his word. In teaching he was to show that his message was free from corruption. He was to show gravity too, setting out the doctrines with dignity, in all seriousness and sincerity. (What a contrast with certain evangelists and preachers of our day! They act like clowns and make sport of sacred things. Instead of teaching the young reverence, they drag holy things down.) Then comes "sound speech that cannot be condemned." Such speech silences those who oppose, leaving them unable to say anything evil about the servant of God. When the preacher or teacher does not practise what he preaches, he greatly hinders sound doctrine.
This is not a rule for teaching sessions only. One writer applies it to every dealing with younger men, and names the only safeguard.
The apostle presses "healthy speech that cannot be condemned." Such speech is sound in itself and not open to fair criticism. It is required not only on the more formal occasions of teaching, but in every dealing with the younger men. We must all feel how important this is, even though we have to admit our frequent failure in it. One thing alone is an adequate safeguard — the conscious presence of God.
The verse aims at an opponent put to shame. So Christians must speak with hostile listeners in mind, and even a slight fault counts as "evil."
We have to consider not only friends but foes. They are ready to attack whatever condemns them. Let us seek, then, to cut off opportunity from those who look for it. Then even the adversary, whatever kind he may be, will have no evil thing to say about us. The word for "evil" here is broad enough to cover everything from the slight to the mean, paltry and worthless.
The verse ends with a plural that reaches past Titus. One writer notes that the true reading is "us," not "you" — as the ESV has it.
Notice how sound speech will silence the criticism of those who want to oppose the truth. It will give them no occasion to speak evil of — not "you," but "us," as the true translation reads. People may speak against leaders, and even against believers as a whole, because some who profess Christ act carelessly.
- Healthy. "Sound" shares a root with "hygienic." It means speech that builds spiritual health, not just speech that is correct.
- Guarded. Two things spoil that health: empty eloquence that trades truth for effect, and the world's words carried into holy things.
- Backed. Words carry only as far as the life behind them; a teacher who does not practise what he preaches hinders sound doctrine itself.
- Constant. The standard covers ordinary conversation, not only formal teaching. One thing alone sustains it: living in the conscious presence of God.
- Shared. The aim is an opponent with nothing to say about us — one believer's careless word can put the whole company under reproach.
bondmen to be subject to their own masters, to make themselves acceptable in everything; not gainsaying;
Paul's instructions to Titus work down through the household — older men and women, then young wives and young men. Now he reaches the lowest rung of society: the household slave. What could a person with no rights, no wages and no freedom add to the Christian testimony?
Notice who Paul does not address in this chapter:
It is remarkable that both in Ephesians 6 and Colossians 3 the address to servants is far more detailed than to any of the other classes. Titus 2 singles out servants for special attention. There is no address to husbands, none to masters, none to children. We do not attempt to explain this, but we cannot help noticing it as a very interesting fact; and it certainly teaches us what an important place is given in Christianity to someone who, in those early days of the Church's history, held the position of a slave. The Holy Spirit took special pains to teach such a person how to carry himself in his most trying place of work. The poor slave might think he was shut out from the service of God. Far from it: he is gently taught that by simply doing his duty as in the sight of God he could adorn the doctrine of God his Saviour, and bring glory to the name of Jesus.
The first word to them is subjection — and to their own masters:
Here again subjection is the prime duty of such a relationship, and so it stands in the foreground — subjection to their own masters. Being taken up, even in thought, with others might only do harm. No saint, no apostle or prophet, is free from the duty of subjection. Christ made its truth and its moral excellence plain to the faithful. He, the Lord of all, showed Himself a man — the pattern of absolute subjection in love and obedience to His Father, the Servant of all. What an example and motive for Christian bondmen!
The demand is sweeping, but not endless:
As the very name suggests, the primary duty of the servant is obedience. Five different letters command this duty. As with children, the obedience demanded is almost unlimited. "Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters" (Colossians 3:22). The only limit lies in their higher obligations to the Lord. Scripture does not say this outright, but it clearly implies it in the words, "You are serving the Lord Christ" (Colossians 3:24). You receive the commands through your earthly masters, but in obeying them you are serving the Lord, because He has placed you where you are.
Pleasing a master in everything is the hardest part of the verse. The temptation is to treat it as unrealistic:
To be well-pleasing in everything is sometimes very hard — whether the difficulty comes from the master's oddities or the servant's own. Satan would love to suggest that in any other circumstances they might obey better; and that it is useless, as they are, to think of being well-pleasing in everything. One's own master might be unpredictable or fault-finding. But the claim of Christ is never lowered. Christ alone, kept before the eyes, enables a servant to be truly subject and to keep going in all things, instead of giving up at times in despair.
The verse ends with a word about the tongue:
"Not answering again." Servants must hold back their words, keeping the tongue under control to avoid quick and hasty speech. Every servant knows how many temptations there are here. Masters may say sharp and even unjust things in a moment of irritation, and the tendency is to reply in the same temper. Once the fire of dispute is lit, it is not easily put out.
The verse speaks to unpaid slaves. It reaches anyone who works for wages too:
Paul tells servants (bond slaves) to be obedient to their masters, and more than this, to please them well in all their conduct and service. If this is to be true of slaves, who received no just payment, how much more so in the case of employees for hire!
These commands have a goal. Verse 10 names it — adorning the teaching of God our Saviour:
The doctrine is beautiful in itself, so beautiful, it might be thought, that it is impossible to adorn it further. Yet it may be. Think of a poor slave who before his conversion was an absolute terror of a man. When his beautiful life works out the doctrine of God and carries it into effect, that doctrine is adorned indeed, and made beautiful in the eyes even of careless onlookers.
- Chosen. The group with no social standing gets the longest instruction in the chapter. Christianity gives the servant an important place, and no slave is shut out from serving God.
- Subject. Subjection stands first, and to their own masters; comparing your lot with someone else's only does damage.
- Limited. Obedience is almost unlimited, stopping only where a higher duty to the Lord begins — and in obeying a master you serve the Lord Christ.
- Silent. Sharp words invite sharp words back; the command guards the tongue before the dispute catches fire.
- Beautiful. A changed life in the humblest job makes the teaching of God our Saviour beautiful, even to careless onlookers.
not robbing [their masters], but shewing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the teaching which [is] of our Saviour God in all things.
This verse ends a short list of instructions for household servants, and it closes with a surprise: their daily honesty can make the gospel look beautiful. But what is "pilfering" (older translations say "purloining"), and how can anyone add beauty to a message that is already God's own?
The people addressed are household slaves, the ones others looked down on. Commentators note that God pays special attention to people in exactly that position.
The apostle is writing to a dear fellow-servant. When he comes to the slaves, he breaks out into one of the finest unfoldings of the doctrine of grace in this letter, or anywhere. If God pays particular attention to any, it is to those whom people generally despised. If God makes much of one, it is because circumstances especially expose that one to be passed by.
The word covers something narrower and more everyday than robbery. One writer finds its meaning in another place where the same word appears.
We are told of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5), who sinned against God by keeping back part of the price of a property they had sold, money they claimed they had given to the Lord. The word translated "kept back" there is the same word given in Titus as purloining. So purloining is not exactly what we call theft. It is the servant taking, for his or her own use, what belongs to the master or mistress. God asks every servant to be faithful in this, and never to take the smallest item without permission. Everything in the house belongs to the master or mistress, and the servant must hold it as a sacred trust.
The opposite of pilfering is complete trustworthiness. It serves the employer, and it serves a higher purpose too.
"Not purloining" — a warning as needed today as then. Too many employees think nothing of stealing small things that belong to the employer. The Christian must avoid this completely, and instead show true fidelity, a dependability the employer can fully trust. This is not only for the employer's sake, but to adorn the doctrine of God.
No one can improve the teaching itself. What changes is how it looks to those watching a life shaped by it.
The doctrine is beautiful in itself — so beautiful, it might be thought, that it is impossible to adorn it further. Yet it can be. Think of a poor slave who before his conversion was a perfect terror of a man. When the doctrine of God is worked out and lived in his beautiful life, it is adorned indeed. It is made beautiful even in the eyes of careless onlookers.
One writer compares the gospel to a dry flower bulb.
Plant that dry-looking root, with neither taste nor smell, in a bowl. Give it proper care. Then watch it send up its glorious spike of flowers and fill the whole house with fragrance. All the beauty that care brings into view was in the bulb already, before anything showed it. So it is with the gospel. To our fellow men it has neither taste nor smell. We who have believed it must live out its blessedness before their eyes, and so adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.
What is this teaching that a servant's life adorns? One writer names it in a line.
The doctrine of God our Saviour is THE GOSPEL. It tells us that God is good and does good.
The title itself says something about Christ.
Notice the expression "God our Saviour". It clearly implies that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. Our conduct should be an ornament to the doctrine about Him.
The apostle does not attach a small reason to a small command. He hangs the whole of Christianity on it.
The Spirit of God brings in the glories of another world and throws their light right into the commonest things here below. Nothing else judges them so well. When he tells a servant not to purloin, he gives the whole scope of Christianity as the motive in Titus 2:9-14.
That levels the ground between public ministry and housework.
Here we see that the servant, by obedience, humility and honesty, can adorn the doctrine of God in her own measure. She does it just as truly as an evangelist travelling the world in his high and holy work.
- Placed — God pays special attention to those others pass by. The lowest place is where He displays His grace.
- Trusted — pilfering is not burglary. It is quietly taking what belongs to another. Everything under a servant's hand is a sacred trust.
- Adorned — the gospel cannot be improved, only displayed. A changed life makes it beautiful even to careless onlookers.
- Displayed — to the world the gospel is a dry bulb with no taste or smell. Lived out, it flowers and fills the house with fragrance.
- Weighed — the whole scope of Christianity is the motive for not taking one small item. Honest housework adorns the doctrine as truly as world-wide preaching.