Titus 2:9-10 Exhort servants to be obedient to their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again;… I. THE NATURE OF THE SIN AGAINST WHICH THE TEXT WARNS US. Stealing is a term applicable to the conduct of a man who goes to the house, or the farm, or the shop of another, and takes away his goods or other property. We turn an act of theft into one of purloining when a servant helps himself, without an understood allowance from his master or mistress, to that which is under his care, or to which he has access; or when a workman pockets, for his own use, what he thinks he may bear away without detection; or when a labourer carries away from his master's farm something to add to his own little stock, or to maintain his own family. To steal is to take what is not our own. To purloin is to take what is not our own too; but it is something we had in trust, or to which we had access. If purloining be practised on a large scale, it changes its name and becomes embezzlement. II. THE EXCEEDING SINFULNESS OF THIS SIN. There are many excuses which are brought forward in extenuation of this offence. 1. The change of its name. There is a wonderful imposition in words; and many purloiners quiet their consciences by changing the name. Because it is not commonly called stealing, they think it does not involve the guilt of stealing. 2. Another plea is, that however great the amount may be in the course of months or years, you are pleased to make the depredations small in detail. It is a petty affair of every day, and so very little as not to be worth thinking about. It does not say, "Thou shalt not steal much!" but, "Thou shalt not steal!" 3. The next plea is, that the master is rich and will not miss it, and so it will do no harm. This law does not merely forbid them to steal from the poor, leaving them at liberty to steal from the rich. III. THE MOTIVES WHICH ENFORCE THE OPPOSITE CONDUCT. The servants whom Titus was to exhort were those of his own congregation. They formed a Christian community; and however the title may be applied now, it was then given to these who had renounced Paganism. The admonition was to men who had embraced not only the profession of faith, but the faith itself. It is right that, for every kind of unrighteousness, men should be reproved; for "the wrath of God is revealed," etc. The more they are burdened with a sense of sin, the more will they feel the importance of repentance. (T. Chalmers, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; |
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