Titus 2:9-10 Exhort servants to be obedient to their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again;… In this Titus is counselled to place plainly before the several classes of people who claim to belong to the Church of Christ the virtues they are expected to cultivate and the vices they must carefully shun. Each class and each rank has its own special duties to perform, its own special temptations to resist, its own testimony for Christ to bear. There is no class, and there is no individual exempt from this. Titus must make no respect of persons, and neglect no class. He must not influence class against class, but address himself to each, and tell each how to act towards the others. Each class is under obligation to fulfil its duties towards others so faithfully that it may be seen at once that they, are the disciples of Christ. Now, if every class of professing Christians were to act in this way, were to strive so to act — were to think less of the failure of others in the fulfilment of duty and more of their own, were to look at home first and set about correcting what is wrong there — what a wonderful transformation would be effected in the face of society. Masters would ask, not, "Are my workmen as diligent as they ought to be?" but "Do I deal as fairly with them as I should?" Servants would ask, not "Is my master as just towards me as the law of Christ commands?" but "Am I doing what in me lies to fulfil my duty towards him, as Christ would have me?" Landlords would ask, not "Are my tenants as industrious and thrifty as they might be?" but "Am I dealing with them in as fair and brotherly a spirit as I should?" Tenants would ask, not "Is my landlord not exacting from me more than he ought?" but "Am I as careful over his property as I should be — as I might be?" And so on throughout all the relationships of life. But, alas! few think of adopting this method of adorning their Christian profession. They think it enough to adorn that profession if they point out to one class the faults of the others, or bemoan the wrongs done to themselves, forgetful of, or heedless to, the wrongs they themselves do to others. It was not thus that our Lord desired His people, His followers, to act. No; each man was to begin with himself, pull the beam out of his own eye before he set himself to extract the mote out of his neighbour's. But not only are we apt to overlook the applicability of the law of Christian duty to ourselves; we are apt also to overlook its thoroughness and comprehensiveness. There are not a few whose adornment of the Christian doctrine goes little, if any, further than the acceptance of the Church creed, and attendance with more or less regularity on certain church services. It is not an uncommon thing to meet men and women who boast of, who are sincerely proud of, their orthodoxy and Church attendance, and who do not think it wrong to practise in business what are called, Say, the "tricks of trade," or in private life to indulge in some one or more vices. I have myself heard a person in a maudlin state of intoxication lamenting the sad condition of a friend who had expressed himself doubtful of the expediency of infant baptism. Then, again, we have instances of people who magnify one particular virtue, which they happen to practise, and who become so proud of it that they quite forget the other virtues which our Christian faith inculcates quite as much on them. The virtue may, after all, however, not be in their case a virtue at all, or be very little of a virtue. Christ would not have the temperate man less temperate than he is, but He would ask him, though he has no inclination towards strong drink, to examine himself and see if he has no inclination towards something else which is bad, and set himself against that. Christ would ask him, not to think himself perfect because he did not indulge in a sin that has not the least attraction for him, but to try and find out the sins that do "beset him," and show his perfection — the strength of his character and the power of his faith — by overcoming them. It may be a temper that is not yet under his control — a querulous disposition that destroys the peace of his home — a spirit of fault finding and uncharitableness that mars the blessedness of all intercourse with him, and transforms even his very truths into falsehoods. Christ would have us adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in not one thing but in all things — have us show that it raises us above the vice of drunkenness, certainly, but also above that of malice, covetousness, selfishness, and all uncharitableness. But this, I repeat, is what too many professing Christians forget or overlook. Men are everywhere prone to make compromises in the matter of Christian duty — to hold, it may be, by the creed and forget the commandments, to think of the sins of others and forget their own, or cling to one virtue and make it to do duty for all the others. Let us be warned against this folly. Let us remember that our Christian faith, if it brings us light, lays on us also obligation; if it reveals the love of God towards us it reveals also what He requires of us. Let us remember how comprehensive is its scope, and how personal is its appeal to us. It is the spirit of a new life — a new life that must pervade our whole being and manifest its sanctifying presence in every act we do and every word we say. (W. Ewen, B. 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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