Titus 2:1-10 But speak you the things which become sound doctrine: But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, etc. Paul, having given Titus directions as to the organization of a Christian Church in Crete, and changed him to contend against those who, in the name of Christianity, propagated doctrines at variance both with the truths and the spirit of the gospel, here urges that genuine morality which should be the grand aim and tendency of all gospel preaching. The grand subject presented in this passage is genuine morality. There have been, and still are, those who regard morality and religion as two distinct subjects or lines of conduct. But they are essentially one; one cannot exist without the other. The essence of both consists in supreme regard to the Divine will as the only standard of character and rule of life. From these verses we may draw three general truths in relation to this subject. I. GENUINE MORALITY LEGISLATES ALIKE FOR ALL MANKIND. It speaks to man authoritatively, whatever his personal pecularities, adventitious distinctions, social relations, secular circumstances, official position, the number of his years, or the characteristics of his country. Moral law meets him everywhere; he can no more escape it than he can the atmosphere he breathes. In these words persons are mentioned distinguished by three fundamental facts. 1. The fact of age. Amongst the millions of the race, not many in any generation can be found that came into existence exactly at the same minute. Hence there are those differing in age from one year to a hundred or more. Hence Paul speaks here of "aged men" and "aged women," "young men" and "young women." At the first dawn of moral consciousness, up to the last breath of earthly existence, the voice of duty speaks - "Thus saith the Lord." No one has strength enough to extricate himself from the ties of moral obligation. Not even that mighty spirit who leads the "world captive at his will" can break the shackles of moral responsibility. 2. The fact of sex. Here are "men" and "women," both the aged and the young. However closely identified in affection and interest, moral duty treats each as a distinct personality. In human legislation the obligation of the woman, in some cases, is absorbed in that of the man. Not so with the moral legislation of Heaven. Each must bear its own burden. Inasmuch as the woman is as bound to follow the will of God as the man, no man has a right to interfere with the freedom of her thought, the dictates of her conscience, or the independency of her devotions. For long ages men have not recognized this fact, and they have treated women as their toys of pleasure and instruments of gratification. Women are beginning to wake up to their rights, and the day of man's tyranny is drawing to a close. 3. The fact of relationship. Paul says, "Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters." Why the duty of servants should be here referred to and not that of masters, is not because masters have not their duty, but perhaps at this time in Crete there were slaves who were disloyal and rebellious. Whilst the duty of servants is here referred to, the fact must not be overlooked that morality is binding on men in every social relationship, on the rulers as well as the ruled, the judges as well as the criminals, the parents as well as the children, the employers as well as the employees. What is wrong for one is wrong for all, and the reverse. II. GENUINE MORALITY REACHES TO THE SPRINGS OF THE HEART. It does not concern itself with the external conduct. "Bodily exercise profiteth but little." But as it regards external conduct as the evolutions of the states of the heart, it legislates for those states. It says, "Keep the heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." Glance at the virtues here inculcated. "That the aged men be sober [sober-minded], grave, temperate." The exhortation to sobriety is also addressed to aged women: "That they be not given to much wine." Also to the young women: "Teach the young women to be sober." And to the young men: "Exhort to be sober-minded." Although physical sobriety is undoubtedly referred to, moral sobriety, serious thoughtfulness, and self-restraint are evidently included and regarded as fundamental. Moral sober-mindedness is the effective preventative and cure of all physical intemperance. No argument, either for total abstinence or against it, can be sustained by the phrase, "Not given to much wine." All the words convey is - Do not get drunk. "Sound in faith, in charity [love], in patience." This means - Have a healthy faith, a faith well founded; a healthy love, a love fastened on the supremely lovable; a healthy patience, a patience that shall bear up with fortitude and magnanimity under all the trials of life. "As becometh holiness " - reverent in demeanor. Let the whole life be full of that "holiness without which no man can see the Lord." "Not false accusers" - not slanderers. It has been observed that old women are specially tempted to garrulity and querulousness; hence the exhortation here. "Teachers of good things" - of that which is good. Things good in themselves as well as in their tendencies and issues; teachers, not merely by words, but by example. "That they may teach [train] the young women to be sober." The expression, "to be sober," should be omitted. "To love their husbands." The duty implies that the husband is loveworthy; there are some men who are called husbands so morally abhorrent and disgusting, that to love them would be impossible. The ideal husband must be loved. "To love their children." A mother's love, of a certain kind, is proverbial. Maternal love, wrongly directed, has been one of the chief curses of the race. "To be discreet" - sober-minded. A proper cheerfulness in mothers is a precious virtue, but volatile frivolousness is a serious evil. "Chaste - purity of the body, freedom from obscenity in language and life. Nothing in society is more beautiful than a thoroughly chaste woman - chaste in language, chaste in dress, chaste in movement; and nothing is more disgusting than the reverse - a woman unclean in appearance, in costume, in language, in manners. Keepers [workers] at home." Wives must work as well as husbands. Work is a condition of health and of true enjoyment. An idle wife is a bane both to herself and her family. "At home." This may not mean entirely in her own house, but in her own sphere, it may be in the garden, the field, the schoolroom, the Church, etc. "Good" - kind, amiable, sympathetic, generous, free from all that is malign, envious, and jealous. "Obedient [being in subjection] to their own husbands." This implies, of course, that the husband's commands are wise, right, and useful. "That the Word of God be not blasphemed." This refers, perhaps, to all the previous exhortations, and expresses a grand reason for the cultivation of all virtues. Our conduct in all things should be such as to bring honor rather than dishonor on our Lord and Master. "Let your light also so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." "Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded. Youth, in the swelling streams of its passions, the wild play of its fancy, and its craving for the romantic, is fearfully exposed to mental insobriety. Hence; no duty for the young is more urgent than that of obtaining a self-masterhood. Titus, whom Paul commands to exhort young men to this duty, was himself a comparatively young man. He could scarcely have been more than forty years of age. Brought up in a pagan home, not improbably in the luxurious and wicked Syrian Antioch, drawn to the Master's side in the fresh dawn of manhood, tried in many a difficult task and found faithful, the words of Titus exhorting the youth of Crete to be sober-minded or self-restrained would be likely to have great weight." "In all things showing thyself a pattern [ensample] of good works, in doctrine showing incorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you [us]." In order that the exhortations of Titus might have full force, Paul here addresses an admonition to him. He is to show himself a "pattern of good works" in all things; he is to be a model of excellence in all his relations to the men and women of Crete, both the aged and the young. He must be pure, grave, and sincere. His preaching, too, should be such that could not be "condemned" - sound, healthy, practical, not fanciful, sentimental, and morbid. Ah! how many sermons preached every Sunday men of reason, thoughtfulness, conscience, recoil from and condemn! "Exhort servants to be obedient [in subjection] to their own masters, and to please them well [to be well pleasing to them] in all things; not answering again [not gainsaying]; not purloining, but showing all good fidelity." Herein is enjoined on servants obedience, acquiescence, honesty, faithfulness. All this implies, of course, that the master is what he ought to be, that his commands are righteous, that his words are truthful, and that the work he enjoins is lawful and right. "That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things." From this it would seem that even slaves, in righteously serving their masters, may even honor God in their humble service. Thus from this passage we ]earn that genuine morality reaches the very springs of the heart, the fountain of all actions. He is not a moral man who only acts in strictest conformity to the conventional rules of society, nor is he even a moral man who merely fulfills the letter of the Divine commands. "All these commandments have I kept from my youth up... Yet one thing thou lackest," etc. He only is the true man whose governing sympathies flow in the channels of eternal right, and whose activities are ever engaged in endeavors to please the mighty Maker of his being. The will of God, and that only, is the datum of true ethics. III. GENUINE MORALITY IS THE GRAND PURPOSE OF GOSPEL TEACHING. "But speak thou the things which become [befit] sound doctrine, that the aged men," etc. His teaching is to be in contrast with that of the false teachers mentioned in the previous verses, and which led to immorality of conduct. This verse and the seventh, urging Titus, as a preacher, to be a pattern in all things, both in his teaching and his conduct, justifies the inference that the grand end of gospel teaching is the promotion of get, nine morality. In the eighth verse of the next chapter, Paul distinctly states that Titus was so to teach that his hearers might be "careful to maintain good works." This is a point which what is called the "Church has, in its teachings, practically ignored. The gospel has been preached to sustain theologies, to establish sects, and to maintain certain institutions, ecclesiastical and political, instead of making men morally good, honest, faithful, and heroically loyal to the truth as it is in Jesus." Here, then, we have the only infallible test of pulpit usefulness. In what does the real utility of the pulpit consist? In gathering large audiences? Any charlatan can do this; and, frequently, the greater the charlatan the most successful. In generating in the congregation the largest amount of superficial religious sentiment? This often emasculates the reason, diseases the conscience, enervates the will, and renders the whole atmosphere of the soul insalubrious and depressing. No; but in making men moral, the living agents evermore of' good works. I estimate a true Church, not by the number of its members, the apparent earnestness of its devotions, or the amount of its contributions, but by the number of its professors who are too truthful to lie, too honest to defraud, too morally noble to do or to countenance a mean or a dishonorable act - to whom, in short, all worldly wealth and power, and life itself, are held cheap as dirt compared with the right. When Churches are made up of such members, then, and not until then, they will command the confidence, the sympathy, the trade, and the influence of the world. Well does Emerson say, "There is no morality without religion, and there is no religion without morality. 'This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.' He who loves God keeps the commandment, loves God in action. Love is obedience in the heart, obedience is love in the life. Morality is religion in practice, religion is morality in principle." - D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: |
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