TITUS 2
Rem Titus had been enjoined to set these things in order.
CAC Yes, this epistle has to do with the order that is becoming in those who know the Saviour God. The point in Titus seems to be the moral effect of the knowledge of the Saviour God. There is a certain teaching, and that teaching is to be adorned; even slaves are to adorn it. The saints are to be zealous for good works, not to establish their own character or to preserve it, but to preserve the character of the Saviour God. We are not to be like men of this world who do good works to get a character for themselves. People may ridicule the teaching, and they do. All the wise men of the world ridicule the teaching of a Saviour God, but they ought not to be able to get away from the fact that there is a people walking in this world according to principles which are entirely different to these of everyone else, and that the principles are such as cannot be called in question. I find, in speaking to infidels,
[p. 324] that it is a good thing to ask them whether they have ever come in contact with a genuine christian. I never met a man but would admit that he had known at least one. I met a man lately who said — ‘Yes, I have met two in my time’. That silences a man. If the moral order which is the result of the revelation of God as a Saviour God has been maintained it would have been a complete answer to every infidel thought.
Ques Is that the reason Titus is enjoined to exhort and rebuke?
CAC Yes, it is very important. I feel the exercise of reading this epistle is most wholesome. It is christianity evidenced in the fruits it produces. If this moral character is not maintained it brings reproach on God. The world is glad to get hold of failure and say, ‘Here is one of your christians’. We have all heard that said. It brings reproach on Christ’s name. It is a very solemn consideration that we are carrying the name of Christ through a world that has rejected Him. We should ask ourselves when anything is presented to us — ‘Does it suit that name?’ What a testimony the conduct of saints walking according to this epistle must have been in Crete! We have seen their natural character in chapter 1 and now in chapter 2 all this beautiful moral order is to be found characterising them. Such things must have been the talk of the whole island! In verse 1 there are things that become sound teaching, and in verse 3 the elder women are to be “in deportment as becoming those who have to say to sacred things”.
Ques What are the things?
CAC All that the apostle speaks of as the moral character of saints, sobriety, gravity, discretion, love and patience; these are things that should be seen in the saints; they are the character and qualities of Christ worked out morally in the saints; they are things that have to be spoken about and exhorted. The work of God does not go [p. 325] on automatically in saints, but these things have to be taught and brought before them, so that they may be exercised and pray, and then the teaching becomes practically effective in them. People talk of the work of God in saints as if it was something arbitrary apart from exercise and prayer, but it is really a moral work connected with the exercises of responsible persons. Lower down the apostle speaks of our being redeemed “from all lawlessness”. Lawlessness is the opposite to obedience. All this must be taken up in the spirit of obedience to give it any value. It is in taking Christ’s yoke upon us, having come to Him and learnt from Him, that we can take up any of this. We cannot do it by natural effort, but by getting near to Christ and having the support of His grace. Grace subdues; the knowledge of the Saviour God subdues.
Ques Is it rather striking that this work should be entrusted to the hands of young men like Timothy and Titus?
CAC I suppose they were comparatively young, but the Lord takes up suitable vessels, does He not? We find in Job that Elihu was a young man, and yet the Spirit of God spoke by him. It ought to have been the elders that had the wisdom — “Let days speak, and multitude of years teach wisdom”, Job 32:7. Elihu gives them their place and lets them say all that they had to say first. It is always right to respect God’s order in nature. Timothy was not to rebuke an elder, but to entreat him as a father. Still, elders are not always wise. Timothy and Titus had a special place as direct representatives of the apostle.
Ques With official power was there always that which was comely?
CAC Yes. “In all things affording thyself as a pattern”, and “Let no one despise thee”. There was to be moral weight with him; he was so to carry himself that people could not despise him.
[p. 326] Ques For a walk like this one needs much discretion?
CAC Discretion has a great place here — men are to be discreet, and young women are to be discreet. The book of Proverbs was written to give young men discretion as you find in chapter 1. Discretion is ability to discern what is suitable to God in the circumstances in which one finds himself. It is viewed here as the result of exercise, the fruit of exhortation.
All these things are good works, are they not? For instance, young women are exhorted to be diligent in home work; that is a good work. People who have dirty and untidy houses would cause the word of God to be evil spoken of.
Rem The elder women are to instruct the younger; this is not given so large a place in christian work as it should be. The responsibility of instructing in many details would fall on the elder women.
CAC Yes, it should be carried out and more space given to it.
Rem These things are the outcome of subjection to the word.
CAC Yes, and there is the teaching of grace; the grace of God is in itself a teaching power. Exhortation gives one the moral setting of things. A man under the teaching of grace could not live riotously; he would not leave God out, but there are details that we need to be specially instructed in.
The grace of God carries with it salvation. It comes as a salvation-bringing grace, it does not come demanding, but bringing deliverance from all the lusts and powers that hold man in bondage. That side of the gospel is most important. It has been too much pressed in preaching the gospel that the salvation of God makes people all right for the future, and for heaven, but the point is that grace brings salvation. There is positive power come in in the [p. 327] grace of God which sets a man right. The one who has come under the teaching of grace has denied everything that does not give God His place, and all that the world lusts after. The christian has said, ‘No’ to all these things; it is put as if he had definitely done with it all, “Having denied impiety and worldly lusts”. The saint is on the ground of having done with that sort of thing, so that he is living “soberly, and justly, and piously”. That is a bit like fulfilling responsibility, is it not?
Rem A remarkable title is given here to God, “Our great God”.
CAC The glory of our great God is the glory of grace, that is what makes the blessed hope. God will shine forth in universal good and blessing for man, and the happiness of knowing Him is set forth in His saints. “Blessed the people that is in such a case! Blessed the people whose God is Jehovah!”, Psalm 144: 15. That could be said in the Old Testament. The idea is that there is nothing unsuitable in the saints to the shining forth of the glory of the great God, they have come under the teaching and discipline of grace; it has corrected everything that was wrong, so that they are just waiting for the blessed hope.
It is wonderful that our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ should be put thus together; it is like what Stephen saw, “The glory of God, and Jesus” — a wonderful and blessed sight. I think the glory of God comes out in His people; they become witnesses of how great God is that He can bring about such wonderful things in men; He must be great to be such a Saviour God. Think of His taking up such material as is described in chapter 1 and turning it out in the style of chapter 2! He must be a great God to do this. What an immense thing it is to know God in grace!
Ques What is adorning in verse 10?
CAC It is very sweet to see that a bondman, if faithful in the service of his master, would be adorning the teaching [p. 328] of our Saviour God. The bondman might think, ‘What a humdrum life I have to lead! No chance of serving God’! What a cheer for him to feel that in carrying out his duties faithfully he is adorning the teaching! One would think the teaching is so beautiful that it could not be adorned, but the way the saints carry themselves is to be the adornment of it.
A very practical side of the death of the Lord Jesus is that He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all lawlessness. That is one aspect of redemption. People connect redemption with divine purpose, as if they were redeemed to go to heaven, but it is clearly connected here with the responsible course of saints, “that he might redeem us from all lawlessness”, so that if saints are walking lawlessly they are falsifying the precious redemption of the Saviour. That is a serious consideration, is it not?
Rem Lawlessness is a far-reaching expression.
CAC No one has any business to touch anything except in obedience. J.N.D. said, ‘Obedience is the only expression, save praise, of life to God’. Obedience and praise are the two ways that life is expressed. There is a danger of lawlessness, of doing things on the principle of one’s own will even when they are right things. We think if a thing is right it is right to do it, yet one might do it on the principle of one’s own will; that is all wrong. Everything is to be done on the principle of obedience.