3:1-7 Spiritual privileges do not make void or weaken, but confirm civil duties. Mere good words and good meanings are not enough without good works. They were not to be quarrelsome, but to show meekness on all occasions, not toward friends only, but to all men, though with wisdom, Jas 3:13. And let this text teach us how wrong it is for a Christian to be churlish to the worst, weakest, and most abject. The servants of sin have many masters, their lusts hurry them different ways; pride commands one thing, covetousness another. Thus they are hateful, deserving to be hated. It is the misery of sinners, that they hate one another; and it is the duty and happiness of saints to love one another. And we are delivered out of our miserable condition, only by the mercy and free grace of God, the merit and sufferings of Christ, and the working of his Spirit. God the Father is God our Saviour. He is the fountain from which the Holy Spirit flows, to teach, regenerate, and save his fallen creatures; and this blessing comes to mankind through Christ. The spring and rise of it, is the kindness and love of God to man. Love and grace have, through the Spirit, great power to change and turn the heart to God. Works must be in the saved, but are not among the causes of their salvation. A new principle of grace and holiness is wrought, which sways, and governs, and makes the man a new creature. Most pretend they would have heaven at last, yet they care not for holiness now; they would have the end without the beginning. Here is the outward sign and seal thereof in baptism, called therefore the washing of regeneration. The work is inward and spiritual; this is outwardly signified and sealed in this ordinance. Slight not this outward sign and seal; yet rest not in the outward washing, but look to the answer of a good conscience, without which the outward washing will avail nothing. The worker therein is the Spirit of God; it is the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Through him we mortify sin, perform duty, walk in God's ways; all the working of the Divine life in us, and the fruits of righteousness without, are through this blessed and holy Spirit. The Spirit and his saving gifts and graces, come through Christ, as a Saviour, whose undertaking and work are to bring to grace and glory. Justification, in the gospel sense, is the free forgiveness of a sinner; accepting him as righteous through the righteousness of Christ received by faith. God, in justifying a sinner in the way of the gospel, is gracious to him, yet just to himself and his law. As forgiveness is through a perfect righteousness, and satisfaction is made to justice by Christ, it cannot be merited by the sinner himself. Eternal life is set before us in the promise; the Spirit works faith in us, and hope of that life; faith and hope bring it near, and fill with joy in expectation of it.

Verse 1. - In subjection for subject, A.V.; rulers for principalities. A.V.; to authorities for and powers, A.V. and T.R.; to be obedient for to obey magistrates, A.V.; unto for to, A.V. Put them in mind (ὑπομίμνησκε); as 2 Timothy 2:14. To rulers, to authorities. Many uncials, which the R.T. follows, omit the καὶ, but it seems necessary to the sense. The change from "principalities and powers" to" rulers" and "authorities" does not seem desirable. Ἀρχάι and ἐξουσίαι is a favorite juxtaposition el' St. Paul's (1 Corinthians 15:24; Ephesians 1:21; Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 1:16; Colossians 2:10, 15). It occurs also in 1 Peter 3:22. In all the above examples the words, it is true, apply to the angelic hosts, but the words are elsewhere applied separately to human government, and in Luke 20:20, they are applied together to the authority of the Roman governor. To be obedient (πειθαρχεῖν); only here and in Acts 5:29, 32; Acts 27:21. It follows here its classical use, "to obey a superior," well expressed in the Authorized Version "to obey magistrates." The simple "to be obedient" of the Revised Version does not express the sense. To be ready unto every good work. St. Paul is still speaking with especial reference to magistrates and the civil power. Christians were to show themselves good citizens, always ready for any duty to which they were called. Christianity was not to be an excuse for shirking duties, or refusing obedience where it was due. The only limit is expressed by the word "good." They were to give tribute to whom tribute was due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor; but, if ordered to do evil, then they must resist, and obey God rather than man (Acts 4:19). (See the similar limitation in Titus 2:10, note, and compare, for the whole verse, the very similar passage, Romans 13:1-7.)

Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers,.... Not angels, good or bad, which are sometimes so called, but men in high places; the higher powers ordained of God, as the apostle elsewhere calls them; and which the Apostle Peter distinguishes into the king as supreme, and into governors under him: the Roman emperor and senate, the consuls, and proconsuls, deputies and governors of provinces and islands, are here meant; particularly such who were appointed over the island of Crete. Now the reasons why the apostle exhorts Titus to put in remembrance those that were under his care, to yield a cheerful subjection to their superiors, were, because the Jews, from whom the Christians were not distinguished by the Romans, were reckoned a turbulent and seditious people; which character they obtained, partly through the principles of the Scribes and Pharisees, which they at least privately entertained, as not to give tribute to Caesar, or be under any Heathen yoke; and partly through the insurrections that had been made by Judas of Galilee, and Theudas, and others; and besides, there were many Jews in the island of Crete, and the Cretians themselves were prone to mutiny and rebellion: to which may be added, that the false teachers, and judaizing preachers, that had got among them, despised dominion, and were not afraid to speak evil of dignities, according to the characters which both Peter and Jude give of them, and taught the saints to abuse their Christian liberty, and use it for a cloak of maliciousness, to the great scandal of the Christian religion.

To obey magistrates; inferior ones; in all things that are according to the laws of God, and right reason, that do not contradict what God has commanded, or break in upon the rights and dictates of conscience; in all things of a civil nature, and which are for the good of society, and do not affect religion, and the worship of God: hence it follows,

to be ready to every good work; which may be taken in a limited and restrained sense, and design every good work enjoined by the civil magistrate; and all right and lawful obedience that belongs to him, as giving to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, tribute, custom, fear, and honour to whom they are due; and which should be done readily and cheerfully: or it may be understood more comprehensively of good works in general, which wicked men are reprobate to, and unfit for; and which they that are sanctified are meet for, and ready to; though this may not only intend their capacity, fitness, and qualifications, for the performance of good works, but their alacrity, promptitude, and forwardness unto them.

CHAPTER 3

Tit 3:1-15. What Titus Is to Teach Concerning Christians' Behavior towards the World: How He Is to Treat Heretics: When and Where He Is to Meet Paul. Salutation. Conclusion.

1. Put them in mind—as they are in danger of forgetting their duty, though knowing it. The opposition of Christianity to heathenism, and the natural disposition to rebellion of the Jews under the Roman empire (of whom many lived in Crete), might lead many to forget practically what was a recognized Christian principle in theory, submission to the powers that be. Diodorus Siculus mentions the tendency of the Cretans to riotous insubordination.

to be subject—"willingly" (so the Greek).

principalities … powers—Greek, "magistracies … authorities."

to obey—the commands of "magistrates"; not necessarily implying spontaneous obedience. Willing obedience is implied in "ready to every good work." Compare Ro 13:3, as showing that obedience to the magistracy would tend to good works, since the magistrate's aim generally is to favor the good and punish the bad. Contrast "disobedient" (Tit 3:3).

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