Titus 1
Titus 1:3:
But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our saviour |
A case for the vocation of preaching.
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Titus 1:5:
For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: |
Although churches had been formed, the situation was still incomplete. The form was not yet full because elders had not yet been appointed or ordained. So Titus is to take care of what has been left undone: he is to bring the church up to the level of the form that the New Testament church should have.
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Titus 1:15:
Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. |
To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. Often one who sees everything as corrupt is making more of a judgment about themselves….they themselves are corrupt.
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“They alone are pure who are justified from all sin by Christ’s righteousness, and are clean through the word or sentence of absolution spoken by him; and who are washed from their sins in his blood, and have that sprinkled upon their consciences,a by which they are purged and cleansed from all sin; and have the clean water of sanctifying grace spinkled upon them, and have clean hearts and right spirits created in them; and whose hearts are purfied by faith, and have pure principles of grace and holiness formed in them” --John Gill
all things--external, "are pure" in themselves; the distinction of pure and impure is not in the things, but in the disposition of him who uses them; in opposition to "the commandments of men" (Tit 1:14), which forbade certain things as if impure intrinsically. "To the pure" inwardly, that is, those purified in heart by faith (Ac 15:9; Ro 14:20; 1Ti 4:3), all outward things are pure; all are open to, their use. Sin alone touches and defiles the soul (Mt 23:26; Lu 11:41).
nothing pure--either within or without (Ro 14:23).
mind--their mental sense and intelligence.
conscience--their moral consciousness of the conformity or discrepancy between their motives and acts on the one hand, and God's law on the other. A conscience and a mind defiled are represented as the source of the errors opposed in the Pastoral Epistles (1Ti 1:19; 3:9; 6:5). --Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown
nothing pure--either within or without (Ro 14:23).
mind--their mental sense and intelligence.
conscience--their moral consciousness of the conformity or discrepancy between their motives and acts on the one hand, and God's law on the other. A conscience and a mind defiled are represented as the source of the errors opposed in the Pastoral Epistles (1Ti 1:19; 3:9; 6:5). --Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown