Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1721)

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Titus

Completed by JEREMIAH SMITH.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

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AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO

T I T U S.

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THIS

Epistle of Paul to Titus is much of the same nature with those to

Timothy; both were converts of Paul, and his companions in labours and

sufferings; both were in the office of evangelists, whose work was to

water the churches planted by the apostles, and to set in order the

things that were wanting in them: they were vice-apostles, as it were,

working the work of the Lord, as they did, and mostly under

their direction, though not despotic and arbitrary, but with the

concurring exercise of their own prudence and judgment,

1 Cor. xvi. 10, 12.

We read much of this Titus, his titles, character, and active

usefulness, in many places–he was a Greek,

Gal. ii. 3.

Paul called him his son

(Tit. i. 4),

his brother

(2 Cor. ii. 13),

his partner and fellow-helper

(2 Cor. viii. 23),

one that walked in the same spirit and in the same steps with

himself. He went up with the apostles to the church at Jerusalem

(Gal. ii. 1),

was much conversant at Corinth, for which church he had an earnest

care,
2 Cor. viii. 16.

Paul’s second epistle to them, and probably his first also, was sent by

his hand,

2 Cor. viii. 16-18, 23; ix. 2-4; xii. 18.

He was with the apostle at Rome, and thence went into Dalmatia

(2 Tim. iv. 10),

after which no more occurs of him in the scriptures. So that by them he

appears not to have been a fixed bishop; if such he were, and in those

times, the church of Corinth, where he most laboured, had the best

title to him. In Crete (now called Candia, formerly

Hecatompolis, from the hundred cities that were in it), a large

island at the mouth of the Ægean Sea, the gospel had got some

footing; and here were Paul and Titus in one of their travels,

cultivating this plantation; but the apostle of the Gentiles, having on

him the care of all the churches, could not himself tarry long at this

place. He therefore left Titus some time there, to carry on the work

which had been begun, wherein, probably, meeting with more difficulty

than ordinary, Paul wrote this epistle to him; and yet perhaps not so

much for his own sake as for the people’s, that the endeavours of

Titus, strengthened with apostolic advice and authority, might be more

significant and effectual among them. He was to see all the cities

furnished with good pastors, to reject and keep out the unmeet and

unworthy, to teach sound doctrine, and instruct all sorts in their

duties, to set forth the free grace of God in man’s salvation by

Christ, and withal to show the necessity of maintaining good works by

those who have believed in God and hope for eternal life from him.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1721)

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