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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Titus 3:11 - 3:11
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
11. εἰδὼς ὅτι ἐξέστραπται ὁ τοιοῦτος. Knowing, as you do, that such an one is perverted.
ἐκστρέφεσθαι does not occur again in the N.T., but cp. Deu 32:20; Amo 6:12.
The use of τοιοῦτος is thoroughly Pauline; cp. 1Co 5:5; 2Co 2:6; Gal 6:1.
καὶ ἁμαρτάνει ὤν αὐτοκατάκριτος, and sinneth, being self-condemned. This principle is difficult to carry into practice. There is nothing more common, or more lamentable, in theological controversy than the assumption that a theological opponent is at heart dishonest and ‘self-condemned.’ It is not possible to believe that any justification for this temper of mind is to be found in St Paul’s words here or in 1Ti 4:2, where he speaks of the “speakers of lies who are branded in their conscience.” At the least it may be laid down that for anyone possessed of a less keen insight into character than was given to St Paul for his special work, it is not only unseemly, but presumptuous and wicked to impute hypocrisy to those who seem to be ‘heretically’ minded. That may indeed be true; but we can never be sure of it, and it is probably far less often true than we are prone to believe. In all men the power of self-deceit is so strong that self-condemnation is very unusual. αὐτοκατάκριτος is ἅπ. λεγ. in the Greek Bible.