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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadEzekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - Titus 2:9 - 2:9
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Ver. 9. The slave portion of the Christian community naturally presents itself for separate counsel: Bondmen [exhort, supplied from Tit_2:7] to be in subjection to their own masters, in all things to be well-pleasing (viz. to their masters; so that, written in full, it would be åὐáñÝóôïõò åἶíáé äåóðüôáéò —the rendering of the Authorized Version, “to please them well in all things,” gives the correct sense); not gainsaying (or contradicting; Vulg. contradicentes; the “answering again” of the Authorized Version is too weak); not purloining ( íïóöéæïìÝíïõò , setting apart for oneself, self-appropriating; comp. Act_5:2-3), but showing all good fidelity ( ðᾶóáí ðßóôéí ἀãáèÞí , good faith of every sort, a thoroughly trustworthy spirit); in order that in all things they may adorn the doctrine of our Saviour God. Here, again, as at Tit_2:5, also at Tit_2:8, the high spiritual aim of the gospel, in what it teaches of doctrine and exacts of obedience, comes prominently out. The glory of God’s name and character among men is involved in it. And it is noticeable that the strongest expression given to this, in connection with the different classes of believers, is precisely here where the lowest in social position are concerned: previously it was that God’s word might not be blasphemed, or that nothing morally bad might be found in those who appeared as His peculiar representatives; but now it is that the conduct of the poor bondmen who avowed themselves believers might adorn the doctrine which is of God. “God thinks it meet” (to use the words of Calvin) “to receive an ornament from bondmen, whose condition was so mean and wretched that they were scarcely reckoned among men. For servants are not meant as such are now in use, but slaves, who were bought with money, and were possessed as oxen or horses. But if their life (he justly adds) is an ornament of the Christian name, all the more should they who are in honour see to it that they do not mar it by their base behaviour.”