instructed to deal with vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the

circumcision, Jewish fables and the like, being assured that `unto the pure

all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is

nothing pure' (Titus 1:10,14,15).  Titus was not Paul's son by the process of

Jewish proselytism; unlike Timothy, another son in the faith, he remained

uncircumcised; he was nevertheless a `genuine' son, for the types and shadows

of ceremonial purity and defilement had given place to a sanctification in

truth, as the apostle had written to the Hebrews:

`For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer

sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How

Much More shall the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit

offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead

works to serve the living God?' (Heb. 9:13,14).

To his son Timothy, who had been circumcised (Acts 16:1 -3) the son of a

Greek father and a Jewish mother, Paul sent the salutation:

`Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our

Lord' (1 Tim. 1:2).

To his son Titus, a Greek, and not compelled to be circumcised (Gal. 2:3 and

Acts 15) Paul sent the salutation `Grace, mercy and peace, from God the

Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour' (Titus 1:4), for both Timothy

and Titus belonged by grace to that company,

`Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision,

barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman: but Christ is all, and in all'

(Col. 3:11 R.V.).

When we realize how `common', unclean, profane and polluted an ordinary

Gentile must have been in the eyes of the Pharisees who believed, and of the

church at Jerusalem, and of even the apostle Peter, we can sympathize with

their extreme reluctance to believe that a Gentile so defiled could pass

straight into salvation and find such complete acceptance and access as was

preached by the apostle of the Gentiles.  We can all the more glory in this

high calling of God which is ours in Christ, through a `common' faith, a

faith that is a passport into grace and glory that, even while we believe,

seems at times almost `too good to be true'.

We pass now from the exceedingly rich salutation of this epistle to the

burden of its message.  Titus had earlier been entrusted with a mission by

the apostle (2 Cor. 8:6; 12:18) and again, in this epistle, we find him

`left' in Crete that he might `set in order the things that are wanting, and

ordain elders in every city' (Titus 1:5).  We learn from Josephus and others

that there were many influential and wealthy Jews in Crete, and from Acts

2:11 we learn that Cretans were represented at Jerusalem on the day of

Pentecost.  We do not know who was responsible for the evangelizing of Crete,

and in all probability the first seeds of the gospel were sown by those

Cretians who returned home after the feast of Pentecost.

`For this cause left I thee in Crete'.  The Companion Bible draws

attention to the fact that while the Received Text reads kataleipo the

critical texts read apoleipo.  Alford's comment is: