Charles Ellicott Commentary Titus 1:13

"This testimony is true. For which cause reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith," — Titus 1:13 (ASV)

This witness is true.—St. Paul emphatically here endorses the very severe judgment which their own great prophet-poet had written on the national Cretan character. He (St. Paul) had lived long enough among them to be able to bear his grave testimony to the truth of Epimenides’ words. He had witnessed the sad havoc in Christian life which their evil national propensities had caused.

Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.—Some translate, wherefore confute, that is to say, set them right, sharply (apotomôs). The noun apotomia, translated in the English version “severity,” is used in the passage about the “wild olive tree” (Romans 11:22). As a surgeon’s knife cuts away the diseased and decaying flesh, so must the words and discipline of Titus, the Apostle’s representative in Crete, sharply rebuke, and, if need be, punish the sinning members of the congregation.

Not merely the false teachers—the deceivers—are referred to here, but also the deceived, those whole households mentioned in Titus 1:11; and the object of this severity in words and acts was that the lapsed, the doctrinally and morally sick, among the Cretan Christians, should be restored to health again; and the sound state of faith and practice would, St. Paul proceeded to show, consist in “the rejection of Jewish fables and the commandments of these men.”