Charles Ellicott Commentary Titus 2:6

"the younger men likewise exhort to be sober-minded:" — Titus 2:6 (ASV)

Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. The task of influencing the young men belongs especially to Titus. Among them, in respect to age, he still must be considered; regarding their particular temptations, none could be found as fit as the still young Christian disciple of St. Paul (he was probably about forty years of age when he was placed over the Cretan Church) to set out vividly before them both the peril and the only means of guarding against it.

Brought up in a Pagan home, likely in the luxurious and wicked Syrian Antioch, drawn to the Master’s side in the fresh dawn of manhood, tried in many a difficult task and found faithful, the words of Titus, exhorting the youth of Crete to be sober-minded, or self-restrained, would be likely to have great weight. In this word, which urged self-restraint, a young man’s duty is briefly summarized.

No task, the wise Chrysostom tells us, is after all so hard and difficult for youth as obtaining mastery over oneself in the matter of harmful pleasures. The Apostle gives only a few special directions here for his disciple’s guidance, for he is going to tell him how he will best win these young men to the side of Christ. It will be, he proceeds to show him, most effectually done by the sight of the example of his own manly, self-restrained religious life.