Charles Ellicott Commentary Titus 2:8

"sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of us." — Titus 2:8 (ASV)

Sound speech, that cannot be condemned.—The substance of Titus’s teaching, whether in more personal interactions with individuals or in his preaching in the Christian gatherings, must be healthy, practical, and manly, in contrast to the sickly, morbid, fanciful instruction the false teachers of Crete were accustomed to giving. His words, too, must be well-weighed and thoughtful, as well as earnest and impassioned; they must be such as would expose him neither to contempt nor to the charge of presumption.

Between the lines of the exhortation of verses 7 and 8, we can read the Apostle's anxiety that his representative in Crete should take all possible care that the content of his teaching and preaching was studied and prepared with all the attention and thought that such an important duty demanded. He should remember, too, that the words as well as the works of the Christian teacher will be subject to a sharp and often hostile criticism. These warnings and reminders of St. Paul, it should be remembered, belong to all ages of the faith.

That he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.—The older authorities, with one exception, read “of us,” instead of “of you.”

If Titus diligently carries out the exhortation of the preceding two verses, then the enemy—whether the false teacher or the Pagan opponent of Christianity—confounded by the pure, self-sacrificing, earnest life, overcome by the well-weighed, thoughtful utterance of great truths and by the impassioned exhortation for men and women to lead noble, honest lives, will surely be ashamed of his bitter opposition when he finds nothing in either the life or the teaching that he can fairly criticize as “bad.” As the better-supported reading, “of us,” associates St. Paul and others with Titus, the evil thing which might have been said of Titus would, in reality, be spoken against St. Paul and the elder Apostles.