Charles Ellicott Commentary Titus 2:9

"[Exhort] servants to be in subjection to their own masters, [and] to be well-pleasing [to them] in all things; not gainsaying;" — Titus 2:9 (ASV)

Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters.—The accurate translation here is bond servants. It must be remembered that the words in this and the following verse are addressed to “slaves.” With particular attention to the unique circumstances of the Church in Crete, St. Paul had been giving general directions to his representative (Titus 2:1–8) concerning the instruction and advice he considered it appropriate to give to the various orders and ages of professing Christians on the island. These directions were arranged according to “age” and “sex.”

He now turns to the instruction of another large class, among whom were many Christians—“the slaves.” He groups these together under one heading. Quite possibly, these “words” to be addressed particularly to slaves were prompted by specific instances of insubordination and impatience with their unhappy condition among the Cretan slaves.

Indeed, the repeated warnings to this unfortunate and oppressed class (Colossians 3:22; 1 Timothy 6:1) indicate that one of the difficulties Christianity had to overcome in its early years was the challenging task of persuasion.

This task involved convincing “the slave” that the divine Master—who promised him a home among His Father’s many mansions if he were faithful and true—did not mean that the existing social relationships should then be changed, or society’s complex framework disturbed.

St. Paul knew it was a difficult task to persuade the bondman—a fellow heir of heaven with the freeman—to patiently accept his current condition of misery and servitude. Therefore, these repeated instructions were given to this class. These poor sufferers were to obey cheerfully and readily, as the next clause informed them.

And to please them well in all things; not answering again.—The latter words are better translated as not gainsaying; the Vulgate has contradicentes. This means that they should obey cheerfully and willingly, without sullenness, not thwarting or opposing their masters’ plans, desires, or orders.

Furthermore, in Titus 2:10, the Apostle gives them a noble incentive for this brave, sweet patience that he so earnestly urged upon them.

Such conduct on their part, he tells them, would greatly help the Master’s cause; it would dispose many hostile minds favorably toward a religion that could so powerfully influence even the slave. Chrysostom comments thus: “Greeks form their estimate of doctrines not from the doctrine itself, but from the actions and the life” (of those who profess the doctrine).