Charles Ellicott Commentary Titus 3:1

"Put them in mind to be in subjection to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready unto every good work," — Titus 3:1 (ASV)

Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers.—Very careful and searching have been the Apostle’s charges to Titus regarding the teachers of the Church, their doctrine, and their life; very particular have been his directions, warnings, and exhortations to men and women of different ages on the subject of their home life.

But, with the exception of a slight digression in the case of a slave to a pagan master, his words had been written with a reference generally to Christian life among Christians. However, at that time, there was a significant life outside the small Christian world; how were the people of Christ to regulate their behavior in their dealings with the vast pagan world outside? St. Paul goes to the root of the matter at once when he says, “Put them in mind,” etc. Such a reminder regarding obedience was very necessary in Crete.

When St. Paul wrote to Titus, the island had been under Roman rule for about a century and a quarter. Their previous government had been democratic; and historians, like Polybius, who have written about Crete, have focused particularly on the turbulent and factious spirit that animated its people. Furthermore, the many Jews who, as we know, formed a very large part of the Christian Church there, always impatient with a foreign yoke, would, in such an atmosphere of excitement, be especially eager to assert their right to be free from the hated rule of Rome.

The Greek words translated “principalities and powers” are better translated here as “rulers and authorities,” since the word “principalities” is occasionally used in the English version of the Bible for an “order of angels.” These terms include all constituted governors and officials, Roman and otherwise, in the island.

To obey magistrates.—Taken absolutely, this means to obey the temporal power. Our Lord’s words were the model for all teaching in this division of Christian ethics. One great teacher after another, in the same spirit and in varied language, urges the people of Christ to show reverence and submission to all legally constituted authority in the state. No bitter opposition to their tenets in later years could chill this devoted Christian loyalty, nor could any cruel persecution of individuals diminish it.

Augustine, writes Professor Reynolds, could boast that when Julian asked Christians to sacrifice and offer incense to the gods, they, at all risks, sternly refused; but when he summoned them to fight for the empire, they rushed to the front. “They distinguished between their Eternal Lord and their earthly ruler, and yet they yielded obedience to their earthly ruler for the sake of their Eternal Lord.”

Least of all should we expect St. Paul to write such words, so loyal and faithful to Rome. He had found, indeed, little cause in his checkered, troubled life to be personally grateful to the Empire; Rome had always listened too readily to the cruel “informations” laid against him by his implacable Jewish enemies. She had imprisoned him, fettered him, hindered his work, and threatened his life; and when he was writing these deathless words of his, urging his devoted flock to a loyalty changeless and true, the supreme vengeance of Rome was close at hand for him.

To be ready to every good work.—This means being ready to cheerfully aid all lawful authority, municipal and otherwise, in public works undertaken for the city or state. Titus’s flock must remember that the true Christian should be known as a good citizen and a devoted patriot.