Charles Ellicott Commentary Titus 3:2

"to speak evil of no man, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing all meekness toward all men." — Titus 3:2 (ASV)

To speak evil of no man.—These commands of St. Paul to the Church of Crete permeate the spirit of Christ, who when He was reviled, reviled not again; who said, Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.

The Christian in the days of St. Paul, and for many days after St. Paul had borne that gallant witness of his outside the gates of Rome, would indeed often be called in sad earnestness to put into practice these charges of the Apostle. In days of persecution, in times of suspicion, when the Christian profession exposed people to hatred and to severe danger, when all people spoke evil of them, these words of St. Paul were remembered and acted upon, and not only in Crete.

To be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.—Or better, not contentious, but, and so on. These characteristics were not common virtues in Crete, then the resort and trading center of so many different nationalities. Its unique situation in the Mediterranean, midway between Europe, Africa, and Asia, has been noticed, as have been the dispositions and vices of the inhabitants.

Surely, St. Paul urges, the professed followers of the Crucified among the Cretans should aim at a nobler standard of life than was common among these rough and often selfish traders. These things charged here by St. Paul were new virtues to humanity. They are held up to admiration by no pagan moralists.

Meekness signifies kindly forbearance. This Christian feeling, which looks lovingly on all sorts and conditions of people—on the stranger and the outcast, even on the vilest sinner—is especially urged here. It is the same sweet spirit of love that desires, in 1 Timothy 2:1, that prayer and supplication be made in the public Christian assembly for all men.