THE EPISTLE TO TITUS links itself most evidently and closely with those to Timothy. It is more simply individual, not speaking of the state of the Church at large or prophesying of the latter days, but exhorting to the practical “godliness” which “the truth,” held really in the soul, necessarily produced (1:1). This connection is insisted on over and over again in this short epistle. To maintain this was the great object of the appointment of elders, mentioned as directly committed to Titus by the Apostle. The character of these (much more in question than any gift), must suit the office with which they were entrusted. Of this there was plain need: on the one hand there was the tendency of the natural disposition to break out; and on the other hand the error that suited it so well ready to come in.
The only effectual teacher of practical godliness is the grace that brings salvation to the soul and makes the appearing of the glory of Christ its hope, the grace of a Saviour God who gave himself to redeem us (not from guilt and punishment merely, but) from all iniquity, and purify to Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works (chapters 2:10-14.)
This is the objective side — the moral argument by which the soul is wrought upon, if I may so say. The subjective is, the actual communication of new life, and the power of the Spirit of God working in that life (chapters 3:4-6.)
All this in the way of doctrinal exposition comes in by the way, interwoven into a practical exhortation to believers in their various relationships, not only to each other, but to men at large.
THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON I may speak of here. Its teaching, as I believe, is as to the way in which Christianity acts with regard to the social distinctions that obtain in the world. It does not abolish these by a law. It does not teach the brother of low degree to claim the abolition of them on his own behalf. Grace, while it really exalts, never teaches one to exalt himself, nor to make his Christianity a plea for the attainment of position in the world. It does not teach even a slave to claim on that account exemption from his master’s yoke; but it teaches the master the joy of recognizing in a slave a “brother beloved,” and of freely, voluntarily relinquishing “claim” upon his own side. The very simple principle applies to every disciple, high and low, rich and poor together: “Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
Any one may trace the application of these principles in the Epistle to Philemon.