ACC ~ Titus 3 v8 - 15

OVERVIEW:

In his parting instructions, Paul emphasizes that our response to God’s gracious initiative must be that of virtuous living, so that all contentiousness is avoided and humility is the order of the day. All preaching derives its credibility precisely from this virtue. Finally it is embodied actions that touch the human heart that enable conversion (CHRYSOSTOM). Paul coaches Titus on the importance of diligence in what is fitting, so that heresy will be refuted by the very lives of the faithful (ATHANASIUS, AMBROSE). Follow the pattern of Matthew 18 in the discipline of the lapsed: admonition, community accountability, and excommunication only as a last resort (BASIL). The heresies, being self-chosen, are self-condemned (TERTULLIAN, CYPRIAN, MAXIMUS).

3:9 | Avoid Quarrels and Disputes

THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERD. AMBROSE: Blessed is that servant [Paul] who can say: “I have fed you with milk and not with meat; for until now you were not able to bear it.” … Yet he—being so great a man and chosen by Christ for the care of his flock in order to strengthen the weak and to heal the sick—rejects immediately after a single admonition a heretic from the fold entrusted to him. This he does for fear that the taint of one erring sheep might infect the whole flock with a spreading sore. He further bids that foolish questions and contentions be avoided. OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 5, PROLOGUE 3-4.

DO NOT SOW ON A ROCK. CHRYSOSTOM: “Contentions,” he means, with heretics. He would not have us labor to no purpose, where nothing is to be gained, for they end in nothing. For when a man is perverted and predetermined not to change his mind, whatever may happen, why should you labor in vain, sowing upon a rock, when you should spend your honorable toil upon your own people, in discoursing with them upon almsgiving and every other virtue? HOMILIES ON TITUS 6.

3:10 | Have Nothing More to Do with Him

CHOOSE YOUR BATTLES! CHRYSOSTOM: He shows that they do not so much err from ignorance as they owe their ignorance to their indolence. Those who are contentious for the sake of money you will never persuade. They are only to be persuaded, so long as you keep paying out, and even so you will never satisfy their desires. … From such then, as being incorrigible, it is right to turn away. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 17.

AVOID THE ROCKS OF UNBELIEF. AMBROSE: This monster’s cavern [of heresies], your sacred Majesty, is thick laid (as seafaring men do say it is) with hidden lairs, and all the surrounding neighborhood, where the rocks of unbelief echo to the howling of her black dogs, we must pass by with ears stopped up. For it is written: “Hedge your ears about with thorns” and again: “Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers”; and yet again: “One who is a heretic, avoid after the first reproof knowing that such a one is fallen and is in sin, being condemned of his own judgment.” So then, like prudent pilots, let us set the sails of our faith for the course wherein we may pass by most safely and again follow the coasts of the Scriptures. OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 1.6.47.

REPROVE VAIN TEACHINGS. ATHANASIUS: Perhaps even thus being put to shame by the bad odor of their names, they [the heretics] may be enabled to grasp the depth of impiety into which they have fallen. It would be within our rights not to answer them at all, according to the apostolic advice: “One who is heretical, after a first and a second admonition refuse, knowing that such a one is perverted and sins, being self-condemned.” This is even more the case, in that the prophet says about such men: “The fool shall utter foolishness, and his heart shall imagine vain things.” But since, like their leader, they too go about like lions seeking whom among the simple they shall devour, we are compelled to write in reply to your piety, that the brethren being once again instructed by your admonition may still further reprove the vain teaching of those men. LETTER TO ADELPHUS 60.2.

COMMUNITY DISCIPLINE. BASIL THE GREAT: If he who has been corrected for his first sins and has been deemed worthy of pardon again falls, he prepares for himself a more wrathful judgment. He who after the first and second admonition remains in his fault should be reported to the superior, that perhaps he may be ashamed when further rebuked. But, if he does not even in this case correct himself, he must be cut off from the rest as a cause of scandal and be looked upon as a heathen and a publican. LETTERS 22.

3:11 | He Is Self-Condemned

THE NATURE OF HERESY. TERTULLIAN: It is the same Paul who, in his epistle to the Galatians, counts “heresies” among “the sins of the flesh,” who also intimates to Titus that “a man who is a heretic” must be “rejected after the first admonition.” This is on the ground that “he that is perverted and commits sin as a self-condemned man.” Indeed, in almost every epistle, when enjoining on us [the duty] of avoiding false doctrines, he sharply condemns heresies. Of these the practical effects are false doctrines, called in Greek heresis, a word used in the sense of that choice which a man makes when he either teaches them [to others] or takes up with them [for himself]. For this reason it is that he calls the heretic self-condemned, because he has himself chosen that in which he is condemned. ON PRESCRIPTION AGAINST HERETICS 6.

HIMSELF TO BLAME. CYPRIAN: The church cannot be rent or divided against itself. It maintains the unity of a single, indivisible house. … All who are to live and escape the destruction of the world must be gathered into one house alone, the church. If any of the gathered goes outside, that is, if anyone who once obtained grace in the church nevertheless abandons the church, his blood will be upon his head. He will have himself to blame for his damnation. The apostle Paul explains this, directing us to avoid a heretic as perverted, sinful and self-condemned. LETTERS 69.4.

SELF-EXCOMMUNICATED. MAXIMUS OF TURIN: For the heretic damns himself when he casts himself out of the Catholic church and under no compulsion leaves the gathering of the saints. He who separates himself from everyone by his own judgment shows what is merited from everyone. The heretic himself, I say, damns himself because, although all the wicked are cast out from the Christian assembly by the sentence of the bishop, the heretic departs himself, by the judgment of his own will, before anyone’s subsequent wishes are expressed. SERMONS 58.3.

3:13-14 | Help Cases of Urgent Need

ACTIVE CHARITY. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul urges that they not wait for those who are needy to come to them but that they seek out those who need their assistance. Thus the considerate man shows his concern, and with great zeal he will perform his duty. For in doing good actions, it is not those who receive the kindness who are benefitted, so much as those who do the kindness that make gain and profit, for it gives them confidence toward God. HOMILIES ON TITUS 6.

SERVING THE SERVANTS OF GOD. AUGUSTINE: Nevertheless, after the apostle had said in such instruction and advice: “Now such persons we charge and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ that they work quietly and eat their own bread,” he was mindful of such needs of the holy persons who, although they would obey his commands to work quietly and eat their own bread, would, for many reasons, lack some provision of such necessary commodities. Hence, with foresight he added immediately: “But you, brothers, do not grow tired of well-doing,” so that those who had the means of furnishing sustenance to the servants of God would not grow careless in this respect. Furthermore, when in writing to Titus he said: “Help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way, taking care that nothing be wanting to them.” He continued thus, in order to show why nothing should be lacking in their regard: “And let the people also learn to excel in good works, in order to meet cases of necessity, that they may not be unfruitful.” THE WORK OF MONKS 15.16.

THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON

ARGUMENT: In writing to Philemon, Paul addresses himself to a household of devout Christians, from whom Onesimus, the slave, has run away and from whom he has stolen. The apparent triviality of this letter disguises the fact that it displays the virtue and godly humanity of the apostle in concrete terms, it shows that wicked slaves should not be abandoned, and it implies that slavery as an institution is such that slaves ought not to be withdrawn from their masters (CHRYSOSTOM). Paul means to demonstrate the moderation with which those in ecclesiastical authority should treat brothers in the faith, this moderation coming through in his tone and humility. Finally, he clarifies the fact that men and women are spiritually equal but have different functions (THEODORE). The central thrust of Paul’s message is that Onesimus, the runaway slave, is a man for whom Christ died and therefore is worthy of Philemon’s tender care, whatever his crimes (THEODORET). Paul demon-strates in this short letter the humility of true holiness (PELAGIUS). While it is the case that some have doubted the Pauline authorship of this letter and others relegate it solely to the area of practice and not of doctrine, it is a valuable and authentic composition by the apostle, as even Marcion recognized (JEROME).