PROLOGUE This epistle was written about the time of First Timothy, during Paul’s last visit to the Churches of Macedonia. We have no postscripts in the Greek, those in English all being spurious. The presumption is, both of these letters were written at Philippi, Thessalonica, or Berea, more probably at the latter, as on his arrival in Greece he would be anxious first to visit and preach to all of the Churches. Titus was appointed by Paul bishop; i .e ., pastor, of Crete, the largest island in the Grecian Archipelago, and belonging to Greece.

CHAPTER - “Paul the slave of God; ” i .e ., his love slave, as all sanctified people are; sinners being Satan’s slaves, the sanctified God’s love slaves, and the unsanctified hired servants in the kingdom of God; e .g ., preachers for salary, etc., till sanctification blow the jubilee trumpet, and the faithful have their ears bored—i .e ., old Adam crucified—becoming God’s love slaves, to abide with him forever, and the rest backsliding, because they reject holiness, go back into the devil’s kingdom, and make their bed in hell. “An apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of the elect of God. ” The Greek, eklectoi , is from lego , to choose, and ek , out. Hence, it means the chosen out of the chosen. All Christians are chosen out of the world; but God’s elect are chosen out from the Christians to be his peculiar people, the Bride of his Son. This word by itself settles the second blessing. “And the perfect knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness. ” This perfect knowledge or experimental certainty we receive in sanctification.

ARGUMENT THE PASTORATE 5. “Therefore I left thee in Crete, that thou mayest set in order the remaining things, and establish elders in every city, as I have commanded thee. ” Here we see that Paul gave Titus a general superintendency in the Island of Crete, like Wesley had in the British Isles, and such as he gave Asbury in America, and the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1876 gave William Taylor in Africa. These elders are identical with bishop in the seventh verse, “elder” being no official personage denotative of seniority and responsibility. The “elder” may be a pastor, a deacon, or a layman; however, in this case those mentioned in verse 5 are all bishops; i .e ., pastors appointed by Titus. 6. “If any one is irreproachable. ” Here we see that the Pauline qualifications of a pastor in Crete are identical with those in Asia under the superintendency of Timothy. “The husband of one wife. ” As those Gentile converts had all spent their lives in heathenism, where polygamy always did prevail and is common to this day, it was very pertinent to give straight deliverances, corrective of that evil. “Having faithful children, not in accusation of riot nor unruly. ” Here we see, as in 1 Timothy, the pastor of a Christian Church is positively required to have an exemplary home.

This restriction, if enforced (and certainly it ought to be, for the Bible makes no mistakes), would exclude thousands of pastors at the present day, the incorrigible, reckless, and flagitious deportment of whose ungodly families is an impassable mountain between him and the salvation of others. Since the home is the nucleus of the Church, which is worse than a failure without home religion, we are not astonished at this restriction laid on the pastorate by the Holy Ghost. I have known whole Churches fearfully led hellward, and the pastor’s hands tied by the follies and vices of his unsaved family. If such a man can not be pastor, shall he quit preaching? By no means. Let him take his own home for his missionary field, and preach there until he gets them all saved; then he can enter the pastorate. Suppose his work in his own home proves an utter failure?

Then let him, like John Wesley, leave his home, turn evangelist, and go preaching to the ends of the earth. 7. “For it behooveth the bishop [i.e., the pastor] to be irreproachable as a steward of God. ” This restriction certainly would exclude the use of tobacco, which is now condemned by all physicians as one of the rankest narcotic poisons on the globe, the progenitor of many dangerous bodily ailments, such as heart-disease and paralyis. At the same time it stupefies the brain, benumbs the sensibilities, and conduces to intolerable filthiness.

What an awful example, a tobacco-using pastor to boys growing up under his ministry! I am glad the Methodist Episcopal Church has light on this important item, excluding all such from her itinerancy. “Not self-willed; ” i .e ., his will must he turned over to God, and lost in the Divine will, like the Sacramento River in the Pacific Ocean. You see plainly that the pastoral qualifications involve nothing less than the sanctified experiences, destroying the taste of tobacco and all other filthy narcotics, and utterly and eternally sinking the human will into the Divine. “Not irascible. ” The meaning of this Greek word is a person whom you can not make mad. I have often seen pastors get mad in the pulpit. Bishop Bowman says this was his trouble till he got sanctified thirty-five years ago. He says he was personally conscious when his temper was taken out by the roots and utterly destroyed. Certainly the man that has not the complete victory over evil tempers is utterly incompetent to lead others in the way of purity and heaven. “Not a wine-drinker. ” In Palestine and other Oriental countries (as coffee had not yet come into use) wine was a regular potable used while eating. Unfermented and free from alcohol, it was the simple, nutritious, and reviving grape juice. Of course, this restriction does not disqualify the pastor to use the grape juice as a potable, a substitute for coffee or milk; but it simply excludes the use of wine as a beverage. “Not, a controvertist ” (E.V., “no striker ”); i .e ., the pastor is not to strike back; he resents nothing; he is not retaliatory, but seeks only the conquest of truth and love. He argues with no man, but in meekness and love teaches all the precious truth of God in an uncontroversial way. “Not fond of filthy lucre. ” The New Testament pastor is gloriously saved from the love of money, the idolatry of covetousness having been thoroughly sanctified out of him. If poor Judas could only have survived the terrible temptations of “filthy lucre,” and received the pentecostal baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, burning all the money love out of his heart, he would now, with Paul and Peter, be playing on his golden harp. You see the pastor must be saved from “filthy lucre.” In that case he is as dead to his salary, as Elijah in the cave fed by the ravens. 8. “But hospitable. ” The Greek says, “loving the stranger. ” He is the reliable friend of the widow, the orphan, the homeless, the beggar, and the friendless. “Loving the good; ” i .e ., he loves all good people indiscriminately, regardless of nationality, race, sect, or color. “Prudent. ” An imprudent man will not do for pastor. He must not only have genuine Holy Ghost religion, but he must have good, solid, horse sense, and an ample supply of it. “Righteous. ” This word means that he must have a clear experience of personal justification, consciously attested by the witness of the Spirit. “Holy. ” Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit, by which he makes you holy; while holiness is the experience received in sanctification, and lived ever afterward in earth and heaven. Hence, you see that God’s law, given in the New Testament, positively requires every pastor to be in the enjoyment of the sanctified experience. “Temperate. ” The Greek of this word is infinitely stronger than the English. It is egkrate , from ego , I, and kratos , government. Thence, it means selfgovernment in harmony with the law of God, walking in all the light of his revealed Word, and exemplifying the same to all who come within his influence. 9. “Holding fast to that which is according to the doctrine of the faithful Word, in order that he may be able both to exhort with healthy teaching, and to convict the opposers. ” Here we see the pastor is to believe and teach all of God’s Word, utterly dead to his creed. He is contending earnestly for the “faith once delivered to the saints, ” preaching the whole gospel if the sword cuts off every head in his pastorate. He is to exhort the people with hygienical (Greek) teaching; i .e ., the teaching qualified to give them perfect soul-health, which is none other than entire sanctification.

Regeneration gives life to the dead soul, and sanctification cures all hereditary diseases. Medicine is for the living, as the dead can not take it.

Hence, you must be raised from the dead, before you can be sanctified wholly. Children must be born before they can be treated for hereditary diseases. With the power of God’s truth, he is to “convict the opposers. ” The Greek, elenchos , “conviction, ” constantly used in the New Testament, means the sentence of the criminal judge for the execution of the culprit. O how fearfully delinquent the pastors at this point! As a rule, there is no conviction in the popular pulpits. How awful to let the people slip through their fingers into hell by wholesale! Why does not every Conference, Presbytery, and Association in all the land enforce the law of God Almighty, here laid down for the constitution and regulation of the pastorate? Echo answers, Why? They have run so long and gotten such a multitude of unscriptural pastors on their hands that the enforcement of the law would produce a revolution, eliminating the great wing of the pastorate, who would simply organize, independently of every voice crying out for God’s Word, and go on their unscriptural way. As the pastorate is the most important office in the Church, no one has a just claim to New Testament orthodoxy that does not adhere to the above restrictions revealed by the Holy Ghost through inspired Paul in these pastoral epistles to Timothy and Titus. The holiness people must watch and pray, lest Satan derail the movement at this important point. Certainly the enterprise is a failure if we do not go back to New Testament simplicity, and there abide. The departure of the Apostolic Church from primitive truth and simplicity, revealed in the New Testament, has developed the horrors of Romanism. The heroic spirits of Luther, Bunyan, Knox, and Wesley earnestly sought primitive truth and purity. But mournful is the confession, when we are forced to recognize the ingress of Babylon’s fallen daughters, so influential in all the Protestant Churches. 10. “For there are many incorrigible empty talkers and egotists, especially those of the circumcision, 11. “Whose mouths it behooveth to stop, who overturn whole families, teaching those things which it doth not behoove for the sake of disgraceful gain. ” In the apostolic age Judaism was the popular Church; though Divinely originated and honored with the holy lives and triumphant deaths of sainted myriads, having degenerated into dead formality and hollow hypocrisy and lost the Spirit and the power, even rejecting and crucifying her own Christ. “Empty talkers. ” All sermons, exhortations, prayers, testimonies, and songs without the Holy Ghost are empty, “sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. ” “Disgraceful gain ” means not only the accumulation of money and property, but numbers and influence, which has always been the climacteric policy of carnal preachers and fallen Churches. “Misery loves company.” Godless people, religious and secular, go for the crowd. 12. “A certain one of them, their own prophet, said, The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow stomachs. ” The native Cretan prophet of a bygone age here alluded to, is believed to have been Maimonides, the most celebrated philosopher in the history of the island. “The Cretans are always liars. ” When I was in Athens, Greece, in 1895, an English minister told me that they were awful liars. The Cretans are the same people. “Evil beasts. ” The Greek here is the word for bloodthirsty, carnivorous wild beasts, like lions, bears, leopards, and hyenas. Hence, this phrase means the wicked, unconverted people. “Slow stomachs. ” The stomach is the great laboratory of the human system. When it is “slow” and inactive, indigestion, dyspepsia, biliousness, headache, and a thousand ills supervene, disqualifying us for efficiency, whether on the line of manual or intellectual labor. Here the phrase, “slow stomachs, ” means the unsanctified, sick, and nauseated with inbred sin, and disqualified for efficiency in the Lord’s work. Hence, those Cretans much needed this magnificent gospel of double salvation preached by Titus and his comrades, to convert the “evil beasts ” and sanctify the “slow stomachs. ” 13. “This testimony is true. ” Here Paul confirms the testimony of Maimonides, the old Cretan philosopher, in reference to the perversity of the people. “For which cause convict them keenly, that they may be hygienical in the faith. ” These hard, wicked people need the unsheathed, forked lightnings and smashing earthquakes of the Sinai gospel to convict them keenly, thus giving them the only true foundation of the judgmentday experience. With a true radical conviction and a sky-blue conversion, they will be “hygienical in the faith; ” i .e ., go for entire sanctification, which is spiritual hygiene. 14. “Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men turning away from the truth. ” The Jewish Church was full of human creeds, ordinances, and elderly traditions, just like the fallen Churches of the present and every other age, which always supply the absence of the Holy Ghost by human inventions, authorities, and institutions, like these men turning away from the simple unadulterated truth of God’s Word. 5. “To the pure all things are pure. ” If you are pure from center to circumference, you are in no danger of contamination from without. If Satan can not put meanness into you, he is at the end of his row. You can preach all you will in saloons, to the ragged rabble in slumdom, and to the fallen in pest-houses. You can live and die in a fallen, Godless Church if you shine and shout for Jesus, using that Church as a missionary field.

You can spend your life in Babylon preaching the everlasting gospel with triumphant impunity, if you do not let Babylon get into you. Rest assured neither Babylon nor the devil can hurt you from the outside. The ship floats with impunity mid ocean; but let the ocean get into the ship, and she founders speedily. “But to the corrupt and the unbelieving there is nothing pure; but both their mind and their conscience are corrupted. ” The wicked are full of corruption, polluting both mind and heart. Thus they carry their hell in them in earth and in hell. Yea, if they should go up to heaven, they carry their hell in them, and there suffer the horrors of damnation. Nothing but entire sanctification brings a radical and sure cure for inward corruption. 16. “They profess to know God, but deny him by their works, being abominable, unbelieving, and reprobate as to every good work.” This picture is black as the walls of hell, appertaining to people doomed and reprobated; yet they are Church members and preachers. They are zealous proselyters, and stickleristic for their sect.

CHAPTER - ARGUMENT DUTIES OF PASTOR AND MEMBERS 1. “But speak those things which become hygienical teaching. ” O how the Holy Ghost rings changes on spiritual hygiene! He wants to sanctify us all holy, thus imparting and perpetuating perfect soul-health. He is overly anxious that his children live in the cloudless light, perfect freedom, and athletic elasticity of spiritual hygiene. Hence, he commands the preachers to keep this beautiful truth and inspiring theme constantly before the people. 2. “That the elderly men be sober. ” Nothing but sin ever made the human soul drunk. Therefore entire sanctification is the only state of perfect spiritual sobriety. “Grave. ” This is the antithesis of that triviality, frivolity, hilarity, and giddy joviality by which Christians so frequently inadvertently grieve away the Holy Spirit. “Prudent, hygienical in the faith, Divine love, and patience. ” Faith is the human side of the entire salvation problem, and love the Divine, while perfect patience keeps all the linchpins in their places, so the salvation wagon can roll right along the King’s highway to glory. So, if you are prudent and healthy in these graces, you will come out all right. 3. “Likewise let the elderly women be holy in their deportment, not tattlers, not given to much wine, teachers of the beautiful. ” This verse vividly describes the holy and exemplary mothers in Israel, as the preceding verse the fathers. This is the missing keystone from the fallen arches of apostate Churches, belting the globe in these latter days, when the premillennial prophecies hasten to their fulfillment, adumbrating the coming King. O how sad to see fathers and mothers in the Church ripening for the grave, and not ripening for heaven! 4. “That they teach the young women to love their husbands, love their children, 5. “To be prudent, chaste, domestic, good, submissive to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be traduced. ” O what a responsibility the devolving on the mothers in Israel in the faithful spiritual culture of the daughters of Zion! What a glorious field of gospel grace in which to win a crown of rejoicing that will never fade away! The Church is the family of God, in which the fathers and mothers are expected to walk in the clear light of the Throne, thus qualified by the indwelling Spirit to train up the juveniles for God and heaven. “Likewise exhort the young men to be prudent concerning all things, exhibiting yourself an example of good works, purity, gravity, the hygienical, unanswerable Word in teaching. 8. “In order that the adversary be ashamed, having nothing evil to say concerning us. ” Titus was a young man (not a novice), and a beautiful example for all of the young men, preaching the whole gospel from Sinai to Pentecost, fearless of men and devils. 9. “Let the slaves be submissive to their own masters, obedient in all things, not answering back, 10. “Not purloining, but shewing forth all good faith, that they may adorn the teaching of God our Savior in all things. ” In the apostolic age slavery was everywhere. The gospel is not a political, but a spiritual institution.

The slave has fully as good a chance for perfect spiritual freedom as his master. To be sure in the grand ultimatum, when the “thrones are cast down” ( Daniel 7:9), and the King of glory descends, he will forever smash all human and Satanic shackles; but we must wait the good time coming. While the Church thus waits her coming King, her militant organization perfectly provides not only for the sanctification, but the utilization of all classes and grades; fathers, mothers, young husbands and wives, damsels, juveniles, and even the slaves, all to live in perfect harmony in the Church of Christ, like the different members of a well-ordered family, beautifully symbolic of the heavenly state.

ARGUMENT GRACE AND GLORY 11. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared. ” This verse in E.V. is erroneously translated, “hath appeared to all men, ” as if the gospel at that time had reached all the people of the earth, which was by no means true. R.V. gives the true reading of the critical Greek, which I hold in my hand, “The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men. ” Christ, who at that time had recently appeared incarnate, is that Grace. He was in the world from the beginning, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, who saved Abel and translated Enoch, stood before Moses forty days on Mt. Sinai, revealing the Pentateuch, appeared to Abraham under the oak at Mamre, sat at his table, walked by his side, and was seen by the Chaldean monarch in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Paul affirms ( Romans 1:20) that all the heathen are left without excuse, having with them in all ages the Holy Ghost, who is none other than the Excarnate Christ; i .e ., the Spirit of Christ. He has been on the earth in all nations and in all ages, offering salvation to every human being, whether Pagan, Mohammedan, Papist or Protestant. “He is the true Light, who lighten every man that cometh into the world.” ( John 1:9.)

If all can be saved by the Spirit of Christ, now present with every soul on the globe, why carry them the gospel? We are commanded to do it. If disobedient, the devil will get us. Hence, we must evangelize the world to save our own scalps. Besides, we must go in the interest of the Bridehood, thus giving every nation a chance for the grandest privilege of worlds and ages. 12. “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we must live prudently, righteously, and godly in the present age. ” Here we have the plan of salvation focalized in three beautiful adverbs: “Prudently, ” signifying the moral, orderly, hygienic life, which we owe to our physical being, in order to the enjoyment of health, muscular and nervous activity, intellectual acumen, brilliancy and elasticity, and the greatest possible human longevity. All this we have in the realm of morality and philanthropy outside the kingdom of Grace, and appertaining to this world. “Righteously ” takes in the entire purview of the justified experience and life, in which you do unto others as you would have them do unto you, thus irreproachable and free from condemnation in all your social relations and responsibilities, so no man in the judgment day can rise and testify against you. “Godly ” (in E.V. “godly,” which is not a correct translation of the Greek adverb, eusebos , because it is an adjective). The word means a godly manner; i .e ., living like God. Of course, none but godly people can live in a godly manner. The devil humbugs people with the vain delusion that they can live holy without sanctification, which means the work of the Holy Ghost, by which he makes you holy. Thus the devil puts sheepskins on his dirty hogs, and supplies the Churches with them, passing them off for God’s sheep; but they are sure to pitch into the first mud hole they come to, getting their sheepskins muddy, and proving to the world, after all, that they are really the devil’s hogs and not God’s sheep at all, for sheep will not go into a mud hole. The wonderful grace of God actually transforms the devil’s hog into His sheep. All the devil’s shams break down somewhere this side the pearly gate; so you had better not try them. Jesus has been on the earth, and taught us how to live and die; none but his disciples will ever escape hell. You can not follow him up to heaven unless you get like him in this world; not only did he commit no sin in thought, word, or deed, but he was perfectly free from evil nature; i .e ., had no inbred sin. Hence, we must be sanctified wholly in order to reach the experience of purity, and become like the man Jesus, our great Examplar. Then, when we are godly we can live “godly; ” i .e ., in a godly manner, as the Holy Ghost here says. “In the present age. ” Here we have the Greek aion , so frequently in E.V. translated world, which is not its meaning, but age, e .g ., end of the world ( Matthew 24:3), instead of end of the age. As we are now living in Satan’s age of the world, literally environed by the myrmidons of hell, nothing but the sanctifying grace of the Omnipotent Christ can enable us to live “godly. ” 13-14. “Looking for the blessed hope, even the appearing of the glory of the great God and of our Savior Christ Jesus. ” We have many precious inspiring hopes revealed in God’s Word; but among them all the hope of our Lord’s return to the earth, to receive and transfigure his faithful Bride, waiting and suffering in longing anticipation, caps the climax, and is here by the beloved apostle denominated the “blessed hope. ” O the losses of the visible church since Satan manipulated to take this blessed hope out of the pulpit, thus robbing the pews of the grandest of all inspirations to a holy life! Not one preacher in ten thousand is this day preaching this “blessed hope ” of the personal return of the personal Jesus in glory and majesty “filled with all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, ” to execute judgments on the wicked, sweep the reign of sin from the earth, actually take the devil and his innumerable armies out of this world, locking them up in hell, girdling the world with the glories of an unfallen Eden, translating the living saints like Enoch and Elijah, and thus inaugurate his glorious kingdom on the earth, which in common with millions of unfallen worlds will participate in the glories, victories, and felicities of the triumphant incarnate Christ forever, “Who gave himself for us, that he may redeem us from all iniquity, ” not as myriads of preachers tell you “some iniquity, ” and leave some in you, that you can’t get rid of till you die.

Glory to God! I take this just as he says, “all iniquity. ” “And purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. ” When Christ purifies us, he makes us “peculiar. ” So, if you are going to heaven, you must die out to all sensitiveness on the line of oddity. You must be out of harmony with the world for Christ’s sake. You will be criticized, misunderstood, and ignorantly censured and condemned for Jesus’ sake. “Zealous of good works. ” The peculiarity of the Lord’s people is that they are constantly like their Master, “going about doing good. ” Sanctified people are forever trying to get somebody saved. 15. “Speak these things, and exhort and convict with all authority. ” We are to faithfully tell the people the truth as it is in Jesus, omitting nothing, however odious and unpopular. We must not stop there; but exhort the people to obedience. Amid all, we are to hold conviction before us as a beau ideal. Without conviction, there is neither conversion nor sanctification. Hence, we must persist till conviction settles down on the people. This conviction is wrought only by the Holy Spirit; but he uses human instrumentality, instruction, exhortation, and prayer.

CHAPTER - ARGUMENT REGENERATION AND SANCTIFICATION 1,2. Here we are exhorted to be loyal to the government, “peaceable, gentle, exhibiting all meekness to all men. ” That is all right; we are not to resist. So far as compatible with duty to God, we are to be loyal in State and Church, as enjoined by Paul. Yet we must remember that Paul himself lost his head for disloyalty to the Roman gods. All of this loyalty and obedience—secular, ecclesiastical, and domestic—is to be in the Lord.

Otherwise we are to suffer for Christ’s sake as all of the martyrs did; for they had their option, Obey the heathen or papistical gods and live, or disobey and die. They chose the latter in harmony with their consciences, enlightened by God’s Word and Spirit. 3. This verse gives a black picture of life in sin. 4. “When the goodness and philanthropy of God our Savior appeared. ” Pure, unearthly good and philanthropy, which means the love of man, led our Savior to vacate his Throne and come to this ruined world to die.

Mortal language is literally beggarized in the attempt to reveal the infinite condescending of Jesus coming to this dark world to die. When Paul spent that hour in heaven while his body lay under the shower of stones at Lystra, he heard “things impossible ” (not as E.V. has it, unlawful) to tell.

The truth at the bottom of the redemptive scheme is too deep for revelation in mortal language, we must wait till we pass beyond, to explore the depths and heights, lengths and breadths, of redeeming love. 5. “Not by works in righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6. “Which he shed on us richly through Jesus Christ, 7. “That, being justified by his grace, we may be heirs according to the hope of eternal life. ” This Scripture beautifully condenses the plan of salvation in a few simple words: First, our total depravity clearly and unequivocally stated in the hopeless and irretrievable ruin of the fall. “Lord, I am vile, conceived in sin, Born all unholy and unclean; Sprung from the man whose guilty fall Corrupts his race, and ruins all.” Secondly, all human works are utterly futile, and forever repudiated; not only worthless, but illusionary and manipulated by Satan, swift vehicles of damnation. Thirdly, we are saved by the mercy of God alone, “through the washing of regeneration, ” and washing means a purgation. In regeneration we are washed in the blood, and purified from all the defilements wrought on the heart by personal transgressions. Fourthly, we are thoroughly renewed by the Holy Ghost. John Wesley called sanctification “complete renewal;” i .e ., a completion of that renewal begun in regeneration— infancy giving way to manhood. Fifthly, all this comes down from heaven. Not an iota of the transaction is earthly. It is purely and unequivocally the work of God. Sixthly, it is abundant. Thank God, he is not poor! He does not stint his children, but he pours it on us abundantly. No apology for going hungry. His table groaneth beneath its load, burdened with all the luxuries of heaven. 8. God wants to transform us from pigmies into giants, and enrich us all with good adumbratory of the crown in glory, which accumulates new luster through the flight of eternal ages. 9. “Foolish questions, genealogies, Church succession and authority, and strife and controversies about the laws, reject. ” The preacher has no time to fool away on nonessentials. Church questions, ordinances, and legalisms have nothing to do with your salvation. 10. “A sectarian man, after the first and second admonition, reject, 11. “Knowing that such a one is turned out of the way, and is sinning, being self-condemned. ” Heretic and sectarian are synonymous—meaning a person who has been sidetracked by a human dogma, and so far tilted as to worship creed and sect, wresting the Bible to suit. He studies the Bible with reference to his poor little creed, perverting God’s Word to suit it.

Millions of people and myriads of preachers are on that line, practical idolaters tied to their creed, and subordinated to their sect. The effect is to ruin them world without end. As Paul says, “People of that kind are already turned away from God, and sinning self-condemned. ” We are advised not to waste time on them. Admonish once and again. Then, if they prove incorrigible, leave them to their doom, and devote our time to savable people. Church members are not all sectarian; but, sad to think, many of them are. There never was a schism in the apostolic Church till after the Constantinian apostasy set in. The Nicene Council, A.D. 325, made the first creed. Nothing but entire sanctification can ever save the Church from her creedistic and sectarian heresies, bringing back to God and the Bible. It is a significant fact that truly sanctified people are there now, being eye to eye in spiritual things, and cherishing God’s Bible as the only guide to heaven, and recognizing it as the only authority. 12. Nicopolis is on the southern border of Macedonia, where Paul had determined to spend the winter. As the curtain there falls, and we next hear of him in the Mamertine prison at Rome, we conclude he was arrested at Nicopolis, and carried away. 13. As hitherto in Northern Greece, he finds a great open door to evangelistic work. Therefore he requests Titus to send him Zenas, the converted lawyer, and Apollos, so distinguished for his eloquence, whom he had been using in the evangelization of Crete. 14. “But let all of our people learn truly to excel in necessary enterprises, in order that they may not be unfruitful. ” People who are not aggressive soulsavers directly and indirectly, always lose ground spiritually, depreciating in their own experiences, and trending toward apostasy and damnation.

During the Confederate War I asked an officer in General Bragg’s army, “Why have you Confederates invaded Kentucky, instead of contenting yourselves to operate on the defensive?” “Why? Because it is a groundhog case with us. We are forced either to invade, or be invaded; and, of course, we prefer the former.” So it is with all Christians. If we do not invade the devil’s territory, and just give him all he can do to hold his ground, he is sure to invade ours. 15. “Grace be with you all. ” See what a beautiful little benediction at the close of this epistle.