Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Titus · About this commentary
Rebuke Them Sharply
Titus 1:13-14
13 This testimony is true. For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, · WEB
Paul endorses the harsh verdict and then names a purpose that turns the severity into medicine.
This testimony is true, Paul says, and the agreement is startling on the page. But the sentence does not stop at the verdict. Reprove them sharply — elenchō G1651, the verb of the overseer's task in verse 9, meaning to expose and convict rather than merely to scold — and then the purpose clause: that they may be sound in the faith. Sound is a health word. The sharpness is a physician's, and the aim is a cure rather than a conviction.
That purpose governs how the harshness reads. A reproof aiming at soundness cannot be contempt, because contempt has no interest in the outcome. Verse 14 names what they must stop attending to: Jewish fables and the commandments of men who turn away from the truth. Human commandments displacing God's word is the charge the Lord himself brought against the teachers of his day Mark 7:7–8, and it is the same failure here — invented requirements crowding out what was actually given.
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