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Biblion Bible Commentary

Read the introduction to Titus · About this commentary

Let No One Despise You

Titus 2:15

15 Say these things and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one despise you. · WEB


One verse closes the household code, and it turns from what to say to the standing of the man saying it.

Say these things, exhort, and reprove with all authority. The three verbs cover the range of the chapter — teaching that informs, appeal that urges, and the reproof that convicts, the same verb given in Titus 1:13. What holds them together is the last phrase: with all authority. It is not Titus's own. The chapter has just grounded everything in an appearing and a ransom, so the authority he speaks with belongs to what he is speaking about.

Then the short clause: let no one despise you. Timothy received the same caution about his youth 1 Timothy 4:12, and there the remedy was to be an example — which is what Titus 2:7 has already required here. The instruction is not that Titus should demand respect, which cannot be done, but that he should give nobody grounds for contempt. Chapter 1 asked for an overseer who could hold the word firmly. This asks the same of the man appointing them.

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