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Titus Chapter
Three
I.
Content of the Chapter
How should God’s Workers Teach
Believers the Way to Live
I. The way that believers be good citizens in the
society (v.1-2)
II. The motive power that believers maintain good works
(v.3-8)
III. Believers’ reaction to spiritual errors (v.9-11)
IV. Epilogue (v.12-15)
II.
Verse by Verse commentary
Tit. 3:1 “Remind them to be subject
to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work,”
YLT: “Remind them to be
subject to principalities and authorities, to obey rule, unto every good work
to be ready,”
Meaning of Words: “remind”: bring to
remembrance, put in mind; “obey”: submit, comply with, be persuaded; “rulers”:
those who are in power, chief; “authorities”: those who have authorities, those
who have power; “good work”: good thing, beneficial work.
Literal Meaning: “Remind them” “remind” shows that it has been taught and
it still needs to be mentioned. The word is the present imperative verb in the
original, showing that one needs to be reminded again and again so that he
might keep it in mind. “Them” refers to all the Saints in the church instead of
the unbelieving world.
“To
be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey” “be subject” refers to being under obedience;
“obey” refers to walking according to laws.
“Rulers” originally refers to high-level officials in government
organizations. “Authorities” refers to those who have real power in every
department. The two words are abstract nouns and they together refer to the
politics and government of different forms in the world instead of the
individual officials.
Please
note that such order is made, aiming at common conditions and it is not
applicable to unusual conditions, for example: 1) when the condition disobeys
the clear and definite words of God, the principle of “obeying God rather than
men” should be used (Acts. 5:29); 2) when the condition disobeys moral
standards, the principle of “not sinning” must be used (1Cor. 15:34; Heb.
10:26); 3) when men are forced to give up the freedom of faith, the principle
of “obeying in the Lord” must be used (Eph. 6:1; 1John. 2:6).
“To
be ready for every good work” refers to showing
consideration for every good work which conforms to the will of God. Here being
zealous in public welfare and giving service to the society are included.
Enlightenment in the Word:
1) The way for Christians to be good citizens: a)
obeying rulers; b) obeying; c) being ready for every good work.
2) In any society, if a man disregards all laws and
regulations, disobeys leaders, it neither shows that he has the standard nobler
than the law and certainly nor indicates that he is more incorruptible than
rulers, but shows that he is ignorant, arrogant and selfish.
3) Some believers have some wrong ideas that they
think their obedience and honor to men is faithlessness to God. But actually
the obedience to the system of authorities established by God is the obedience
to God (See Rom. 13:1-5).
4) Believers need to establish the normal and good
relation with others and then we are able to gain the opportunities for good
works.
Tit. 3:2 “to speak evil of no one,
to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.”
YLT: “of no one to speak
evil, not to be quarrelsome -- gentle, showing all meekness to all men,”
Meaning of Words: “gentle”: meek,
modest, humble, kind, patient, forbearing, giving in; “all”: every, true;
“showing”: manifest, indicate, reveal; “humility”: gentleness, meekness.
Literal Meaning: “to speak evil of no one, to
be peaceable” “speaking evil of”
refers to speaking ill of; “to be peaceable” refers to not make arguments that
harm others in order to benefit himself.
Please note that it does
mean that Christians never take the initiative to speak evil of others or
struggle with others; it means that even if Christians are spoken evil of by
others or attacked, we should never an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth
(Matt. 5:38-39). In other words, Christians neither stir up trouble nor fight
back.
“Gentle,
showing all humility to all men.”
“Gentle” refers to holding the tolerant attitude to the weaknesses of human
nature; “all men” here refers to the public, i.e. to all men instead of all the
Saints; “showing” in the original is a present participle and it refers to
showing continuously; “showing all humility” refers to trying one’s best to
control himself to not be provoked easily.
Enlightenment in the Word:
1) Pious behavior originates from sound
faith------God not only asks us to believe His teachings and truth but also
asks us to have the upright and righteous life style.
2) We may not agree with the unbelieving on their
behavior, however, we should never be unworthy of Saints in words (See Eph.
5:3-4).
3) Christians should not speak evil of anyone. It
is true that we do not do this to those whom we like and we should not do it to
those whom we do not like. We should speak which is good to the use of edifying
(Eph. 4:29).
4) Christians should always keep others’ merits in
mind instead of their weaknesses. Moreover, we should never discuss others’
weaknesses.
5) Believers should never think ourselves superior
to others and deal with the world with the pride and arrogant attitude.
6) Believers should bring the effect of faith into
play in the society: we should not have conflict with the unbelieving world and
contrarily we should love the world around us positively, that they may feel
the preciousness of faith.
7) It is unreasonable that Christians ride
roughshod over others to instigate them or neglect the feelings of others.
8) The true humble ones will bear others patiently
when others treat them wrong and they will go to help those who are put in the
wrong regardless of personal safety.
9) The true humility is not the humility shown
before the specific several ones but the humility shown to “all men”.
10) Only those who truly let Christ reign in their
hearts will completely achieve the requests here.
Tit. 3:3 “For we ourselves were
also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.”
YLT: “for we were once --
also we -- thoughtless, disobedient, led astray, serving desires and pleasures
manifold, in malice and envy living, odious -- hating one another;”
Meaning of Words: “pleasure”:
satisfaction, pleasantness, enjoyment, lust, sensual delight; “malice”: evil,
wicked, mean; “hateful”: odious, displeasing, disgusting.
Literal Meaning: the word “for” in
the beginning of this verse shows that the behavior requested in v.1-2 is
supported by the following potent reasons.
“For we ourselves were also once
foolish, disobedient, deceived” “we ourselves”
refers to all the Saints, including Paul; “foolish” indicates that one lacks
the spiritual understanding and discernment and therefore he neither knows God
nor understands the truth; “disobedient” indicates that one despises the
supreme authorities and therefore he holds the hostile attitude to God and
rejects anyone’s correction or instruction; “deceived” indicates that one has
been deceived to follow the false reasons so that he misses his way, i.e. being
misled to the wrong way.
“Serving
various lusts and pleasures” indicates that one
covets the lusts in the world and the physical enjoyment and he is slaved by
them unconsciously; “various” describes that lusts and enjoyments are of all
forms and patterns and anyone of them may become our master.
“Living
in malice and envy” “living” refers to
living in them and being controlled by such state of mind; “malice” refers to
being satisfied with others’ misfortunes or sufferings; “envy” refers to
feeling unhappy, angry and envious because others have benefits.
“Hateful
and hating one another” “hateful”
indicates that behavior causes others’ hatred; “hating one another” indicates
that the relationship is incompatible as fire and water.
This verse shows our style of life before we have
believed in the Lord------we are foolish, disobedient and deceived towards God; we
serve various
lusts and pleasures towards ourselves;
we live in malice and envy, are hateful and hating one another towards men.
Enlightenment in the Word:
1) Those who seek lusts and pleasures never have
the true satisfaction and therefore they live under the power of misanthropy
and “malice
and envy”.
2) Buchsel said that, “when one is satisfied with lusts,
he has received enjoyments (pleasures); when one seeks enjoyments, he indeed
feeds lusts” (it is translated from the Chinese version).
3) Those who are selfish and self-centered must
jostle against one another and intrigue against each other for the unpleasant
relationship brought in by themselves.
4) Those who only satisfy themselves will have the
following in the result: a) malice------taking advantage of others; b)
envy------being unable to bear others’ happiness; c) hateful------making others
loathe and detest them; d) hating one another------he also hates others.
Tit. 3:4 “But when the kindness and
the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,”
YLT: “and when the
kindness and the love to men of God our Saviour did appear”
Meaning of Words: “kindness”: good
treatment, for their provision; “love”: fondness of mankind.
Literal Meaning: “But when the kindness of
God our Savior” refers to the good
heart.
“And
the love toward man appeared” “the love toward man” in the original means “regard man as man
and love man”.
This verse indicates that God greatly manifests His
heart of kindness and love to the world through the redemption accomplished by
Jesus Christ.
Enlightenment in the Word:
1) God’s kindness and love are spread to the world
by the media of believers.
2) Christians’ goodness does not make one proud but
make him (himself) have gratitude to God.
3) God’s has His time concerning the carrying out
of the whole plan to redeem human beings (Gal. 3:23-24; 4:4-5); concerning
every soul’s being saved, He has His time, too (See v.5).
Tit. 3:5 “not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us,
through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,”
YLT: “(not by works that
in righteousness that we did but according to His kindness,) He did save us,
through a bathing of regeneration, and a renewing of the Holy Spirit,”
Meaning of Words: “regeneration”:
rebirth, revival; “washing”: bathing, cleaning, cleansing; “renewing”:
renovation.
Literal Meaning: “He saved us” it is the tense of verb in the original
and it refers to the one-off and accomplished action. This sentence emphasizes
that God has accomplished the work of saving men.
“Not
by works of righteousness which we have done” it indicates that the salvation is not by our
works of righteousness but fully by the grace of God (See Eph. 2:8-9).
“But
according to His mercy” “mercy” refers to
the element that when one’s poor condition is unworthy to receive grace, he is
still bestowed grace; “His mercy” makes Him leap over the wide gap between God
and men and bring men to the status of grace.
“Through
the washing of regeneration” in the original
regeneration is different from being born anew in John. 3:3 and being born
again in 1Pet. 1:23. This word indicates that one thing changes from one state
to another. It is only mentioned two times in the Bible and the other time is
in Matt. 19:28 and it refers to revival. “Washing” does not refer to washing in
baptism because the outer letter cannot bring men the true change (See Rom.
2:28-29). And therefore it indicates that when we are born again, all dirtiness
of sins has been cleansed by the water of life (See John. 13:10) so that we
could be justified before God (See v.7).
“And
renewing of the Holy Spirit” “the Holy Spirit”
not only condemns sinners in the negative aspect (See John. 16:8) but also
renews men in the positive aspect. “Renewing” in the original indicates that
the nature of things has changed entirely. And therefore here it indicates that
the injected new quality of life makes men change from the inner part.
“Renewing of the Holy Spirit” refers to the work of new creation that the Holy
Spirit works upon believers and such work is progressive and is not done at
once. According to the objective truth, if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature (2Cor. 5:17). However, according to the subjective experience, we are
still in the process of being renewed day by day (2Cor. 4:16, Col. 3:10 being
renewed). It is the so-called “sanctification”. The Holy Spirit continually
does the work of sanctification in the life of believers.
“The washing of regeneration” and “renewing of the Holy Spirit” are the works in two aspects: one is the
negative washing and the other is the positive renewing. However, only one
preposition “through” is used to describe the two kinds of works, showing that
the two happen at the same time and run parallel and the two begin at the
moment we believe in the Lord. All the dirtiness of sins before we has believed
in the Lord have been cleansed, however, the dirtiness of sins after we have
believed in the Lord still needs to be cleansed continually (See 1John. 1:8-9).
Enlightenment in the Word:
1) Salvation is the gift of God and it cannot be
earned by anyone------nobody can earn the salvation by his works.
2) None of us is saved voluntarily, automatically
and by ourselves and it is all God’s own work.
Tit. 3:6 “whom He poured out on us
abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,”
YLT: “which He poured
upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour,”
Meaning of Words: “abundantly”:
richly, copiously; “pour out”: spill out, flow out, pour forth, shed abroad;
Literal Meaning: “whom He…through Jesus Christ our Savior” Please note that the Holy Father, the Holy son
and the Holy Spirit appear at the same time, showing that the Holy Father is
the source of the salvation, the Holy Son is the reliance of the salvation and
the Holy Spirit is the reality of the salvation. It is “God” that originates
and plans the salvation; it is “Jesus Christ our Savior” that accomplishes the
great work of redemption; it is “the Holy Spirit” that implants and realizes
the salvation upon us.
“Poured out on us abundantly” “pouring out abundantly” describes the
abundance of the Holy Spirit that God gives.
Enlightenment in the Word:
1) The prerequisite for receiving the Holy Spirit
is that we receive Jesus Christ as our own Savior.
2) The Holy Spirit comes upon us with the being,
possessions and works of the Holy Trinity so that we could enjoy and experience
all the abundance of the Holy Trinity.
Tit. 3:7 “that having been
justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal
life.”
YLT: “that having been
declared righteous by His grace, heirs we may become according to the hope of
life age-during.”
Meaning of Words: “His”: that one;
“heir”: inheritor.
Literal Meaning: “that having been justified
by His grace” “His grace” refers
to the kindness of our Savior (See v.4) and also the grace of Jesus Christ our Savior (See v.6). “Having been justified” in the
original is the term of the court and it indicates that the punishment for sins
has been cleared up. This sentence refers to the effect of the salvation to our
past.
“We
should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” “Eternal life” refers to God’s everlasting
life. He whoever that believes on Jesus Christ has
such everlasting life (John. 3:36; 1John. 5:12). And this eternal life is what
we could receive and enjoy in this life. “Hope” refers to what we have not
received and waited for (Rom. 8:24-25) and it is what we will inherit formally
in the coming and eternity. “The hope of eternal life” does not mean that God’s
everlasting life cannot be received until the future but that today our
enjoyment of God’s life is a proof of hope (See Eph. 1:14). We firmly believe
that we are heirs now, however, inheriting our inheritance is the matter of the
future. “Heirs” means the inheritors of inheritance will inherit all the
glorious and abundant spiritual possessions that God has predestinated to
reward us (See Rom. 8:17).
Enlightenment in the Word:
1) The Holy Spirit poured out on believers (See
v.6) and three results come into being: a) we are justified; b) we have the
hope of eternal life which is the precious inheritance of believers; c) we
become heirs------our status is sure and the possessing of inheritance is in
sight.
2) The salvation brings us three results: a) sins
have been remitted------we are justified; b) we have the power of eternal life
which manifests in this present life; c) we have the beautiful hope towards the
future.
3) The faith of Christians not only gives us the
beautiful hope of the future but also makes us experience the qualities of the
new life when we still live in the world, that we could have the states that we
cannot have before.
4) Now our foretaste of eternal life is the
“earnest”------the true proof of the spiritual inheritance that we will receive
abundantly in future.
Tit. 3:8 “This is a faithful
saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have
believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good
and profitable to men.”
YLT: “Stedfast the word;
and concerning these things I counsel thee to affirm fully, that they may be thoughtful,
to be leading in good works -- who have believed God; these are the good and
profitable things to men,”
Meaning of Words: “be careful to”:
take thought of, be thoughtful for; “maintain”: lead, devote one’s mind to.
Literal Meaning: “This is a faithful saying” “this” refers to the words recorded from
v.4 to v.7; “faithful” is the wording used in the legal guaranty of the
commercial contract and here it is used to show that the above-mentioned words
are completely and absolutely reliable.
“And
these things I want you to affirm constantly” “these things” refers to the truth of the
salvation recorded from v.4 to v.7. “Constantly” refers to firmly and assuredly
confirming, implying proceeding unceasingly and explaining from beginning to
end.
“That
those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works.” “Good works” refers doing good, i.e. the
things conforming to the faith.
“These
things are good and profitable to men.”
“These things” refers to the good works done by believers; “are good” refers to
being good both in the sight of God and men; “profitable to men” refers to
benefiting all the people.
Enlightenment in the Word:
1) Preachers must declare messages with the firm
and assured faith and regard making believers have clear results in their life
as their purpose.
2) The right message of the gospel will make
sinners not only receive the remission of sins by faith but also live out good
behavior by faith. The knowledge of Jesus Christ should make us have different
life style from that of the world.
3) Faith and the behavior of life cannot be
separated------faith makes us have the life of God and this life not only
influences our eternal destination but also influences our life in this life.
4) God has saved and made us unto good works, which
God has before ordained that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10).
5) The word of God is declared through preaching;
the word of God is glorified through good works; the word of God is developed
through maintaining good works.
6) Christians’ good works are the reasonable result
that they have truly understood and experienced the salvation of God.
Tit. 3:9 “But avoid foolish
disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are
unprofitable and useless.”
YLT: “and foolish
questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about law, stand
away from -- for they are unprofitable and vain.”
Meaning of Words: “avoid”: stand away
from, keep away from; “striving”: fighting, quarrel, argument; “unprofitable”:
useless, inutile.
Literal Meaning: “But avoid foolish disputes,
genealogies” “avoid” refers to
evading and standing aside cautiously; “foolish disputes” refers to disputes
caused by the distortion and misunderstanding of the Law of the Old Testament;
“genealogies” indicates that the heretical and false
teachers at that time had the obvious background of Judaism and they were very
interested in genealogies: they liked tracing back to, finding out and exalting
the pedigree of each one (See 1Tim. 1:4).
“Contentions,
and strivings about the law” “the law”
represents the Old Testament; the Jews thought highly of the Old Testament,
however, they usually had many strange explanations which caused strivings.
“For
they are unprofitable and useless”
indicates that the above-mentioned talks and strivings cannot make the
spiritual profit at all and they won’t lead to any constrictive result.
Enlightenment in the Word:
1) All ideas and assumptions unsupported by the
Bible will merely cause strivings and they are unprofitable to everyone.
2) Except the defense of the faith (See Jude. 3),
we should try our best to avoid being involved in the strivings about reasons
and letters because it is unprofitable in the truth, knowledge or spirituality.
Tit. 3:10 “Reject a divisive man
after the first and second admonition,”
YLT: “A sectarian man,
after a first and second admonition be rejecting,”
Meaning of Words: “divisive”:
objection, stubborn; “admonition”: warning, direction; “reject”: decline, shun,
put aside the request.
Literal Meaning: “a divisive man” In the original, the root of “divisive” is
“choice”. It indicates that the wrong choice of teachings leads to division.
The same original word is translated into “heresy” (Acts. 24:14; Gal. 5:20;
2Pet. 2:1) or “sect” (Acts. 5:17; 15:5; 24:5; 26:5; 28:22) in the form of noun.
In other words, the so-called heretical ones are those who are opinionated and
regard others as wrong and establish their own sect to separate themselves from
others.
“Reject
after the first and second admonition”
“reject” does not refer to excommunication and but declining their
opinions----ignoring their opinions and not trying to continue correcting them.
Enlightenment in the Word:
1) The wrong teachings are the main elements which
cause the division of the church.
2) The unconventional teachings in the church are
quite destructive and therefore we should reject those who intentionally preach
strange teachings if warnings are useless.
3) To the stubborn ones, enough is enough
concerning exhortations and warnings. The excessive time and effort spent upon
them are not the way of God’s good stewards because it is profitless both to
ourselves and others and contrarily it makes them regard themselves important.
Tit. 3:11 “knowing that such a
person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.”
YLT: “having known that
he hath been subverted who such, and doth sin, being self-condemned.”
Meaning of Words: “warp”: subvert,
pervert, turn around; “sin”: miss the mark.
Literal Meaning: “knowing that such a person
is warped and sinning” “warped” refers to
departing from the faith because of the distorted facts; the present verb
“sinning” refers to sinning in progress or missing the mark.
“Being
self-condemned” “being” refers to
“becoming”; the whole sentence means that he was condemned by his own
conscience.
Tit. 3:12 “When I send Artemas to
you, or Tychicus, be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to
spend the winter there.”
YLT: “When I shall send
Artemas unto thee, or Tychicus, be diligent to come unto me to Nicopolis, for
there to winter I have determined.”
Meaning of Words: “send”: dispatch;
“be diligent to”: use speed, in great haste, urgent.
Literal Meaning: “When I send Artemas to you,
or Tychicus,” the name of
Artemas was only mentioned in this scripture and probably he was one of Paul’s
follow-workers who journeyed with him. However, it had not been decided whether
he or Tychicus was sent to Crete to take over Titus. “Tychicus” was the
fellow-worker whom Paul trusted in and he once sent relief to the church in
Jerusalem with Paul (Acts. 20:4) and brought Paul’s epistles to the churches in
Ephesus (Eph. 6:21) and in Colosse (Col. 4:7).
According to the Second
Epistle of Timothy, Paul sent Tychicus to Ephesus to take over Timothy later
(2Tim. 4:12). We could surmise that: 1) the Epistle of Titus was written before
the Second Epistle of Timothy. The two epistles were written closely and they
were both written before the winter that very year (See this verse and 2Tim. 4:21);
2) probably soon after Paul had written the epistle of Titus, he had decided to
send Tychicus to Ephesus and Artemas to Crete.
“Be
diligent to come to me at Nicopolis”
“Nicopolis” was a seaport along the western coast of Greece.
“For
I have decided to spend the winter there” “there” shows that Paul had not arrived at
Nicipolis when he wrote this epistle. We could know that Paul did not write the
epistle of Titus at Nicopolis. “Spending the winter” that very year Paul may
plan to set out on a journey by boat after the winter because it was unsuitable
for sailing in the area of the Mediterranean Sea.
Tit. 3:13 “Send Zenas the lawyer and
Apollos on their journey with haste, that they may lack nothing.”
YLT: “Zenas the lawyer
and Apollos bring diligently on their way, that nothing to them may be
lacking,”
Meaning of Words: “with haste”:
diligently, earnestly.
Literal Meaning: “Send Zenas the lawyer and
Apollos on their journey with haste”
“the lawyer” refers to the specialist in the Law of Moses or the Roman legal
scholar. “Zenas” was a Greek name and eh was only mentioned here in the Bible.
And therefore we could conclude that he was a Roman legal scholar instead of a
specialist in the Law of Moses. “Apollos” was a Jewish name and he was
proficient in the Old Testament and helped believers everywhere (Acts.
18:24-28). “Send…on their journey” refers to providing belongings for the need
of the journey (See Acts. 15:3; Rom. 15:24; 1Cor. 16:6; 2Cor. 1:16; 3John.
5-8).
“That
they may lack nothing” it means that the
work of the Lord is not influenced by the physical shortage.
Enlightenment in the Word:
1) How beautiful the concern among fellow-workers
in the early church is: a) Zenas
the lawyer and Apollos had different races
and specialities, however, they still cooperated and complemented each other
and worked and travelled together; b) Paul and Apollos did not work together
(See Acts. 19:1; 1Cor. 3:6), however, Paul still took the need of Apollos into
account.
2) Today the most serious problem in the Lord’s
churches is that fellow-workers are envious of each other, intrigue against
each other and hope that the other side to have an accident or fail. This
behavior indeed humiliates the name of the Lord.
3) It is the feature of the early church that they
willingly gave relief to believers and fellow-workers whom they had never met
before (See Rom. 16:2; 2Cor. 8:3-5). May the Lord truly enlarge our mind to
make us take care of the Lord’s servants and believers in other places.
Tit. 3:14 “And let our people also
learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be
unfruitful.”
YLT: “and let them learn
-- ours also -- to be leading in good works to the necessary uses, that they
may not be unfruitful.”
Literal Meaning: “And let our people also
learn to maintain good works” “our people”
refers to those who had relations with Paul.
“To
meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful” It indicates that we have to learn to communicate
with each other in the needs of our daily life for the achievements of
work.
Enlightenment in the Word:
1) Though men cannot earn the salvation by good
works, those who have received the salvation have to have good works.
2) God’s workers should learn to rely on God both
in their life and the needs of work, that they may not be unfruitful.
Tit. 3:15 “All who are with me greet
you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen.”
YLT: “Salute thee do all
those with me; salute those loving us in faith; the grace with you all!”
Literal Meaning: “All who are with me greet
you.” “All who are with me” refers to the fellow-workers and believers who
kept in touch with Paul who was in prison.
“Greet
those who love us in the faith.” There is not the
definite article in the original; “in the faith” indicates that faith is the
realm where their love takes effect. “Love us in the faith” indicates that our love is fully of the
relation of life brought in by faith (1John. 5:1).
“Grace
be with you all. Amen” “you all” refers
to all those who were with Titus and they probably had heard of the content of
this epistle.
III.
Outlines of the Spiritual Lessons
The Six Marks of A Good Citizen
I. Observing the
law------“be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey” (v.1a)
II. Doing
good------“be ready for every good work” (v.1b)
III. Being cautious
in words------“speak evil of no one” (v.2a)
IV. Being
tolerant------“be peaceable” (v.2b)
V. Being
amicable------“gentle” (v.2b)
VI. Being
mild------“showing all humility to all men” (v.2c)
The Change of Behavior after A Believer has
Believed in the Lord
I. One’s behavior
before he has believed in the Lord (v.3)
II. One’s behavior
after he has believed in the Lord (v.4-8)
A. The salvation is not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy (v.4-5a)
B. through the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Spirit (v.5b-6)
C. that having been justified by His
grace (v.7)
D. Good works brought in by faith (v.8)
The Complete Description of the Salvation
I. The source of the
salvation------God’s kindness and love (v.4).
II. The reason of
the salvation------it is
not by works of righteousness but according
to God’s mercy (v.5a).
III. The procedure
of the salvation------the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit
(v.5b).
IV. The power of the
salvation------the Holy Spirit was poured out on us abundantly (v.6).
V. The contents of
the salvation------justification, eternal life and heirs (v.7).
VI. The spread of
the salvation------affirming constantly (v.8a).
VII. The result of
the salvation------being careful to maintain good works (v.8b).
The Relation between the Holy Trinity and
the Salvation
I. God the
Father------kindness, love and mercy (v.4-5)
II.
Christ-----“through” Him (v.6)
III. The Holy
Spirit------regeneration, washing and renewing (v.5)
The Affirmation and Warnings
I. Affirming that
believers should be careful to maintain good works (v.8).
II. Warning that
believers should avoid disputes and strivings (v.9).
III. Warning that
believers should reject divisive men (v.10-12).
──
Caleb Huang《Christian Digest Bible
Commentary Series》
Translated by Sharon Ren