The Expositor's Bible: The Pastoral EpistlesPlummer, Alfred
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Pastoral Epistles
Plummer, Alfred
Bible. Pastoral Epistles -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
In giving this injunction to Titus, St. Paul assumes that his disciple
and delegate is as free as he himself is from all feelings of jealousy,
or envy. "Art thou jealous for my sake? would God that all the Lord's
people were prophets," is the spirit in which these instructions are
given, and no doubt were accepted. There is no grasping after power in
the great Apostle of the Gentiles; no desire to keep everything in his
own hands, that he might have the credit of all that was done. So long
as Christ is rightly preached, so long as the Lord's work is faithfully
done, he cares not who wins the glory. He is more than willing that
Timothy and Titus should share in his work and its reward; and he
without hesitation applies to them to admit others in like manner to
share with them in their work and its reward. This generous willingness
to admit others to co-operate is not always found, especially in men of
strong character and great energy and decision. They will admit
subordinates as a necessary evil to work out details, because they
cannot themselves afford time for all these. But they object to anything
like colleagues. Whatever of any serious importance is done must be in
their own hands and must be recognized as their work. There is nothing
of this spirit in St. Paul. He could rejoice when some "preached Christ
even of envy and strife," "not sincerely, thinking to raise up
affliction for him in his bonds." He rejoiced, not because of their evil
temper, but because that at any rate Christ was preached. How much more,
therefore, did he rejoice when Christ was preached "of good will" by
disciples devoted to himself and his Master. They all had the same end
in view; not their own glory, but the glory of God.
And this is the end which all Christian ministers have to keep in view,
and which they too often exchange for ends that are far lower, and far
removed (it may be) from the cause with which we choose to identify
them. And as time goes on, and we look less and less with a single eye
at the will of God, and have less and less of the single purpose of
seeking His glory, our aims become narrower and our ends more selfish.
At first it is the triumph of a system, then it is the advancement of a
party. Then it becomes the propagation of our own views, and the
extension of our own influence. Until at last we find ourselves working,
no longer for God's glory, but simply for our own. While professing to
work in His Name and for His honour, we have steadily substituted our
own wills for His.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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