Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and
powers,
&c.] Not angels, good or bad, which are sometimes so called,
but men in high places; the higher powers ordained of God, as the
apostle elsewhere calls them; and which the Apostle Peter
distinguishes into the king as supreme, and into governors under
him: the Roman emperor and senate, the consuls, and proconsuls,
deputies and governors of provinces and islands, are here meant;
particularly such who were appointed over the island of Crete.
Now the reasons why the apostle exhorts Titus to put in
remembrance those that were under his care, to yield a cheerful
subjection to their superiors, were, because the Jews, from whom
the Christians were not distinguished by the Romans, were
reckoned a turbulent and seditious people; which character they
obtained, partly through the principles of the Scribes and
Pharisees, which they at least privately entertained, as not to
give tribute to Caesar, or be under any Heathen yoke; and partly
through the insurrections that had been made by Judas of Galilee,
and Theudas, and others; and besides, there were many Jews in the
island of Crete, and the Cretians themselves were prone to mutiny
and rebellion: to which may be added, that the false teachers,
and judaizing preachers, that had got among them, despised
dominion, and were not afraid to speak evil of dignities,
according to the characters which both Peter and Jude give of
them, and taught the saints to abuse their Christian liberty, and
use it for a cloak of maliciousness, to the great scandal of the
Christian religion.
To obey magistrates;
inferior ones; in all things that are according to the laws of
God, and right reason, that do not contradict what God has
commanded, or break in upon the rights and dictates of
conscience; in all things of a civil nature, and which are for
the good of society, and do not affect religion, and the worship
of God: hence it follows,
to be ready to every good work;
which may be taken in a limited and restrained sense, and design
every good work enjoined by the civil magistrate; and all right
and lawful obedience that belongs to him, as giving to Caesar the
things that are Caesar's, tribute, custom, fear, and honour to
whom they are due; and which should be done readily and
cheerfully: or it may be understood more comprehensively of good
works in general, which wicked men are reprobate to, and unfit
for; and which they that are sanctified are meet for, and ready
to; though this may not only intend their capacity, fitness, and
qualifications, for the performance of good works, but their
alacrity, promptitude, and forwardness unto them.