The Pulpit Commentary — Titus — Section 20

Vers. 15, 16.-The supreme importance of moral character. "Untv the pure all things a:e pure: but unto them that are deiled and unbelieving is nothing pure," etc. We notice, at the outset, two facts suggested by the pa.ssage. 1. That there is an essential diiferenre in the moral characters of men. There are some "pure" and some' "defiled," some holy and some unholy. What is the underlying inspiring principle that makes this difference? The predominant dispo~ition. Perhaps there is no moral being in the universe who is not under the masterhood of some one sentiment or passion, to which can be traced, as to a mainspring, all the motions of his being. This con- trolling tendency is the moral monarch of souls, or, in Scripture language, is the moral "heart of the man." This supreme disposition exists in all men in two distinct and opposite forms, either in sympathy with the true, the right, and the spiritual, or in sympathy with the false, the wrong, and the material. That soul alone is pure whose governing sympathy is God and the true. Supreme love for the supremely good is the true life of the soul, and the fountain of all its virtues. He whose controlling sympathies run not thus, is impure and corrupt. 2. That the outward world is to men acoording to this difference. The whole external universe is to a man according to the moral state of his soul. " As a man thin.keth in his heart, so is he "-so is he in relation to himself, to all without, and to God. This being so, the text teaches the supreme importanre of moral character. Let us look at- L THE MORALLY PURE IN RELATION TO ALL THINGS. "Unto the pure all things are pure." This is true in relation to three things. 1. In relation to appearanre. The proverb goes that the greatest rogues are ever the most suspicious. A thoroughly selfish, ungodly soul will see but little good even in the best men. It is a law that man judges his fellow by himself, and the more corrupt a man is, the more severe his judgment on 01hers. A good man is neither given to sUBpicion nor censoriousness; he sees some good in all men. 2. In relation to influenre. The influence of all outward things upon men is dependent on their moral character. Our Lord says, "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth defileth a man." The moral character is an all-traneformative power in the centre of ma11's being. It turns the unclean into the clean, and the reverse. A good man, like the bee, can extract honey from the bitterest plant; or, like the lEolia.n harp, can turn the shrieking wind into mUBic. 3. In relation to appropriation. As the body lives by appropriating the outward, so does the soul; and as the effects i,f the appro- priation, whether universal or otherwise, depend on the condition of the body's health, as the appropriation of a diseased body only increases the physical ailment; so with the soul. A corrupt soul appropriates, even from the most strengthe11ing and refreshing menns of spiritual improvement, that which weakens and destroys. Pharaoh and hie host got moral mischief out of the ministry of Moses; and the men of Capernaum were µressed into a deeper and darker hell through the elevating and e111ightening ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. Mark, then, the supreme importance of moral character. ll. THE MORALLY DEFILED IN &ELATION TO ALL THINGS. "Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is r,othing pure; but even their mind and conscience is de~led." Bere is the converse.. Ma~k, in ?a-sin_!/:, t\:rec thingR. 1. The srhere of the def!le:,nent. "The mind and conscience.' "'l he 11,UJ<l, says a modern expositor, "1s the wilhng as OR, I, 1-16.) THE EPISTLE TO TITUS. 23