Entrusted to me by the command of our Saviour God.

This sermon, he says, is entrusted to me. Therefore, if it is commissioned, then I must not think that which is unworthy of Him who entrusted me with it, I must not pretend or express displeasure at what has been entrusted to me. Moreover, this is entrusted to me by command, in other words: I am involuntarily compelled to do it. Of what should be done, one is done by command, another by admonition. For example, "Be reconciled to thy brother" (Matt. 5:24) is a commandment, and whoever does not fulfill it is punished; but, Sell thy possessions (Matt. 19:21), if thou wilt, and again, Whosoever is able to bear it, let him bear it – these are exhortations, and he who does not obey them is not punished. And so, he says, I have been entrusted with preaching by commandment, so that I must do it. Woe is me, he says, if I do not preach the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:16), and this is not out of love of power, but out of need. Whose command? The Savior of God. Therefore, if God commanded this, desiring our salvation, then how can I not show my disposition to the work of salvation?

Titus, the true son.

A son may not be true, like a Christian fornicator, or a covetous one: such a son, although regenerated through baptism, is not true, because he is not worthy of his father.

By common faith.

Having called Titus a son, and having appropriated to himself the title of father, the Apostle again diminishes this honor, saying: "In faith I have nothing greater than thee, for it is common, and by it both thou and I have been regenerated." Why does the Apostle call him his son? Either - to show his love for him, or - because he himself baptized Titus. Since both have the same faith, they are brothers to one another. And since Paul baptized Titus, he is his father. Thus, the expression according to common faith means brotherhood.

According to the common faith: grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.

And by this he points to brotherhood, when he says: "From God the Father," he stirs up Titus, so that he may remember whose son he is, namely, God's. See how he wishes the same for the common people, the same he wishes for the bishop and the teacher. For he himself needs God's grace-filled power more than others, as one who bears heavy burdens, needs mercy, as one who finds it difficult to avoid being obligated to God in many things, needs peace, as one who is forced to be in clashes and to wage a continuous struggle. For even one regular passage of the episcopate leads to heaven, and one fault brings down to hell.

For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might finish what was unfinished.

Just as in the household of those assigned to the service one does one thing, another another, so they divided the universe among themselves in parts, and all worked. This is precisely what is indicated here by the words left you in Crete, because he himself evidently went to another place to work there. See how he does not hesitate to write to his disciple so that he completes what he has not finished. Notice also that he corrected all this himself; And what led to honor, or praise, he entrusts to the disciple - I mean the ordination of bishops and everything else that needed a greater order.

And he appointed presbyters in all the cities, as I commanded you.

This is how he calls bishops here, and in the Epistle to Timothy. In all the cities, he says. He did not want the whole island to be entrusted to one person, but that each city should have its own shepherd. In this way, both the work will be easier and the observation will be more thorough.

If anyone is blameless.

If he leads a life free from reproach, if no one reproaches him for his way of life. For if light, he says, is darkness, how much more is darkness?