The inclusion in Holy Scripture of Paul’s letters to individual Christians illustrates the purpose of pastoral care both in local churches and in the Christian household. The formation and future of the Church of God, consequent upon Christ’s sufferings, the Father’s receiving Him in glory and the Holy Spirit’s outpouring, had engaged the Apostle in letters to various churches and the hearts of believers are bowed in worship at the grandeur of the revelations communicated.
The Pastoral Epistles, on the other hand, teach God’s requirements of divine order and personal piety in the daily lives of His children, the pattern being the gracious ways of the Lord Jesus recorded in the Gospels. Thus Titus must rebuke those “unto every good work reprobate” (1:16), showing himself a “pattern of good works” (2:7), while exhorting to be “ready to every good work” (3:1) and “careful to maintain” them (3:8). The interspersed summaries of Christian doctrine in 2:11-14 and 3:4-7 stress this objective in the revelation of God’s grace here below. The touching story of the conversion of a runaway slave and his return to be useful to his master, Philemon, demonstrates its present activity.
These and many other facets of the truth are examined in this devout and scholarly Exposition by the late William Kelly. Its re-issue is timely; for human order and codes of conduct in the churches are proving as ineffective as in the world’s organizations around us.
May God deign to use the help offered by a careful study of these pages for the edifying of His Church, to the glory of Christ, its Head.
H. HARLE. March, 1968