The Pulpit Commentary on Titus 1:15

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Pure-heartedness.

"Unto the pure all things are pure." The gospel centers morality as well as religion in the heart. Men of corrupt tastes cannot have correct morals, because a man may sin against himself as well as against society. An impure heart makes an impure world of its own within; and that, if it hurts none else, hurts the man himself, wrongs his own soul. Here we see that the eye sees what it wishes to see, or what the inward taste desires to see. A pure man does not under stand the double entendre; does not see the vision of evil beneath the veil of words or the disguise of art.

I. THE FIRST REQUIREMENT. "A pure heart." Make the tree good. A bad man will find impure suggestion anywhere and everywhere—even in religious literature, even in the unsuspecting words of holy men—for his heart is not renewed. So possible is it for men to find evil even in things good.

II. THE GREAT SAFEGUARD. "All things are pure." There is no false delicacy. No prudery, no affectation. In meditation or conversation they catch no stain of defilement from the subjects they are mentally brought into contact with. Their safety is from within; for "out of the heart are the issues of life."—W.M.S.

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