Titus 2:15

‘These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no man despise you.’

These things Titus is to speak and exhort, and if necessary he must reprove those in the Cretan church who need it, with all authority. He is not to allow anyone to despise him, or override him, for these are the truths on which the Gospel is based, and will enable the Cretans to adorn the Gospel.

The word for ‘authority’ occurs three times in the Pastoral letters and four times in Paul’s other letters, and nowhere else in the New Testament. It is a typical Pauline emphasis.