Titus 1:11

11. Mouths must be stopped Not by physical force, nor usually by pure ecclesiastical authority. Yet, while church authority is less peremptory as to what private members believe, it is rightly exerted over what the minister whom it authorizes shall preach. In the present verse the meaning is, that the gainsayers shall be silenced by the ability of the elder to convince. Titus 1:9. Who not only seduce individuals, but subvert, that is, overthrow, (a Greek word physically expressive of overthrowing a building,) whole houses, or families. St. Paul, doubtless, speaks from memory here, of houses like that of the Philippian jailer, all baptized, (Acts 16:33;) or like that of Stephanas, baptized by himself, (1 Corinthians 1:16;) or like that of Onesiphorus, administering to and sustaining him, (2 Timothy 1:16;) but houses unlike those in being subverted and drawn from the Church into the Jewish or Gnostic fold.