Titus 1:5

Appoint, therefore, for yourselves, bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, men meek, and not lovers of money, and truthful and proved; for they also render to you the service of prophets and teachers. Despise them not therefore, for they are your honoured ones, together with the prophets and teachers.

"For this cause left I thee in Crete." As if the whole world had been one house, they divided it among themselves, administering its affairs everywhere, each taking care of his several portion of it. "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are [R. V. were] wanting." He does not command this in an imperious manner; "that thou shouldest set in order," he says. Here we see a soul free from all envy, seeking everywhere the advantage of his disciples, not curiously solicitous, whether the good was done by himself or by another. For where he in his own person set it in order. But those things which were rather attended with honor and praise he committed to his disciple, as the ordination of Bishops, and such other things as required some farther arrangement, or, so to speak, to be brought to greater perfection. What sayest thou? does he farther set in order thy work? and dost thou not think it a disgrace bringing shame upon thee? By no means; for I look only to the common good, and whether it be done by me, or by another, it makes no difference to me. Thus it becomes him to be affected who presides in the Church, not to seek his own honor, but the common good. "And ordain elders in every city," here he is speaking of Bishops, as we have before said, "as I had appointed thee. If any is blameless." "In every city," he says, for he did not wish the whole island to be intrusted to one, but that each should have his own charge and care, for thus he would have less labor himself, and those under his rule would receive greater attention, if the Teacher had not to go about to the presidency of many Churches, but was left to be occupied with one only, and to bring that into order.

Just as in a household among those appointed for service one does one thing and another does another, so too they divided the whole world among themselves by regions, and all labored. This is precisely what is indicated here by the words "I left you …

He comes now to the message and, as has been said, he aims at defending the Church against heretics: first, he admonishes Titus to instruct others to resist heretics; second, he teaches how they are to be resisted, at but speak the things (Titus 2:1). …

For this cause left I thee in Crete,.... Not in his voyage to Rome, Act 27:7 but rather when he came from Macedonia into Greece, Act 20:2. Crete is an island in the Mediterranean sea, now called Candy; See Gill on Act 2:

Ordain elders - Appoint the most faithful, zealous men to watch over the rest. Their character follows, Tit i, 6-9. These were the elders, or bishops, that Paul approved of;-men that had living faith, a pure conscience, a blameless life.

For this cause left I thee in Crete - Compare the notes, 1Ti 1:3. On the situation of Crete, see the Introduction, Section 2. That thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting - Margin, “left undone.” The Greek is: “the things that are left;” that is, those which were left unfinished; referring, doubtless, to arrangements which had been commenced, but which for some cause had been left incomplete. Whether this had occurred because he had been driven away by persecution, or called away by important duties demanding his attention elsewhere, cannot now be determined.

Elder is the term of dignity in relation to the college of presbyters; bishop points to the duties of his office in relation to the flock. From the unsound state of the Cretan Christians described here, we see the danger of the want of Church government. The appointment of presbyters was designed to check idle talk and speculation, by setting forth the "faithful word."

For this cause left I thee in Crete - That St. Paul had been in Crete, though nowhere else intimated, is clear from this passage. That he could not have made such an important visit, and evangelized an island of the first consequence, without its being mentioned by his historian, Luke, had it happened during the period embraced in the Acts of the Apostles, must be evident. That the journey, therefore, must have been performed after the time in which St. Luke ends his history, that is, after St. Paul’s first imprisonment at Rome, seems almost certain. Set in order the things that are wanting - It appears from this that the apostle did not spend much time in Crete, and that he was obliged to leave it before he had got the Church properly organized. The supplying of this defect, he tells Titus, he had confided to him as one whose spiritual views coincided entirely with his own. Ordain elders in every city - That thou mightest appoint, καταστησῃς, elders - persons well instructed in Divine things, who should be able to instruct others, and observe and enforce the discipline of the Church. It appears that those who are called elders in this place are the same as those termed bishops in Tit 1:7. We have many proofs that bishops and elders were of the same order in the apostolic Church, though afterwards they became distinct. Lord Peter King, in his view of the primitive Church, has written well on this subject. In every city. - Κατα πολιν. This seems to intimate that the apostle had gone over the whole of the hecatompolis or hundred cities for which this island was celebrated. Indeed it is not likely that he would leave one in which he had not preached Christ crucified.