The three pastoral letters or epistles are books of the canonical New Testament: the First Epistle to Timothy (1 Timothy) the Second Epistle to Timothy (2 Timothy) and the Epistle to Titus. They are letters from Paul the Apostle to Timothy and to Titus. They are generally discussed as a group (sometimes with the addition of the Epistle to Philemon) and are given the title pastoral because they are addressed to individuals with pastoral oversight of churches and discuss issues of Christian living, doctrine and leadership. While the title is not technically quite correct in that the Epistles do not deal with pastoral duties in the sense of the cure of souls, yet it is popularly appropriate as denoting the essentially practical nature of the subject matter as distinguished from the other Epistles attributed to Paul. The term "pastorals" was popularised in 1703 by D. N. Berdot and in 1726 by Paul Anton.

Titus 1:15 Pure, Corrupted

Titus 1:15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.
Paul draws a contrast in this verse between the pure that is the believing and the corrupted who do not believe. Because the believer is pure at heart then, at his best, all that he touches becomes pure. This is the general rule. Paul is surely not a naïve as to think that it is inevitable. As for the unbeliever, his tendency is towards corruption and so for him nothing is pure in the end. There is such corruption in their minds and consciences that it seeps into everything they say and do and are. One sees this on all sorts of levels and in all sorts of ways. It is like a man with dirt on his hands - everything he touches gets dirty too. Paul says this as a warning against the way error of all sorts can creep into all sorts of places if we do not take care. It is important for pastors to understand this principle.

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