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 2:15 Authoritative Teacher

Titus 2:15 These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.
What we call Chapter 2 of Titus ends with three brief exhortations. The first of these says that these ... are the things Titus must teach. This takes us back to the opening verse of the chapter - You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. The content of the chapter includes teaching for older men (2), older women (3, 4), younger women by implication (5), younger men (6) and slaves (9, 10) along with exhortations about how to teach (7, 8) and the nature of the gospel (11-14). The next sums up the need to Encourage and rebuke with all authority. This echoes the statement in Chapter 1 that an elder (verse 9) must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. Encouraging and rebuking or opposing that is the work. The call here to do this with all authority leads into the third and final general exhortation - Do not let anyone despise you. This is reminiscent of 1 Timothy 4:12a Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young.  A minister must not be proud but he must have a confidence that refuses to be despised.
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