NOTES for Tit 1:15
As is known, one of the main questions in the yahvisme, quite as the Judaism was the question of the ritual purity. And it is not surprising: because, particularly the ritual purity defined the possibility (or the impossibility) for man to approach the altar and be sanctified. However over time the real sense of the norms and rules of the ritual purity was if not completely, then very thoroughly forgotten. In the time of Paul for many they were already something self-value, requiring a rigorous execution just because the observation of these norms and rules became a religious duty. And their violation began to be considered almost as a crime, not because the relation to the sacred became more feverish, but because religiosity itself (at least, in certain Pharisees circles) became considerably rigorous.
However in the Kingdom the traditional notions of purity and impurity become irrelevant: because the Kingdom is entirely sanctified, sanctified by this breath of God, which penetrates into it to the very end. And for the inhabitants of the Kingdom the division between the pure and the impure is already irrelevant: because there can be by definition nothing impure, i.e. not subjected to sanctification in the Kingdom. And however the religious inertia also penetrated into the communities of church composed of the Jews, as well as the recent gentiles. And it was difficult for the profoundly religious (generally) Jews to accept the fact that the norms and rules of the ritual purity forming the core of their religious tradition, were suddenly irrelevant. And they continued to insist on the observation of rules, in a new context losing all sense.
Continued to ask their observation to every member of the Church, insisting that without such an observation, one cannot enter the Kingdom. And didn’t want at all to accept the fact that for the Church, their religiosity is their purely private affair. And Paul, of course perfectly understands that it is exactly like that, that for the Kingdom the question of purity and impurity is exclusively resolved at the level of the human heart: if it is pure, there cannot be any impurity in the life of such person, and if it is impure, then should be afraid of no other impurity: the worst has already happened. So the Apostle solves the problem of purity and impurity in relation to the Kingdom, and thus, in relation also to the Church.