BSN home page

***

Introduction

See Titus. This letter is very much like 1 Timothy – a set of instructions to a beloved and trusted subordinate worker about how to care for churches. This meant continuing the preparation of those churches for the coming of the Lord (aka the Second Coming). Men like Paul, Timothy, and Titus were like Mordecai’s preparing Esther’s for presentation to King Ahasuerus.

Paul does not seem to have been in prison at the time he wrote this letter. And it seems to have been written after he wrote 1 Timothy but before he wrote 2 Timothy. When Paul wrote 1 Timothy, he was back in prison. We know from 2 Cor 6:5 and 11:23 and elsewhere that Paul had many imprisonments. The one in 2 Timothy seems to have been close to his death. I make this point because with 2 Timothy sitting before Titus in the Bible, it can be easy to forget it was written after.

***

Titus 1

Tit 1:1-4 – What a greeting! My, my, how Paul packs so much useful truth into a space where we would have just said, “Dear Titus.”

Tit 1:1 – The “knowledge of the truth” comes from meditating and practicing the Teacher’s word.

John 8:31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;
John 8:32 and you will know the truth…”

***** And let us never forget that “the knowledge of the truth” leads not to academic credentials but to “godliness.”

Tit 1:2 – It’s not so much that God doesn’t lie – it’s that He can’t. He’s constitutionally incapable of it. That is, were He to lie – which is ludicrous to even consider – He would instantly cease being God. ***** The messianic prophecies are divine promises. That is, they are not sterile predictions by God, they are personal commitments of God – things He promised to do Himself in due time.

Tit 1:3 – As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, there’s a time for everything. God is patient and plays a long game. All the more reason we should stop playing our games and play His.

Tit 1:4 – Paul shows almost as much affection for Titus as he does for Timothy.

Tit 1:5-9 – Crete is one of the larger islands in the Mediterranean Sea; it is situated slightly southeast of modern-day Greece and southwest of modern-day Turkey. ***** This section is very much like 1 Tim 3. In the BSN notes on that passage, I told you that “elders” and “overseers” were synonymous terms. You can see that without even examining the underlying Greek words because in 1 Timothy Paul uses the term “overseer” and here in Titus he’s using the term “elder” yet it’s obvious that he’s talking about the same role. Other synonyms for this role, for which you do have to examine the underlying Greek words to see how they are synonymous, include: supervisors, bishops, elders, shepherds, and pastors. I know various Christian denominations often make major distinctions in the way these words are defined (such as bishops being overseers of pastors), but that is just a symptom of churches outliving their biblical shelf life. (The Kingdom of God Versus Church) Churches are about nothing these days if not about hierarchy – and they have it to keep a grip on the people. They don’t want the people to be able to relate to God without them as intermediaries. They don’t pay attention when they read verses like this:

2 Cor 4:5 For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.

***

John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.

***

Gal 4:17 They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them.

Tit 1:10-14 – I wish there weren’t always false teachers, but there always are.

2 Pet 2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
2 Pet 2:2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;
2 Pet 2:3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

You will even have to decide if I am a false teacher who is denying the Master who bought him. I assure you I am not; on the contrary, I am telling you the truth that I have read and understood in the Bible. (There are, of course, many things in the Bible I don’t understand, but I don’t preach them.) Yet, you cannot accept my assurance alone. That is only one witness. You must listen to the Spirit of God with a clear conscience as you yourself read the Bible. If the Holy Spirit in your heart bears witness to the same truths, there are your necessary two witnesses.

2 Cor 13:1 This is the third time I am coming to you. EVERY FACT IS TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE TESTIMONY OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES.

***

Titus 2

Tit 2:1 – Having spent the last seven verses of the previous chapter describing how “many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers” were “teaching things they should not teach,” Paul now tells Titus to “speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine,” demonstrating by example teaching that fits that description (Tit 2:2-10).

Tit 2:2-10 – We see here the kind of teaching that is consistent with the practical family-centric relationship teaching we see in Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3-4, 1 Peter 2-3 and elsewhere in the New Testament.

Tit 2:7-8 – Paul digresses with these two verses to give the same kind of “This is how a young man in your situation should teach others” encapsulated pep talk that he gave to Timothy in 1 Tim 5:1. Just because a man knows the truth does not mean he has a license to blab it any way he wants. 

Tit 2:11-14 – Paul momentarily steps back from the detailed practical instructions to sketch the context of truth in which the righteous life is to be lived out. Let’s break down that context.

• “For the grace of God” – The backdrop for everything that is spoken in this letter, and that is spoken in the New Testament as a whole, is the grace of God – that is, the Creator’s free, unmerited favor. In other words, His generosity. It’s not something He owes us or that we’ve earned by our own efforts. It is in no way a wage we are due.
• “has appeared” – This grace that comes to us from God has appeared in the person of Jesus Christ. All that grace is embodied in Him. Jesus is God’s grace personified and given to humanity.
• “bringing salvation” – This grace through the person of Jesus Christ brings us salvation – which is deliverance, rescue. This implies that we were in trouble, and indeed we were and are. That trouble arose because of sin in the world, including the individual sins we ourselves have contributed to the whole. This salvation includes not only rescue from the troubles we encounter in this life, but also from the life itself which would otherwise end in death. That is, this salvation includes an all-expense-paid trip to heaven when we die.
• “to all men” – I like that word “all.” It gives me assurance that I’ll be included. (Everyone Is Going to Heaven)
• “instructing us” – We have to be taught about Christ. It’s not intuitive that God would become a human and allow Himself to be crucified in order to bring us salvation. The judgment of God is intuitive, because our consciences tell us that we deserve to be punished in some way for our sins. But the grace of God not intuitive – certainly not the magnitude of it. It’s not natural that anyone could be that good. That is, it’s not natural to think God could be maximally just and maximally generous at the same time, but in Jesus Christ He is revealed to be maximally both at all times.
• “to deny ungodliness and worldly desires” – This means to deny an entire way of life we have come to know and practice. This is MAJOR. We can actually deny the old self any right to live in us. We do so by living to Jesus Christ instead of to ourselves. If it’s freedom you’re looking for, God has plenty of that to give you. But if it’s completely autonomy you’re looking for, God can’t give you that God Himself is the only being with complete autonomy. Just as only God is good, only God has complete autonomy. You’re a creature; by definition, you cannot be self-sustaining. I know many people today are acting as if we have complete autonomy, but surely you see how disastrously that’s going.
• “and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” – In our right minds, this is exactly how we want to act – but we’ve never known how to do it. The grace of God is the way we can be taught to live it. That’s the teaching Jesus gave the apostles and sent them to pass it on to the rest of us so that we could keep passing it on from one generation to the next.
• “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” – The phrase “the blessed hope” came to be a way of referring to the Second Coming. We look to this hope, but we don’t look forward to it; rather, we look backward to it as a hope fulfilled: Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again. And, like everything else, the Second Coming easier to see in retrospect. As they say, hindsight is 20/20. ***** Connect the “hope” in this verse with the “hope” in 1 Pet 1:13.
• “who gave Himself for us” – In giving us “His Son” God gave us Himself. This is because the Father became the Son that He might become the Father once again. He had to go through this process because we were kidnapped by falling into the temptation to sin in the garden of Eden. To reclaim us as sons, He had to become a son Himself.
• “to redeem us from every lawless deed” – From our own lawless deeds as well as the lawless deeds of others.
• “and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession” – Humanity has to be purified because we were defiled by sin. We were created to be His. Remember from above, our autonomy is neither possible nor desirable.
• “zealous” – We cannot live this new life He has given us half-heartedly. We can’t pull it off with a low level of energy.
• “for good deeds.” – This is the third of six times this expression -“good deed(s)” – appears in this short letter. Good deeds are important – but they’re the culmination of a process begun with, and sustained by, grace. If you start with good deeds, you really don’t get very far.

Thus the theological backdrop for the way of life Paul and the other apostles are teaching through and about Jesus Christ is vast, intricate, and sturdy. It is the spiritual reality in which we dwell. The more we act in accord with that reality, the more peace we experience in our souls; the less mindful we are of that reality, and especially the more resistant we are to that reality, the harder time we are going to have with life on earth, and the greater will be our regret in heaven. We keep studying the Bible in order to fully renew our minds this reality so that we can live more consistently in harmony with it every single day that passes.

(Paul will interrupt himself to give another one of these theological backdrops in Tit 3:4-7. It’ll be the same picture, but with slightly different words.)

Tit 2:15 – Titus may be a young man, and it’s true he should not just pop his mouth off any old way he wants to. That said, he has duties as a preacher to fulfill. Similarly, you may be a new husband or father, and it’s true you should not just pop off your mouth any old way you want to; that said, you have duties as a husband and father that you must fulfill to make yourself presentable to your Maker. Most of all, this means imitating Jesus Christ to the best of your ability, leading your family as He is leading you.

***

Titus 3

Tit 3:1-2 – Let’s unpack this.

• “Remind them” – The “them” in this sentence refers to all the people in the churches on the island of Crete whom Titus was to care for with his teaching. It was for their sake that this letter was written; Paul was ministering elsewhere, so Titus’ job was to do what Paul would have done if he could have stayed longer. ***** “Remind” means that these people have already been taught these things but will need to be reminded of them. Likewise, you and I need to be reminded of things we have been taught, which is why we read the Bible every day instead of once in a while. Likewise again, your children will need to be reminded every day of things they have been taught. No one fully gets the teaching of the Lord the first time he hears it.
• “to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed” – Paul was an apostle to Gentiles. Had he been ministering in Judea or Galilee – that is, in Israel – this instruction would have to be more nuanced because at this time in history, Jewish authorities were actively trying to stamp out Christianity but Roman authorities were not. In other words, Jerusalem was antichrist at this time but Rome was not. This would change after Israel was destroyed by Rome in 70 AD. For now, these instructions made perfect sense because all the Roman government wanted was law and order. They had no interest in trying to settle disputes between Jewish sects (that is, what we would call denominations). Back in Judea, the ruling Jewish sects (the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, the Zealots) were ordering people to forget Jesus. That’s not a government law to which a God-fearing man can submit. Thus did Mordecai and Esther lay low until Haman’s actions gave them no choice but to reveal their devotion to the one true God and take a stand in His name. The Bible does not teach us to blindly and always do what the government says. Rather, it teaches us to do what the government says except when it is contradicting something God has told us to do. Remember the Hebrew midwives (Ex 1).
• “to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.” – These are instructions that apply at all times and in all places.

Tit 3:3 – Let us never forget how off track we were; it helps us to view wrongdoers in a more forgiving light. (How in the world was Jesus able to look at wrongdoers in a forgiving light when He had no sins of His own to regret? We obviously have more reason to be forgiving than Jesus does.)

Tit 3:4-7 – As he did in Tit 2:11-14, Paul interrupts his recitation of instructions to remind Titus of the context of such instructions. Christianity is not a bunch of rules; it has rules, but they are rules given in context. That context is that we have a Creator-Redeemer who loves us and seeks to save us from our sins – and that we have the responsibility of sharing this knowledge. Preachers declare it to people, and then one generation passes it on to another. Parents teaching children is as important as preachers preaching. Regularly – more than once every day – you and I need to stop telling our children to clean their rooms and remind them of why we’re here at all – and therefore why cleaning up our rooms matters. ***** Notice that God’s love and saving activity were for “mankind” not “a subset of mankind.” Everyone is going to heaven. ***** Notice also that this salvation was secured, which is why it’s stated in the past tense: “He saved us.” Those who resist the Holy Spirit whom He has poured out do not destroy that grace – rather, they only postpone it. Pray for them that they will come to their senses before they die, because they won’t get any credit for coming to their senses after they die. Coming to our senses is automatic at that point. The “hope of eternal life” only makes sense before we have it.

Rom 8:24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

Once we die, consciousness itself will be eternal life. There’ll no longer be any need to hope for it in heaven. Earth is the place for hope and faith. (“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for” – Heb 11:1).

Tit 3:8 – This is a helpful summarizing statement of what Paul has been writing.

Tit 3:9 – This has been a theme of this letter to Titus: focus on “sound words,” not “worthless” ones. It’s one thing to know what you want to teach your children; it’s another to know how to effectively do it. Not all talking about the Bible is productive.

Tit 3:10-11 – As with 1 Tim 5:19-20, note that what Paul is saying here is a paraphrase of what Jesus taught.

Matt 18:15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.
Matt 18:16 “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED.
Matt 18:17 “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Matt 18:18 “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

That is, there’s a process for keeping strife out of our lives. Strife between humans – even humans with the best of intentions – is a killer.

Tit 3:12 – “Nicopolis” was a city on the western shore of Achaia (southern Greece).

Tit 3:13 – “Zenas the lawyer” is not mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament, but we know about Apollos from the Acts of the Apostles and 1 Corinthians.

Tit 3:14 – A “pressing need” is a “need of the moment” (Eph 4:29). And when we can’t meet all pressing needs, let’s meet the most pressing ones. So much of life is triage. ***** This is the sixth and final explicit statement about “good deed(s)” in this letter. It is altogether fitting that it be the last since it a clear and succinct rallying cry for all those who want be responsive to the One who hung on a cross to be able to teach us this way of life.

Tit 3:15 – With a reference to grace Paul began this letter, and with the same he closes it. Grace is the most common word found at the beginning and end of the New Testament letters. This is fitting. Our good deeds are not a cause of grace – they are a consequence of it. God’s grace is where all good things begin.

***

BSN home page