Titus 3:12-15
English Standard Version

Final Instructions and Greetings
12 When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. 13 Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing. 14 And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.

15 All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith.

Grace be with you all.

Paul says he is going to be sending Artemas or Tychicus to Titus and the congregation he is leading in Crete.  This could be the ones carrying the letter or they could be coming later and this could be advance warning.  In either case, Paul wants Titus to let Artemas or Tychicus take care of the church so that Titus can come visit Paul in Nicopolis (he is going to be wintering there).

​Paul is waiting for Zenas the lawyer and Apollos and asks Titus to speed them along.  In the midst of all of this, Titus is supposed to focus on teaching the Elect of Crete to live in a way where people will see their good works and glorify their Father who is in heaven.  Titus is also supposed to help people learn to take care of each other's urgent needs (it should not be the responsibility of Titus or Paul's team to take care of all of them when they have either other to lean on for help and support).  They are to bear fruit (show evidence on the outside of what has changed on the inside).  For many years "fruitfulness" or "bearing fruit" was made to be synonymous with "soul winning," but that is not that totality of what Paul is talking about here--he's talking about them bearing the Fruit of the Spirit in all areas of their lives in all places at all times under all circumstances.  This speaks of their conduct towards each other in the church and outside the church in all those various relationships we talked about in this book.  We are ambassadors who are to represent our King and His Kingdom well until one day when we will no longer by ambassadors living among foreigners, but we will be citizens of the Kingdom that we will live in forever and ever.

Paul closes with his final greeting of "Grace be with you all."

We have now studied all the books of the Bible other than the book of Revelation (which I intentionally saved for last because it has so many references to so many other books that it's helpful to have exposure to the Old Testament Prophets before reading it--especially the book of Daniel).  I'm looking forward to studying it with you.

Titus 3:1-11
English Standard Version

Be Ready for Every Good Work
3 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. 3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. 9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. 10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

The "them" here refers back to the people we were just talking about in chapter 2 (remember that there were no chapter and verse numbers in the original letter).  Paul finished chapter 2 telling Titus to exhort the congregation as a whole to be obedient to all these things that were being given to them by Paul through Titus.  Now Paul is telling Titus to instruct the congregation to be submissive to the governing authorities that have been put over them--even though those governing authorities are often working in opposition to the gospel and are acting without honor.  However, this also refers to any kind of authority we are put under and is not as specific an instruction as what we may see in maybe Romans 13 where Paul talks about being subject to governors who have the authority to punish crime and execute the death penalty.  This could be a child-parent relationship or an employee-employer relationship, or a citizen-government relationship.  The way in which we respond to those who have been put in authority over us has much to do with how responsive people will be to our message when we share the gospel with them.  In fact, we are instructed here to seek the welfare of those around us, even those outside the Church and even those who are in authority over us.  We should seek to make our cultures and communities better to make the lives of our governing authorities easier, not harder.  Even if they do not submit to the gospel themselves, they should realize through observation that things are better for them when they Christians who they trust in their government who are seeking for people to be changed from the inside out so they no longer desire to be rebellious and evil.

That leads to the next point Paul makes to remind us of all the kinds of things that are part of our old nature that we need to do away with--speaking evil of others, quarrelling, speaking harshly and in a way that is rude and self-seeking (instead we are to be gentle, courteous and humble--thinking of other more highly than we think of ourselves, for this is what 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that love looks like).  We were once foolish, disobedient, and slaves to our sinful lusts and passions.  We spent our time and energy fanaticizing about how to get even or do harm to others, we were ruled by vengeance, jealousy, envy, and strife.  We did not know how to love each other.  But now, because of the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit, we have been transformed.  He saved us, washed us, gave us new life, and renewed us to right standing with both God and men.  We have been justified so that we are declared "not guilty" and "righteous" in His sight, and we have been given the gift of eternal life that only comes through Jesus Christ our Lord.  This is not the end of the story though.

God wants us to devote ourselves to good works, not to earn brownie points or do things to prove that we merited salvation or do anything in order to keep our salvation, but because we are His humble servants who desire to please Him in all things.  We love His Law and desire to obey it.  This is not just good for us, but it is good for all the people around us too as the blessings that come to us spill over onto those in our families and communities.  However, we should avoid "foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless."  They get in the way of the gospel and do not lead to our benefit, the benefit of the Church or the benefit of our communities.  These are the kinds of things the natural man (our flesh) would focus on, but we will not focus on these things when we are controlled by the Spirit.

The kind of person who is in the congregation who still engages in this disruptive, divisive behavior should be warned, and if they do not repent, they are to be put out (excommunicated).  They will only harm the world's perception of the Church and Christians everywhere and Christians would do well to not associate with anyone who claims the name of Christ and claims to be controlled by the Spirit, but is still behaving in this way that brings dishonor to Christ and His Church--stay far away from such people to make it clear to the world that they are not of us.  Do not let that person's sin corrupt the Church and let God judge them and deal with Him on His terms and in His time with the hopes that they might be driven to repentance and might eventually come under his submission to His authority and become obedient to all He has commanded them to be and do.  Then, and only then, should such a man be welcomed back into the Church (see 2 Corinthians where Paul corrects that congregation for not welcoming back the one he told them to excommunicate in 1 Corinthians once he had repented).

Titus 2
English Standard Version

Teach Sound Doctrine
2 But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. 2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. 9 Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

15 Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

Where Paul's charge to Timothy might have been summed up as "Preach the Word!," Paul's charge to Titus seems to be "Preach sound doctrine!"  The two are not mutually exclusive as we'll see as the Word (the Scriptures) are our source of sound doctrine and our instrument we use to judge which teachings are true and sound or false and unsound.

Right after making this charge, Paul tells Titus that the responsibility of teaching and discipleship is not his alone as pastor of the local church--the responsibility belongs to all the older, more mature men in the congregation to disciple and train up the younger, less mature men in the congregation.  They older men are to teach the young men (especially here on Crete) to be dignified, self-controlled, sober-minded, and sound in faith, love, and steadfastness.  These are all great character traits that we should look to when someone asks up what biblical masculinity looks like.

Similarly, the older, more mature women are to disciple and train up the younger, less mature women in biblical femininity.  They are to teach those younger (or less mature) to be reverent in behavior, to not be slanderers who use their words as weapons, or slaves to wine or other kinds of alcohol (they should be controlled by the Spirit of God, not the spirits that come from a bottle).  The older women are to teach the younger women what is good, to love their husbands and children (there is an assumption here they will want to be married and have families), to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands.  Why?  So that the Word of God might not be reviled (they would not undermine the authority of God or His Word in their homes or communities).  Again, these are all great traits that we can point to today when someone asks us what biblical femininity looks like (even if our culture scoffs at us for being "backwards" or "old-fashioned" for holding to these values that God has given to us).

Paul is not done though--he's given instruction to the older men and older women in how to train the younger generation, but now he's going to speak to the younger generation of men.  They need to be self-controlled, they need to model good works to everyone (even the older generation), they also need to be teachers by their words and actions, and they need to be men of integrity (one of my favorite words in the Bible) and dignity.  So far, the instructions are for them to be the very things that the older men are to teach them to be, so we might summarize and say that Paul is not letting them off the hook even if none of the older men step up to train them--they are still responsible to be these things that God has called them to be and they will have to take it upon themselves to learn to be these things from the Word of God, even if they have no good examples to follow.  Their speech is to be sound (don't make fallacious arguments) that will cause people to discredit their arguments or teachings.  Instead, they should speak in such a way that their opponent will be put to shame and have nothing evil to say about them.  We must remember in such situations were are ambassadors of Christ and His Kingdom and we need to speak and act in such a way where we remember everything we say or do impacts what people will think and say about God and all those who belong to Him.

Now comes the hard part for us today.  Paul speaks to the slaves (translated bondservants here which would be someone who willingly bound themselves to their master, but this word is the Greek doulos which is actually the lowest level of slave in the house with no rights or privileges who was given the worst jobs and was likely never thanked for doing what he did.  Many times you see the word "bondservant" in the New Testament, it is the translators trying to soften this word that clearly means "slave," but they don't want to say "slave" because" of the stigma that word now carries because of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.  Slavery still exists in many places in the world today and it gives us a false understanding of our relationship to God when we call ourselves bondservants (like we chose him and bound ourselves to him) instead of slaves (He purchased us and owns us).  Back to the text though.  Paul has some instructions for these lowest-level slaves who have been saved and are spiritually free in Christ, but are still enslaved to their earthly masters (the gospel does not immediately fix all the brokenness of the world immediately).  These slaves are to continue to submit to the authority of their masters as if they were submitting to the Lord Himself who is their Master.  They are to do their work to the best of their ability, trying to please their earthly masters and bring honor to them (even if they are not honorable men).  These slaves should not be argumentative, nor should they engage in any kind of theft or larceny, but they should be trustworthy and showing good faith in how they exercise control over anything that belongs to their master that they have been entrusted with whether it be goods or finances or simply his reputation.  In this way, they will get the opportunity to tell people that the reason they are serving willingly is because they are truly serving God our Savior and they might get to share the gospel with their fellow slaves or even their master.

Before I continue with the text, we should not write off these instructions to slaves as something we don't need to think about in our culture because we are all still slaves to Christ and we would do well to think of these instructions as to how we should be obedient and submissive and diligent and faithful and honorable in all of our words and actions so that we bring much pleasure and glory to our Master who will one day say "Well done, My good and faithful servant (slave)."  We also can take a lot of this and apply it to our relationships between employer and employee.  Though employers pay employees for their work, their is a compulsory component for having to do what your supervisor/boss tells you to do, and there can sometimes be an adversarial relationship because the employee does not want to submit to the authority of the employer or the supervisor the employer has put over them.  Let's not ignore the good teaching that's here just because we want to claim we no longer have people in our culture that we treat like they have no rights (if we are really honest about it, we definitely still do have people exactly like that in nearly all of our cultures).

Why did Paul take this aside to speak direct to older men, older women, younger men and slaves?  Because he wanted to make the point that the gospel is now for everyone.  By God's grace salvation has been brought to all people, and it has the power to transform all people into the image of God.  Remember in the beginning we were made in His image, but that image was corrupted and marred by sin, but now, we are born again and made into a new creation that again makes us into the image of the Son of God.  Therefore, we should be trained to "renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works."

Paul tells Titus to declarer these things authoritatively to the Church, to exhort those who do not take their duty seriously, and to rebuke those who try to rebel against this teaching.  No one should be allowed to disregard what Titus is teaching because their disagreement will not be with him because this is not his opinion--this is the Word of God and anyone that has an issue with it will need to take it up with Him and those who defy this instruction will be answering to Him one day.

Titus 1:5-16
English Standard Version

Qualifications for Elders
5 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— 6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 7 For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

10 For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. 11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. 12 One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

We have talked about this exact topic before in Paul's letters to Timothy, though it bears discussing again.  I won't forget to mention up-front this time that there are only two Scripturally defined leadership roles for the Church--Elders and Deacons. We'll be talking about Elders in this passage and Deacons in the next passage.

Elders may be other names that these roles go by such as Elders also going by the name of "pastor," "bishop," or "overseer."  All of these are equivalent words in the Greek and point back to the same role of those who are given primary responsibility as under shepherds under the authority of the Chief Shepherd who is Christ Jesus.  They are responsible for teaching and preaching the Word of God, answering questions to the meaning of the Scriptures, exercising authority in matters of church discipline, rebuking false prophets and false teachers, to live lives above reproach that are examples people can follow, and to exalt Christ in all things.

I will note here that "Elders" always comes in the plural form in any place it is mentioned with the church.  Though the pastor of the church is an elder, it would seem that Paul and the other apostles do not think that these duties are things that he should do alone--in fact, Timothy and Titus are both charged with finding other men (plural) who can serve alongside them as Elders.  Even in some of the smaller congregations met in people's houses to start off with, it was still necessary for their to be a team of spiritual leaders to take care of the preaching, teaching, and other spiritual needs of the church.  The deacons (also always shown in the plural) are there to take care of the physical needs of the congregation, though their authority is a delegated authority that flows from the authority that has been given to the Elders.  The Elders may decide that certain tasks are good things to do but would get in the way of their primary duties and then delegate these tasks to the Deacons of the church.

So, what of the people who will not submit to the authority of the Elders?  What is to be done with them?  Paul says they are to be silenced and put out of the Church if necessary.  Their rebellion is probably rooted in false teaching that is dangerous to the Body of Christ.  The Cretans were especially bad (and this is why we have the word Cretan in our vocabulary to this day).  Paul cites one of their own that said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons," and furthermore he says, "This testimony is true."  This was an extremely hard place to be a pastor as the cultural norms were totally antithetical and hostile towards the gospel.  Yet, the leaders of the Church and those who claimed to have experienced the transformational work of the gospel were to be in the world, but not of the world.  The Elders are to make sure that the Church is influencing the world and that the world is not influencing the Church.

There were also those in Crete who struggled with the Jews who stirred up trouble everywhere that Paul and the gospel went.  Paul says that the Jews will never accept the Gentiles as clean, but it has nothing to do with the Gentiles being unclean, but it has to do with these Jews being unclean.  Paul also says that the Gentiles who have been made clean will have no problem with worshiping with Jewish Christians, because the Lord has made all of His people clean.  If any Gentile refuses to worship with a Jewish Christian because he is Jewish, he is in sin, and likewise if any Jewish Christian refused to worship with a Gentile Christian, he too is in sin, for there is no longer the distinction between Jew and Gentile with the gospel.  The walls of division have been torn down and the two have become one Body in Christ.  Those who preach the words of Christ but deny His power to make one people of the Jews and Gentiles deny the power of the gospel, and this is evidenced by their sinful lifestyles that show that they are controlled by the flesh and not by the Spirit of God.

Titus 1:1-4
English Standard Version

Greeting
1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began 3 and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior;

4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith:

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Paul starts this letter to Titus (another spiritual son of his) and the church he is leading with a common greeting.  He identifies himself as both a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, though he identifies himself as a servant first.  He is both a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's Elect (the Church or Body of Christ, both present and future) and their knowledge of the truth which produces the fruit of godliness in their lives.  Let's break that down a bit--Paul has given all that he has and all that he is for the mission of serving God and leading His Church to teach them the things of God that are superior to the knowledge and wisdom this world has to offer so that this knowledge (along with the Holy Spirit that is at work within those who are saved) might be transformed into the image of Christ and look and act like Him both now and forevermore.

He continues that the Church has a sure hope (their glorification and union with Christ to be one with Him and never separated from Him) and the eternal life He gives to all those who belong to Him.  This is the promise God made from the very beginning and God does not lie--He always keeps His promises.  "He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it." (We just studied this in Sunday School this past week).

In the fullness of time (at just the right time as God has planned it), Jesus came into the world.  Paul focuses here on His preaching and teaching ministry as He declared the Word of God to all who would hear (especially to those who would listen) and Paul is now one of His Apostles also carrying out that same mission of preaching the Word to all people in all places.  This lays the tone and foundation for the letter--it is also going to be one of the "Pastoral Epistles" where Paul is going to be encouraging a young pastor that he is to surround himself with a plurality of Elders that will teach sound doctrine that will lead to godly living.  We see all this summed up in this greeting which almost acts as our outline for the entire letter.