Titus 1:1-4--Greeting

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.

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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.