Summary:

Paul told aged men to be sober (2:2) and aged women “likewise” (v. 3), and young women (v. 4), and now young men (v. 6). God would have Christians of all ages to live above the frivolity of the world and be serious about living for Him.

Paul told Titus to be a “pattern” for young men. Dresses are made by laying a pattern on the cloth and cutting it to the exact shape. Paul was telling Titus to be an exact match to the good works God has laid out for us in his epistles.

God motivated people to walk in good works in time past by showing them the “pattern” of the temple and all the rules of the priesthood (Ezek. 43:10,11) to make them “ashamed” of their sins. If they still wanted to continue in sin after seeing the lengths to which God went to forgive them their sins, that would be the height of ingratitude. Today we look to the cross to see the lengths God went to forgive our sin. It is the height of ingratitude today to continue in sin after God has made us dead to sin (Rom. 6:1,2).

The candlestick in the temple was made according to the “pattern” given in the Law. It was a type of Christ (John 8:12) who was made under the Law (Gal. 4:5) and walked according to the pattern given in the Law. But He was only the light of the world as long as He was in the world (John 9:5). Now we are the light of the world as we hold forth the word of life to men (Phil. 2:15,16).

But we don’t shine as lights in the world by walking according to the pattern given in the Law as the Lord did. We shine by walking according to the pattern given in Paul’s epistles. If you’re still walking in the good works of the Law, observing the sabbath and Israel’s diet laws, you’re telling people we’re under the Law, and that’s not shining the right light of life. It’s hard to get saved by grace if you think we’re under the Law!

Just make sure people see your pattern of good works and glorify God, not you (Mt. 5:16). That only happens if you tell people you belong to Him!

And they must know you’re not doing good works to pay for your sins, but to show your connection to the Savior who paid for your sins.Just like the tribes in Israel that didn’t erect an altar on the wrong side of the Jordan River to sacrifice and pay for their sins, but to show their connection to the altar in Israel that did pay for them (Joshua 22:11-29). They built it according to the “pattern” of the one in Israel to show their connection to it, and we walk in the pattern of good works to show our connection to the Lord who saved us.

If you need more motivation to show yourself a pattern of good works, remember that Moses made the tabernacle according to the “pattern” (Heb. 8:5) “of things in the heavens” (Heb. 9:23), “the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched” (Heb. 8:2). Entering the pattern of the earthly tabernacle they were entering heaven on earth, and you can have heaven on earth if you walk in good works!

Corrupt means to turn something sound into something unsound, so “uncorruptness” in doctrine (2:7) is sound doctrine “Gravity” in doctrine means seriousness, but not to the exclusion of humor. There are funny things in the Bible (Deut. 5:23-27; I Sam. 15:13,14; Job 8:1,2; 12:1,2; 13:5; 21:3). We should be serious enough about the things of God to use every tool in our belt to get truth across, including humor!

“Sincerity” in doctrine (2:7) means pure doctrine, not mixed with sin (I Cor. 5:8) or human wisdom (II Cor. 1:12), and not mixed with things like envy and strife and contention (Phil. 1:15,16).As the presence of the word “sincere” in those verses indicates the truth must be kept pure from those things.

“Sound speech” (2:8) consists of sound doctrine. Sound speech “that cannot be condemned” is doctrine that is set forth so accurately that it cannot be proven untrue, one of the meanings of the word “condemn.” No one can prove the Bible untrue, so all we have to do is convey it accurately! The Lord dealt that way with those who were “of the contrary part” (2:8 cf. Mt. 22:15), and when He did they were “ashamed” (Lu. 13:17)— as Paul said those contrary to Titus would be (2:8). This would shut their mouths (Tit. 1:11)

Summary:

When Paul told aged men to be sober, grave, temperate, and sound in faith, charity and patience, and then said that the aged women “likewise” should be “as becometh holiness,” that means aged women should be holy by being all those things as well. When Paul wrote of the ancient Gentile world that “even their women” were sinful (Rom. 1:31), that reminds us that women are the guardians of decency in society.

But then Paul tells aged women to be holy in an area that’s hard for them when he says they shouldn’t be “false accusers.” This is hard in that women tend to hurt with words (I Tim. 3:11) while men hurt with their fists (I Tim. 3:2,3). Paul adds they shouldn’t be given to wine because wine tends to overcome a woman’s inhibition not to slander others.

The “good things” Paul wants aged women to teach younger women (v.4) include being sober. Coming right after being told not to be given to wine, this means not drunk. Women can be tempted to drink because they must also “love their husbands” (v.4), and some men aren’t easy to love. Aged women must teach this by their example, and by the example of Christ, who loved the unlovable (Rom. 5:6,10). If a wife doesn’t love her husband, she must realize that if love can be taught by aged women, love can be learned by young wives.

You wouldn’t think that wives would need to be taught “to love their children” (2:4), for a mother naturally loves her children. But sin can make women “without natural affection” (Rom. 1:31; II Tim. 3:3). So moms sometimes abuse or abandon their children, and need to be taught not to.

Young wives must be taught to be “discreet” (2:5), which means wise in avoiding mistakes and accomplishing a purpose (cf. Gen. 41:33) — the purpose of making a home for her husband and kids. They must also learn to be “chaste,” pure from extramarital sexual contact. Young wives must also be “keepers at home” (2:5). Some say that means she shouldn’t have any kind of life outside the home, but zookeepers and barkeepers do, as do jailkeepers (Acts 16:27). They keep prisoners from escaping, and so must the mothers of young children! Keepers of sheep (Gen. 4:2) feed and care for them, as moms do their kids. Doorkeepers (Ps. 84:10) must keep more than the door to the house, but also the door of their kids’ mouths (Ps. 141:3) by watching what they say. Doorkeepers in the temple also kept false religions out (II Ki.23:4), and moms must keep false teachers from creeping into the house (cf. II Tim. 3:6). Kids might not seem to be paying attention, but they learn little by little by repetition (Isa. 28:10,11). Moms also have to be the “keeper of the wardrobe” (II Ki. 22:14), in charge of laundry.

Mothers can also be doorkeepers that are involved in the family finances (cf. II Chron. 34:9,10). The virtuous woman did (Pr. 31:16-24), as did Lydia (Acts 16:14). These women were involved in earning finances as well as managing them.

Some Christians believe wives can work outside the home before they have kids, or after the kids are grown. Some believe they can operate home businesses. But if it is your understanding that wives shouldn’t work outside the home, just don’t judge those who hold other convictions (Rom. 14:4,5). Whatever your position, God is on your side!

Young wives must also learn “to be obedient to their own husbands.” Are there exceptions to this rule? Well, are there exceptions to the rule that all believers must obey the government? (Dan. 3:8-18; Acts 5:29). In the same way, if a wife’s husband asks her to cheat on their income taxes, she can refuse to sign the return. Do wives have to obey when he wishes to be intimate and she doesn’t? It’s easy for a husband to read I Corinthians 7:4 and say to his wife, “I have power over your body so I can do as I please with it.” But he’s forgetting his wife has power over his body and so he can’t do as he pleases with it.

Summary:

The word “become” (v.1) means fitting or appropriate. For example, women weren’t well received in Roman society, but Paul told the Romans that it isn’t fitting for God’s people not to receive a woman just because she’s a woman (Rom. 16:1,2).

“Become” also means to make something look good. The bickering in Philippi wasn’t making the gospel look good (Phil. 1:27). So when Paul told Titus to “speak the things which become sound doctrine,” he was telling him to speak to believers and tell them how to act in appropriate ways that make sound doctrine look good.

To do that, he tells aged men to be “sober” (2:2). The only thing sadder than a drunk is an old drunk, for hope that he will quit drinking has faded. “Sober” also means not thinking higher of yourself than you ought (Rom. 12:3), as aged men sometimes look back at their lives and do, like Nebuchadnezzar (Dn. 4:30). That’s not becoming to sound doctrine!

Aged men must also be “grave” (2:2), a word that means to be serious—serious about the things of the Lord!Sometimes aged men relax their commitment to the truth, thinking they’ve done enough for the truth in their lives. Knowing this, Paul tells them to be grave instead.

He also tells them to be “temperate” (2:2), which means moderate. It’s related to the word “temper,” which we think of as anger, but that’s what happens when you lose your temper. Your temper is the calm, moderate way you’re supposed to look at things without losing your temper. Not all aged men can look back at their lives and feel good about their accomplishments, and so get angry. But aged Christian men shouldn’t, because if you’re saved you’ve accomplished a praiseworthy amount of things for the Lord (I Cor. 4:5).

Aged men should also be “sound in faith” (2:2). “Sound” means healthy and strong (cf. Isa. 1:6). He’s not saying aged men should be strong in the faith, the body of truth given to Paul. That’s true, but here it means strong in faithfulness or dependability (cf. Rom. 3:3). Aged men need to be told to be sound in faith because with age comes weariness in well doing (Gal. 6:9).

Aged men must also be sound “in charity” (2:2), which means being sound in longsuffering (I Cor. 13:4), which gets harder as you get older! Charity also “envieth not” (13:4). Envy hurts worse when you get older because toward the end of your life you realize you probably aren’t going to ever get the things you spent your life envying!

Being sound in charity also means not being “puffed up” (13:4) with knowledge (I Cor. 8:4). Old men have to be warned about this because they have accumulated a lot of knowledge! Charity also doesn’t behave “unseemly” (13:5), or inappropriately in sensual areas (cf. Rom. 1:27). Being a dirty old man is unbecoming to sound doctrine.

Charity also “believeth all things” (13:7), that is, believes the best about someone. That’s hard for aged men after a lifetime of seeing people at their worst, but they must if they want to be sound “in charity.”

Aged men should also be sound “in patience” (2:2), a word often associated with being patient for the coming of the Lord (Ps. 37:7). That gets harder for older men after a lifetime of watching the unsaved prosper, as Psalm 37:7 talks about.

Are you sound in faith? One definition of “sound” is to strike something to see if it is strong based on the sound it makes when you strike it. If you’re not sure if you’re faithfulness is sound, you’ll find out when something in life strikes it. Similarly, if you’re not sure if you are sound in charity, you’ll find out when you offer someone charity and they lash out at you.

We should all learn to walk in ways that are becoming to the sound doctrine we preach. It’s not enough to believe sound doctrine, it’s not enough to teach sound doctrine. We must live sound doctrine in such a way that is becoming to it!

Summary:

A “fable” (1:14) is an untrue story, and the Jews in Crete were telling some fables that were causing problems in the churches. These fables had to do with the “commandments of men” that Paul also warns us about (v. 14). Under the Law, the commandments of men were the traditions the Jews were telling that negated the commandments of God found in the Law (Mt. 15:6-8). But now under grace, the Law contains the commandments of men (Colossians 2:21-23).

So the commandments of men being taught by the Jews in Crete were the commandments of the Law, and the fables they were telling were doubtless stories designed to teach that we are still under the Law, for a fable is a story designed to teach a lesson. Those fables are still told today. When we tell men we are not under the Law, they tell stories of how God is still blessing men with health if they are good as He did under the Law (Ex. 23:25), and wealth if they pay their tithes, as He did under the Law (Deut. 8:18; Mal. 3:10).

Paul predicted that men would turn from the truth to these fables (II Tim. 4:3,4), and confirmed that fables turn men from the truth in our text (1:14). The Law was once the truth of God, but now it turns men from the truth of grace. If you obeyed the Law when it was part of God’s program you obeyed the truth, but when the Galatians turned from grace to the Law, Paul had to ask them what hindered them “that ye should not obey the truth” (Gal. 3:1). The Old Testament is full of true stories of how God blessed Israel with health and wealth when they were good, but stories like that happening today are fables, so don’t give heed to them!

The Law teachers in Crete were telling the believers that the Law said certain meats were unclean or impure, so Paul responded by saying that to pure, saved people, people like the believers in Crete’s churches, all things are pure (1:15). But to “them that are defiled and unbelieving” nothing was pure, i.e., to unbelievers all foods were unclean. Just as everything these unsaved Law teachers did was sin (Pr. 21:4), everything they ate was unclean, as startling as that is to consider!

When Paul says of these Law teachers that “even their mind” is defiled (1:15), that means everything the unsaved man thinks is unclean (Isaiah 59:7). Isaiah was talking about Jews, but Paul applies his words to all men (Rom. 3:15-17).

And if your mind is unclean, you can’t trust your conscience, and Paul says that the conscience of an unsaved man is defiled too (1:15). As Saul of Tarsus, he murdered men with a clear conscience (Acts 23:1) because his mind told him they were wrong. He thought he knew God and they didn’t.

Just as these Law teachers in Crete professed to know God (1:16), “but in works they deny Him,” just as Paul denied Him with his murderous works. He killed people for money (Gal. 1:13,14), they were teaching untrue things for money (Tit. 1:11).

There’s words for men who do despicable things like that for money, and one of them is “abominable” (1:16). The Law teachers were telling the believers they were abominable if they ate certain meats, for that’s what the Law said (Lev. 11:41-43). Paul says the Law teachers themselves were the abominable ones! “Abominable” means “very hated” (Deut. 12:31; Pr. 6:16; Jer. 4:44). God loved them as sinners needing salvation, but if they weren’t willing to admit their need, He hated them as workers of iniquity (Ps. 5:5).

The reason Paul calls these Law teachers “disobedient” (1:16) was because that’s what they were calling the saints for not keeping the diet laws. Under the Law, “disobedient” meant disobedient to the Law (Neh. 9:26). But they were the real disobedient ones (Rom. 10:21), for they had not obeyed the gospel (Rom. 10:16).

Finally, when Paul says they were “reprobates” (1:16), that word means abandoned (Rom. 1:21-29). In Romans 1, Paul was describing the Gentiles before Abraham, whom God had to abandon or give up, but now the Jews had joined them in this. They were “unto every good work reprobate” because as unsaved men they were totally unable to do good works, totally unable to do anything but sin. No wonder Paul told Titus to tell men to pay them no heed!

Summary:

The word “unruly” means people who don’t want to be ruled. That’s the dictionary definition, and that’s how the words is used in the Bible as well. The only other people in the Bible called unruly are people who didn’t want to be ruled by the rulers of the local church (I Thes. 5:12-14). And that’s how the men in Crete were unruly as well.

But how’d Paul know they didn’t want to be ruled by rulers in the church if they didn’t have rulers yet (Tit. 1:5)? He knew because pastors don’t rule by dominating the faith of men (II Cor. 1:24). Men stand “by faith,” which comes from hearing the Word (Rom.10:17). So pastors rule by teaching the Word and letting it rule people. When Paul was in Crete, he’d seen that they didn’t want to be ruled by the Word, and he’d heard about it from Titus. So he told Titus to ordain elders to teach more of the Word, for God doesn’t have a Plan B. I.e., He didn’t give us anything else to rule our lives!

We know these unruly people were telling others not to be ruled by the Word for they are called “unruly…talkers” (1:10). They were “of the circumcision,” so they were doubtless telling men to be ruled by the Law. Of course, the Law is the Word of God—but not the Word for today! They didn’t want to be ruled by grace. Timothy had men just like that (I Tim. 1:3-7), whose speech he called “vain jangling,” just as these in Crete were “unruly and vain talkers.”

“Vain” can mean a lot of things, but here it means things which can’t profit or deliver (I Sam. 12:21), i.e., can’t save (Joel 2:32 cf. Rom. 10:13). Teaching the Law today is vain because the Law can’t save! Of course, it wasn’t vain when the Law was God’s program (cf. Ps. 119:113). But those who teach the law today are “unruly” in that they don’t accept the “rule” that nothing matters today but the “new creature” that God makes us when we get saved (II Cor. 5:17; Gal. 5:15,16). Of course, when the age of grace is over, teaching grace will be “vain” in the Tribulation (James 2:20).

Paul calls these men “deceivers” (1:10), which means they knew the truth but purposely taught the Law to mislead people. And when Paul says they were “specially” of the circumcision, that means that some of these Law teachers were Gentiles! They taught the Law because Satan always makes sure the Law is popular.

Paul told Titus to shut their mouths (Tit. 1:11). Not forcibly, but as the Lord did, by answering their questions and arguments so thoroughly that they were left speechless (Lu. 20:40).

When Paul says these Law teachers “subvert” whole houses (1:11), that word means to turn something upside down. That’s what they said about Paul (Acts 17:5,6)! Law teachers wanted to subvert grace and turn it back upside down to the Law. The leadership in the kingdom church wasn’t behind this, agreeing that it would subvert Gentiles to put them under the Law (Acts 15:24).

Next Paul quotes what they were saying to justify their teaching of the Law (Tit.1:12). If men are liars, they need the law — or so they reasoned! But grace says not to lie too (Eph.4:25).

When that Cretian prophet said that the Cretians are “evil beasts,” that means they didn’t obey civil rulers either (II Pe. 2:10-12; Jude 1:8-10). But they didn’t need the law (Deut. 17:12) to tell them to obey the government (Tit. 3:1) and not speak evil of civil leaders (Tit. 3:2).

The Greek words for “slow bellies” (1:12) is barren womb, and barren wombs that want children are “never satisfied” (Pr. 30:15,16). The Law says not to covet (Ex. 20:17), but you don’t have to put yourself under the curse of the law (Gal. 3:10) to know not to covet (Col. 3:5).

In Titus 1:13, Paul doesn’t say, “All that you say about the Cretians is true, so you’re right, they need the Law.” Instead he agrees it is all true, and tells these liars, evil beasts and slow bellies to be sound in the faith. Paul’s gospel is the answer to all of our needs in the dispensation of grace, not the Law of Moses!

Summary:

“Hospitality” (v. 8) is the receiving and entertaining of strangers. They had inns (Ex. 4:24) but sometimes “there was no room… in the inn” (Luke 2:7), so hospitality was important in those days. But pastors had safety concerns about taking in strangers just as you would, plus guests eat your food and cost money. That’s why Paul says pastors must be “not given to filthy lucre” (v. 7), but “given to hospitality” (I Tim. 3:2 cf. Titus 1:8).

Pastors must also be “lovers of good men” (v. 8) because you can tell a lot about a man by the kind of men he loves (cf. Rom. 1:32). If a pastor loves good men, he must be a good man himself. And he needs to value the qualities that make men good.

“Sober” can’t mean not a drunk, for Paul already covered that when he said a pastor must be “not given to wine” (v. 7). Sober can also mean not thinking higher of yourself than you ought (Rom. 12:3). Men like Sun Myung Moon and David Koresh thought they were Jesus Christ, and that’s certainly not thinking soberly. But “sober” can also mean not crazy (Acts 26:24,25; II Cor. 5:13). Pat Robertson used to claim he could leg press 2,000 pounds and Marshal Applewhite told followers that a UFO hiding behind the Hale-Bopp Comet would take them to heaven in 1997 — if they killed themselves, which 39 of them did. It is crucial that pastors be sober and not crazy.

A pastor must also be “just” (v. 8), able to handle problems justly when people come to him with issues. Marriage counseling issues are a frequent matter pastors are called upon to settle justly.

Pastors must also be “holy” (v. 8), which means sinless (Heb. 7:26). Pastors can’t be sinless, of course, but they can behave themselves “holily” (II Thes. 2:10). All Christians should, for when they don’t it hurts the cause of Christ. And when leaders don’t, it hurts it even more so (II Sam. 12:14), as Jim Bakker, Robert Tilton, Jimmy Swaggert, Bill Gothard and others learned the hard way.

“Temperate” (v. 8) means moderation or balanced. Athletes must be temperate in all things,” and so should Christians (I Cor. 9:24,25). Pastors must be moderate, and here at Faith Bible Church we present a balanced ministry that alternates between teaching Paul’s epistles and the rest of the Bible.

Pastors must also hold fast “the faithful word” (v. 9), something the verse itself defines. It doesn’t say to hold fast the faithful word to use the faithful word to convince gainsayers. When instead it says to hold the faithful word to convince gainsayers by sound doctrine, that defines “the faithful word” as sound doctrine, the sound doctrine given to Paul. The entire Bible is the Word of God, and God is faithful to all the promises in it.

But He didn’t make all those promises to you, so He’s not faithful to Matthew 21:22, for instance. Nor will He be faithful to the promise He made to Israel to spare them tribulation if they were good. Instead He’ll let you go through tribulation, then be faithful to His promise to use it to work patience in you (Rom. 5:3,4). He’ll also be faithful to His promises in Romans 8:13,18,28, and I Corinthians 3:14, Philippians 1:6; 4:6,7,19, Colossians 3:4 and I Thessalonians 5:9.

How “fast” should a pastor hold the faithful word that contains these promises? Job held his integrity fast after he lost everything (Job 2:3; 27:5,6). Tribulation saints will have to hold fast to their truth and endure to the end or they won’t be saved. Pastors don’t have to hold the truth fast to be saved, but we should hold it that fast as if we did. And you should too.

Because if you don’t, you’ll never be able to exhort and convince the gainsayers. “Exhort” can mean to encourage someone, but it can also mean to warn someone (Luke 3:16-18; Acts 2:38-40). Pastors must warn gainsayers and convince them they are wrong.

A gainsayer is someone who says things that contradict what you say, usually to gain something. Sometimes money, but men also gainsay to gain a following, like Core (Jude 1:11 cf. Num. 16:1-35). That’s what was happening in Crete.

Summary: 

To figure out the role of an “elder” (v.5), notice that before Paul ordained some elders he confirmed the disciples and exhorted them to continue in the faith despite tribulation (Acts 14:21-23). When he then ordained elders next, that means he expected elders to carry that work on when he was gone. So elders are the Bible teachers in an assembly.

“Blameless” (v.6) means saved (cf. I Cor. 1:7,8). What else would be at the top of the list of qualifications? This was important in view of the power struggle I believe was going on in Crete. We know the Jews causing trouble (Tit. 1:10) were unsaved, for if they were saved, God wouldn’t have let Paul go there, any more than he let him go to other places where there were saved Jewish kingdom saints (Acts 16:6,7 cf. I Pet. 1:1). And these unsaved Jews were teaching unsound doctrine to try to gain leadership in the churches.

They were probably also suggesting an elder could be the husband of more than one wife, based on their Hebrew Scriptures. Titus had to set that in order too. “Husband of one wife” (1:6) can’t mean divorced, by the way. “One wife” doesn’t mean there wasn’t a wife before any more than “one baptism” (Eph. 4:5) means there were no baptisms before. If it doesn’t mean one wife at a time then widowers can’t be elders. We know it also doesn’t mean a man must be married, for neither Paul, Timothy or Titus were. There are advantages to being single (I Cor. 7:32) and there are advantages to being married (Pr. 18:22).

The word faithful in “faithful children” (1:6) is defined in this context by “not accused of riot or unruly.” The word “riot” means we’re talking about older children. An elder’s kids can’t be “unruly” because the kids of those unsaved Jews were, just like their fathers (Tit. 1:10). The “rule” they didn’t want to observe is that circumcision didn’t mean anything (Gal. 6:15,16). Since “riot” just means to be in a highly excited uproar, Paul is saying that an elder’s older children can’t be starting doctrinal riots like that.

When Paul switches from “elders” to “bishops” (v.7) it shows these terms were interchangeable, such as “pastor” and “minister” and “preacher” are today. Because of this, we can call our leaders whatever we want, just not “father” (Mt. 23:9) or “reverend,” for that’s God’s name (Ps. 111:9).

Spiritual leaders were also called “stewards” (1:7). A steward took care of a wealthy man’s goods (Gen.44:1), and a steward in the local church took care of God’s goods, the things in His Word (I Cor. 4:1). “Mysteries” there is plural for there are seven sub mysteries in the overall mystery given to Paul. But unruly talkers of the circumcision would want to be stewards of the prophecies of God, not His mysteries, so they were disqualified from leadership on this count too.

An elder must be “blameless” in dispensing God’s mysteries. Here the word means scrupulous (cf. Lu. 1:6). He also can’t be “selfwilled” (1:7). The only other time that exact word is used defines it as being rebellious against the government (II Pet. 1:10). That describes unsaved Jews in that day (Mt. 22:17; Acts 5:36,37). Peter calls such men “beasts” (II Pet. 2:12), and Jude agrees (Jude 1:8-10), and there were some in Crete (Tit. 1:12). Only a wild beast refuses to let a man impose his will on him.

A leader also can’t be “soon angry” (1:7). The unsaved Jews were, just as Paul was when he was an unsaved Jew (Acts 16:11). The law he worshiped “worketh wrath” (Rom. 4:15) in unsaved Gentiles because they don’t like God telling them what to do. But it worked wrath in unsaved Jews because it pointed to Jesus as their Christ, and Saul didn’t want to admit that. His anger about that spilled over into all areas of his life, and in the Jews in Crete as well, meaning they couldn’t be leaders on this count either. That may have driven them to drink, and Paul says a leader can’t be “given to wine” (1:7)

You wouldn’t think Paul would have to say that a leader can’t be a “striker,” but unsaved Jewish leaders struck the Lord (Mark 14:63-65) and Paul (Acts 23:2). Religious power goes to a man’s head and prompts violence against those with whom he disagrees, but a leader in the church can’t be a striker, or “greedy of filthy lucre” (1:7) like the unsaved Jews on Crete (Tit. 1:10,11).

Summary:

God promised to give Gentiles eternal life before the world began (Titus 1:1,2), but didn’t make that promise “manifest” until Paul (v.3). But what made it the “due time…”?

That phrase is used when God sees that our power is gone (Deut. 32:35,26; Romans 5:6). When God gave the Law to Israel, they claimed they could keep it (Ex.24:3-7), so God gave them 1500 years to try! When they proved they were “without strength” to keep it (Rom. 5:6), He had Christ die for them “in due time.”

But as far as anyone knew He only died for Jews (Isa. 53:8). And that didn’t change in the New Testament, where the Lord claimed He only died for the “many” in Israel (Mt. 20:28). It isn’t until Paul that we learn He gave His life a ransom “for all” (I Tim. 2:5,6). Christ died for the ungodly in due time, but the fact He died for ungodly Gentiles wasn’t something that was testified until the “due time” given to Paul.

What made it the due time? The Gentiles knew they couldn’t save themselves. In time past they had to become Jews to be saved—true Jews, believing Jews, by believing on Israel’s God.The Lord sent the 12 to get them to do that (Luke 24:47) but they couldn’t get past Jerusalem till the children of Israel in that city were “filled” with the salvation of God (Mark 7:27). It looked like they were without strength to save themselves. But that’s when Paul testified they didn’t have to become Jews to get eternal life, because God had promised them eternal life too, knowing Christ would die for them too.

“Manifested” (v.3) means to make something known that had been secret or hid (cf. Lu. 8:17). That’s what Paul’s message was (Col. 1:25,26). It involved more than just the fact that Christ died for Gentiles, it involved “the fellowship of the mystery (Eph. 3:9), “that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs and of the same body” as Jews in the Body of Christ. “Fellow” means equal (cf. Zech. 13:7), and for God to make Jews and Gentiles equal He had to create a whole new program called “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:2) featuring a new creation called the Body of Christ.

God “committed” (v.3) it to Paul (I Cor. 9:17) “as” the kingdom gospel was committed to Peter (Gal. 2:7). That is, he was the dispenser of it, it was committed to his trust (I Tim. 1:11), then to Timothy’s (II Tim. 1:14) then to ours (II Tim. 2:2).

When Paul said God committed the message to Paul’s trust “according to the promise of God our Saviour” (v.3), he was talking to a Gentile (Gal. 2:3). That’s new with Paul too! God was Israel’s Savior in the Old Testament (Isa. 43:3), but Paul talked to a Jew about “God our Saviour… who will have all men to be saved (I Tim. 2:3,4). That explains how he could talk to Titus about the “common faith” (v.4 cf. Rom. 1:11-13). Jews and Gentiles didn’t have anything in common before that, especially not their faith! And when Paul talked about “Christ our Saviour” (v.4), that was new with Paul too! Before Paul, Christ was Israel’s Saviour (Acts 13:23), but now He’s the Saviour of the Jews and Gentiles in the Body of Christ (Eph. 5:23).

Titus was saved by “grace” (Tit. 1:4), but grace is a way of life, as we reflect God’s grace to others. “Mercy” (v. 4) is what Paul offered Titus and Timothy so they could remain single in the distress of persecution they were enduring (I Cor. 7:25,26). “Peace” (v. 4) was also something Titus had (Rom. 5:1), but peace is also a way of life (Rom. 12:18).

There’s no record of Paul visiting Crete in Acts, and Paul was imprisoned at the end of Acts and later died in prison. So we know he was released briefly and re-imprisoned. The “cause” (v. 5) or reason Paul left Titus in Crete was to “set in order the things that are wanting.” God loves order (Col. 2:5). When the Corinthians were selfishly out of order in church (I Cor. 11:20,21), Paul vowed to set “the rest” in order later (v. 34), indicating such selfishness was out of order. They were speaking in tongues in a disorderly way so Paul said to “let all things be done… in order” (I Cor. 14:40)

He was talking about order in the church service. Things were out of order in the church services in Crete too. Paul didn’t mean for Titus to be the permanent leader there (cf. Tit. 3:12), but setting things in order was his strength, and God believes in capitalizing on our strengths. What’s yours?

Summary:

The Book of Titus was written by a killer named Saul of Tarsus. Saul was named after the first king of Israel, but after he got saved he preferred to be called by his Gentile name (Acts 13:9 cf. Tit. 1:1) to reflect the fact that the Lord sent him to the Gentiles (Acts 22:21).

Paul always has a reason for introducing himself as a “servant” (1:1). Rome was the capital of the Roman empire, so the Romans were used to owning slaves, not being one. So in calling himself a servant to the Romans, the apostle who was a free citizen of Rome (Acts 22:25-28) reminded them that a free believer “is Christ’s servant” (Rom. 1:1 cf. I Cor. 7:22). The Philippians were feuding (Phil. 4:2) so Paul introduced himself as a servant (Phil. 1:1) and reminded them that being like him and Christ (2:2-7) would solve their feud.

But Paul introduced himself as a servant to Titus because he was an intimidating man (II Cor. 7:12-15), and he needed to be reminded that he was not fit to lead because he was a tough man, but because he was willing to be like Paul and be a servant and lead God’s people by example (I Pet. 5:2,3).

In calling himself a “servant of God,” Paul was saying he served God on a level with Moses (I Chron. 6:49; II Chron. 24:9; Neh. 10:29; Dan. 9:11). Those who dispute Paul is the servant of God for this dispensation should be thankful we live under grace (cf. Num. 12:2-10).

But wasn’t James also a “servant of God” (Ja. 1:1)? Yes, but just like Moses, he was the servant of God to the Jews (Ja. 1:1). Paul was sent to the Gentiles (Acts 22:21). When Paul introduced himself as “an apostle” (1:1), the Lord already had 12 apostles, but they too were to the Jews, while he was “the apostle of the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13; Gal. 2:8).

Even the Lord’s enemies knew that God’s “elect” (1:1) was Christ (Lu. 23:35). When you believed and were made one with Christ (I Cor. 1:30) you became part of God’s chosen. That’s how it worked for Israel too (Isa. 42:1 cf. 65:9,17). “The faith of God’s elect” was the body of truth given to Paul (Acts 14:22; 16:5).

When Paul says he was made an apostle “according to the faith of God’s elect” (1:1), he was saying the body of truth given to him existed in the mind of God before he was saved and he was made an apostle according to it.

The Law used to be the truth that was “after godliness” (1:1), but Paul was made an apostle to get men to “acknowledge” that there’d been a dispensational change, and now the body of truth given to him was after godliness, the grace message.

Paul was also made an apostle “in hope of eternal life” (1:2). We Gentiles had no hope of eternal life (Eph. 2:11,12), but Paul was made a apostle to give us that hope. Hope is always conditioned on something (Phil. 2:23), but our hope of eternal life is conditioned on the promise of the God who “cannot lie” (1:2). Why would Paul have to say that?

It was because Titus was pastor in Crete (1:5), an island off the coast of Greece. And the Greeks worshipped gods who were always lying and living in debauchery. Zeus was born on Crete (allegedly! LOL) and a book called Promethus Bound (written in 460 BC) claimed he never lied. But the rest of mythology said he was always lying to his wife Hera to cover up the affairs he had with gods and nymphs and women. No wonder the Cretians needed assurance that the God of the Bible wasn’t like that!

There were also unsaved Jews on Crete (Tit. 1:10) who had been at Pentecost (Acts 2:11) and heard Peter say they were in the last days before the kingdom (Acts 2:16,17). That was 30 years earlier, so they too would need assurance that the God of this new “sect of the Nazarenes” wasn’t lying in promising them eternal life.

God promised the Gentiles eternal life “before the world began” because after Satan and his host fell before the world began, God planned to replace them in the “high places” of government in heaven (Eph. 6:12) with us. But God planned Israel’s salvation after the world began (Mt. 25:34) because God planned to replace Adam as the ruler who had dominion over the world with Israel, and Adam didn’t fall until after the world began. See the difference?