Overview of Titus

Our next Pastoral epistle is a letter traditionally from Paul to Titus. Titus was another member of Paul’s team, that we know was with Paul from before the Jerusalem council (see Galatians 2:1-3).

According to this letter he’s currently in Crete (Titus 1:4-5) but we know from Paul’s second letter to Timothy that he ends up in Dalmatia, Northern Greece (2 Timothy 4:10). This would place the letter around 64 CE.

Like with the letters to Timothy that majority of scholars would argue that this letter was written by a disciple of Paul after his death, between 90-110 CE.

Titus 1:1-4 - Introduction

Titus 1:5-16 - Establishing new leaders and removing corrupt ones

Titus 2 - Teaching men and women, young and old, how to live right

Titus 3 - Encouragement to pursue good works

The people of Crete were well known for their bad behaviour. It’s where we get the term Cretan from. Paul quotes a Cretan poet and philosopher, Epimenedes, saying “Cretans are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons” (Titus 1:12).

Because of this, the focus of this letter is on a better way of living. The believers and Crete should have their behaviour shaped and transformed by their relationship with Jesus.

Titus 1-3

Paul opens with his usual greetings. He is an apostle of Jesus, so that others might have faith in God, and know the truth that leads to godliness. He’s also an apostle due to the hope of eternal life in God.

This eternal life was always God’s plan, but was slowly revealed through God’s people, to this point where Paul and other can now widely spread it.

Paul describes Titus as his ‘loyal child’ and then jumps straight into the letter. Paul left Titus in Crete so that he could appoint leaders in the church, specifically the elder/overseer, bishops that we read about in 1 Timothy 3:1-7.

These leaders should be blameless in their living, married once, have children who believe, and not be accused of living wrong or rebelliously.

We covered this in depth when we looked at 1 Timothy 3:1-7. The idea was that elders should be faithful partners, and do a good job managing themselves and their families if they are to be trusted with managing a church.

While Paul refers to these elders as male that doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to be male. It just meant that the expectation in this Greco-Roman culture was that they would be male.

Paul again says they are to be blameless and then lists behaviours they should avoid. They should not be arrogant, quick-tempered, or violent. Elders should not be alcoholics or greedy for money or power.

Instead, they should be hospitable and always seeking good. They should be wise, faithful, and self controlled. Elders should have a good understanding of scripture and theology so that they can clearly teach others.

Paul then points to the many false teachers that are currently in the church. He describes them as rebellious, idle talkers and deceivers. Included amongst them are some who, like elsewhere, are teaching that believers should be circumcised in order to be saved.

Paul tells Titus that these false teachers need to be silenced because they are causing trouble and upset in the church. This is where quoting Epimenedes Paul says, “Cretans are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons.” (Titus 1:12).

Many of these false teachers have brought their Cretan way of living into the church, rather than allowing themselves to be shaped in the image of Jesus.

This is why Titus needs to rebuke them and lead them into correct living and doctrine. The Cretan believers need to avoid any false teachings or instructions.

If they truly knew God, they would realise that in God all things are pure. They don’t need to cut off parts of their body or restrict what foods they eat because some are unclean. The reality is because they are corrupt, then everything they do is corrupt. These teachers claim to know God but then deny him in how they live.

Titus, then, needs to start teaching sound doctrine. He needs to train up these older men so that they might be suitable to be elders. They need to learn to be wise, self-controlled, and faithful in love.

In the same way they older women need to not be viscous gossipers and alcoholics. They need to live right so they can teach and encourage the younger women.

As for the younger women, there’s evidence to suggest that it was common for young women of Crete to reject the idea of marriage and sleep around. Not an uncommon idea for many today, but incredibly scandalous for the time.

These young women should instead learn to be faithful wives if they are married, and good mothers if they have children. They should learn self-control, being good managers of their house, and be submissive to their husbands so that the word of God is not discredited.

We’ve spoken before how Paul is speaking to the culture of the time. He is encouraging these young women to fulfil the social expectations and responsibilities placed upon them by the time, so that they can be upstanding citizens. This then models right living to those outside the church.

Today we have the issue that our social expectations differ depending on who you ask, are always changing, and many of which are just plain unhelpful and unhealthy.

It’s then up to modern believers to wrestle with how can they live in a way that models godliness to those outside the church without getting caught up in culture wars fighting over which social expectations are right.

Next, Paul turns to the young men. They should be self-controlled. Paul encourages Titus to model for them good ways of living. Model good works, integrity, and good clean speech. If the young men of the church live in a way that is above reproach, then anyone that wants to accuse the church will have nothing they can point to.

In the same way, as has been mentioned in other letters (see 1 Corinthians 7:20–24, Ephesians 6:5–9, 1 Timothy 6:1–2), believing slaves shouldn’t use their faith as an excuse to rebel. The young Christian faith could not risk being absorbed into a slavery liberation movement.

Instead, while slaves were where they are, they should be obedience and respectful. They should not steal and they should do all that they do to the best of their ability.

Again, as mentioned before, many years later, when the church was more than established in its own right, many Christians did pick up the slavery liberation movement and push it forward. And Christians today should be against slavery in all its forms.

Paul then summarises this section. The grace of God should transform believers. It should lead believers to reject anything that is seen as improper, and any internal desires. Instead, they should be self-controlled and godly, as they continue to wait for Jesus’ return.

Jesus gave himself so that he might redeem and purify his people. Paul encourages Titus to teach and encourage the people in this.

Paul then focuses more generally on the sorts of good deeds and ways of living that believers should adopt. Believers should submit to their leaders, not just in the church, but outside. They should be obedient and willing to do good works.

When it comes to their relationship, they should never speak badly of someone else. They should avoid quarrels, being gentle and courteous wherever they can.

Paul points out that he and Titus both used to be foolish and disobedient. They were easily led astray by their passions, giving over to envy and hate.

But then Jesus came and saved them, not because of their good works, but to redeem them to participate in good works. Through baptism, they were made new, and then they have continued to be renewed and transformed by the Holy Spirit.

Because they have been made right in Jesus, Paul and Titus are now heirs in eternal life and participate in it. In the same way, Jesus has done this for the Cretan believers, and so they now need to participate in this new eternal life.

This requires pursuing good works, to the benefit and support of the community. It means avoiding the sort of things that tear down communities. So Paul encourages Titus in teaching this to the Cretan believers.

If after a couple times of being challenged, a believer refuses to change, then have nothing more to do with them. They are allowing themselves to be controlled by their sin and are condemning themselves.

Then Paul ends with his closing thoughts. Paul will send a replacement for Titus, either Artemas of Tychicus, so that Titus can come visit Paul. Zenas and Apollos are likely the ones who brought the letter, so Paul encourages Titus to see to their needs and then send them on.

And then Paul brings his final summary, “let people learn to devote themselves to good works in order to meet urgent needs, so that they may not be unproductive.” (Titus 3:14). Let people seek to do good and help one another.

Titus is an encouragement to a leader, but really to a church, that is embedded in a broken culture. It is an encouragement to make sure that broken culture does not seep into the church, but instead that the church becomes a beacon of a better way to live.

This doesn’t mean that the church remove themselves from the wider community. They should seek to engage with the community at various levels, modelling this better way of living, in the hope that they can transform the community from the inside out. That is Titus.

Psalm 21

This psalm is attributed to king David and falls into the category of a royal psalm. Royal psalms are psalms that are focused on either God as a king or on a human king. But this isn’t just a royal psalm. The first half is very much a praise psalm for all of God’s blessings, and the second half is a trust psalm, declaring the confidence that God will defeat his enemies.

Really, the main thing that makes this a royal psalm is the fact it is written from the perspective of a king, likely David, though in the third person.

a) Psalm 21:1 - The king exults God

b) Psalm 21:2-7 - God blesses the king

b) Psalm 21:8-12 - God curses his enemies

a) Psalm 21:13 - The king exults God

The king opens by giving all glory to God. Everything he has comes from God. It is God who has given him his desires, and blessing him with the position. It is God that has given him his life and victory. No king can claim they are self-made. Each owes all they have to God, and in God, find their security.

God has blessed the king because he has trusted in him. But God punishes those who rebel against him. Elsewhere in the Bible, the wicked are often spoken of as consuming the poor and destroying the innocent. Here God is doing the consuming and the destroying. To use a modern phrase, he is giving them a taste of their own medicine.

And so the king ends where he began, exalting God and giving him the glory. In this psalm, we see the power and the authority of God. Even kings submit themselves to him. But we also see how taking the time to praise God for his past and present goodness (Psalm 21:2-7) can give us the confidence to declare his authority over our future (Psalm 21:8-12).