Forbidden Bible Verses — Titus 1:1-4

The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.

Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.

Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK) with commentary by Matthew Henry and John MacArthur (as indicated below).

Titus 1:1-4

Greeting

1 Paul, a servant^[a] 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^{[b] 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 Saviour;

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

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

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Last week’s post concluded my study of 2 Timothy. Paul updated Timothy on two of his friends, sent greetings from other Christians he knew in Rome and asked his protégé to greet others in Ephesus.

The week before that, I wrote about 2 Timothy 4:9-15, where Paul said that Titus, who had been in Crete, was in Dalmatia.

In that post, I cited John MacArthur‘s comments about him (emphases mine):

He mentions Titus has gone to Dalmatia. Titus appears 13 times in the New Testament, even has a letter written to him, the epistle of Paul to Titus, which by the way was written between 1 and 2 Timothy. He seemed to be able to flourish in the area of a new challenge. When Paul would go and evangelize an area, Titus was the kind of person who could go in and get the church built and build the leaders and strengthen off of that evangelistic effort. In fact, when Paul wrote the epistle to Titus, Titus was on the island of Crete where Paul, by the way, had preached. And he says here to Titus, “My true child in a common faith,” Titus 1:4. Then in verse 5, “For this reason I left you in Crete that you might set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I direct you.” Apparently, he was an equipper. He was a leader builder. He could go in and take sort of what was there and frame it and shape it and mold it and build it into strong churches. He had been with Paul, by the way, for years. He was in close and intimate work and fellowship. No doubt he had left Crete where he was when Paul wrote the letter of Titus. He left just before this and was now headed for Dalmatia.

Matthew Henry’s commentary on Titus, which was completed by the Revd Jeremiah Smith (d. 1723), says:

This Epistle of Paul to Titus is much of the same nature with those to Timothy; both were converts of Paul, and his companions in labours and sufferings; both were in the office of evangelists, whose work was to water the churches planted by the apostles, and to set in order the things that were wanting in them: they were vice-apostles, as it were, working the work of the Lord, as they did, and mostly under their direction, though not despotic and arbitrary, but with the concurring exercise of their own prudence and judgment, 1 Cor 16 10, 12. We read much of this Titus, his titles, character, and active usefulness, in many places—he was a Greek, Gal 2 3. Paul called him his son (Tit 1 4), his brother (2 Cor 2 13), his partner and fellow-helper (2 Cor 8 23), one that walked in the same spirit and in the same steps with himself. He went up with the apostles to the church at Jerusalem (Gal 2 1), was much conversant at Corinth, for which church he had an earnest care, 2 Cor 8 16. Paul’s second epistle to them, and probably his first also, was sent by his hand, 2 Cor 8 16-18, 23; 9 2-4; 12 18. He was with the apostle at Rome, and thence went into Dalmatia (2 Tim 4 10), after which no more occurs of him in the scriptures. So that by them he appears not to have been a fixed bishop; if such he were, and in those times, the church of Corinth, where he most laboured, had the best title to him. In Crete … a large island at the mouth of the Ægean Sea, the gospel had got some footing; and here were Paul and Titus in one of their travels, cultivating this plantation; but the apostle of the Gentiles, having on him the care of all the churches, could not himself tarry long at this place. He therefore left Titus some time there, to carry on the work which had been begun, wherein, probably, meeting with more difficulty than ordinary, Paul wrote this epistle to him; and yet perhaps not so much for his own sake as for the people’s, that the endeavours of Titus, strengthened with apostolic advice and authority, might be more significant and effectual among them. He was to see all the cities furnished with good pastors, to reject and keep out the unmeet and unworthy, to teach sound doctrine, and instruct all sorts in their duties, to set forth the free grace of God in man’s salvation by Christ, and withal to show the necessity of maintaining good works by those who have believed in God and hope for eternal life from him.

Henry’s commentary dates the epistle at AD 66.

In addition to 2 Timothy 4:9-15, three of my previous Forbidden Bible Verses posts include mentions of Titus:

2 Corinthians 8:16-24 – giving, Titus

Paul commends Titus, whom the Corinthians already know, as well as two messengers of the churches who will be accompanying Titus to Corinth to administer the collection for the church in Jerusalem.

2 Corinthians 12:14-18 – burden, money, false teachers, Titus

Paul defends himself from the false teachers’ accusations that he, Titus and Titus’s companion were after money for himself, asking in a ‘crafty’ way. Paul says that he and the other two men acted honourably, ‘in the same spirit’.

Galatians 2:1-5 – Jerusalem, Barnabas, Titus, Judaizers, circumcision, Jerusalem Council

Paul summarises his trip to Jerusalem for the Jerusalem Council which established that circumcision is not a prerequisite for conversion to Christianity. Titus, a Greek Gentile, did not need it. The Gospel must be kept pure and away from works-based salvation.

Titus is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches.

He is also the patron saint of the United States Army Chaplain Corps, which also awards outstanding chaplains with the Order of Titus:

Order of Titus award is the only award presented by the Chief of Chaplains to recognize outstanding performance of ministry by chaplains and chaplain assistants. The Order of Titus is awarded for meritorious contributions to the unique and highly visible Unit Ministry Team Observer Controller Program. The award recognizes the great importance of realistic, doctrinally guided combat ministry training in ensuring the delivery of prevailing religious support to the American Soldier.^[25]

During the era of Turkish occupation of Crete, Titus’s relics were shipped to Venice for safekeeping. In 1966, his skull was returned to Heraklion to the Church of St Titus.

Paul’s letter to Titus opens with a warm, yet doctrinal, greeting.

Paul describes himself as a servant — bondservant or slave — 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’ (verse 1).

There is much to address in that verse.

Henry’s commentary tells us:

When the Jews rejected the gospel, and the Gentiles received it, we read no more of this apostle by his Jewish name Saul, but by his Roman one, Paul … Here he is described by his relation and office: A servant of God, not in the general sense only, as a man and a Christian, but especially as a minister, serving God in the gospel of his Son, Rom 1 9 … Paul is described more especially as a chief minister, an apostle of Jesus Christ; one who had seen the Lord, and was immediately called and commissioned by him, and had his doctrine from him. Observe, The highest officers in the church are but servants. (Much divinity and devotion are comprehended in the inscriptions of the epistles.) … Christianity, which they preached, was in order to clear and enforce those natural principles, as well as to advance them, and to superadd what was fit and necessary in man’s degenerate and revolted state: therefore the apostles of Jesus Christ were the servants of God, according to the faith of God’s elect. Their doctrine agreed with the faith of all the elect from the beginning of the world, and was for propagating and promoting the same. Observe, There are elect of God (1 Pet 1 2), and in these the Holy Spirit works precious divine faith, proper to those who are chosen to eternal life (2 Thess 2 13, 14): God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel. Faith is the first principle of sanctification. And the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. The gospel is truth; the great, sure, and saving truth (Col 1 5), the word of the truth of the gospel. Divine faith rests not on fallible reasonings and probable opinions, but on the infallible word, the truth itself, which is after godliness, of a godly nature and tendency, pure, and purifying the heart of the believer. 

John MacArthur says that Paul believed that Titus needed this letter to show the Cretans that he had authority from Paul in his ministry:

Now in both Timothy and Titus’ case there was strong opposition.  There was opposition inside the church; there was opposition outside.  So both of these young men had been properly and amply trained by the apostle Paul; both of them were gifted by the Holy Spirit; both of them had served faithfully and proven themselves; both of them had very difficult tasks at hand; both of them faced opposition.  Consequently, both of them needed this kind of letter from Paul to strengthen them, also to give them some apostolic authority for the task that they faced …

… There is good reason for this rather technical, rather formal, rather lengthy approach, sort of cataloguing apostolic data in regard to writing Titus. And the good reason is this: the letter is intended to delegate to Titus apostolic authority.

… The churches were new.  The churches were immature.  It was going to be his job to ordain elders and to establish pastors and leaders there.  He was in the foundational work of the church.  He also was undoubtedly a young man.  There were already false teachers, as we shall see, in Crete.  There were already false teachers who had come around the church and had begun to pervert the church with heresy and ungodliness. These false teachers would surely question whatever Titus tried to do.  It’s a very formative time in these churches.  They are new. They are immature.  The believers are young.  They are without leadership.  There is already the influx of error and the lack of virtue in the lives of these false teachers as impacting the church.

This young man is going to have to get a hold of this whole thing, put the right people in leadership, set the church on its feet, give it the doctrinal foundation.  And he’s not going to do it without opposition, and he knows, does Paul, that he will need some strong authority.  He is going to have to be perceived as one with apostolic authority, delegated to him to act in behalf of Paul.  He is in every sense the direct legate, the delegate, the envoy, the ambassador sent by the great apostle himself.  He needs strong apostolic backing to carry on his ministry … 

In fact, I think we would be fair in saying this: that the purpose of this letter is not to give Titus the information that is contained in it. And I mean not only in the first four verses but in the rest of the letter.  It is most likely that Titus already knew most of this …

He also was very well aware of what the apostle’s expectations were for the membership.  He also knew full well how the people of Christ were to conduct themselves in the face of a watching world.  So this is not primarily information for Titus; but what it is to do is to arm Titus with an apostolic document by which he can lead the church and his leadership not be questioned.  The letter, then, with its formidable opening and strong teaching, should give Titus the necessary clout to lead the church and overcome the resistance of the obstinate detractors and false teachers …

… Already, Judaizing influence had entered – certain Jews who said you can’t have a right relationship to God unless you’ve been circumcised.  They were holding to Old Testament prescription …

And I believe this note is perhaps to help those Gentiles who may not understand the necessary authority that Titus bears …

Now it may well be that there were religious people in Crete, professing to know God, but not knowing Jesus Christ.  That’s very evident.  They were defiled. They were unbelieving.  They were impure.  Their mind, their conscience was defiled, their deeds denied the knowledge of God, they were detestable, disobedient, and they were worthless with regard to any good deed.  This may well be the characterization of the local pagan Gentiles.  And they need to know that this man comes not with the authority of Moses. The Jews need to know that he comes as Moses came, the slave of Jehovah, and the Gentiles need to know he comes as the messenger of Jesus Christ with the saving gospel.  Now certainly that’s a word for the Jews as well, but it may be that it covers the ground.  If you look at both those titles and see one having an emphasis toward the Jews, the other having an emphasis toward the Gentiles.

Another way to look at it is this.  “Slave of God” is an Old Testament name of authority.  “Apostle of Jesus Christ” is a New Testament name of authority.  He then comes to the Jews with Old Testament, with the equivalent of Old Testament authority.  He comes to the Gentiles with the equivalent of New Testament apostolic authority.  He is then in every sense the slave of God, the messenger of Jesus Christ.  It cannot be gainsaid by Jew or Gentile.  He is under divine mastery, and he is committed totally and singularly to his master.

MacArthur gives us a synopsis of Paul’s letter to Titus:

Now in this letter that Paul writes to Titus, the purpose of the letter really is to instruct the church to do what it ought to do, to behave itself properly.  And there are several things that fall very clearly from these chapters …

So the first chapter focuses on the leaders. The second chapter focuses on the members.  And the third chapter focuses on those outside the church and how the church is to behave itself before them – the good and godly deeds of leaders, the good and godly deeds of members, the good and godly living of the church in the face of a watching world.  Now this instruction is very important, not only for Titus and for the churches in the island of Crete, but for all churches.

Now these three brief chapters are doctrinal.  They are full of rich, doctrinal treasures, as we shall see going through considering some of the great doctrines of the faith … And while there are some treasures of doctrine and theology in this brief epistle, it is preeminently practical.  It deals with the qualifications for spiritual leadership.  It confronts sin and heresy.  It spells out the spiritual roles and obligations of believers in the church and in the family.  It rehearses the magnificent realities of our salvation and their practical implications.  It tells believers how to live godly before the watching world in order that we might have an effective witness.  It speaks about necessary purging in the church and other very important matters.

Now it also should be noted that this is what I call a condensed epistle.  It is compact.  You could almost call it a pocket guide to life in the church, because it’s that.  It is concentrated, all the water is out.  It is vacuum-packed, all the air is out.  It is squeezed tight.  But when we take the lid off, it’s going to expand.  When we add the water or the air of our own investigation we’re going to see this very compact, condensed, concentrated epistle begin to expand.  It is economical in the sense that there are not a lot of words, and yet again in the genius of the mind of God with an economy of words He can say a world of things.  This is one of those epistles that you would call a bargain epistle; this is a sale item because you get a lot for a little.  And it will be for all of us, I think, a very wonderful experience.

Returning to today’s verses, Paul discusses the hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised ‘before the ages began’ (verse 2).

Henry’s commentary explains:

In (or for) hope of eternal life, v. 2. This is the further intent of the gospel, to beget hope as well as faith; to take off the mind and heart from the world, and to raise them to heaven and the things above. The faith and godliness of Christians lead to eternal life, and give hope and well-grounded expectation of it; for God, that cannot lie, hath promised it. It is the honour of God that he cannot lie or deceive: and this is the comfort of believers, whose treasure is laid up in his faithful promises. But how is he said to promise before the world began? Answer, By promise some understand his decree: he purposed it in his eternal counsels, which were as it were his promise in embryo: or rather, say some, pro chronon aionion is before ancient times, or many years ago, referring to the promise darkly delivered, Gen 3 15. Here is the stability and antiquity of the promise of eternal life to the saints. God, who cannot lie, hath promised before the world began, that is, many ages since.

MacArthur gleans the following from the first two verses:

In verse 1, and then into verse 2, Paul is talking about the mission on which he was sent.  Now let me show you, it’s three parts, okay?  Part one, “For the faith of those chosen of God.”  Part two, “For the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness.”  Part three, “For the hope of eternal life.”  Those are the three aspects of his ministry, and they are profound and comprehensive.

The first one says he was for evangelization, the faith of those chosen of God.  The second one, he was for edification, the knowledge of the truth which produces godliness.  The third one, he was for endurance, the hope that sustains in view of eternal life.  We could call that encouragement.  He was for evangelism.  He was for edification.  And he was for encouragement.  That is the threefold mission.  And that is the same threefold mission for every preacher and every teacher and every believer.  We are for the bringing of the lost to Christ; we are for the training up of the saved to godliness; and we are for the encouragement that allows for endurance unto eternal life – a threefold mission statement is given in those great words.

Let’s just look at the first one.  Paul says, “As a slave of God and a messenger of Jesus Christ” – here’s my mission – “for the faith of those chosen of God,” “for the faith of those chosen of God.”  What does he mean?  Listen carefully; here’s what he means.  To bring the elect to the point of saving faith – that’s what he means.  My first mission, my first goal, is to bring the elect to the point of saving faith.  Those chosen of God are the elect, the ones that the Lord has chosen for salvation.  Paul’s job is to be a messenger for their faith, because the elect are not redeemed until they activate faith when hearing the truth.  And so Paul says, “I have come, I have been sent to preach the truth which activates the faith which saves the elect.”  He was for the faith of those chosen by God …

… And again, it may be that any Jews hovering around the church there would identify immediately with that phrase “God’s elect,” because in the Old Testament it was a title for Israel.  You find in Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 6; Deuteronomy chapter 14, verse 2; Israel is designated as God’s elect, the chosen of God.  But now there is a new group, a new church, chosen of God.  And Paul’s mission was to bring to those chosen of God saving faith through the preaching of the gospel.

Furthermore:

Secondly he says, the mission he was given from God was to bring “the knowledge of the truth,” which literally is “for godliness” – which is for the purpose of godliness – to bring “the knowledge of the truth,” that’s epignosis.  Gnosis is the word for “knowledge”; epignosis adds a preposition on the front, compounds the word, has the idea of rich knowledge, deep knowledge, thorough knowledge, comprehensive knowledge, full knowledge.  He has in mind the objective of bringing the clear, rich, experiential knowledge of divine altheia, divine truth to people and knows that it will produce godliness.

Now just to take that little phrase, because it’s very important – “the knowledge of the truth” – and look at it a moment. I want you not to misunderstand it.  Back to 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 4.  In 1 Timothy 2:4 the apostle Paul says, “God desires all men to be saved.”  “God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Now most likely in that context the phrase “the knowledge of the truth” refers to a saving knowledge.  That is to say a knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which saves.  There he’s not talking about a full-orbed doctrinal statement. He’s not talking about knowing all there is to know about Scripture; he’s talking about saving knowledge. “The knowledge of the truth” begins, then, at salvation …

But I don’t believe that it ends there, because what Titus 1 says – look at it again – is this: that his job was to bring about the saving gospel so that faith could be produced in those that are elect, and then “the knowledge of the truth which is for godliness.”  Now he is saying, “Yes, the knowledge of the truth, of course, starts at salvation, but it continues through sanctification.  It produces godliness.”

Now what is he saying?  He is saying the first phase of my mission is evangelism; the second phase of my mission is edification.  There is a certain amount of edification in evangelism because you have to know so you can believe. But that’s not the ending; that’s only the beginning …

… again I note for you that you see the inseparability of justification and sanctification.  They appear here, as so often in the Bible, back to back.  Saving faith is an initial knowledge of the truth, which opens a greater knowledge of the truth, which leads through sanctification to glorification. And glorification, by the way, is a component of his third feature in his mission in verse 2, that which relates to “the hope of eternal life” …

… A vital possession of truth is always inconsistent with irreverence and ungodliness.  Real truth never deviates from the path of piety. And any profession of the truth that does not lead an individual to live a godly life to one degree or another is a spurious profession. The objective, saving gospel and the subjective godliness correspond to one another inseparably.

… There are many, as you well know, who want to divorce justification and sanctification.  They want to divorce salvation from holiness, but such is not the biblical way.  That is a violation of God’s Word, and Paul is very clear about linking the two here.  He insists on this connection.

… The key thing that I want you to note is the condemnation of false teachers in this epistle is related to the failure of their teaching to produce godliness.  In other words, they must be wrong because their teaching doesn’t lead to godliness.  You can tell the truth by what it produces.  You can tell error by what it produces.

… election, though it’s unto salvation, doesn’t become salvation until there is personal faith.  And sanctification doesn’t become sanctification until there’s personal obedience.  The pattern is the same.  God elects, but that election never becomes reality until saving faith is exercised. And God saves unto sanctification, but that sanctification doesn’t become reality until there is disciplined obedience to godliness …

The Word, sound doctrine, was absolutely vital, because people aren’t going to become sanctified without the Word any more than they’re going to become saved even though they’re elect without the Word.  So Paul says my mission is clear: awake in saving faith in the elect and bring about the deep knowledge of God’s truth so that they may progress on the path toward godliness.

Thirdly, not only evangelism and edification, but the third component in his ministry was, I guess, what you could call encouragement – to stick with the alliteration – encouragement.  In verse 2 he says another component is to produce in people “the hope of eternal life.”  The context of this faith and knowledge is “in the hope of eternal life.”  That’s sort of a pervading reality.  There’s a past component here, and the past is election and salvation.  In the present is edification and sanctification.  In the future is anticipation and glorification … What do you mean, preach hope?  I’ll tell you what he means – to preach an eternal heaven, to preach an eternal salvation, to preach a returning Christ.  That’s what he means – a real heaven, a secure salvation, and a returning Christ …

Now you say, “Well what does it mean to hope in eternal life?  Is it a wish?”  No.  We say, “I hope something’s going to happen”; we mean we wish it would happen.  That’s not what the Bible means.  Hope is not a wish.  Hope is not something uncertain or something doubtful or something possible or something maybe.  Hope is believing what is not yet yours but will be.  That’s what hope is in the Bible.  It is believing what is not yet yours fully as a present possession, but is absolutely, unequivocally, certainly, unchangeably guaranteed to be yours some day.  And that’s heaven, and that’s eternal glory. And that’s a coming Christ.  And that’s a place to live in the Father’s house. And that’s an eternal reward. And that’s eternal service and eternal praise and eternal worship and eternal blessing.  It’s all promised to us.  That promise is absolutely secure.  We have the Holy Spirit as the down payment on that promise, the earnest of our expectation and our hope.  We have the intercession of Jesus Christ at the right hand of God as our high priest, and no one can accuse the brethren successfully.  No one can lay any charge to God’s elect.  God has already justified us, and Christ continues to intercede for us on our behalf against the accusations of our enemy …

That is an encouraging hope.  It encourages me to holiness.  It encourages me to service.  It encourages me to endure through the difficulties and the sorrows of life. And so, like Paul said in Romans 12:12, I can rejoice in hope.  I can’t always rejoice in my trouble; I can rejoice in hope, he says, and thus I can persevere in tribulation …

Paul, continuing on from God’s promise to mankind before the world began, says ‘at the proper time manifested in His Word’ through the preaching which the Father commanded him to do (verse 3).

MacArthur explains:

Thirdly, he was committed to God’s message, he was committed to God’s message.  Verse 2, all of this, he says, “which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, but at the proper time manifested in His word.”  It’s an obvious corollary to the last point.  All that God’s mission required of him was revealed in God’s Word.  Whatever he had to preach that would bring the truth to the elect.  Whatever he had to preach that would bring the elect and the saved to sanctification.  Whatever he had to preach to give them hope would come out of the Scripture.  That’s what he’s saying.  All of this mission is tied to the message “which God, who can’t lie, promised long ago and at the proper time manifested it in His word.”

… He is saying, “the truth – which is the content of all my mission, the content of my evangelism, the content of my edification and the content of my encouragement – this truth comes from God. That’s more than I can say for the error that the false teachers are propagating … So he is saying, “My message is confined to the Word of God which is the revelation of a plan that God has prepared long ago.  All that pertains to the hope of eternal life, all that pertains to the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, all that pertains to the gospel that saves the elect is found nowhere else but in the Word” …

Notice, please, this “God who cannot lie” put all of this together long ages ago.  Now let me give you the literal Greek, “Before the times of the ages,” “before the times of the ages.”  Now if you take that literal rendering, then you have to ask the question, if God promised this before the times of the ages, if He promised it before time, then He had to promise it in eternity …

Here’s the covenant, here’s the eternal covenant.  The Father, God, says to the Lord, Christ, in eternity past, “I love You, I love You so much I want to give You something, and what I want to give You is a redeemed humanity.  I want to create a race of people and I want to redeem them, and I want to give them to You as a gift, and I want to give them to You to love You and adore You and honor You and praise You and worship You forever and ever.”  That’s why there is a salvation because God predetermined in eternity past to give a love gift to the Lord, and everybody who is saved is a part of that elect and chosen, predestined group of humanity that is going to be the love gift from the Father to the Son. That’s why nobody ever gets saved unless the Father draws them, because the Father knows who it is He’s giving the Son.  That’s why the Son never loses the ones who come because He holds on with tenacity to the precious gift that God the Father has given to Him.

We are that redeemed humanity.  And that is precisely the plan of redemption that is revealed in Scripture.  Wonder of wonders, the day will come when God the Father will have drawn all of the predestined and elect humanity.  They will have come to faith; they will embrace Christ; Christ will hold on to them; and all of them together will arrive in glory.  And they will be the love gift from the Father to the Son.  And they will spend all eternity praising and honoring and serving and glorifying.  And you know what is especially wonderful and remarkable?  According to 1 Corinthians 15:28, it says the Son takes them all and gives them back to the Father, so that God may be all and in all.

MacArthur makes it clear that Paul was very careful about how he preached the Gospel message:

Paul shunned manipulative oratory.  He didn’t do like many preachers do today.  He wasn’t into manipulating his crowd.  He says in chapter 2, verse 1, of 1 Corinthians, “I didn’t come with superiority of speech,” that’s oratorical ability.  “I didn’t come to bowl you over with my, with my oration.  I didn’t come with wisdom.”  He says, verse 4, “My message and my preaching…not in persuasive words of wisdom.”  “I didn’t use technique; I didn’t use manipulation; I didn’t want your faith to rest on the wisdom of men” – literally, “the wisdom of their information or their approach.”  He said, “I came to you with God’s wisdom. I came to you in God’s power.  I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in trembling.”  He didn’t use techniques that excite and stir and move people’s emotions to achieve results.  He preached the Scriptures – listen to this – to the mind.

Many preachers today, and I suppose through history, are good at the art of persuasion.  They know how to move people to respond without the Scripture being the issue.  They can manipulate them emotionally.  And frankly, that kind of stuff really prostitutes the preacher’s stewardship because it makes him no different than a secular persuader.

Then Paul greets Titus, ‘his true child in a common faith’, praying that grace and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Saviour be with him (verse 4).

Henry’s commentary explains:

Ministers are spiritual fathers to those whom they are the means of converting, and will tenderly affect and care for them, and must be answerably regarded by them. “My own son after the common faith, that faith which is common to all the regenerate, and which thou hast in truth, and expressest to the life.” This might be said to distinguish Titus from hypocrites and false teachers, and to recommend him to the regard of the Cretans, as being among them a lively image of the apostle himself, in faith, and life, and heavenly doctrine. To this Titus, deservedly so dear to the apostle, is,

… The salutation and prayer, wishing all blessings to him: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour. Here are, 1. The blessings wished: Grace, mercy, and peace. Grace, the free favour of God, and acceptance with him. Mercy, the fruits of that favour, in pardon of sins, and freedom from all miseries by it, both here and hereafter. And peace, the positive effect and fruit of mercy. Peace with God through Christ who is our peace, and with the creatures and ourselves; outward and inward peace, comprehending all good whatsoever, that makes for our happiness in time and to eternity. Observe, Grace is the fountain of all blessings. Mercy, and peace, and all good, spring out of this. Get into God’s favour, and all must be well; for, 2. These are the persons from whom blessings are wished: From God the Father, the fountain of all good. Every blessing, every comfort, comes to us from God as a Father; he is the Father of all by creation, but of the good by adoption and regeneration. And the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour, as the way and means of procurement and conveyance. All is from the Father by the Son, who is Lord by nature, heir of all things, and our Lord, Redeemer, and head, ordering and ruling his members. All are put under him; we hold of him, as in capite, and owe subjection and obedience to him, who is also Jesus and Christ, the anointed Saviour, and especially our Saviour, who believe in him, delivering us from sin and hell, and bringing us to heaven and happiness.

MacArthur has more:

Now let’s look at the name “Titus,” and what do we know about Titus?  Well, one interesting curiosity about Titus is that his name never appears in the book of Acts.  With all the names that are woven through the book of Acts, Titus isn’t.  And what that does is make it difficult for us to identify the time zone for him.  We can’t stick him anywhere in Acts because he’s not named, and it gives us a little bit of difficulty in identifying precisely when he was converted and precisely when the things that he’s engaged in with regard to ministry occur.  I might add for you that I think the ministry in Crete here that he’s following up on will be after the book of Acts, after Paul’s first imprisonment noted in the end of Acts.  Paul has been released from prison, and then Paul meets him in Crete and they do a ministry there. And so this is post-Acts.  But he really got into the flow during the time of the book of Acts, but is not mentioned there.  He was another of the men Paul discipled and depended upon for strategic service and strategic leadership, and we don’t know as much about him as we do about Timothy, but he certainly is a very important person.  I personally believe that, as I said earlier, Timothy and Titus would be the two men that Paul would most like to hand the work over to – very gifted.  Of all these men that we listed, these are the two that he identifies for strategic letters to wrap up his ministry as he knows he’s moving on to glory.

Notice how he identifies Titus, and we’ll say more about Titus. “My true child in a common faith,” almost the exact same designation he gave to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:2, where he calls Timothy, “My true child in the faith.”  Here he says essentially the same thing.  “Child” is teknon; it means “a born child,” that is to say, he’s emphasizing the relationship of life between the parent and the child.  He is saying “Titus owes his spiritual life to God through me. I was the human agent by which God brought him spiritual life.”  And it was real.  He is gnēsios. He is “legitimate,” not illegitimate. He’s not a bastard son. He’s a real Christian. He’s a real convert.  His spiritual birth came by the will of God and the power of God through Paul’s preaching and Paul’s witness.  And so, like Timothy, he is a true child of Paul. He has been brought to faith by the influence of the great apostle.  And there is a wonderful attachment; there is a spiritually filial relationship between Titus and Paul.  In fact … in 2 Corinthians their hearts beat together in the same kind of zeal and the same kind of passion.  He really caught the fire of Paul’s heart, as well as doctrine.

To really get a fix on the uniqueness of this man, you need to go back to the book of Galatians.  He is not mentioned in the book of Acts.  He is mentioned twice in the book of Galatians.  He is mentioned once in 2 Timothy and once in Titus.  The nine other times he’s mentioned is in 2 Corinthians, are in 2 Corinthians.  But look at Galatians.  We run into him in chapter 2.  “Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.”

Now this is very important.  We get a little bit of a time frame here. This is seventeen years after Paul’s conversion – seventeen years have passed … 

Now in verse 1 of chapter 2, after fourteen years later (that’s a total seventeen years), “I went to Jerusalem.” He hadn’t been to Jerusalem except for two weeks, and that was fourteen years before. And all this time he’s been preaching among the Gentiles that Jesus is Christ and he’s been calling them to salvation.

Now he goes to Jerusalem after fourteen years, and he takes Barnabas, who has been his companion, and he also takes Titus. Titus is apparently a new convert. Why does he go? Verse 2, “It was because of a revelation that I went up.” In other words, God instructed him directly to go.

… He’s been giving the gospel that was directly revealed to him by God to give. But now he goes to Jerusalem. You say, “Why?” Because this was the Jerusalem Council. This was the council in Jerusalem when the decision had to be made about what do we say when we go around the world and preach the gospel. There were Jews called Judaizers who said, “It’s fine to preach the gospel, but you also have to preach circumcision and Mosaic ceremony and that people need to know they have to become circumcised physically, and they have to keep the Mosaic law as well as believe the gospel.” And so the debate at the Jerusalem Council basically is, “What is the content of the evangelistic message? And what do we say to the Gentile about that? And what do we say to the Jew about that?” That was the discussion.

So Paul went – Barnabas went – and they took Titus, and Titus is the key player because verse 3 says, “Not even Titus who was with me, though he was a Greek” – or a Gentile – “was compelled to be circumcised, but it was because of the false brethren who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus in order to bring us into bondage.” Here they arrive and Paul’s got a trophy. He’s got a Gentile convert by the name of Titus. And the Judaizers see this guy and they compel him to be circumcised …

And so Paul is instructed by the Lord. He brings along Titus as a living illustration of a converted, redeemed, and saved Gentile who has never been circumcised. This is the unarguable illustration. You can see in his life; certainly the conversation was his love for Christ. You can see in his life his love for holiness. You can see the transformation of his life. You can see his passion for God. You can see the man is genuinely converted, just as he is called in Titus “a genuine child in a common faith,” a true believer. He’s real.

And so verse 5 says, “We didn’t yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.” In other words, we weren’t about to succumb to those Judaizers and have him circumcised – no way. We didn’t, we wouldn’t do that for – in our vernacular we’d say – for a second. They said “for an hour.” We wouldn’t do it. Titus was living and unarguable proof that circumcision and Mosaic ceremonies are not necessary for salvation because here is a saved man who has subscribed to neither. And the Jerusalem Council, strengthened certainly by the illustrative testimony of Titus, refused to accede to the Judaizers and have all the Gentiles circumcised, which is what they wanted …

So Titus, you know, from that moment on was well-known. Everybody knew Titus. That was, as I said, the Jerusalem Council, seventeen years after Paul’s conversion. Now at what point prior to that council Titus was saved we don’t know. But his salvation was very real in every sense, and the testimony of God’s power in his life set the council in motion …

Now as you look at him a little more closely, later on in his life – and it’s hard, as I said, to track him – he came into Paul’s life obviously during Paul’s second missionary journey. We don’t see him specifically doing any missionary work, however, until his third journey, shortly after Paul’s time at Ephesus, recorded in Acts 19. But he really begins to shine, he really begins to shine in reference to the Corinthian church. Now just a little bit about that. He’s mentioned nine times in 2 Corinthians. Obviously he was an intimate associate with Paul; I mean, very intimate … Anybody that the apostle Paul would send to straighten out Corinth would have to be a fairly formidable person – for sure. Here was a man who was Paul’s “partner and fellow worker.” Also, he must have been a very effective guy in terms of spiritual leadership. Chapter 8 of 2 Corinthians, back to verse 16, “Thanks be to God who puts the same earnestness on your behalf in the heart of Titus. For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest, he has gone to you of his own accord” …

What a wonderful servant he must have been. He succeeded in establishing an effective relationship with the church and with Paul, getting them back on track, bringing them through repentance. Paul then sent him back, probably sent him back with the second letter, the one which refers to him so often. He probably carried that back because he was going back not only to take the letter but to collect more money for the poor saints in Jerusalem. And that’s discussed, as you know, in chapter 8, verse 6, “Consequently, we urged Titus that as he had previously made a beginning, so he would also complete in you the gracious work as well.” Titus, when he was there the first time, started the collection; he sent him back to finish it up, take the money, bring it to Paul. Paul would take it to Jerusalem to give the poor Christians living in Jerusalem. Titus was wonderfully successful, not only with Corinth; but he collected a large offering, gave it to Paul, and Paul went off to Jerusalem with the money.

He must have been a great guy – to take a tough, tough assignment. Well now he’s got another one. Now he’s on the island of Crete – you can go back to Titus. He’s on the island of Crete, and in verse 5 it tells us that he’s supposed to “set in order what remains.” In other words, fix up what’s broken, and then appoint elders everywhere. It’s tough, but he was up to this. He was a powerful guy – a pioneer, a builder, a church planter, an equipper of leaders, a peacemaker – obviously a man of conviction, zeal, passion.

Paul then goes into the qualities of a good elder. More on that next week.

Next time — Titus 1:5-9