“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” 2 Peter 1:20 – 2:1
Verse 1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;
The writer of the book of Titus is the Apostle Paul. This, like most of the books of the New Testament, is an epistle or a letter sent to provide guidance and instruction to those within the Church. Paul calls himself a “servant” of God and the Greek word translated here is “doulos” and it means a slave, bondman, or attendant. It has the idea of a person who gives himself up to another’s will to the disregard of one’s own interests. Paul also refers to himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ which means a “sent forth one” or a messenger. The word translated as “faith” is “pistis” and it means a belief. The Greek word translated as “elect” is “eklektos” and it means picked out or chosen. So Paul is a servant and bondman of God, a chosen one, and a messenger of the belief and truth of the Gospel which is a message unto godliness.
Application: All believers are chosen by God to be His, all are to be servants of God, and all are to have an adequate enough grasp of the Gospel and what the Bible teaches to be able to share their faith with anyone at any time. Not all believers are apostles in the sense that they are sent forth by God to evangelize and church plant like the Apostle Paul and the other 12 apostles.
Some believe and teach that there were only 12 apostles. This is not true. Barnabas, Timothy and Silvanus were all apostles. Ephesians 4:11 states, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;” This is commonly known as the five fold ministry in the church. This writer believes that, based on the placement of the commas and ;’s in the text which are designed to have the reader pause, that there are only four positions of ministry in the church, and that pastors and teachers are not separated by the word “some” and are not separated by their ministry as they are one. All pastors teach and all teachers preach. Regardless, there are apostles alive and well in the Church today.
Verses 2-3 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; 3 But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;
No believer has experienced eternal life and come back to the physical world to tell about it. But all believers have the hope of eternal life with Christ Jesus when their body assumes room temperature and their spirit exits this world. God promised it and so it is true. God’s plan for Adam and Eve before they were created was for them to live forever on the Earth. But when sin and rebellion were embraced by Adam and Eve, physical and spiritual death became part of life. So Jesus rose from the dead and has given all of His people the hope of eternal life. The Greek word translated as “hope” is “elpis” and it means an expectation. This is not a hope without substance, but a hope based on the resurrection of the LORD Jesus Christ.
The Greek word translated as “manifested” is “phaneroo” and it means to make visible or known that which has been hidden or unknown, to be plainly recognized and thoroughly understood. So Paul is telling his readers that he has been commissioned by the LORD to preach the Word so that it will be known and thoroughly understood by all hearing his preaching.
Application: Notice that Paul writes “of God our Saviour”. This is clearly giving deity to the LORD Jesus Christ and stating that Jesus is God, very God, and the Saviour of His people. Remember, God is a spirit that cannot be seen with human eyes. Therefore, He manifests or shows Himself to people through inhabiting a body called Jesus. He makes himself known to His people by dwelling within them in the form of the Holy Ghost/Spirit. So Christians have one God who shows Himself in three, and only three different ways. But He is the same holy God, creator of all, sustainer of all and Savior of all.
Verse 4 To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Titus was not a physical son of Paul, but a spiritual son. So it can be assumed that Titus came to faith in the LORD Jesus Christ through the ministry of the Apostle Paul. This writer does not know this for a fact, but since all believers are part of the family of God and sons and daughters are begotten, it would seem that Paul would have called Titus a brother rather than a son if Titus’ faith and ministry had not been a result of the ministry of Paul.
Notice that again Paul refers to Jesus Christ as “our Saviour”. However, when reading the sentence above in the English language it can appear that Paul is separating God the Father from the LORD Jesus Christ. This writer is going to suggest that, because of Catholic teaching in which the statement is made, “God the Father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit” people have become accustomed to separating out the three manifestations of God so that they are different from each other. But what if a comma is inserted after the word God? How would it be read then? “Grace, mercy and peace, from God, (who?) the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.” It’s all in the reading and in where the emphasis is placed.
Verses 5-6 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: 6 If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.
Now the reader is finding out the reason for this epistle: to discuss the order of things in the Church. And now the reader knows that Titus is in Crete. Crete was and is an island in the Mediterranean. Titus was to ordain elders in every city and put things in order. God is a god of order and He expects His people to be orderly so that there is no confusion. The Greek word translated as “elders” is “presbuteros” and it means advanced in life or a senior.
Application: Most modern churches use the terms elder, bishop and deacon interchangeably. But this writer believes that the modern church should be patterned exactly after the apostolic churches as set up by the Apostle Paul. An elder was an individual that was advanced in age and hopefully possessing the wisdom that comes with age. An elder was not a position in the church. A bishop or a deacon is a position in the church and they had to be an elder. They could not be a young man, plain and simple? Why? Because young men lack the wisdom and experience to deal with people and the problems that are in their lives. It does not mean a young man does not know or serve Jesus. It just means that a young man has not lived enough years to know all that is necessary to do the job effectively. Apparently, the exception was the Apostle Timothy. But remember that Timothy was mentored by Paul so he had an advantage over other men being raised up by the LORD in the different churches. And as far as this writer knows, Timothy was not a pastor but an apostle and so his job description would not have included being a bishop or a deacon.
The elders had to be blameless or unreproveable. A person with a past that could be questionable did not qualify. Why? Because unbelievers are quick to cast stones at believers and at the Church. So even though a senior who was a believer had been forgiven and cleansed from the sins of his former life, anything that he had done that society frowned upon before becoming a believer could by used by Satan’s people to disparage the Church.
The elders had to be the husband of one wife. This eliminates women from holding the positions of bishop and deacon since women are not husbands. This writer believes that the number one means one. Therefore, a divorced individual who had remarried could not hold a leadership role in the Church. Other people believe that it means the elder could only have one wife at a time and not practice polygamy. You decide based on other verses in the Bible that deal with marriage and divorce and with church leadership.
And of course, the elders had to have children that were obedient and not unruly, the principle being that if a man could not control his own children, how could he lead a church congregation?
Verse 7 For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;
The Greek word translated as “bishop” is “episkipos” and it means an overseer, a person that has the responsibility of seeing that things are done by others correctly, a superintendent. The requirements were that he be blameless, a manager of the affairs of God, not self-pleasing or arrogant, in control of his temper, not a drunk, not a fighter or a quarrelsome person, and not greedy for money. A person possessing any of these negative attributes would have his salvation and dedication to the LORD questioned by others.
Verses 8-9 But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; 9 Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
The positive attributes of a bishop were that he be hospitable, want to associate with good men, be self-controlled and discreet, be righteous and obey the commandments of God, and be undefiled by sin. He had to posses sound Christian doctrine so that he could encourage believers and defend the truth of the Word of God.
Verses 10-11 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: 11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.
To be “of the circumcision” meant to be Jewish. In Paul’s day, most of the persecution of believers came from the Jews and the Jewish religious leaders. They had denied Jesus, their Messiah, and had conspired to have him killed in the desire to get rid of the person that was upsetting their religious order and weakening their hold on the people through that religious order. Unfortunately for them, Jesus rose from the dead and messed up their conspiratorial plans. So the Jewish leadership had no other choice but to vilify and disparage, hunt down and kill the believers in Jesus if they were to save their religion and the benefits they reaped from their religion that kept the ordinary Jewish person in bondage.
Verse 12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
The prophet referred to in the verse above was a Jew who accused the people of Crete of being liars, lazy and glutinous, and not much better than an animal.
Application: The tactic of painting your enemy as evil and like an animal or without human qualities is still used by the Jewish elite today. Gentiles or non Jews are referred to as “cattle” (goyim) in their Babylonian Talmud which is what Jewish rabbis teach from and study. Most rabbis are ignorant of what is contained in the pages of the Bible and they disregard the entire New Testament as it is about the Jesus they rejected almost 2000 years ago. This writer is not talking about the average person that identifies ethnically as Jewish, but about the elite power brokers who fail to tell the Jewish people the truth about their history and about their God.
Verses 13-14 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; 14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.
When Paul stated that the witness was true, he did not mean that the Cretians were indeed like how they were being presented by Jewish lies, but that what these unruly deceivers were doing, saying, and teaching was true, and that they were doing it for profit or financial gain. That was what he was witnessing to. And how were they to be dealt with by the Church? They were to be rebuked sharpy. That does not mean to ignore their words and behavior and hope it goes away. It means to call these men out and expose them for what they are and to do so severely and rapidly. Jesus set the example when He overturned the money changers tables in the Temple and verbally rebuked those engaged in making the Temple a place of business and banking instead of a place of prayer.
How do you stop a movement? By providing disinformation and propaganda, a Jewish fable. And how do you control a movement? By passing laws and rules that people are forced to comply with. It seems that the conditions in Paul’s day were much the same as the political and religious conditions of the world today. Solomon was indeed right when he said nothing was new under the sun. “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9
Verses 15-16 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. 16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. (Titus 1)
Consider Paul’s words above. Do they resonate in the world today?