- APPOINT 1:5
- TEACH: 2:1
- REMIND: 3:1
·
Titus was no stranger to conflict. He
was a long-term companion of Paul who was a valuable aid in two of Paul's
greatest crises.
·
Titus first appears in the New
Testament in Galatians 2:1, where Paul says he took Titus along on his trip to
Jerusalem with Barnabas.
·
Titus was a Gentile, and the issue at hand was
whether Gentiles should have to comply with Jewish ceremonial rites
(circumcision, diet restrictions and so on) in order to be full members of the
Christian community. With the young Paul at one side and Barnabas
at the other, he was essentially "tried" (and acquitted) by the
leaders in Jerusalem.
·
Titus appears again in the middle of
Paul's struggle with the church at Corinth. In that deeply divided church, he
represented Paul. He had the unwelcome job of delivering what we call the
"severe letter" which Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 2:1-4 and
7:5-13 and then staying there for about a year. Then he delivered the letter we
now call 2 Corinthians in which Paul takes on his critics and calls the church
to honor an unfulfilled financial pledge.
·
Titus was in Crete at the time Paul
wrote him. Crete was a seaport, a sleazy port of call for cargo ships
traversing the Mediterranean. It had been socially backward for 1400 years when
the Minoan civilization was destroyed by a devastating earthquake. We do not
know exactly when Titus went with Paul to Crete, but one possible scenario
places it after Paul's release from his first imprisonment in Rome.
·
Paul had preached in Crete and was
giving Titus the job of following through with developing a healthy church.
This letter was sent while he was in the midst of his task and reviews his
assignment. It shows Titus as a forceful personality and skilled administrator.
It seems he was made of tougher stuff than Timothy, but his assignments were
shorter. By the time Paul had written 2 Timothy, the job in Crete was done, and
Titus had been sent on to Dalmatia (part of modern Yugoslavia).
·
This letter gives us
two very valuable things:
·
(1) A showcase of Paul's strategy for
leadership in the midst of chaos—Timothy was given a long-term assignment in an
established church; Titus was sent to follow up an evangelistic movement and
give the Christian body some coherence;
·
(2) a model of hope in the face of a
very messy situation; Paul's confidence in the power of the gospel shines
throughout the letter.
Titus 1
New International Version
1Paul, a
servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect
and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— 2in the
hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the
beginning of time, 3and
which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the
preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
4To
Titus, my true son in our common faith:
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Savior.
Appointing Elders Who Love What Is Good
5The
reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left
unfinished and appointa elders in every town, as I directed you. 6An
elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believeb and are not open to the charge of being
wild and disobedient. 7Since
an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing,
not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing
dishonest gain. 8Rather,
he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled,
upright, holy and disciplined. 9He must
hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can
encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
Rebuking Those Who Fail to Do Good
10For
there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception,
especially those of the circumcision group.11They
must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching
things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. 12One of
Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes,
lazy gluttons.”c 13This
saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in
the faith 14and
will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of
those who reject the truth. 15To the
pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe,
nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.16They
claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable,
disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
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Titus
1 The Message (MSG)
1 1-4 I,
Paul, am God’s slave and Christ’s agent for promoting the faith among God’s
chosen people, getting out the accurate word on God and how to respond rightly
to it. My aim is to raise hopes by pointing the way to life without end. This
is the life God promised long ago—and he doesn’t break promises! And then
when the time was ripe, he went public with his truth. I’ve been entrusted to
proclaim this Message by order of our Savior, God himself. Dear Titus,
legitimate son in the faith: Receive everything God our Father and Jesus our
Savior give you!
A Good Grip on the Message
5-9 I left you in charge in Crete so you could complete what I left
half-done. Appoint leaders in every town according to my instructions. As you
select them, ask, “Is this man well-thought-of? Is he committed to his wife?
Are his children believers? Do they respect him and stay out of trouble?”
It’s important that a church leader, responsible for the affairs in God’s
house, be looked up to—not pushy, not short-tempered, not a drunk, not a
bully, not money-hungry. He must welcome people, be helpful, wise, fair,
reverent, have a good grip on himself, and have a good grip on the Message, knowing
how to use the truth to either spur people on in knowledge or stop them in
their tracks if they oppose it.
10-16 For there are a lot of rebels out there, full of loose,
confusing, and deceiving talk. Those who were brought up religious and ought
to know better are the worst. They’ve got to be shut up. They’re disrupting
entire families with their teaching, and all for the sake of a fast buck. One
of their own prophets said it best:
The Cretans
are liars from the womb,
barking dogs, lazy bellies.
He certainly spoke the truth. Get on them right away. Stop that
diseased talk of Jewish make-believe and made-up rules so they can recover a
robust faith. Everything is clean to the clean-minded; nothing is clean to
dirty-minded unbelievers. They leave their dirty fingerprints on every
thought and act. They say they know God, but their actions speak louder than
their words. They’re real creeps, disobedient good-for-nothings.
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