Titus Chapter 1
1 Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,
2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago,
3 but at the proper time manifested, {even} His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior,
Paul considered himself to be a bond-servant of God. A servant works for wages, and will leave his employer if his employer mistreats him. A bond-servant is different: he doesn’t require wages, and if he is mistreated he still continues to work for his employer. God allowed Paul to face all kinds of trials, and Paul didn’t grumble or complain or give up; he just plowed on.
What about you? Are you a bond-servant, or a servant, or just a bystander? Yet, even a bystander is better than one who opposes God.
Paul was an apostle – he was sent by God to preach the gospel to those who had never heard it before. It was his job to tell people the truth about God and man, so that they would believe and be saved.
What truth did Paul tell them? Paul’s truth was according to godliness. That is, he proclaimed that people need to live a godly life (a life that pleases God). He talked about the hope of eternal life – that is, the promise that God made to man, that He would resurrect those who are His in a body that cannot be tempted.
Paul had a purpose, and that drove him to achieve greatness. People who don’t have a purpose achieve little. They end up wasting their time socializing incessantly or watching television incessantly. If you don’t have a purpose, wake up, and find a noble purpose of eternal value, and work towards it.
There are very few things that God cannot do. One of them is lying. God cannot lie. Even when God sends a deluding influence on those who love wickedness (2 Thess 2:8-12) He has to get some other being to do that.
Knowing that God cannot lie, we can rest assured that when God promises something, if we meet the conditions of the promise we will receive what God promised.
4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Like Timothy, Paul considered Titus to be close enough to be a child of his own.
Grace is help from God to overcome sin and accomplish spiritual goals (like building His kingdom). Peace with God is a state where God is on your side and not opposing you. You can’t do anything for God if He is opposing you instead of being on your side, or if He is not actively helping you to get things done. Paul realized how important it is to have peace and grace from God, and that is why the first thing he wishes Timothy is that he have peace and grace from God.
Given that Paul wished grace and peace for everyone he wrote to, don’t you think that Paul himself always ensured that he was in a position to receive grace and peace from God? Shouldn’t you too?
5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you,
6 {namely,} if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion.
7 For the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain,
8 but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled,
9 holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.
Paul left Titus in Crete to appoint elders in every city. Paul’s instructions regarding the selection of elders were quite detailed, and somewhat similar to what he told Timothy in his first letter to Timothy.
One key requirement was that the elders be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. We don’t see too many elders like that today. They are not strong on theology; many of them just vomit out what they have been told, but they haven’t really examined the Scriptures themselves and convinced themselves that what they have been taught is indeed what the Scriptures teach.
10 For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,
11 who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not {teach} for the sake of sordid gain.
In Paul’s time there were many people, especially from among the people of God (i.e. those of the circumcision) who talked about the things of God, but they really didn’t have the best interests of their hearers in mind. They were interested in sordid gain i.e. they wanted money from you even though they would never openly say that to you. As a result, they would find out what you wanted to hear, and say that.
Our times are no different from Paul’s times. Pastors have churches to build, and activities to fund, and they are always looking out for people they can add to their church – people who are gullible enough to pay tithes.
Paul wanted Titus to stop such men – men who make money wrongly in the name of God. Such men minister with the wrong motive; they minister to make money. If you read the gospels, you will see that when Jesus entered the temple in Jerusalem at the beginning of His ministry He chased away the business men with a whip. What is also interesting is that when He went to Jerusalem to die, He did the same thing!
Shouldn’t the followers of Jesus do the same thing?
12 One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons."
13 This testimony is true. For this reason, reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith,
14 not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.
What Paul is saying here is that it is really true that one of the Jewish prophets said that Cretans are always liars, evil beasts and lazy gluttons.
People who make these kinds of general statements maligning entire cultures or nations should be reproved severely.
It is our responsibility to identify men who turn away from the truth, and stop paying attention to them.
15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.
16 They profess to know God, but by {their} deeds they deny {Him,} being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.
If your mind is clean, you don’t see evil everywhere and in everything, but if your mind is unclean then you think that everything that people do is with a bad motive. Even though such people claim to know God, the very fact that they can’t see good in anything shows that they don’t think that God is capable of changing people’s hearts and making them clean. Their attitude makes them detestable to everyone and they themselves cannot do anything good with a good motive.
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