Titus

What This Book Is

A short letter to a colleague organising churches on Crete, connecting what God has done to how ordinary people should live.

Overview

Titus has been left on Crete to appoint elders town by town and to put things in order. The letter is brief and practical.

It does not flatter the setting. Paul quotes a Cretan writer's own harsh assessment of the island's character and says it is true, which is a striking thing to put in a letter that will be read publicly there. The point is not contempt but realism about what these congregations are working against.

The qualifications for elders are similar to those in 1 Timothy and again concentrate on character: not arrogant, not quick tempered, not a drunkard, not violent, not greedy, hospitable, self controlled, holding firmly to trustworthy teaching.

Instructions follow for different groups in the congregation, older men and women, younger women and men, and slaves, reflecting the household structures of that world. The repeated purpose is that the teaching about God would not be discredited by how believers behave.

Two passages carry the theological weight. In chapter 2, the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation, and it trains us to renounce ungodliness and live self controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait. In chapter 3, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

Good works appear repeatedly in this short letter, always as the result of grace rather than the cause of salvation.

Structure

• Chapter 1: Appointing eldersCharacter requirements, and a blunt assessment of the setting.
• Chapter 2: HouseholdsInstructions by group, and grace that trains.
• Chapter 3: Mercy and good worksSaved by mercy, and devoted to what is good.

Themes

Why It Matters

Titus makes the connection between belief and behaviour tighter than almost any other short letter. Grace is not described as leaving people as they were; it trains them. And the aim of that changed life is public: so that the message about God is not discredited, and so that believers are useful rather than merely respectable.

How to Read It

• Read 2:11-14 and 3:3-7 together. They carry the letter's theology.
• Notice how often good works appear, and always as a result rather than a cause.
• Read the elder qualifications alongside those in 1 Timothy 3.
• Notice that the reason given for good conduct is usually about how outsiders will hear the message.

Key Verse

Did You Know?

• The letter quotes a Cretan poet, generally identified as Epimenides, criticising Crete.
• The phrase the grace of God has appeared frames the letter's central passage in chapter 2.
• Good works are mentioned repeatedly in only three chapters.

Where to Start Reading