Introduction to Titus

Title and authorship

Paul names himself in the first word and describes his commission for three verses before naming the recipient — an unusually weighted opening for a letter this short, and a deliberate one: what Titus is about to be told to do rests on the trust Paul was given.

Titus never appears in Acts, yet the letters make him substantial. He was a Greek, taken to Jerusalem as a test case and not compelled to be circumcised Galatians 2:1–3; he carried the hardest correspondence to Corinth and brought back the news that relieved Paul 2 Corinthians 7:6–7; he was trusted with the collection 2 Corinthians 8:16–17; and he was later sent to Dalmatia 2 Timothy 4:10. Here he is called a true child according to a common faith — the same phrase of relationship Paul uses of Timothy 1 Timothy 1:2.

Date

The letter cannot be placed inside the events of Acts. Paul says he left Titus on Creta  to finish organizing the churches there Titus 1:5, and plans to winter at Nicopolis Titus 3:12 — a mission and an itinerary the narrative of Acts never records, since it ends with Paul under guard in Rome Acts 28:30–31. The natural reading is that the apostle was released and traveled again, and that this letter belongs to that later period, near the end of his life. Scripture gives no year.

Backgrounds

Crete had churches but no order: elders were still to be appointed city by city, and things were left unfinished Titus 1:5. Into that gap had moved talkers of the circumcision party, overturning whole households for money Titus 1:10–11 and trading in Jewish fables and human commandments Titus 1:14.

The island's reputation was bad and Paul does not soften it. He quotes a prophet of their own against them — Cretans always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons — and answers, this testimony is true Titus 1:12–13. Scripture declines to name the poet, and the quotation loses nothing by it; its force lies in being an islander's verdict on islanders, not in its authorship. The reproof it justifies aims at making them sound in the faith, which is a physician's aim rather than a critic's.

Theology and purpose

The letter's spine is two appearings, and the Greek marks them. Grace appeared, bringing salvation Titus 2:11; the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared Titus 3:4 — both past, both the incarnation. Between and beyond them stands the appearing still awaited, the blessed hope and the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ Titus 2:13. The Christian present is the stretch of road between an appearing that has happened and an appearing that will, and everything the letter asks is asked of people standing there.

Salvation is not by works of righteousness which we did Titus 3:5 — the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, poured out richly, justified by his grace. Yet good works are named again and again as what the saved are for Titus 2:14 Titus 3:8 Titus 3:14. The letter feels no strain between these, because grace itself is the instructor: it trains its recipients to renounce ungodliness and live soberly, righteously, and godly Titus 2:12. Grace does not merely pardon conduct; it teaches it.

One word carries the deity of Christ without argument. Savior occurs six times, alternating: of God in Titus 1:3, of Christ in Titus 1:4, of God in Titus 2:10, of God in Titus 3:4, of Christ in Titus 3:6 — and at Titus 2:13 the two stand in one phrase, our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. A letter that hands the same title back and forth is not distinguishing two saviors.

Outline

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