Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Titus · About this commentary
Insist on These Things
Titus 3:8-9
8 This saying is faithful, and concerning these things I desire that you insist confidently, so that those who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men; · WEB
Titus is told to press the doctrine of free grace precisely so that believers will be careful to do good — and to walk away from arguments that produce nothing.
Faithful is the saying — the formula that marks a settled statement worth repeating, and Scripture uses it exactly five times, all in these late letters 1 Timothy 1:15 2 Timothy 2:11. Here it certifies what has just been said about mercy and the washing. Then the instruction: insist confidently on these things, so that those who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works.
That purpose clause is the letter's whole argument in miniature. The remedy for a church short on good works is not more exhortation about good works; it is confident insistence on what God did without them. Verse 9 draws the opposite line: shun foolish questionings, genealogies, strife, and disputes about the law. The verdict on them is practical rather than doctrinal — unprofitable and vain. They produce nothing, and the sentence just before was about things that are good and profitable to men. The test applied to both is what comes out.
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