Titus

Titus

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​WHEN THE CHURCH NEEDS ORDER

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The Gospels show you who Jesus is. Acts shows you what His Spirit started doing. Romans shows you how a person is made right with God. 1 Corinthians shows you how to live together as the church. 2 Corinthians shows you how to keep walking when it gets hard. Galatians shows you that you are free. Ephesians shows you who you are now. Philippians shows you how joy can be real even when life is not. Colossians shows you that Jesus is enough. 1 Thessalonians shows you how to live with hope between Jesus' first coming and His return. 2 Thessalonians shows you how to stay steady when you are not sure where you are in the story. 1 Timothy shows you what the church is meant to guard, and how it is meant to live. 2 Timothy shows you how to finish well.

 

Titus shows you what happens to people when the gospel is actually doing its work in them.

 

Paul wrote it to a younger leader named Titus, who had been left on the island of Crete to help the new churches there get organised. The Cretan churches were young and the culture around them was rough. False teachers were stirring up trouble. Titus needed clear guidance for what kind of leaders to appoint, what kind of life the believers should live, and how to handle the opposition.

 

The letter is short. Three chapters. But sitting at the centre of those three chapters are two of the most beautiful summaries of the gospel in the whole New Testament. Paul does not give them as theology to admire. He gives them as the engine of everything else. The way Christians live is the way they live because Jesus has actually done something for them. The changed life flows from the gospel, not the other way round.

 

The question many believers carry quietly, especially when they look around at what passes for Christianity, is one this letter answers more directly than any other in the Bible. How does the gospel actually change the way people live, and what does a community look like when it is being genuinely transformed by grace rather than just informed by religion?

 

Paul's answer is short and clear. The change is real, but it is not produced by trying harder. It is produced by the grace of God that has appeared in Jesus Christ. He gave Himself for us to redeem and purify us. The Spirit has been poured out on us through Him. The same Saviour who saved us is the one who is now growing in us a different kind of life. The community of believers, when this is actually happening, looks like people whose ordinary days have been quietly reshaped by Him. Not perfect. Not impressive. But real, and beautiful, and visibly different from the world around them.

 

This guide will not replace your Bible. It is here to walk alongside you while you read it. Open Titus soon, and let what is said here send you back to the source.

 

Who Wrote It

 

Paul. Writing to Titus, a younger Greek man who had become one of his most trusted partners in ministry.

 

Titus is mentioned several times across Paul's letters. He had travelled with Paul to Jerusalem early on, and Paul had refused to have him circumcised, because Titus was a Gentile and Paul wanted to make the point that Gentile believers did not have to become Jewish to be Christians (Galatians 2:1-5). Titus had been Paul's go-between with the Corinthian church during a difficult season, carrying the painful letter to them and bringing back word of their repentance (2 Corinthians 7:6-16). By the time Paul writes this letter, probably around AD 62 to 64, Titus is leading the work in Crete.

 

Paul writes to give him instructions and to encourage him. He is going to send Artemas or Tychicus to Crete soon, and when one of them arrives, Titus is to come and join Paul in Nicopolis, where Paul plans to spend the winter (Titus 3:12).

 

This is a working letter. Quick. Direct. Practical. But not without warmth. Paul calls Titus "my true son in our common faith" (Titus 1:4), the same kind of language he used for Timothy. He clearly loved this younger man.

 

Who He Was Writing For

 

Crete is a long, mountainous island in the Mediterranean, about two hundred and fifty kilometres south of Athens. In Paul's day it had a reputation. Even one of its own writers had said the Cretans were liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons (Paul actually quotes this in Titus 1:12). The culture was tough, dishonest, and hard on new believers trying to follow Jesus.

 

The churches in Crete were young. They needed leaders, and the leaders had to be the right kind. They needed to know how to handle false teachers who were exploiting the situation for money. They needed to know what daily life as a believer should look like in a culture that was largely going the opposite direction.

 

If you have come to Jesus in a culture where people around you are not following Him, where the prevailing values feel hostile to Christian living, where people seem to be in it for what they can get, this letter speaks to you. The Cretan churches were in exactly that situation. Paul wrote to tell them how to live faithfully where they were.

 

The Tone of the Letter

 

Titus is brisk. There are no long digressions. Paul moves quickly from topic to topic. Appoint elders. Silence the false teachers. Teach what is sound doctrine. Tell older men this. Tell older women that. Tell younger women, younger men, slaves how to live. Treat outsiders this way. Watch for divisive people. Send people on their journeys.

 

But running through all of it, like a steady drumbeat, is the same theme. The gospel is the reason. The grace of God has appeared. The kindness and love of God our Saviour has appeared. He saved us. He gave Himself for us. He poured out His Spirit on us. Therefore, live like this. The "therefore" is the whole point. The way Christians live is downstream of what God has done.

 

If you read Titus and feel that the practical instructions and the theology are not separable, you are reading it correctly. Paul cannot teach the one without the other. They belong together.

 

Leaders Worth Having

 

Paul opens chapter 1 by reminding Titus why he was left in Crete.

 

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.

Titus 1:5

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The young churches needed local leaders. Paul gives a list of qualifications similar to the one in 1 Timothy 3, with some differences. An elder must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, with believing children, not arrogant or quick-tempered or addicted to wine, not violent or greedy, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast to the faithful word so that he can both encourage in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict it (Titus 1:6-9).

 

Look at this list. It is mostly about character. Almost nothing about giftedness or charisma or speaking ability. The right leaders for a young church are not the most impressive people in the room. They are the most trustworthy. The ones whose ordinary daily life is consistent with what they teach.

 

Then Paul names the problem the leaders are needed to address. There are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, who are upsetting whole households by teaching things they should not teach for the sake of dishonest gain (Titus 1:10-11). Paul says they must be silenced.

 

This is important. Some of the loudest voices in Christianity, then and now, are people who are using the faith for their own profit. Paul names this directly. Teachers who are in it for money are not faithful teachers, no matter how charismatic. The faithful elder, in Paul's vision, is the opposite. Not greedy. Not seeking dishonest gain. Loving what is good. Hospitable. Self-controlled. Holding fast to the faithful word.

 

If you are looking for a church or a teacher to follow, Titus 1 gives you the list. The character matters more than the platform.

 

The Heart of the Letter, Part One

 

In chapter 2 Paul gives instructions for how different groups in the church should live. Older men should be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. Older women should be reverent in their behaviour, not malicious gossips, not enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good. Younger women should be encouraged to love their husbands and children, to be sensible and pure, kind. Younger men should be sensible. Bondservants should be subject to their masters in everything, well-pleasing, not pilfering (Titus 2:1-10).

 

These are practical instructions for a particular ancient culture. These verses have also been misused at times in history, so they should be read through the wider witness of the gospel, where every person bears God's image and believers are called to treat one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

Read them carefully in your own Bible alongside the rest of the New Testament's witness about how Christians live. The principle running through all of them is the same. Live in a way that adorns the doctrine of God our Saviour in every respect (Titus 2:10). The way you live is meant to make the gospel beautiful to outsiders.

 

Then Paul tells you why. This is one of the most beautiful gospel passages in the entire New Testament.

 

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

Titus 2:11-14

 

Read this slowly. It is the answer to your question.

 

The grace of God has appeared. Read that again. The grace of God has appeared. Grace is not an idea. It is not a feeling. It is a person. Jesus. He has appeared in history. The grace of God walked into the world in human form.

 

Bringing salvation to all people. Salvation has been brought, not earned. It has been brought to all kinds of people. Not to a special class. To anyone who will receive it.

 

Instructing us. The grace of God is also a teacher. The same grace that saves us also trains us. To deny ungodliness and worldly desires. To live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age. The change is not separate from grace. The change is what grace does in someone. Grace is what teaches us how to live differently.

 

Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Christ Jesus. Grace also gives us a horizon. Jesus is coming again. The same Saviour who came in grace will return in glory. The Christian life is lived between those two appearings, looking forward to the second.

 

Who gave Himself for us. He paid the price. He did not have to.

 

To redeem us from every lawless deed. The blood of Jesus deals with every lawless thing in your past. Every one. None of them too small. None of them too large.

 

And to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

 

Sit with this last phrase. He gave Himself to make a people. Not just to save individuals. To make a people who belong to Him. A people who are zealous for good deeds. The good deeds are not what make us His. They are what flow out of belonging to Him. He purifies us for Himself, and that purification produces a people who are eager to live well, not because they have to, but because they cannot help it.

 

This is the engine of the whole letter. The way Christians live is the way they live because Jesus has redeemed them and is purifying them for Himself. They are not trying to earn anything. They are responding to what has already been done.

 

The Heart of the Letter, Part Two

 

In chapter 3 Paul moves from how believers should live within the church to how they should treat outsiders. He says to remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable and gentle, showing every consideration for all people (Titus 3:1-2).

 

Then he gives one of the most important pastoral notes in the New Testament. Remember who you used to be.

 

For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.

Titus 3:3

 

Paul includes himself in this list. We were like that too. We were the people we are now talking about. The reason Christians should treat outsiders with kindness and patience is that we ourselves were once where they are. We did not arrive here by our own goodness. We were brought here by mercy.

 

Then Paul gives the second great gospel passage of the letter.

 

But when the kindness of God our Saviour and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:4-7

 

Read this slowly. Each line is doing real work.

 

When the kindness of God our Saviour and His love for mankind appeared. The same word as in chapter 2. Appeared. The kindness and love of God appeared in history. They have a face. Jesus.

 

He saved us. Past tense. Already done. Not might save. Has saved.

 

Not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness. Read this twice. Not because we earned it. Not because of anything good we did. Not because we cleaned ourselves up first.

 

But according to His mercy. The reason He saved us was His own mercy. The reason was inside Him, not us.

 

By the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit washed us and renewed us. Regeneration means being born again. New life from above. The Spirit Himself is the one who did the washing.

 

Whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. The Spirit was poured out, richly, abundantly, generously. Through Jesus. Because of Him.

 

So that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 

Sit with this. He saved us by His mercy. He washed us and renewed us by His Spirit. He poured out the Spirit on us through Jesus. He has made us heirs of eternal life. All of this is what God has done. None of it is what we did.

 

This is the answer to your question. The gospel changes how people live because God has actually done these things to them. Saved them. Washed them. Renewed them. Poured out His Spirit on them. Made them heirs. The change is not behaviour management. It is the result of being remade.

 

What This Looks Like in a Community

 

After the gospel passage in chapter 3, Paul says one more thing.

 

This is a trustworthy statement, and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and beneficial for people (Titus 3:8).

 

The result of believing the gospel is being careful to engage in good deeds. Not in a heavy, anxious, perfectionist way. In the way a tree bears fruit. Naturally. Steadily. Because of what is true about it.

 

A community of people being genuinely transformed by grace, in Paul's vision, looks like this.

 

The leaders are people of tested character, not impressive personalities. They handle money with care. They are not chasing platforms. Their daily life is consistent with what they teach.

 

The older believers are dignified, sober, sound in faith and love and patience. They are not malicious gossips. They are teaching what is good to those younger.

 

The younger believers are sensible. They are learning to love their families well. They are pure. They are kind.

 

People of every station live in a way that adorns the doctrine of the Saviour. Their work is done well. Their relationships are honest. They are not pilfering. They are well-pleasing in the things they have been entrusted with.

 

Toward outsiders, the community is peaceable and gentle, showing every consideration for all people. They remember they were once where the outsiders are. They do not look down on anyone.

 

False teachers and divisive people are addressed firmly when necessary, but not given a platform. The community guards itself against teaching that is in it for the money.

 

And underneath all of it is the steady awareness that none of this is being earned. The community is doing all of this because Jesus has appeared. Because grace has come. Because the Spirit has been poured out on them. They are not trying to be a community that pleases God. They are a community God has saved by grace, and the way they live is meant to show the beauty of that grace.

 

That is the picture Titus paints. Not perfect. Not impressive. But real, beautiful, and visibly different from the world around them.

 

How to Read Titus

 

It is three short chapters. You can read it in fifteen minutes.

 

If you are not sure where to begin, here is something gentle to try. Read the whole letter through once. Notice how Paul keeps coming back to what the gospel has done as the engine of how the church lives. Then sit with chapter 1, the leaders and the false teachers. Then chapter 2, the practical instructions and the great gospel passage at verses 11 to 14. After that, read chapter 3, the way believers treat outsiders and the great gospel passage at verses 4 to 7.

 

Read Titus alongside 1 Timothy. They share many of the same concerns and language. Where 1 Timothy was longer and went into more depth on church order, Titus is shorter and tighter, focused on the way the gospel produces a particular kind of life.

 

Keep coming back to Titus 2:11-14 and Titus 3:4-7 throughout your life. Both passages are worth memorising. Together they tell you what God has done and what He is doing in you.

 

What Titus Means for Your Life Now

 

If you have come to Jesus and are wondering what should be different about your life now, return to chapter 2 verses 11 to 14. The grace of God that saved you also instructs you. It teaches you how to live in the present age. The instructing is not separate from the saving. It is part of the same grace.

 

If you find that change is slow, that the way you live is not yet matching what you say you believe, return to chapter 3 verses 4 to 7. He saved you not on the basis of deeds which you did in righteousness. The change is not your project. It is the Spirit's work. For those who belong to Christ, the Spirit has been poured out richly through Jesus. He is the one washing you and renewing you. Stay close to Him.

 

If you are tempted to look down on people who are not yet believers, return to chapter 3 verse 3. Remember who you used to be. We were like that too. The kindness of God appeared and changed us. We are no better than the people we are tempted to dismiss. They are where we used to be, in need of the same mercy we received.

 

If you are looking for a church or a teacher to follow, return to chapter 1. Look for character. Look for leaders who are not chasing money or platform. Look for people whose ordinary life adorns the doctrine they teach.

 

If you ever wonder whether the change in you is real, return to the gospel passages. The grace of God has appeared. The kindness of God has appeared. He saved you according to His mercy. He poured out the Spirit on you richly through Jesus. He has made you an heir of eternal life. None of this depends on the strength of your feelings. It is what is true about you in Christ.

 

The community of believers, when the gospel is actually doing its work, is a people purified for Him, zealous for good deeds, careful to engage in what is good and beneficial. Not perfect. Not impressive. But real. The kind of life that makes the gospel beautiful to outsiders.

 

That is what He is making in His people. That is what He is making in you.