Titus

The church in Crete was full of new converts in a culture where conduct was very crude. Paul, the aged missionary, demonstrates a mature finesse in applying the Good News to the spiritual condition and circumstances of these believers in Crete as the church was beginning to grow.

Setting

A group from Crete had been in Jerusalem during Pentecost at the birth of the Christian church (Acts 2:11). Some of these might have carried the Christian faith back to the island at that time, but this letter to Titus suggests that the church on Crete had been recently founded as a result of Paul’s mission (see Titus 1:5). The only other mention of Crete in the New Testament comes during Paul’s transfer to Rome as a prisoner (Acts 27:7-21). Paul did not have an opportunity to do active ministry in Crete at that time. Most likely, Paul’s work in Crete began after the events of Acts 28:1-31 (AD 60–62) and before his final Roman imprisonment (probably around AD 64~65).

As during his first missionary journey out of Antioch, Paul had begun the church in Crete without appointing leaders. As with those earliest churches, he now wanted leaders to be established (cp. Acts 14:23), although in this case he delegated the responsibility to Titus, a longtime coworker. Paul was headed for Nicopolis (on the west coast of modern Greece), and he wanted Titus to join him there when Artemas or Tychicus had arrived on the island of Crete (Titus 3:12). Paul’s plan to winter at Nicopolis suggests that he planned to sail westward from there when spring arrived (see 2 Tim 4:21), probably heading for Italy and possibly Spain (see Rom 15:24, 28).

On Crete, the degenerate culture was negatively influencing the believers in the young church. False teachers were also troubling the community, seemingly like those mentioned in 1 and 2 Timothy. As Paul’s delegate to Crete, Titus had to set this church in order before the arrival of Artemas or Tychicus. Above all, he needed to assign elders in each city. When this was completed, he would depart and join Paul.

Summary

The letter to Titus is all business, setting the tone for Titus himself to follow. Each section of the letter body (1:5–3:11) is composed in a pattern of command, rationale, and charge. Paul consistently repeats this pattern—whether addressing the appointment of elders (1:5-16), right conduct among members of the household of faith (2:1-15), or right conduct in society at large (3:1-11). The rationale for Paul’s commands in the first section, on leadership, is that the community is threatened by false teachers and needs decisive leadership. In the next two sections, on right conduct, the commands are based on God’s grace and mercy.

Date of Writing

Titus was written at about the same time as 1 Timothy. It is possible that Paul wrote these letters and 2 Timothy during the period prior to his arrest in Acts 21, but a date sometime after the imprisonment of Acts 28 is more likely (see 1 Timothy Book Introduction, “Date of Writing”).

Situation on Crete

According to Cretan mythology, the god Zeus was once a mere human who lived and died on Crete but who had achieved godhood through the benefits he gave to humans (see study note on 1:12). The idea of a great human benefactor being exalted to the status of a god by virtue of good deeds contradicts the Good News. God graciously lowered himself to humanity in Jesus Christ—“our great God and Savior” (2:13)—and offers salvation through pure mercy (3:5).

Comparison with 1 and 2 Timothy

Although Crete is some distance from the church in Ephesus (the recipients of 1 & 2 Timothy), there are some intriguing parallels between the two situations. The characterization of the false teachers and their teaching (Titus 1:10-16) suggests that quite similar teachings were being confronted in both places (see 1 Tim 1:4-7; 4:1-4; 2 Tim 3:1-7; 4:3-4).

That said, the situation on Crete as addressed in Titus is not identical to that of Ephesus in 1 & 2 Timothy. Evidently, the church in Crete was new, whereas the church in Ephesus was long established. Crete was socially less civilized than Ephesus. The newness of the church in Crete might explain the absence of a widows list (1 Tim 5:3-16) and deacons (1 Tim 3:8-13). The differences in the troublemakers might account for the silence on the subject of women teachers (see 1 Tim 2:11-15). The criteria for leaders (Titus 1:6-9), as well as the standards of conduct for members of the community (see 2:1-10), might represent a lowering of the bar to accommodate new converts from an uncouth background. Finally, the stress on guarding the deposit, so important in Timothy (1 Tim 1:18; 6:20; 2 Tim 1:12-14; 2:2), is absent in Titus.

Meaning and Message

Central to this letter is the realization that the Christian community should enact God’s saving grace, which has been shown to the world in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The community’s behavior among its members, and in relation to those outside, should be consistent with the way that God had dealt with them. Christians must embody God’s grace in the world and toward the world. In so doing, they will advance the Good News within their territory and culture (2:10-11; 3:2-3, 8; see Matt 5:14-16).

The drama of the divine salvation of humanity invites participation. As Christ’s followers, we must become players in this performance of grace. Our communities should promote godly lives because the appearance of grace, in the person of Christ, has taught us how to live and has made such living possible (Titus 2:1-15). As individual believers, we must also conduct ourselves properly in a fallen world, with hearts bent on the salvation of others. We must bear in mind our former lives—remembering how God has dealt with us, has given us salvation, and has provided for our godliness (3:1-11).

This Epistle of Paul to Titus is much of the same nature with those to Timothy; both were converts of Paul, and his companions in labours and sufferings; both were in the office of evangelists, whose work was to water the churches planted by the apostles, and to set in order the things that were wanting in them: they were vice-apostles, as it were, working the work of the Lord, as they did, and mostly under their direction, though not despotic and arbitrary, but with the concurring exercise of their own prudence and judgment, Co1 16:10, Co1 16:12. We read much of this Titus, his titles, character, and active usefulness, in many places - he was a Greek, Gal 2:3. Paul called him his son (Tit 1:4), his brother (Co2 2:13), his partner and fellow-helper (Co2 8:23), one that walked in the same spirit and in the same steps with himself. He went up with the apostles to the church at Jerusalem (Gal 2:1), was much conversant at Corinth, for which church he had an earnest care, Co2 8:16. Paul's second epistle to them, and probably his first also, was sent by his hand, Co2 8:16-18, Co2 8:23; Co2 9:2-4; Co2 12:18. He was with the apostle at Rome, and thence went into Dalmatia (Ti2 4:10), after which no more occurs of him in the scriptures. So that by them he appears not to have been a fixed bishop; if such he were, and in those times, the church of Corinth, where he most laboured, had the best title to him. In Crete (now called Candia, formerly Hecatompolis, from the hundred cities that were in it), a large island at the mouth of the Aegean Sea, the gospel had got some footing; and here were Paul and Titus in one of their travels, cultivating this plantation; but the apostle of the Gentiles, having on him the care of all the churches, could not himself tarry long at this place. He therefore left Titus some time there, to carry on the work which had been begun, wherein, probably, meeting with more difficulty than ordinary, Paul wrote this epistle to him; and yet perhaps not so much for his own sake as for the people's, that the endeavours of Titus, strengthened with apostolic advice and authority, might be more significant and effectual among them. He was to see all the cities furnished with good pastors, to reject and keep out the unmeet and unworthy, to teach sound doctrine, and instruct all sorts in their duties, to set forth the free grace of God in man's salvation by Christ, and withal to show the necessity of maintaining good works by those who have believed in God and hope for eternal life from him.

GENUINENESS.—CLEMENT OF ROME quotes it [Epistle to the Corinthians, 2]; IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 3.3.4] refers to it as Paul's; THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH [To Autolychus, 3.14], quotes it as Scripture. Compare CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA [Miscellanies, 1, p. 299]; TERTULLIAN [The Prescription against Heretics, 6].

TIME AND PLACE OF WRITING.—This Epistle seems to have been written from Corinth [BIRKS], subsequently to his first imprisonment, when Paul was on his way to Nicopolis (Tit 3:12) in Epirus, where he purposed passing the winter, shortly before his martyrdom, A.D. 67. BIRKS thinks, from the similarity of the Epistle to Titus and First Timothy, that both were written from the same place, Corinth, and at dates not widely apart; First Timothy shortly after coming to Corinth, before he had planned a journey to Epirus, the Epistle to Titus afterwards. The journey to Crete and Ephesus for the bearers of his letters would be easy from Corinth, and he could himself thence easily pass into Epirus. He had shortly before visited Crete, wherein a Church existed (though without due organization), the first foundation of which he may have partly laid at his former visit (Act 27:7, &c.), when on his way to his first imprisonment at Rome. That he returned to the East after his first imprisonment appears most probable from Phi 2:24; Plm 1:22. However, there may have been seeds of Christianity sown in Crete, even before his first visit, by the Cretans who heard Peter's preaching on Pentecost (Act 2:11).

OCCASION OF WRITING.—Corrupt elements soon showed themselves in the Cretan Church, similar to those noticed in the Epistles to Timothy, as existing in the Ephesian Church, Judaism, false pretensions to science, and practical ungodliness. Paul, on his late visit, had left Titus in Crete to establish Church government, and ordain presbyters (deacons are not mentioned). Titus had been several times employed by Paul on a mission to the Corinthian Churches, and had probably thence visited Crete, which was within easy reach of Corinth. Hence the suitableness of his selection by the apostle for the superintendence of the Cretan Church. Paul now follows up with instructions by letter those he had already given to Titus in person on the qualifications of elders, and the graces becoming the old, the young, and females, and warns him against the unprofitable speculations so rife in Crete. The national character of the Cretans was low in the extreme, as EPIMENIDES, quoted in Tit 1:12, paints it. LIVY [History, 44.45], stigmatizes their avarice; POLYBIUS [Histories, 6.46.9], their ferocity and fraud; and [Histories, 6.47.5], their mendacity, so much so, that "to Cretanize" is another name for to lie: they were included in the proverbial three infamous initials "K" or "C," "Cappadocia, Crete, Cilicia."

NOTICES OF TITUS.—It is strange that he is never mentioned by this name in Acts, and there seems none of those mentioned in that book who exactly answers to him. He was a Greek, and therefore a Gentile (Gal 2:1, Gal 2:3), and converted by Paul (Tit 1:4). He accompanied the apostle on the deputation sent from the Church of Antioch to Jerusalem, to consult the apostles respecting the circumcision of Gentile converts (Act 15:2); and, agreeably to the decree of the council there, was not circumcised. He was in company with Paul at Ephesus, whence he was sent to Corinth to commence the collection for the Jerusalem saints, and to ascertain the effect of the First Epistle on the Corinthians (Co2 7:6-9; Co2 8:6; Co2 12:18), and there showed an unmercenary spirit. He next proceeded to Macedon, where he joined Paul, who had been already eagerly expecting him at Troas (Co2 2:12-13, "Titus my brother," Co2 7:6). He was then employed by the apostle in preparing the collection for the poor saints in Judea, and became the bearer of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Co2 8:16-17, Co2 8:23). Paul in it calls him "my partner and fellow helper concerning you." His being located in Crete (Tit 1:5) was subsequent to Paul's first imprisonment, and shortly before the second, about A.D. 67, ten years subsequent to the last notice of him in Second Corinthians (Co2 12:18), A.D. 57. He probably met Paul, as the apostle desired, at Nicopolis; for his subsequent journey into Dalmatia, thence (or else from Rome, whither he may have accompanied Paul) would be more likely, than from the distant Crete (Ti2 4:10, written subsequently to the Epistle to Titus). In the unsettled state of things then, Titus' episcopal commission in Crete was to be but temporary, Paul requiring the presence of Titus with himself, whenever Artemas or Tychicus should arrive in Crete and set him free from his duties there.

Tradition represents him to have died peaceably in Crete, as archbishop of Gortyna, at an advanced age.

Next: Titus Chapter 1