BIG IDEA:
THE PROCLAMATION OF THE WORD OF GOD (WITH ITS MESSAGE OF ETERNAL LIFE) IS A SACRED TRUST
INTRODUCTION:
Paul Zehr: The salutation to Titus—one long, sixty-five-word sentence—is the longest of the letters to Timothy and Titus. Only the salutation of Paul’s epistle to Romans is longer (1:1-7). The difference in length lies primarily in Paul’s emphasis on God’s salvation history, which centers in Jesus Christ (Titus 1:4). Paul’s own role and purpose as an apostle who is proclaiming salvation also receives major attention.
David Platt: Here in Titus 1:1-4, in one of Paul’s longest introductions, the apostle begins a short three-chapter, 46-verse letter that weds in a beautiful duet the Christian sonnet of doctrine and deeds, belief and behavior, conduct and creed. Being sound in doctrine and zealous for good works are twin themes that tie this short, powerful epistle together. . .
Grace inspires godliness. Salvation inspires service. Those who understand that God’s love for them and His desire for their salvation originates in eternity past and continues through eternity future will be compelled to love Him and serve Him. They will do so not out of obligation but out of gratitude, “gospel gratitude.” A man who is captured by the love of his wife will return that love not because he has to but because he wants to. A person captured by the love of Jesus will love Him in return, not because he has to but because he wants to. He saved you that you might serve Him. He saved you that you might enjoy Him.
Thomas Lea: This theologically rich introduction to the Epistle to Titus moves in scope from Paul’s reflections on the sovereignty of God in human salvation to Paul’s role in achieving God’s purposes. Although he touched on some of the deep mysteries of God, he recognized his own God-given role to protect and proclaim the message of the gospel God had entrusted to him. He was a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ who embraced the trustworthy promises of God, knowing that they would be fulfilled at God’s appointed time. Likewise, believers of all ages reflecting upon God’s will and purposes for the world should be challenged to see their own role as God’s instruments for promoting faith and knowledge that leads to godliness.
I. THE PROCLAMATION OF THE WORD ISSUES FROM A SENSE OF DIVINE CALLING
Which results in an absolute commitment to the will of God; commissioned to fulfill a calling
A. Paul as a Bond-servant of God — Relationship characterized by Humility and Submission and Dependence
Homer Kent: A slave (doulos) is one who gives himself up wholly to another’s will.
Thomas Long: In Roman society, a slave might have many tasks but really only one duty—to be submissive to the will of his master. “Paul” claims for himself the role of one who is a slave belonging to God, as one whose own desires and will have been yielded in favor of God’s desires and will. This not a matter of forced labor, but in the spirit of the old hymn: “Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free.”
B. Paul as an Apostle of Jesus Christ — Relationship characterized by Privilege and Mission
Apostle used in the narrow sense of the 12
Thomas Long: “Slave” is a humble title, but “apostle,” by contrast, is a title of significance. Thus, “Paul” could be saying, “Yes, I am a ‘slave,’ but don’t let that diminish my authority in your eyes. I am every bit as much an apostle and possess the same status as Peter, John, James, or any of the rest of the so-called eyewitness disciples of Jesus.”
John MacArthur: All effective, fruitful, and genuinely spiritual leaders in Christ’s church have a deep awareness that they are under divine authority. That awareness becomes the controlling reality of their lives. They do not seek to fulfill personal agendas, create personal fame, or build personal empires. They are content and feel honored for the privilege of being wholly subject to the Master who has chosen and sent them.
II. THE PROCLAMATION OF THE WORD AIMS AT VERY LOFTY GOALS
A. The Progress of Faith on the Part of the Elect
“for the faith of those chosen of God“
Understand that Faith is not for everyone
kata — in the interest of; pertaining to
William Hendriksen: The service and apostleship are exercised ‘in the interest of‘ (that seems to be the meaning of kata here; cf. John 2:6; II Cor. 11:21) the faith of God’s elect and (their) acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness; that is, they are carried out in order to further or promote the reliance of God’s chosen ones upon him, and their glad recognition or confession of the redemptive truth which centers in him; a truth which, in sharp contrast with the vagaries of false teachers, accords with (or here also ‘is in the interest of,’ ‘promotes‘) godliness, the life of Christian virtue, the spirit of consecration.
Thomas Long: He lists the two key elements he believes are essential for vital church life: strong faith and sound doctrine that leads to ethical expression. Strong faith is the wind that fills the sails and powers the vessel from the safe harbor into the excitement and adventure of the open sea. Sound doctrine is not a checklist of correct things to believe but the sextant and the compass, the navigational instruments that keep the ship on course as it cuts through the waves and battles storms. In other words, the Pastor writes to encourage “Titus” to have the kind of ministry at Crete that will build up among the people a confident trust and hope in God and will teach the truth of the gospel in such a way that it guides people in living peaceable lives full of faith and good works.
Robert Yarbrough: Paul calls believers by this same word “elect” (eklektos) in Rom 8:33 and Col 3:12 (where it is translated “those whom God has chosen”). This designation has ancient grounding in God’s sovereign and gracious choice of a redeemed people through the calling of Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12; see also Rom 9:11; 11:28). Jesus likewise called his followers, particularly those who remain faithful through great trial, “the elect” (Matt 24:22, 24, 31). In broad biblical perspective, few concepts are more basic to the identity of God’s people than being chosen by God. Whatever Paul writes in this letter, it will extend and solidify that identity.
David Platt: I understand Paul to be a theological and soteriological compatibilist. He believed God elected and predestined people to be saved but did so in such a way as to do no violence to their free will and responsibility to believe the gospel. The great prince of preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, once commented on this issue: “He saves man by grace, and if men perish they perish justly by their own fault. ‘How,’ says someone, ‘do you reconcile these two doctrines?’ My dear brethren, I never reconcile two friends, never. These two doctrines are friends with one another; for they are both in God’s Word, and I shall not attempt to reconcile them” (“Jacob and Esau,” in New Park Street, 5:120). And neither should we.
I am convinced Paul stood against anything that questioned the sovereignty of God and he stood steadfast against anything that would harm a red-hot passion for missions and evangelism. Here we see the purpose of our ministry. It is a ministry that exists for the salvation of the lost among all the nations through the proclamation of the gospel.
B. The Increase in the Knowledge of the Truth
Read through the pastoral epistles and you will see that Paul never disparages truth or sound doctrine. These are always pursued with the utmost intensity. For him there is always the practical connection to a life of holiness.
John MacArthur: Knowledge translates epignōsis, which refers to the clear perception of a truth. Paul has in mind saving truth, the truth of the gospel that leads to salvation. It is that aspect of the truth that he mentions in his first letter to Timothy, in which he assures us that “God our Savior … desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3-4; 2 Tim. 2:25). By contrast, a person who does not genuinely seek God or His way of salvation is “always learning [but] never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” that saves (2 Tim. 3:7).
C. The Corresponding Increase in Practical Godliness
understanding that real spiritual truth is always “according to godliness”
This connection between sound doctrine and good deeds and practical godliness is going to be a major emphasis of this epistle
Robert Yarbrough: Such “godliness” is the practical expression, the living out in real life situations, of the knowledge of God that easily veers off into abstract conviction that is mentally stimulating but practically barren. In contrast to a merely theoretical, confessional, or speculative “truth” (note 2 Tim 3:7: “always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth”), Paul writes to commend “knowledge of the truth” that will make a difference for his readers’ religious disposition, which affects their everyday affairs, relationships, and actions. This practical emphasis paves the way for Paul’s stress on works in later sections of this epistle. Paul may be using “truth” in a way that foreshadows a polemical or apologetic stance toward opponents of his apostolic status or message.
Thomas Lea: The term for godliness (eusebeia) denotes an everyday way of living (or conduct) that displays devotion to God.2 This initial reference to the transforming power of the gospel that results in godly living is a recurrent theme throughout this letter as Paul contrasted the expected behavior of Christians with the behavior of their opponents and unbelievers.
John MacArthur: God’s very purpose for choosing and saving us is to make us like Himself—holy, pure, blameless, righteous, and perfect. The evidence of our election is found in our justification. The evidence of our justification is found in our sanctification. And one day the evidence of our sanctification will be manifested in our glorification.
D. The Certain Realization of Eternal Life
“in the hope of eternal life“
Homer Kent: Eternal life is here spoken as a ‘hope‘ because it has many aspects as yet unrealized, even though it is a present possession of the believer.
Paul Zehr: Certainty of eternal life rests on two qualities of God’s character: God promised it before the ages began. And God never lies. God’s truthfulness and absence of deceit are well-attested in the Scriptures. Therefore, God’s promise of eternal life before the ages began is sure and reliable.
Robert Yarbrough: The future God promises is more powerful in this fallen world than the seemingly intractable evil and setbacks than can easily darken church leaders’ vision, skew their judgment, and extinguish their hope.
David Platt: Hope is a confident certainty and expectation of something that is not yet ours but will be. Eternal life is the very life of God. It is both a quantity of life (forever) and a quality of life (“Christ in you, the hope of glory,” Col 1:27). This “hope of eternal life” is founded upon the character and integrity of the God “who cannot lie” (cf. 1 Sam 15:29; Heb 6:18). In stark contrast is Satan, who “is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44), as well as the Cretans, who are described as being “always liars” (v. 12). Paul points out that this hope of eternal life was “promised before time began.” The plan of salvation, the promise of eternal life, looks both ways down “God’s highway of grace”; it runs into eternity past and it lasts into eternity future (Hughes and Chapell, 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus, 277).
III. THE PROCLAMATION OF THE WORD CENTERS AROUND THE MANIFESTATION OF THE GOSPEL MESSAGE IN HISTORY
A. Promised by a Faithful God
“which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago“
B. Manifested at the Proper Time in History
“but at the proper time manifested“
History is essentially “His story”
Gal. 4:4
Donald Guthrie: The due times of the manifestation are in contrast to the eternal times of the promise, and point to the appropriate events appointed by God for His self-revelation in Christ.
C. Summed up as the LOGOS
“even His word“
The written Word reveals the Living Word; there seems to be some connection here to the message of John 1:1-18 where the Logos is in view; the message of eternal life is revealed in the Word.
D. Edmond Hiebert: “His Word‘” is not the personal Christ, the Logos, but rather the saving message of the gospel. This message was made known “at his appointed season,” the opportune seasons established by God in his eternal wisdom. All history was the preparation for that revelation.
Robert Yarbrough: God’s “word” surged into public view “through the preaching entrusted to” Paul. Paul is of course not suggesting that he is the only person to have preached Christ in his time. But he may be harking back to the awareness conveyed to him via Ananias at Paul’s conversion: “This man is my [God’s] chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:15–16). Certainly the Pauline mission thrust forth the gospel message with an enormous force and effect, particularly in the vast sweep of the Roman Empire. And this was at great personal cost to Paul (see 2 Cor 11:23–33). The mystery of the ages as it related to Christ’s mission had been disclosed to Paul in a manner that distinguished him even among the other apostles (see Eph 3:2–9). This being “entrusted” is a significant marker across a sweep of Paul’s writings: as a Jew whose race had long been “entrusted with the very words of God” (Rom 3:2), Paul via Christ’s calling had gone a giant step further: he had been entrusted with a stewardship (1 Cor 9:17), with “the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised” (Gal 2:7), “with the gospel” (1 Thess 2:4), and with “the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God” (1 Tim 1:11). He reflects this same consciousness in his opening words to Titus.
With “brought to light,” Paul has in mind the direct revelatory work of God. How else would he fulfill his promise? Who else could bring it about? It could occur only by revelation, by which God had made known his divine attributes (Rom 1:9), his righteousness (Rom 3:21), his saving mystery (Rom 16:26), hidden human motives (1 Cor 4:5), the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ (2 Cor 2:14), and much else. In the PE Paul uses the same verb in 1 Tim 3:16 (“He appeared [was revealed] in the flesh”) and 2 Tim 1:10 (“[grace] has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus”). Titus can have confidence because gospel ministry does not need to invent a marketable commodity but merely commend what God has already fully made known.
IV. THE PROCLAMATION OF THE WORD IS A SACRED TRUST
“in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior“
Donald Guthrie: The word made known through preaching must be the message of the gospel, which forms the content of Christian preaching. The idea of having such ministry committed to him … was a constant source of wonderment to Paul (e.g. Gal. i. 1, ii. 7), and is reiterated in all the Pastorals (cf. 1 Tim. i. 11; 2 Tim. I, 11).
Albert Barnes: Paul always claimed to be divinely commissioned, and affirmed that he was engaged in the work of preaching by the authority of God; see Gal. i. 1, 11, 12; 1 Cor. i. 1; Rom. i. 1-5.
Homer Kent: The designation “our Saviour God” occurs three times in 1 Timothy and three times in Titus, and is one of the distinctive marks of these Pastoral Epistles.”
David Platt: When we receive Jesus as Savior we also receive God as Father. As “God our Savior” in verse 3, the Lord (deity) Jesus (humanity) Christ (God’s anointed) is “our Savior” in verse 4. The title Savior appears 12 times in the New Testament, six of those times in Titus. The question of who is Savior must have been an issue on the island of Crete. Three times it is applied to God (1:3; 2:10; 3:4), and three times it is applied to Jesus (1:4; 2:13; 3:6). The equality of essence as God and yet their distinction in person is plainly and clearly revealed.
V. THE PROCLAMATION OF THE WORD MUST BE REPRODUCED IN EACH SUCCEEDING GENERATION
“to Titus, my true child in a common faith“
R.C.H. Lenski: “Child” expresses dearness, and “genuine” an acknowledgment that Titus (like Timothy) runs true to his spiritual parentage and will so transmit these instructions.
Robert Yarbrough: The glue binding Paul and Titus is “the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3), faith with cognitive substance (e.g., that God exists; that he created the world; that he rules over all things; that he sent his Son, who died for sin and rose from the dead; that he gave Scripture by inspiration). This common faith has implications for ministry and life, some of which Paul will unfold in this epistle. That he can do so with such confidence in Titus’s understanding and receptivity is a tribute to a “common faith” that Christians have affirmed since earliest generations. It is more than mental “knowledge,” and it is not merely confessed assent. But neither is it nothing but a shared, undefined, inner religious experience called “faith.”
William Barclay: Titus was the man for a tough assignment. When the trouble at Corinth was at its peak, it was he who was sent with one of the severest letters Paul ever wrote (2 Corinthians 8:16). Titus clearly had the strength of mind and character which enabled him to face and to handle a difficult situation. There are two kinds of people. There are the people who can make a bad situation worse, and there are the people who can bring order out of chaos and peace out of strife. Titus was the man to send to the place where there was trouble. He had a gift for practical administration. It was Titus whom Paul chose to organize the collection for the poor members of the church at Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 8:6, 8:10). It is clear that he had no great gifts of speech, but he was the man for practical administration. The Church ought to thank God for the people to whom we turn whenever we want a practical job done well.
Paul has certain titles for Titus.
He calls him his loyal child. That must mean that he was Paul’s convert and child in the faith (Titus 1:4). Nothing in this world gives a preacher and teacher more joy than to see those whom they have taught rise to fulfil a useful position within the Church. Titus was the son who brought joy to the heart of Paul, his father in the faith.
He calls him his brother (2 Corinthians 2:13) and his sharer in work and toil (2 Corinthians 8:23). The great day for a preacher or a teacher is the day when children in the faith become brothers and sisters in the faith, when those who were once taught are able to take their place in the work of the Church, no longer as junior members but as equals with them.
He says that Titus walked in the same spirit (2 Corinthians 12:18). Paul knew that Titus would deal with things as he would have dealt with them himself. It is a great pleasure to have a deputy to whom we can commit our work, certain that it will be done in the way in which we ourselves would have wanted it done.
He gives to Titus a great task. He sends him to Crete to be a model to the Christians who are there (Titus 2:7). The greatest compliment Paul paid Titus was that he sent him to Crete, not to talk to them about what a Christian should be, but to show them what a Christian should be. There could be no greater responsibility and no higher compliment than that.
(:4B) SALUTATION
“Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior“
D. Edmond Hiebert: “Grace” here is the unmerited favor of God at work in the life of the believer, while “peace” is the resultant experience of harmony and well-being in the life of the reconciled.
N.T. Wright: As the natural blessing from father to son, and indeed from God’s ‘coming age’ to the ‘present age’, Paul opens the letter by wishing Titus the two central blessings of the gospel: ‘grace and peace’. Grace speaks of God as the source of all the blessings we enjoy; peace summarizes those blessings, indicating the primary reconciliation between God and humans and the secondary reconciliations between one person or community and another. In the church where I work we sometimes use this as the opening greeting in a service: ‘Grace to you and peace from God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ’. I hope these words never become an empty formula. Certainly for Paul they were always full of meaning, alive with hope and promise.