Greeting
1 Paul, a a servant of God b and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of God’s elect c and their knowledge of the truth d that leads to godliness, e 2 in the hope of eternal life f that God, who cannot lie, g promised before time began. h 3 In his own time he has revealed i his word j in the preaching with which I was entrusted k by the command l of God our Savior: m
4 To Titus, n my true son o in our common faith.
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. p
Titus’s Ministry in Crete
5 The reason I left you in Crete q was to set right what was left undone and, as I directed you, to appoint elders r in every town. 6 An elder s must be blameless: t the husband of one wife, with faithful children who are not accused of wildness or rebellion. 7 As an overseer u of God’s household, he must be blameless: not arrogant, not hot-tempered, not an excessive drinker, not a bully, not greedy for money, 8 but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, righteous, holy, self-controlled, 9 holding to the faithful message as taught, v so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teaching w and to refute those who contradict it.
10 For there are many rebellious people, full of empty talk and deception, especially those from the circumcision party. 11 It is necessary to silence them; they are ruining entire households by teaching what they shouldn’t in order to get money dishonestly. 12 One of their very own prophets said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. x For this reason, rebuke them sharply, y so that they may be sound in the faith 14 and may not pay attention to Jewish myths z and the commands of people who reject the truth. a
15 To the pure, everything is pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; in fact, both their mind and conscience b are defiled. 16 They claim to know God, c but they deny him by their works. d They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work. e
1:1–2. In this salutation, Paul deliberately emphasizes the purpose of his apostleship rather than its source. God’s elect people should be characterized by faith in Christ rather than by empty “Jewish myths” (see 1:14). In addition, “the truth” (1:1) stands in distinct contrast to popular pagan legends about Zeus’s origins as a man born and eventually buried on Crete. The only hope for “eternal life” lies in what the true and living God promised “before time began” about executing his drama of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation (1:2). [Slave, Servant]
1:3–4. That promise has been fulfilled “in his own time” through Jesus Christ’s coming (which Paul discusses at Ti 2:11 and 3:4) and in the “preaching with which I was entrusted” (1:3). Paul refers to Titus as “my true son in our common faith” (1:4a). Titus is one of the most trusted—and most “Greek”—of Paul’s protégés. Moreover, Titus is a veteran of Paul’s battle over Jewish customs and teaching in Gentile churches (Gl 2:3). Paul considers him the perfect emissary for dealing with a situation in which teachers “from the circumcision party” (Ti 1:10) complicate these new converts’ situation. Paul greets Titus with the standard “grace and peace” (1:4b) from the earlier letters (minus the addition of “mercy” as in 1 and 2 Timothy).
A. Identifying and appointing leaders (1:5–9). Paul reminds Titus he has left him on Crete to finish their work (1:5) by completing the organization of the churches (1:6–9), by dispatching the false teachers (1:10–15), and by laying out sound doctrine and ethics (chaps. 2–3).
B. Silencing rebels (1:10–16). Paul orders the silencing of certain Jewish teachers (1:11). To Paul, these teachers are “full of empty talk and deception” (1:10). Paul regards the teachers as being relationally disruptive: they are themselves “rebellious” (1:10) and are “ruining entire households” (1:11). To the extent that they promote any sort of ethic, they declare merely human “commands of people who reject the truth” (1:14), not rich biblical teaching. Paul also regards the teachers’ motives as corrupt (1:11) and their impact as corrupting. Rather than offer a genuine prescription for personal purity, these teachers locate the problem of cleanness in things rather than in the human heart itself (1:15; cf. Mt 15:10–20), and their conscience-corrupted actions deny the God they claim to represent (1:16; cf. 1 Tm 5:8; 2 Tm 3:5).