Titus 1:1–4

1:1 Paul calls himself a doulos, a term that is rendered “servant” in the ESV and often denotes one who is a slave. Paul also calls himself an “apostle,” which denotes a witness of the resurrected Christ commissioned by Christ himself to speak his message (cf. comment on 1 Tim. 1:1). Paul means to identify himself, therefore, as both a slave of God and an ambassador of Christ. Paul is not his own man; he is God’s, to whose purposes his whole life belongs.

Paul is a slave and ambassador “for the sake of the faith of God’s elect.” God’s elect are his chosen people. In the OT, God’s elect were Israelites. Under the new covenant, God’s elect are all those who have been, are, or will be joined to Christ by faith—whether Jew or Gentile. Paul is a slave and an apostle for their faith—he is commissioned by Christ so that those people might come to trust in Christ alone for salvation. Paul preaches and strategizes for ministry because of this group of chosen people. As in 2 Timothy, election is a doctrine that does not discourage evangelism or witness but rather makes it flower and flourish (cf. comment on 2 Tim. 2:10).

1:2 Paul’s apostolic mission is for the “hope of eternal life.” His ultimate goal is not merely to convert people but to see them through to glorification, to the day when they inherit eternal life in the age to come. This “hope of eternal life” is something that the truthful God promised “before the ages began.” This means that before time, in eternity past, God made a promise that there would be a resurrection from the dead. The existence of this promise means that God devised a plan of salvation through Christ before creating the universe. The very same phrase (“before the ages began”) appears in a parallel text, 2 Timothy 1:9: “[God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.” The “promise” in Titus 1:2 is probably referring to the same purpose of grace that Paul spoke of in 2 Timothy 1:9. “Before the ages began,” God promised through his Son Jesus to purchase a people for himself and to give them eternal life. Thus this would seem to be a reference to the pre-creation intratrinitarian counsels of God, perhaps even to the so-called covenant of redemption.¹

1:3 “At the proper time” God “manifested” what he had planned from eternity past: what God purposed in eternity through Christ he brought to pass in history through Christ. And the message of Christ’s work—his death and resurrection for sinners—is now what has been entrusted to Paul by God’s own “command.” In short, Paul has a special authority to preach this message.

1:4 Finally, Paul names the recipient of the letter: Titus. He calls Titus his “true child” in the faith: Titus is a genuine child not in the sense of physical progeny but in the sense that they share a “common faith.” The reality of this common faith forms a bond as close as that of family. Titus is faithful only insofar as he is faithful to Paul’s gospel message.