Titus 3:12–15

3:12 Paul indicates that he will send either Artemas or Tychicus to Crete in order to relieve Titus of his duties temporarily, because he wants Titus to come to him at Nicopolis, a port city in the Epirus province, on the west coast of the Greek peninsula, two hundred miles northwest of Athens. Artemas is not mentioned anywhere else in the NT; Tychicus, however, appears several times in the NT. In Acts 20:4, Tychicus is one of two Asians accompanying Paul on his third missionary journey. Paul mentions Tychicus in Ephesians 6:21 as his “beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord.” Likewise, in Colossians 4:7 Paul calls Tychicus his “beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.” Obviously, Tychicus is a faithful gospel minister and servant to Paul, which is why he is one of two candidates for the errand to relieve Titus. Paul desires Titus to be free to come and stay with him in Nicopolis for the winter.

3:13 Apart from his being a lawyer, we know nothing about Zenas, who likewise appears nowhere else in the NT. We know a good bit more about Apollos, a man who figures prominently in Paul’s ministry. Apollos was a Jew born in Alexandria, eloquent and “competent in the Scriptures” (Acts 18:24). He was an itinerant preacher who taught accurately but was acquainted only with the “baptism of John.” After being brought up to speed by Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:26), he eventually traveled to Corinth, where his preaching captivated the Corinthian church Paul had founded (1 Cor. 1:12; 3:4–6). In 1 Corinthians Paul views Apollos not as a rival nor as being deficient in his theology but as a faithful fellow laborer in the gospel (1 Cor. 3:6; 16:12), which is why Paul directs the Cretan Christians to support both Apollos’s and Zenas’s ministries.

3:14 Paul returns to a theme that has been central to the entire letter and particularly to chapter 3: “good works.” The false teachers have rendered themselves incapable of “any good work” (Titus 1:16). On the contrary, Titus is to show himself as a “model of good works” in everything he does (2:7). Not only that, but the entire congregation has been redeemed by Christ so that he might purify for himself a people “zealous for good works” (2:14). The entire congregation must be “ready for every good work” (3:1). They are to “devote themselves to good works” precisely because it is profitable for their unbelieving neighbors (3:8). Good works are the necessary consequence of salvation. To be without them is to be without salvation, which is why Paul returns to the theme once again, defining good works as fruitfulness, which involves looking after one another within the church in order to meet urgent needs.

3:15 Paul sends greetings from those who are with him. Although his companions are unnamed in this verse, they likely include Artemas and Tychicus from verse 12. They may also include the entire Christian community from which Paul writes. Knight argues that Zenas and Apollos “are probably coming from Paul and carrying the letter with them.”¹

Paul offers his own greeting to those “who love us in the faith.” This is his way of distinguishing faithful believers from those who are disloyal to him and to his teaching. Paul does not want his happy greeting and well-wishes to fall upon the false teachers who are leading the congregation astray (cf. 2 John 10). Just as he has called for them to be isolated if unrepentant (Titus 3:10), so also he isolates them with his greeting. Paul avoids any word that could be construed as an endorsement of unrepentant false teachers.

Paul finishes with a final benediction of “Grace be with you all.” This letter began with grace and now ends with it as well (cf. 1:4). As in 1 and 2 Timothy, Paul closes the letter to Titus with a benediction addressed to a plural “you all.” Even though each of these three letters is formally addressed to only one person, it is clear that the apostle intends them to be read before the entire congregation, which seems to have been his expectation with respect to all of his letters (cf. Col. 4:16; 1 Thess. 5:27). Paul wants all of the believers in Crete to know and to experience the continued grace of God and all of its fruit.