A Commentary in Simple English on Titus

CHAPTER 1

Verses 1 - 4: Greeting

Right at the start Paul (verse 1) says two things about himself.

a) He is a servant or slave of God. This is the only place where Paul says this. It is true of every real Christian [1.1]. We call God our Lord and Master. When we do this we say that he has the right to tell us what we should do. And also we promise to do what he tells us to do.

b) But then Paul calls himself 'an apostle of Jesus Christ'. Only a very few Christians were apostles. 'Apostle' means someone who is sent. Jesus sent His apostles to do a special work.

Then Paul tells us what the two parts of his work are.

i) If we are real Christians, it is because God has chosen us (John 15: 16; Romans 8: 33; Colossians 3: 12). We know that this is true because we have faith in Jesus. He is our Saviour. Paul's work is to make this faith grow stronger.

ii) Then Paul has to help Christians to grow in knowledge. But this is not just any knowledge. This is 'the knowledge of the truth'. This probably means not just that we know more about the Good News or the life of Jesus. It means knowing better that God is always true to His Word. If we have this knowledge, it changes us. It leads us to 'godliness'. It changes us into the kind of people that God wants us to be.

As we read the letter we shall find out what Paul means. It is this: 'False teaching will lead to a wrong kind of life.'

In verse 2, Paul adds that this faith and knowledge rest on hope. This is the hope which we have that God will give us life for ever. God has promised this life to us. God's purpose is that we should have life for the ages which are still to come. But His purpose began long ages ago. [1.2] He promised this life to us before the world began. And there are no lies in God. There is nothing false in Him. No one made Him give His promise. He can and will keep it.

The people of Crete were not like God! We shall find in verse 12 that Paul says: 'Cretans are always liars.'

All false gods are lies. See Isaiah 44: 9-20. In verse 20, the man who has made the 'god' to worship holds it in his hand and says: 'This is a lie.'

In verse 3, Paul answers a question that we might ask. If God's purpose goes back so far, why did He not send Jesus long before? Paul says: there was a time which God had chosen, and it was the right time to send Jesus (Romans 5:6; Galatians 4: 4). We have to spread the message about Jesus through all the world. Jesus is the Word of God. God has trusted Paul, and many others, to spread this Good News.

So in verses 2 and 3 we have three steps: -
a) Before time began, God promised eternal life to us.
b) At the right time, God sent Jesus. The promise turned into hope.
c) We preach this hope now. God will give life to us for ever.

The letter is from Paul (verse 1). It is to Titus (verse 4). Paul calls him 'my true son', which probably means that Titus believed the Good News when he heard Paul preach. Paul and Titus share the same faith in Jesus, and they share it with all Christians. So Paul calls it 'the common faith' (1 Timothy 1: 2).

Verses 5-9: Christian leaders

There were Christians in the many cities in Crete. But Paul does not speak in the letter of 'churches'. It seems that the Christians had no leaders. We have seen that there had been Christians in Crete for more than thirty years. Many of them were Jews. They may still have joined in Jewish worship. Some of the Greeks may have done this too. And no doubt there were several homes in each city where the Christians met to worship. This was why the Christians needed leaders. They would bring the people together. They would teach them. The people would enjoy a full church life, and the churches would win more people for Jesus. There would be no need to go to Jewish worship.

We can see another reason for this. Men like Paul and Titus had work to do in other places. There were not many Christian leaders like them. So the churches in Crete had to be ready to serve God when Paul and Titus had gone away.

In the world today there will often be places where Christians have come to live in a town for different reasons. They may not even know each other. They need leaders to bring them together in a church. Then they will be able to worship and to work for God.

So these verses matter to us today. But Paul does not say yet what it is that these church leaders will do. What matters most to Paul is the kind of people they are. If the right people are made church leaders, then they will come together as a team and all the work will be done well (See also 1 Timothy 3: 1-7.)

So in verse 5, Paul says that he has been with Titus in Crete. The work is not finished but Paul has had to leave. So Titus is to finish the work. And a main part of this is to choose church leaders or 'elders' in every city. The church borrowed the word 'elders' from the Jews. They used to call their leaders ‘elders’ (Exodus 3:16; 24:1; Ezra 5:5; Jeremiah 29:1).

Most Christian people are agreed that this means a group of 'elders' in each city. It does not mean one elder in each city. And we are fairly sure that the 'elder' in verse 5 is the same as the 'overseer' or 'bishop' in verse 7. In Acts 14: 23, Paul and Barnabas are at work in new churches in what is now Turkey. They have to choose 'elders' for each church.

Now we can see that here in Titus 1:6-9, it is what the elders are like which matters. And what matters in Acts 14: 23 is not how the church chose the new elders . What does matter is that they were chosen with much prayer to God. People went without meals, that is they 'fasted', in order to make more time for prayer about it. And the elders were given to God for Him to take care of them.

So there are three great points for us here.

1. Christian people do not all agree as to what officers a church should have or what they should do. This is no reason for Christians to divide or separate from one another.

2. What we need to be sure of is God's will. We must pray and choose people of the right kind.

3. We do not need to follow what other churches do. Nor must we say: 'This is the way it always has been done here in this church.' A church must not waste too much time on such matters. But from time to time, you must go back to what God says in His Word, and you must be ready to make changes.

It is fairly certain that in the Early Church, each city had one church with a group of 'elders'. One of the 'elders' was the pastor or bishop. The church chose them with much prayer and great care.

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus sends messages to seven churches. These messages are in chapters 2 and 3. There is a lot wrong in some of the churches. But Jesus does not say to another church: 'Send some of your men to put them right.' The leaders of each church have a duty. Their church life must be pure and good in the sight of the Lord Jesus. But a church where there is trouble may well ask for help from other churches.

The Letter to Titus does not say anything about 'deacons'. (See 1 Timothy 2: 8-12 and Philippians 1: 1). They probably helped the 'elders' to care for any money or buildings that the church had. [1.3]

So in verses 6-9, we find out what kind of man a church leader must be.

1. He must be 'blameless'. That is a strong word. It does not mean that the 'elder' has to be without sin. If it did, the churches would never find any leaders. What it does mean is that people, whether they are Christians or not, must feel respect for the elder. People must not be able to come to him and talk to him about the wrong which he has done to them. People must not be able to talk to each other about the wrong things that he has done to others. But we cannot stop people if they tell lies against us. And when sin does not show in our lives, we may still feel great sorrow over sins inside us.

2. An elder must be 'the husband of one wife'. We have to ask exactly what Paul means by this here and in 1 Timothy 3: 2.

a). We can be quite sure that Paul means that the 'elder' must be faithful to one wife. It is perhaps strange, but it is true: the closer a Christian husband and wife are to one another and the more they love each other, then the more open they will be to help other people.

b). Paul may well mean that an 'elder' should have only one wife. A man who has more than one wife may become a Christian. His wives may choose to go away from him (1 Corinthians 7: 15). If not, he has a Christian duty to care for all his wives and for their children. This will take up his time. He will not be able to give enough time to the work of the church.

c). It may be that Paul means that a Christian man who has parted from his wife should not become an elder. If he could not live happily with his wife, he is not likely to keep everyone in the church happy.

d). Again, Paul may just mean that a man who has never married should not be an elder. This is not likely. But we can be quite sure that it is wrong to say that a Christian minister must not marry.

e). Paul does not mean that a man should not be an elder if his wife has died and he has married again. The sorrow of his wife's death would fit him to help others. [1.4]

3. The elder must be the father of children who believe (or who can be trusted) and who behave well. Some new Christians have children who do not share their faith. That is a difficult problem. We judge a man often by whether he knows how to make money. We ask: 'Does he work hard? Does he do well in trade?' But Paul says: 'Look at a man's children. If they lead good lives, then the father is fit for office in the church.' [1.5]

Now we know that the children of Christian parents do not always become Christians themselves. But God gave a promise to His people (Exodus 20: 4-6) that He would love their children. And God's law says too that children must honour their father and mother. See what Paul says about this in Ephesians 6: 1-3. One of the best things we can do for our children is to give them our time. We need to listen to them as well as to talk to them. We need to play with them as well as to teach them.

In the Old Testament, a son who was wild and who would not obey his father was put to death (Deuteronomy 21: 18-21). It could still be useful today to bring a wild son to the 'elders' and shame him in front of them.

4. Then in verse 7, Paul speaks of the church leader as an 'overseer' or a 'bishop'. The word which Paul uses means a servant in charge of a large house. God's church is like a house. There is work to be done in it. And the 'overseer' watches to see that the work is done well.

Then Paul gives some details of what he means by 'blameless'. So he says that the elder must not be: -

a) A man who always thinks that he is right and who must have his own way: a man who will not listen to other people;

b) A man who quickly becomes angry;

c) A man who sits and drinks wine until he is drunk; and

d) Perhaps it is this same man who gets drunk and then becomes violent: he fights other people;

e) He must not be a man who is greedy for money. Perhaps the same man who drinks too much also wants money to buy more drink.

This is not a picture that pleases us. But Paul must have found some people in the churches in Crete who were like this. The sad thing is that they were the very people who thought that they should lead the churches. And Paul has to write to Titus so that they will not become elders.

So far, Paul had told Titus what kind of people should not be elders. Now he tells Titus what the right people are like (verses 8 and 9).

a) They must be willing to open their homes to strangers. (Hebrews 13: 2; 3 John; Romans 16: 23). There were Christian prophets who went from city to city to help the churches. They needed food and drink and somewhere to sleep. Enemies of the church may have forced some Christians to leave their homes in one city. They might come to the elder in another city. To help such people could mean danger. They would hope to find a new place to make their home with the elder's help. Much good is often done when we give a welcome to such people. 3: 13 shows that people who were on work journeys needed help too. In those days, any 'hotels' where you could pay to spend the night were very bad and they cost far too much. It might not only be Christians who would come to the elder for food and help, either. To welcome people into our homes is still today an important Christian work.

b) An elder must be someone who loves what is good. This means that he loves good people. He seeks to do good himself. And he loves things that are good (Philippians 4: 8).

c) An elder must be strong enough in his mind to control himself. He must not be so quick to do good that he does too much! He must know when to stop. He must be 'sensible'.

d) He must be 'upright and holy'. He must be 'upright' or 'just' because when Christian people do not agree with each other, he will have to give advice and settle their quarrels. Upright here means that a man knows he will have to stand before God as his Judge, and he wants God to say to him: 'Well done.' 'Holy' means that he shapes his life by what God says in His law, and that means most of all our Saviour's law: 'Love one another.'

e) And the elder must sometimes be strong enough to make other people do what he wants them to do. He must know too when he should not use this strength.

f) Then in verse 9, Paul begins to speak about the elder as a man who speaks in God's name. God has given us the message of the Good News which we can trust. So the elder must always be quite sure of the truth of God's Word. This is not only for his own good. The Word of God is for other people too. Most Christian people want to be taught so that their Christian lives will be healthy. [1.5] But there are other people that the elder must speak against. There are people with wrong ideas and he must do his best to put them right.

Verses 10-16: The enemies of the church

In verse 10, Paul says that many of the enemies of the church belong to 'the circumcision group or party'. These would be Jews. And we have seen that many of the first Christians in Crete were Jews. But this 'party' was made up of only some of the Jews. These Jews wanted to do more than keep the Jewish customs themselves. They wanted to make other Christians follow all the Jewish customs (such as circumcision). It was not only in Crete that this was a problem (Galatians 2:12; Acts 15.)

Paul says (verse 11) that their talk must be stopped. This is to be done 'with bit and bridle', the way that a horse is kept in check. Their wrong teaching has already caused trouble. Paul suggests that their reason for their teaching is wrong. They see it as a way to make money.

Verse 12 is of great interest. Paul uses some words from a Greek writer in this verse. This writer was a man called Epimenides. He had lived in Crete six hundred years before. People thought of him as a prophet as well as a writer of poetry. (See also the words which Paul uses in Athens in Acts 17: 28. The altars 'To the Unknown God' in Athens were set up on the advice of Epimenides). [1.7]

The words that this Greek poet wrote about the people of Crete were hard. He said that the Cretans never told the truth. The Greeks would have agreed. They had a word for telling lies which was made from the word Crete. And the people of Crete had made a tomb for the great Greek 'god', Zeus. The name Zeus means life. So the Greeks felt that this was a lie. The people of Crete were like wild animals, which cause danger to men. There were no wild animals in Crete. The Cretans did not work and they ate far too much. And Paul adds in verse 12: 'This is true!' It is so easy for the church of Christ to become like the world which is all round it (Matthew 24: 12). Paul sees this danger in Crete.

So Paul tells Titus to speak to such people in a strong way. If they take notice of him, their faith will be 'sound' or healthy. This means (verse 14) that they will 'turn their backs on' Jewish stories. When the Jews taught one another they often told stories which were not true. No one thought that they were true stories. This was a way of teaching that helped Jews. But it did not help Greek Christians at all! The Jews, too, had their law. They spoke of 'putting a fence round the law'. They made up all sorts of rules to add to God's law, so that they did not come anywhere near to breaking the law (Isaiah 29: 13). Paul would not take any notice of such rules. (See 1 Corinthians 4: 6 - 'Do not go beyond what is written' - that is, what is written in God's Word). A Christian should be free. He should be free to obey the law of Christ - 'Love one another'.

Probably in verse 15 the Christian is the one who is 'pure'. And because he is pure everything is pure to him. We make everything around us pure! See the teaching of Jesus in Mark 7: 14-23. Also Matthew 5:8 and John 15:3. If we are not pure, then nothing that we see or touch will be pure.

These people said that they knew God. But we must first love God, if we hope to know him. What these people did made it plain that really they did not know God, and so they were not fit to do anything good. [1.8]