A Commentary in Simple English on Titus

CHAPTER 3

Verses 1-3: The Christians and the government

The Christians in Crete ought already to know that they are to obey the government. Paul tells Titus: 'Make sure that they remember this.' You will find teaching like this in Romans 13: 1-7 and in 1 Peter 2: 13-17. There is also teaching by Jesus in Mark 12: 13-17.

In those days, the Caesar, the Roman emperor, was at the top in Rome. He sent his men to be rulers in the parts of the empire. Then also the cities would have men to look after their own rules. Paul says that we are to honour them all and that we are to obey the laws which they make. Paul then adds that these Christians in Crete are to be ready to do any good work. This may be because in those days many free men did not think that they should work. They thought that work was for slaves to do. Or Paul may mean that a Christian man should join in and help with any work, which has to be done for the good of his city.

It was at about the time that Paul wrote this letter that the emperor killed great numbers of Christians. This emperor’s name was Nero. What he did was very cruel, but it was mostly in the city of Rome. Some people think that Paul would not have written quite like this if he had already heard about what Nero did in Rome.

Christian people have not agreed about how to follow Paul's teaching here. Some people have even thought that it is wrong for a Christian to hold any office in government. Neither Jesus nor Paul taught this. Some people thought that we have to obey the government even if the laws which it makes are really bad.

Peter and John make it quite clear that God's laws must be obeyed first (Acts 4:19,20). If the laws which men make do not agree with the law of God then we must obey God. We cannot obey men in that case. This may lead Christians into suffering.

In 1 Timothy 2: 1 and 2 Paul tells Christian people to pray for people in government. This is something that we all can and should do. And we can work, at least in quiet ways, to get bad laws changed. [3.1] We need the government and the authorities because people are so bad (verse 3). They have to be kept in check by the law.

We can see that Paul has moved from teaching about the Church (Chapter 1) to teaching about the Christian life in the home in Chapter 2. Now in Chapter 3 his teaching is rather about the duty of the Christian in the world.

So in verse 2, Paul says these things: -

a) Christians are not to speak anything that is bad about anyone. In Ephesians 4: 15, Paul says that we are to speak the truth in love. In other words, the Christian will only say what is true. He will never lie. But even if we know that something is true, we should ask: 'Why do I want to say this?' If we cannot say that the reason is Christian love, we should not speak. If the only reason why we speak is to hurt someone else, we shall not speak. There are some things that are true, but they can never be said 'in love'.

b) The Christian will long for peace (Psalm 120: 6 and 7) and he will not want to fight (Matthew 5: 9). Christians have done much to bring peace to the world. After all, Jesus is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9: 6; and see Luke 2: 14).

c) Then we are to be gentle and humble to other people, whether they are Christians or not (Philippians 4: 5; Matthew 5: 5). To be 'meek' is very different from being 'weak'. Often we do not agree with what other people say or do. The Christian at such a time asks himself: 'Does it really matter?' And he may well have to pray about it. If he decides that it does not matter, he will 'yield'. He will let the other person have his way. He will give in. Of course, if there is a choice between right and wrong, then the Christian will not agree to what is wrong.

So in verse 3, Paul tells the Christians in Crete what they were once like. Before they became Christians they were bad. He says that he was no better himself.

a) We were 'foolish' or mindless. We just did not think about what we did.

b) We were 'disobedient'. We broke the laws which God made and the laws which men made. We said:' Here is a law. We will break it. It may be meant to help us. But we do not like laws. We will not obey.'

c) We were 'deceived' or 'led astray'. We thought that our way of life was good enough and that it was safe for us. But it was not.

d) We were slaves to pleasures and to strong desires. This does not mean that all pleasures and desires are wrong. But they are wrong if they are our masters.

e) We wasted our time in bad feelings about other people. We hated them. It is no surprise that they hated us! Now, of course, God has taught us to make good use of our time. Love drives hate out from our lives.

Now we do not want to go back and be like that again. If we do what Paul says in verse 2 we will show people what a change Christ has made in our lives. And Christ can make that change in the lives of those people who now seem to you to be so bad. And when we have to live and to work with people who are not yet Christians, we must allow for the great change, which the grace of God has made in us. Paul will go on to talk about this in verse 4.

The change in our lives has been wonderful. God has set us free. Now we are the masters of our pleasures and desires. So we can now really enjoy them. What made the change must be wonderful too. Only God could have changed our lives like this. So in the next verses Paul tells us again how great the Good News is.

Verses 4-8: The difference in our lives when God saves us

Some of the things that Paul says in these verses are rather like what he says in 2: 11-14. But there are extra things that we must think about. And what has dawned upon the world is the great love, which God has for men. In verse 15, we learn that God did not save us because of any good things that we had done. Nothing that we could do would be good enough for God. It is what God does that saves us. Some religions teach men that they must do good works if they want to be saved. Such religions will never bring them joy and peace. They will never know whether they have done enough to please God. They will always feel the need to do still more. Paul speaks about 'the kindness of God' in Romans 2: 4 and 11: 22.

Then verse 5 tells us that it was because of His mercy that God saved us. If a man is thought to have broken the law, then he is tried in a law court. The judge hears the case. At the end, the man is found to be either 'not guilty' or 'guilty'. If he is 'not guilty' then he has nothing more to worry about. He can go free. If he is found to be guilty, then it is time for him to ask for mercy. The judge will say how he is to be punished. He will ask the judge for less punishment. [3.2]

So God is our Judge. We are sinners. We stand in His court of law. We know that we are guilty. Justice will do us no good. It is mercy we need. We must ask for mercy. And it is mercy that God gives to us, because Jesus has died.

Then verse 5 also tells us how God saves us. The Holy Spirit works in us and we are 'born again'. This is just what Jesus said (John 3: 3-7). It is as though a man is tired and dirty. He washes and he feels he is a new man. We are made new by the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians. 5: 17).

(Verse 6). God does not give to His people as little as He can of His Holy Spirit. He does not give us just enough. He gives us plenty of His Spirit. We have seen that some of the Jewish Christians were in Jerusalem years before when God first gave His Spirit to His people. They knew that this was true. Paul says that this is 'through Jesus Christ our Saviour'. This means that God gave His Holy Spirit because Jesus died and rose again. Most of all it is because Jesus now sits in glory with God the Father (Acts 2: 32 and 33).

God is one. He is also three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In these verses we see that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit join together in saving us. 1 Peter 1:2 is another verse where this is plain.

In verse 7, we have another great truth. Christians are 'justified' by God. This is often explained like this: 'It is just as if I had never sinned'. This is good and helpful.

God knows everything. So he knows all our sins. But Jesus died to take away our sins. God forgives all our sins because of what Jesus has done for us. So we are sinners but God forgives us. When Scripture says that we are 'justified' it means more than this. It is a word from the courts of law. God is our judge. We are tried, and at the end, God judges in favour of us, as though we had never sinned. When we know that God has forgiven our sins, we know that God will not punish us (Hebrews 8:12). When we know that God has justified us, we know that he will give us life for ever and glory.

The judges in Israel had to look after the rights of women whose husbands had died, and the rights of children who had no father. (See Exodus 22: 22-24; Deuteronomy 24:17.) God, too, cares for the weak (Psalm 10: 17-18; Psalm 146: 9). God judges in their favour. And when we are 'justified', God our Judge decides in our favour. This is because Jesus has died to take away all our sins.

When a man dies, what belongs to him passes on to someone else. Most men make a 'will' which says what they want to happen when they die. If they have money or land, the 'will' may say that, when they die, any sons are to share it. The sons are then the 'heirs'. Paul now uses a word which means that we are God's heirs. We are saved in this life. But more than that, we have God's promise that He will give us life for ever with Him. So we have 'the hope of eternal life'. God has given His word; and we know that what He says is sure.

When Paul wrote his letters people were beginning to forget that the word (kleronomoi) which he uses had the thought of being 'heirs' in it. So you may find some Bibles which do not use this word.

In verse 8 there is a little problem. Paul says: 'This is a trustworthy saying.' Now you will find words like this in 1 Timothy 1: 15; 3: 1; 4: 9; and 2 Timothy 2:11. The churches had grown up for more than thirty years. And Paul says: 'This is something which people in the churches often say. And it is quite right.' Now it is clear enough that when Paul says this in the Letters to Timothy, the 'faithful saying' is the words that follow. Many people think that here in Titus, the 'faithful saying' is what Paul has said in verses 4-7. But the 'faithful saying' may well be what follows here: 'that those who have trusted in God must be careful to be busy doing what is good'. They must think and plan how to do more good to help other people. [3.3]

Verses 9-11: What we should not be like

Paul has said several times that we should be busy. Good works will keep us busy. So we shall have no time to waste. Some people waste time on religion. They enjoy silly arguments. There are things that we argue about. We shall never agree. And if we did, we would be no better for it. We are to avoid these things or 'turn our backs on them'. Then some of the Jews liked to study lists of names of angels. These are the 'genealogies' which Paul speaks of here. These names had only been made up, so it was no help to study them. Then there were arguments and even quarrels about details of the Old Testament law, the Law of Moses. Paul says: 'People are no better off for these things. So these things are no good.' That is the test.

So we should ask: 'Does this do us any good? Does it help us'? When we pray together, that does us good. When we read Scripture together and talk about what it says, that does us good. When we talk about what has happened to us in life, and what God has taught us, that does us good. That is Christian 'fellowship', when we share these things. They draw us closer to one another in Christian love.

So in verse 10, Paul says that there are some people who will talk about things which do not help anyone. Most of us have our own ideas. And we like to talk about them. But if our ideas divide the church, it is wrong. The church leaders are to stop a man like that who wants to talk about his own ideas all the time. If he is a real Christian, he will listen to the church leaders and will do as they ask. Verse 11 seems rather strong! What Paul really says is that a man who will not listen has 'turned out' from the teaching of God's Word. There is one right way. It is the truth of the Good News. But this man has turned out of the right way into his own way.

Sadly there are people whose lives are so bad that they have to be put out of the church. There is teaching about this in Matthew 18: 15-17; 1 Corinthians 5; 2 Thessalonians 3: 14-15 and 1 Timothy 5: 20.

Verses 12-15: Paul and his friends

We do not know anything more about Artemas (verse 12). We read about Tychicus in Acts 20: 4; Ephesians 6: 21; in Colossians 4: 7-9 and in 2 Timothy 4: 12. Artemas must have been a good friend and helper to Paul, like Tychicus. Paul will send one or the other of them to Crete. Then Titus will be free to leave Crete and join Paul.

We do not know where Paul was when he wrote this letter to Titus, but we can see that he was going to move on to Nicopolis.

There were about nine cities in the Roman Empire called 'Nicopolis'. The name means 'City of Victory'. Everyone seems to agree that this is 'Nicopolis in Epirus'. This was about 450 km north west of Crete. It was on the west coast of Greece about 220 km from Corinth. This is the only place in the Bible that speaks about the city.

One hundred years before, the emperor Augustus had built the city after his great victory at the Battle of Actium. The Jewish king, Herod the Great wanted to please Augustus. So Herod the Great used his riches to build there. Some Jewish families may have settled in Nicopolis.

Paul may have preached at Nicopolis before this time. (See Romans 15: 19) And there may have been Jews there who had become Christians. Nicopolis does not seem to have any part in the later history of the church.

Paul had decided to spend the winter in Nicopolis although the city was well known for its bad winter weather. Travel was not easy in the winter. Ships stayed in harbour (See Acts 27: 9; 28: 11). This was not only because of storms. Sailors at sea needed to be able to see the sun, moon and stars to work out where they were (Acts 27: 20). On land, rivers might be flooded in winter (2 Cor inthians11: 26). Perhaps Paul hoped to start a church in Nicopolis that winter. Or maybe there was a Christian home where he would be welcome with his friends. The men from the ships, which were in the harbour for the winter, would hear the Good News about Jesus. And they would take it to ports all round the Mediterranean Sea the next year.

It seems likely that Titus met Paul in Nicopolis. Titus could have gone on by sea to Dalmatia (2 Timothy 4: 10). This would have been easier than the journey from Rome to Dalmatia.

We do not know anything more about Zenas (verse 14). Nor do we know where he was going with Apollos, or why. But we know quite a lot about Apollos. He was a great preacher and teacher in the early church. (See Acts 18: 24 - 19: 1 and 1 Corinthians 1:12; 3: 5,6 and 22; 4: 6; 16: 12). He was not one of Paul's friends and helpers. It may be that Zenas and Apollos took this letter with them to Crete.

In verse 14, Paul says yet again that the Christians in Crete are to do good. But this time he may mean something a little different. The Christians are to work and earn money. You will find teaching rather like this in Ephesians 4:28. Paul had often had to work long hours so that he could live (Acts 20: 34,35). This was what he did at Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 2: 9) and at Corinth (Acts 18: 3). There is no shame in honest work. We can pray that we may earn more so that we can give more to God's work. (See also 1 Thessalonians 4:11 and 12 and 2 Thessalonians 3:11 and 12). Perhaps some of the Greek Christians were too proud to work. Paul gives them two reasons why they should work. One is so that they may give help to people who are in need. The other is so that they will produce something of value. A 'do nothing' faith does not honour God. And if we have a 'do nothing' faith, we must ask ourselves whether we are really saved.

And so in verse 15 Paul closes his letter with a greeting. We would like to know who was with Paul but we do not. The only guess is that Luke was. There were people in Crete who loved Paul because they shared his faith in Jesus. This is good to know after all that he has said in the letter!