Titus

Adorn the Doctrine

Paul had left Titus on the island of Crete with a hard job: “that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city”(1:5). The churches were young and disorganized, and false teachers were already working the crowd for money. Even one of Crete’s own poets had said its people were liars, and Paul quoted him.

Titus is a short letter with one steady theme: true doctrine produces a changed life. The phrase “good works” runs all through it. Paul wants every kind of believer, old and young, men and women, servants and free, to live in a way that will “adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things” (2:10). And at the center of the letter are two of the most beautiful summaries of grace in the New Testament (2:11–14; 3:4–7).

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Authorship & Setting

Titus was a Greek believer, one of Paul’s most trusted coworkers. He is never named in Acts, but Paul’s letters show him at key moments. Paul took him to Jerusalem as a test case for whether Gentile converts had to be circumcised, and he was not required to be (Galatians 2:3). Paul later sent him to Corinth to deal with that troubled church, and he came back with good news and went again to finish the collection (2 Corinthians 7–8). Paul calls him “mine own son after the common faith” (1:4).

Crete is a large island in the Mediterranean, south of Greece. There were Cretans in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:11), so the gospel may have reached the island early. Paul likely visited with Titus after his release from his first Roman imprisonment, around AD 62–64, and left Titus there to organize the churches. Paul planned to spend the winter at Nicopolis and asked Titus to join him once a replacement arrived (3:12). The last we hear of Titus, he had gone to Dalmatia (2 Timothy 4:10).

Crete had a bad reputation in the ancient world. The Greeks even had a verb, “to Cretanize,” meaning to lie. Paul quotes the Cretan poet Epimenides: “The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies” (1:12). In a culture like that, the church needed leaders whose lives matched their words.

Key Figures

• Paul — a servant of God and an apostle, writing to set the churches of Crete in order.
• Titus — Paul’s trusted troubleshooter, left on Crete to appoint elders and silence false teachers.
• The elders — men of proven character, to be appointed in every city (1:5–9).
• The false teachers — “unruly and vain talkers and deceivers” (1:10), “who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake” (1:11).
• Epimenides — a Cretan poet Paul calls “a prophet of their own” (1:12), whose words about his own people Paul says are true.
• Artemas and Tychicus — one of whom Paul would send to relieve Titus on Crete (3:12).
• Zenas and Apollos — Zenas the lawyer and Apollos the teacher, traveling through, whom Titus was to send on their way well supplied (3:13).

Greek Word Study

σώφρων · sōphrōn

“Sober,” “sober-minded,” “discreet,” “temperate.” It means self-controlled, of sound mind, with your desires kept in check. Paul uses it and its related forms over and over in Titus: for elders (1:8), older men (2:2), young women (2:5), young men (2:6), and finally for all of us, who are to live “soberly” (2:12). On an island known for lack of self-control, it was the mark of a changed life.

κοσμέω · kosmeō

“To adorn,” to arrange, to make beautiful. It is where we get the word “cosmetic.” Servants were to show faithfulness “that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things” (2:10). Good doctrine is true whether anyone lives it or not. But when believers live it, it becomes beautiful to those watching.

ἐπιφάνεια · epiphaneia

“Appearing,” a visible manifestation, often of a god or a king. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared” (2:11), and we are “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (2:13). Titus is framed by two appearings: grace appeared at Christ’s first coming, and glory will appear at His second.

παλιγγενεσία · palingenesia

“Regeneration,” literally a new birth or a genesis again (3:5). It appears only one other time in the New Testament, where Jesus uses it for the renewal of all things (Matthew 19:28). Salvation is not a self-improvement program. It is a new beginning, as total as creation itself.

Eight-Movement Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

God, That Cannot Lie (1:1–4)

Paul opens by describing his calling: to serve the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began” (1:2). On an island famous for liars, Paul begins with the God who cannot lie. Every promise of the gospel rests on His character.

MOVEMENT TWO

Ordain Elders in Every City (1:5–9)

An elder must be “blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre”(1:6–7). Notice that Paul uses “elder” and “bishop” for the same man. He must also be hospitable, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, and temperate, “Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers” (1:9).

MOVEMENT THREE

Stop Their Mouths (1:10–16)

There were many “unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake” (1:10–11). Paul quotes the Cretan poet and adds, “This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith” (1:13). “Unto the pure all things are pure”(1:15), but the minds of the defiled are corrupt. “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him” (1:16).

MOVEMENT FOUR

Sound Doctrine for Every Age (2:1–10)

“But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine” (2:1). Older men are to be sober, grave, and sound in faith, love, and patience. Older women are to be holy in behavior, not slanderers, teachers of good things, training younger women to love their husbands and children. Young men are to be sober-minded. And Titus himself must be “a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, Sound speech, that cannot be condemned”(2:7–8). Servants are to be faithful and not steal, so that they adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.

MOVEMENT FIVE

The Grace That Teaches (2:11–15)

Then Paul gives the reason behind all of it: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (2:11–14). Grace does not just forgive. It teaches. “Let no man despise thee” (2:15).

MOVEMENT SIX

Ready to Every Good Work (3:1–2)

Remind believers to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, and “to be ready to every good work, To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men” (3:1–2). In a rough culture, Christians were to be known for gentleness.

MOVEMENT SEVEN

The Kindness and Love of God Appeared (3:3–8)

Why be gentle with everyone? Because we remember where we came from. “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another” (3:3). “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (3:4–7). “This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works” (3:8).

MOVEMENT EIGHT

Avoid Foolish Questions (3:9–15)

“But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain” (3:9). “A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject” (3:10). The word for heretic here means a divisive person, someone who forms factions. Warn him twice, and then have nothing more to do with him. Paul closes with travel plans and a final reminder: “let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful” (3:14).

Christ Typology

A Peculiar People. At Sinai, God told Israel, “ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people” (Exodus 19:5), using the word segullah, a king’s private treasure. Moses repeated it: “the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself” (Deuteronomy 14:2). The psalmist promised that God “shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (Psalm 130:8). Titus 2:14 pulls all of it together: Christ “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people.” What God did for Israel at the Exodus, Christ has done for His church at the cross.

The Great God and Our Saviour. In Titus 2:13, “the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” refers to one Person. The Greek grammar joins the two titles under a single article, and Christians have long pointed to this verse as one of the plainest statements in Scripture that Jesus is God. Isaiah called the coming Child “The mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6), and the LORD said, “a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me” (Isaiah 45:21). Paul gives both titles to Jesus.

The Washing of Regeneration. Before the priests could minister in the tabernacle, they had to wash at the bronze laver, “that they die not” (Exodus 30:20–21). Ezekiel promised a day when God would say, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean… A new heart also will I give you”(Ezekiel 36:25–26). Paul says God has saved us “by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” The laver washed hands and feet. Christ washes the whole person and makes a new heart.

Two Appearings. Jesus once read from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue and stopped in the middle of a sentence, at “the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:19), and rolled up the scroll. The next line in Isaiah speaks of “the day of vengeance of our God” (Isaiah 61:2). The prophets often saw Christ’s two comings together, like two mountain peaks seen from far away. Titus shows the valley between them: grace has appeared, and glory will appear. We live in between, “Looking for that blessed hope.”

God, That Cannot Lie. “God is not a man, that he should lie” (Numbers 23:19). Paul opens his letter to an island of liars with the God who cannot lie, and Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). In a world of spin and deception, the gospel stands on the One who is truth itself.

Personal Application

Character is the qualification. Paul’s list for elders in Titus 1 is almost the same as in 1 Timothy 3, and nearly every item is about character: blameless, not selfwilled, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, hospitable, self-controlled. A man who fails those tests is not qualified to lead God’s people, no matter how gifted he is.

Watch for filthy lucre. Paul names the motive of the false teachers on Crete plainly: money. They upended whole families for financial gain. Scripture tells us to stop their mouths and rebuke them sharply. Love does not require silence when shepherds are fleecing the flock.

Adorn the doctrine. Your life is the frame people see the gospel in. Faithfulness at work, self-control, honest speech, gentleness with difficult people: these do not save you, but they make the truth about the Savior beautiful to those watching. Paul wrote this to slaves. If they could adorn the gospel, so can we.

Let grace teach you. Grace is not permission to keep sinning. The same grace that brings salvation trains us to say no to ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. If grace has saved you, it is also schooling you.

Remember where you came from. Paul tells the Cretans to be gentle with everyone, because we too were once foolish, disobedient, and deceived. When you are tempted to look down on someone still in darkness, remember that the kindness and love of God appeared to you when you deserved nothing. That memory keeps the saved humble and kind.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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