Summary: Bible - Book of Titus

The GIST

Titus is among the shortest letters in the New Testament, three chapters and forty-six verses, and it reads like a set of working orders. It is addressed by Paul to Titus, a trusted colleague whom he has left on the island of Crete to finish organizing the churches there. The task has two halves. Titus must appoint reliable leaders in every town, and he must deal with teachers who are upsetting the believers. Beyond that, he is to teach each part of the community how people who have received God's grace ought to behave, in the household and in public.

With 1 and 2 Timothy it makes up the group known as the pastoral epistles, letters addressed to individuals with responsibility for churches. Its tone is brisk and practical, and one phrase runs through it like a refrain: good works. Twice, though, it stops to explain why any of this matters, in two short passages about the grace and kindness of God that are among the most compact statements of the gospel in the Bible.

What It Says

The greeting (1:1 to 4). The opening is unusually long for so short a letter. Paul introduces himself as a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, and ties his work to the truth that leads to godliness and to the hope of eternal life, "which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." That promise has now been made public through preaching, which has been entrusted to him. He addresses Titus as his true son in a shared faith.

Leaders for the churches (1:5 to 9). Then to business. "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city." The qualifications that follow are almost entirely about character. A candidate must be blameless and faithful in marriage, with children who are believers and not known as wild or unruly. Since an overseer manages God's household, he must not be arrogant, quick-tempered, a heavy drinker, violent or greedy for money. On the positive side he should be hospitable, a lover of what is good, sensible, upright, devout and self-controlled. There is one requirement that concerns teaching. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it was taught, "that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." The letter uses the words elder and bishop for the same people.

The troublemakers (1:10 to 16). The need for such leaders is urgent, because "there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers," especially from the circumcision party. They are upsetting whole households, teaching what they should not, and doing it for money. At this point the letter quotes a Cretan against the Cretans: "One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies." The writer endorses the verdict and tells Titus to rebuke them sharply so that they may become sound in the faith, and stop paying attention to "Jewish fables, and commandments of men." The quotation has interested philosophers as well as theologians, since a Cretan who says that Cretans always lie has produced a famous logical puzzle, known as the Epimenides paradox.

The passage also hints at what the false teaching involved, apparently rules about purity. The answer is a principle: "Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure." The trouble is not in things but in minds and consciences. The chapter ends with a hard judgment on the teachers: "They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him."

Sound teaching for every group (2:1 to 10). Titus, by contrast, is to teach what fits sound doctrine, and what follows is not a set of ideas but a description of lives. Each group in the congregation is addressed in turn. Older men are to be sober, dignified and self-controlled, sound in faith, love and patience. Older women are to be reverent in the way they live, not slanderers or slaves to wine, and are to be teachers of what is good, so that they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children and to be sensible, pure and kind, managing their homes well. Young men are to be self-controlled. Titus himself must be a model in everything he does, and his teaching must have integrity and seriousness, so that an opponent will have nothing bad to say.

Slaves are told to be obedient to their masters, not to answer back and not to steal, but to prove themselves entirely trustworthy. Three times in these verses a reason is given, and each time it looks outward, to how the Christian message appears to those watching: "that the word of God be not blasphemed," that critics may be put to shame, and "that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." Conduct is treated as the visible argument for the faith.

Why: the grace that has appeared (2:11 to 15). Here the letter pauses to give the foundation. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." Grace is pictured as a teacher. It trains people to say no to ungodliness and worldly desires and to live soberly, justly and devoutly in the present age, while they wait for what is still to come: "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." The purpose of Christ's self-giving is stated in terms that echo the letter's theme. He gave himself to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people of his own, "zealous of good works." Titus is to say these things with full authority and let no one look down on him.

Life in public (3:1 to 2). From the household the letter moves to the wider world. Believers are to be reminded to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, "To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men." The scope is striking. Courtesy is owed to everyone.

Why: the kindness of God (3:3 to 8). Again a reason is given, and it is a reason for humility. "For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived," enslaved to passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hated and hating. Christians have no ground for contempt toward anyone, because they were once the same. What changed them was nothing they did. "But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared," the letter says, we were saved "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy." The means are named as "the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost," poured out richly through Jesus Christ, so that, justified by grace, we might become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

The passage holds together two things that are often set against each other. Salvation is not earned by good works; that is said as plainly as it can be said. And those who have been saved are to devote themselves to good works; that is said in the very next breath. "This is a faithful saying," the letter insists, and Titus is to stress it constantly, "that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works."

Disputes and the divisive (3:9 to 11). One last instruction about the troublemakers. Titus is to avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, and quarrels about the law, because they are useless. A person who causes divisions is to be warned once and then a second time, and after that left alone, since such a person is self-condemned.

Closing (3:12 to 15). The final lines are travel arrangements. When Artemas or Tychicus arrives to relieve him, Titus is to come quickly to Nicopolis, where Paul has decided to spend the winter. He is to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they lack nothing. The theme sounds one more time: "And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful." Greetings and a blessing of grace on all close the letter.

Why It Matters

Titus is a small handbook on how belief becomes a way of life. Its recurring pair, sound doctrine and good works, expresses a conviction that right teaching shows itself in character and that a community's behavior either commends or discredits what it says. In the list of qualities for leaders it is worth noticing how little is said about gifts or abilities and how much about integrity at home.

Its two summaries of the gospel have been treasured for their clarity. They present salvation as sheer mercy and then, without any sense of contradiction, as the source of a changed life.

Some features of the letter sit uneasily with modern readers: the instructions to slaves, the domestic role sketched for younger women, and the sweeping insult to Cretans. They belong to the social world in which the letter was written, and readers have to weigh that when asking how its instructions apply now.

The man addressed is known from elsewhere. Titus is mentioned in Galatians as a companion who went with Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, and tradition recorded by Eusebius makes him the first bishop of Crete. As for the author, the letter presents itself as Paul's, and that was long accepted. Many scholars now regard the three pastoral epistles as the work of a later follower, on the grounds of their vocabulary, style and concern with church order, and most of them would date Titus between about AD 80 and 100. Others maintain that Paul is the author and suggest that he used a secretary, a common practice, which would account for differences of style. Titus is especially close to 1 Timothy in phrasing and subject.

Who Should Read It

Read Titus if you are responsible for a community or a team and want a brief, pointed account of what good leadership and a healthy common life look like. It takes five minutes. It also rewards anyone who has wondered how grace and effort fit together, since few texts state the relationship so economically.