Titus 1 - "The Relationship of Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy"

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Introduction to the Book of Titus

1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— 2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3 and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,4 To Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Paul wrote this letter to Titus, who accompanied Paul on his third missionary trip. Paul trusted Titus to help out at the church in Corinth, and he also became a pastoral leader for the church on the island of Crete. This letter focuses on the importance of sound doctrine and specifically the incarnation of Jesus. Paul calls it "knowledge of truth" which leads to "godliness". 

Sometimes people think doctrine is sterile or that it is not about life change but just more intellectual truths. But in this letter Paul makes it clear that correct doctrine always leads to correct practice. We might say "orthodoxy" leads to "orthopraxy".  Paul shows his fondness for by calling him, "my true son in our common faith." 

Appointing Elders Who Love What Is Good

5 The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. 6 An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe[b] and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. 7 Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. 8 Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. 9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

Again, we see the organizational structure of the early church is "elders", who are also called "overseers". The qualifications for an elder are consistent with what Paul taught in other letters to Timothy. Notice his emphasis on the elder's family. Both his wife and children are a reflection of his relationship with God. I think the idea is if you can't manage your own household, how can you run the church? 

Your home is really your "first church". Faith is centered in the home. The church has taken the place of faith in home in large part due to the fact that families have not had faith at the center of their life together. Family devotions, reading the bible together, praying at meals, and serving together are all practices that keep a family centered on Christ. Much to our chagrin, I have seen many pastor's families fall apart because the pastor spent most all of his/her time at the church. But our first call as a pastor, if we are married and have kids, is to our family. This does not diminish in any way what we give and how we serve as a pastor in our churches. 

An elder must also exhibit self-control in their own lives and be an example of a devoted disciple of Christ. We often call this "living a life above reproach".  Again Paul stresses the importance of elders teaching sound doctrine and refuting false teachers who try to enter into the church. 

Rebuking Those Who Fail to Do Good

10 For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. 11 They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. 12 One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” 13 This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith 14 and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16 They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.

Similar to the letters to Timothy, Paul points out those who are filled with all kinds of meaningless chatter. He points out one group, which he calls "the circumcision group". The false teaching about circumcision is found throughout the early church, especially in the church at Galatia. This group was teaching that new Gentile converts had to be circumcised after they were saved. This is clearly reverting to a works-based gospel. 

Not only are they teaching these falsehoods, they are trying to make money. On the flipside of the legalism was also "licentiousness". They were also "gluttons", meaning they indulged the desires of the flesh and lacked self-control. The term "Cretan" comes from this teaching. It has a very negative connonation of being "dishonest". 

“So notorious were the Cretans that the Greeks actually formed a verb kretizein, to cretize, which means to lie and to cheat; and they had a proverbial phrase, kreitzein pros Kreta, to cretize against a Cretan, which meant to match lies with lies, as diamond cuts diamond.” (Barclay)

Paul sees these Cretans as a big threat to households. Instead of keeping the basic tenets of the Christian faith that Jesus and Paul taught, they added on their own doctrines. This is why we should never add or subtract from the scriptures. As I have said before, 95% of the teaching in the bible is straightforward. We need to go with the obvious commonsense interpretation. Tough passages should be interpreted in the light of Jesus' life and teaching. Jesus taught both the letter and the spirit of the Law. 

At the end of day one's actions show what they truly believe. One can have all knids of fancy teaching, but if their life does not match it shows their true colors.  Finally, Paul says, "To the pure all things are pure". What this means is that if someone is a sincere Christian they don't need to be caught up in dietary restrictions or other legalistic teachings. 

"With their attraction to Jewish legalism, the difficult people Titus had to confront seemed to believe that nothing is pure. They denied Christians basic and godly pleasures that were not sin." - Guzik

“The ‘all things’ refers to everything which is non-moral; such as appetite and food, desire and marriage, exchange and commerce, weariness and recreation, and so on through all the varied realm of life. To the pure all these things are pure, and they will be maintained in purity. To the impure, every one of them may be made the vehicle and occasion of impurity.” (Morgan)