Titus 1 - To the Pure All Things Are Pure!
Insight for LIving Intro to 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 writes this letter to the believers on the island of Crete, who Titus is now pastoring. Paul is both a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ. He has given up his life to be a messenger of the gospel. Paul was once in bondage to trying to measure up by obeying the letter of the Law, but when he met Jesus and experienced his grace it set him free. He wanted to make sure that the church kept the purity of the gospel by never returning to works righteousness.
This moment when the gospel of Jesus had been revealed had been promised since the beginning of time. Paul had established the church in Titus, but now his great desire is that through Titus it would be true to the common faith they had in Jesus. As usual Paul started his short letter by offering God's grace and peace to them through Christ.
Like Timothy, Titus was Paul's true son in the 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[a] 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.
Paul directed Titus, like in his other letters, to appoint elders in each town. Elders were the spiritual overseers in each church to make sure the church was grounded in sound doctrine. An elder needed to a person who was blameless, faithful to his wife, a good Christian father, and having a solid reputation.
This reminds us that not everyone is cut out for church leadership. When we have an opening in church leadership, we don't just put the first warm body we find willing to serve in there. You'll notice that a person's activities outside of church, and how they behave, are just as important as what they do in the church. The underlying message is that a person who is going to manage God's house should be able to manage their own first.
We see Paul bringing up again the importance of sound doctrine. He admonishes Titus to oppose those who refute it. We have seen over and over in Paul's letters, his emphasis on the importance of correct and sound doctrine.
Here are some key characteristics of sound doctrine.
Key Characteristics
Source in Scripture: Its ultimate source is the God-breathed word of Scripture rather than human opinion or cultural trends.
Trinitarian and Christ-Focused: It emphasizes the nature of the Trinity, the deity of Christ, and salvation by grace through faith.
Leads to Godliness: A defining mark of sound doctrine is that it produces a transformed life; teaching is not considered "sound" if it does not lead to holy living and righteous conduct.
Unalterable: It remains consistent regardless of changing societal pressures or personal desires. (Google AI)
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.”[c] 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.
We see the first instance of "unsound" doctrine. Those in the "circumcision group" were teaching that unless the new, male Gentile converts were circumcised, they were not "true Christians" Not only were they teaching this false understanding of the role of circumcision, but also they were apparently profiting from it. They were getting into households, and this was causing division in the church.
While it is fine for small groups to meet in households, the pastors and elders should always be aware of what is being taught. Anybody who leads a bible study or small group should do through the oversight of a pastor or elder. While there are a lot of good resources out there, it doesn't always mean they contain sound doctrine.
The Cretans were known for their lifestyle, which was often at odds with the Christian way of life. This is why it was important to appoint elders in every town to make sure the believers were living lives worthy of the gospel of Jesus.
“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 also refers to Jewish teaching on the island that was based on myths and other manmade legalism.
“They tried to persuade them that the simple story of Jesus and the Cross was not sufficient, but that, to be really wise, they needed all the subtle stories and the long genealogies and the elaborate allegories of the Rabbis. Further, they tried to teach them that grace was not enough, but that, to be really good, they needed to take upon themselves all the rules and regulations about foods and washings which were so characteristic of Judaism.” (Barclay)
Paul then says something interesting. He says, "To the pure all things are pure!"
The Cretans were saying everything was impure. Timothy had to deal with the same thing when Paul told him in 1 Timothy 4 to not forbid people to marry or command people to abstain from certain foods. Paul is saying that marriage and food are good things created by God to enjoy God is not against human pleasure. Everything created by God is good if it is received in thanksgiving.
These legalists were teaching that Jewish dietary laws were still in place. Paul is not saying that everything is moral. I.e. Adultery was still wrong every time.
Of course, Paul does not mean that obviously sinful things (pornography, illicit drugs, and the like) are pure. Paul has in mind those things which are permitted by Scripture, but forbidden by legalists in a mistaken attempt to earn favor with God. - Guzik
When we truly experience the grace of God in Christ Jesus, our lives are changed. Since we are not spending time to earn God's favor, we can spend that time serving God and loving others. I don't do things to earn God's love, but because I have it. If I am just trying to do good things to earn God's favor, I am doing it out of obligation. But if I am doing it as a response to the grace I have been given, I can do it freely.
Freely we have received so freely we can give.
These people claim to know God but because they have never really received God's grace, they are still enslaved to the flesh. They will never find peace because they can never measure up to God's standard which is perfection.
Do your good works flow from the grace you have received through Jesus? Are you able to enjoy the earthly things God has given us from a pure heart? What role does thankfulness have to do with enjoying things from a pure heart?
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