Titus 1
McGeeCHAPTER 1THEME: The church is an organization
Titus 1:1
INTRODUCTIONThe introduction to Titus is characteristic of those in the Pastoral Epistles, but it is not characteristic of Paul’s other epistles. “A servant of God"the word servant here actually means “bond slave.” Paul says that he is a bond slave of God. We know from the Old Testament that a bond slave was one who chose to remain a slave of his master for life. “An apostle of Jesus Christ.” Paul is defending his apostleship. The reason that he asserts his apostleship here is that he is going to give instructions to the organized church. These instructions come from an apostle, the appointed writer of the Lord Jesus who was now communicating with His church through His apostles. The Epistle to Titus is a communication from the Lord Jesus to us also. “According to the faith of God’s elect.” Paul does not say “for the faith,” but “according to the faith"in other words, according to the norm or standard of faith which is set for God’s elect today. Whether you are saved or not does rest on what you believe. Tell me what you think of Jesus Christ; tell me what you believe about His death on the Cross and what it means to you; tell me what you believe about His resurrection and what it means to you; tell me whether you believe the Bible to be the Word of God. With this information I think I can deduce whether you are a child of God or not. This is the norm, you see: “According to the faith of God’s elect.” “God’s elect"this is the way Paul speaks of saved people. He is not discussing the doctrine of election at all. “And the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness.” This could be better translated “the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness.” The Greek preposition is kata, meaning “according to.” My friend, if the truth that you have does not lead to a godly life, there is something radically wrong with your faith. I was told once of a preacher who drinks, cusses, and runs with the country club crowd. On Sunday he preaches the gospel, and people come forward every week. Another pastor in that community asked me, “Dr. McGee, how is it that that man is prospering?” I told him I honestly did not think the man was prospering. Maybe he is bringing a lot of numbers into the church, but he is not building the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Truth will lead to godliness, and if it doesn’t lead to godliness, it is not truth, my friend. Paul will dwell on this theme that when the gospel is believed it will lead to godliness because the people on the island of Crete were abusing the grace of God. They said that if they had been saved by grace they were free to live in sin if they wanted to. Paul answers that right here in this first verse by saying that when the truth of God is believed it will lead to godliness. Grace saves us, but it also lays down certain disciplines for our lives and calls us to live on a high plane. You cannot use the doctrine of the grace of God to excuse sin. If you think that you can be saved by grace and live in sinmay I say this kindly, but I must say ityou are not saved by grace; you are not saved at all. Salvation by grace leads to a godly life.
Titus 1:2
“In hope of eternal life.” The idea here is resting upon the hope of eternal life. In Titus we will see that Paul speaks of grace in three time zones. In Tit_2:11-13 we see all three: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation"that is past; “teaching us"that is present; and “looking for that blessed hope"that is future. This is the hope that Paul is speaking of, and he says we are to rest upon that hope. “Which God, that cannot lie.” This hope was promised by a God who cannot lie. In Rom_3:4 Paul wrote: “God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar….” Sometimes we believers almost make God out a liar by the lives we live. We say we believe something, but we don’t really believe, and we act as if we don’t believe. Paul says God cannot lie. I have often wanted to preach a sermon on things that God cannot do. This is one: God cannot lie. Do you also know that you see something every day that God has never seen? You have seen your equal; God has never seen His equal. Why cannot God lie when we can? Well, you can do something God cannot do. You see, God must be true to Himself. He is holy and He is righteousthat is His nature, and there are certain things He cannot do because of His nature. It is not because it is impossible for Him to do it; but because God is true to His nature, He cannot do it. He is righteous, He is just, and He never deceives. He is One you can depend upon. “Promised before the world began"this promise was made back in eternity.
Titus 1:3
“In due times” means in His own seasons. God moves in a very orderly manner in what He does. God has made the peach tree to bud in the springit will not stick out those beautiful buds when the first snow falls; it waits until spring. “Hath in due times manifested his word through preaching.” The word that is translated here as “preaching” comes from the Greek word kerux, which means “a herald” or “trumpet.” A trumpet was used in that day to make a proclamation. If a ruler had a proclamation to make, a trumpeter came out and blew a trumpet, and then the proclamation was made. That is the idea here. Paul is saying that God has in the correct seasons manifested His Word through a proclamation. He then adds that it has been committed to him to proclaim the Word “according to the commandment of God our Saviour.”
Titus 1:4
“To Titus, mine own son” or my genuine son. Paul had led Titus to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Titus was Paul’s spiritual son. “After the common faith"the common faith is the faith that is shared by all, the faith that all believers must have. It is a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. “Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.” The grace of God has appeared, and, therefore, God extends mercy to us today. I don’t know about you, but I use up a whole lot of the mercy of God. I am grateful that He is good to me and does not deal with me according to my orneriness and disobedience. He has simply been good to me. Grace, mercy, and peacepeace is the present possession of the believer, but there is a peace coming when the Prince of Peace comes also. All these are “from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.”
Titus 1:5
AN ORDERLY CHURCH MUST HAVE ORDAINED ELDERS WHO MEET THE PRESCRIBED REQUIREMENTSThat is a pretty long title, but it belongs to a very important section of Scripture. Paul had left Titus in Crete to organize local churches with elders as spiritual leaders. The island of Crete is one of the largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea. There was a great deal of mythology and tradition connected with this island as there generally was with all of the Greek islands. According to their tradition, Minos was the one who first gave laws to the Cretans. He conquered the Aegean pirates who were there, and he established a navy. After the Trojan War, the principal cities of the island formed themselves into several republics, mostly independent.
Crete was annexed to the Roman Empire about 67 A.D. These chief cities were Knossos, Cydonia, and Gortyna, and apparently there were churches now in all these places. Paul seems to have done a very effective missionary work on the island, but we have no record of it in Scripture whatsoever. There is actually no absolute proof that before his voyage to Rome he ever went to the island of Crete. But from the information we are given in this little epistle, we are led to believe that he was there and left Titus to organize the churches which were founded by him and Titus. Crete was evidently a pretty bad place, and the people were not very good people. Paul himself says that they were liars, and that is certainly the thing for which they were noted in that day. There was a Greek word, kretizein, which means to speak like a Cretan and was synonymous with being a liar. One of their own poets wrote, “Crete, which a hundred cities doth maintain, cannot deny this, though to lying given.” Although they were known as liars, and Paul will have other uncomplimentary things to say about them, many of them turned to the Lord, and Paul writes to Titus to organize their churches. “Set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city.” The gift of an elder is a gift of men to the church. Putting your hand on the head of some men and going through a little ritual will not make them elders. But I believe it is important to do that with men who do have the gift of elders. I think the churches in Crete had elders, but they had never been ordained, or set aside. They were men who had a gift of supervision of the churches and were exercising that gift without an authority. Titus is to “ordain elders"appoint them, set them aside"in every city.” “As I had appointed thee.” Paul says, “I have appointed you, Titus, and you are to appoint elders in these cities.” A man who holds an office of elder should have the gift of an elder. There are certain men who are made officers in the church who have no gift for it at all. That is half of our problem in many churches today, and the other half is that there are good men who have the gift and are not made officers in the church. As a result, some of our churches get into the hands of the wrong folk, and all sorts of problems arise. Now here are the requirements for the men who are to hold this office:
Titus 1:6
“If any be blameless"that does not mean he must be perfect, without sin. It does mean that any accusation that is brought against him must not be found to be true. His life must be above reproach. When someone can point a finger at an officer of the church and accurately accuse him of dishonesty, then the cause of Christ is hurt. It does not matter how naturally gifted a man may be, if someone can say that his speech does not reflect a dedication to Christ, then the cause of Christ is hurt, and that man should not be an officer of the church. “The husband of one wife, having faithful children.” The idea here of “faithful children” means believing children. If a man cannot lead his own children to the Lord, he ought not to be an officer in the church. Please do not misunderstand me. I recognize that today in many wonderful Christian homes there is a son or daughter who is away from the Lord and who gives no evidence of godly upbringing. A man may be a fine, godly man who has a wonderful Christian home, and he may not be guilty of anything that caused that boy or girl to turn from Christ, but he should not be an officer in the church. As an officer in the church, he might be called upon to make a judgment about someone else.
That person in turn could point his finger and say, “What about you? What about your son, your daughter? What right have you to talk to me?” For the cause of Christ and for the sake of the office, an officer in the church must have believing, obedient children. “Not accused of riot or unruly.” “Of riot” could be translated of profligacy. They are not to be out in a protest movement carrying placards, but instead they should be concerned with living a life glorifying to the Lord Jesus and with getting out His Word.
Titus 1:7
This is so practical! A bishop (or elder) must not be “selfwilled” for he is a steward of God as well as a representative of the people. He is in the church to find and do God’s will. “Not soon angry” means not touchy. “Not given to filthy lucre,” that is, not covetous. These are to be the characteristics of “a bishop.” As we have said before, elder and bishop are synonymous terms. The word elder (presbuteros) refers to the individual, and he was to be a mature person both physically and spiritually. A bishop (episkopos) was an overseer; he ruled the church. Therefore, this word has reference to the office. But never was a church to have only one man made bishop or presbyter. There were always several. There has been some disagreement as to whether there were elders already in the churches in Crete and Titus was to ordain them, or whether there were none and Titus was to now appoint some. If the latter was the case (which I do not think it was), then I feel that the churches would have had to agree upon the men Titus appointed. However, that is not the main issue, and it should not be the issue in churches today. Paul’s emphasis is upon a man’s personal requirements to hold such a position in a church.
Titus 1:8
These are the requirements of the elder, and their meaning is familiar to us.
Titus 1:9
A better rendering of this verse would be: “Holding fast the trustworthy word according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound teaching and to convict the gainsayers (heretics).” There were two things that an officer should be able to do: (1) He should be able to exhort, that is, to teach the Word of God; and (2) he must be able to confute or refute the heretics. I feel that men who hold office in a church should be Bible-trained men. During World War II we had what was called “ninety-day wonders.” The army needed more officers and so they put them through a short course in a hurry, and they came up with some rather peculiar second lieutenants in those days. Remember that Paul told Timothy to “lay hands suddenly on no man …” (1Ti_5:22). You are not to have a man converted one night, ask him to give his testimony the next night, make him an officer in the church on the third night, an evangelist on the fourth, and the pastor of the church on the fifth night! We sometimes do things like that today, and it is very unfortunate for the church. A church officer should be able to stand on the Word of God and to give it out.
Titus 1:10
THE BAD REPUTATION OF THE CRETANSPaul is now going to talk about the bad reputation of the Cretans. We must remember that all men are sinners; we are all brothers in the sense that we are all sinners. All men are not in the brotherhood of God, because that comes only through the New Birth by becoming a son of God through faith in Christ. But surely we are all sons of Adam, and “in Adam all die,” because all have sinned (see 1Co_15:22). However, these Cretans had a particularly bad reputation: “Vain talkers” means empty chatterers. There are certain Christians (perhaps you know some) who are rather frothy at the mouth; they just talk a blue streak. I rode once with a man for two hundred miles, and from the moment I got in his car until I got out, the only thing I had to do was grunt and he would keep on talking! If you had added up all he had to say, it was just a great big bag of nothing, a whole lot of hot air. There are many empty talkers. It is all right to have fun and be lighthearted, but what Paul is condemning is constant chattering with nothing but empty words. “Deceivers, specially they of the circumcision.” Paul is referring to those who were seeking to contradict his teaching.
Titus 1:11
“Who subvert whole houses” means to overthrow whole families. This was very serious. Wherever the Word of God is sown, the Devil gets inhe’s the enemy and he always sows tares among the wheat. I have found this to be true in my own experience. I was back East one time in an area in which our radio program is heard. We are reaching multitudes there, and many have come to Christ. But while I was there I learned that our broadcast is immediately followed by the broadcast of one of the cults. The speaker on that program attempts to “correct” my teaching of the Biblethe Devil always gets in. Similarly, a great work of Christ had been done in Crete, but the enemy was right there to sow his own seed.
Titus 1:12
“Evil beasts” means the Cretans were rude and cruel. “Slow bellies” means lazy gluttons. Paul is not being very complimentary here, is he? But this is the reputation they had in the Roman world of Paul’s day. Paul is quoting a Cretan poet, Epimenides, who was born in Crete several centuries earlier. Another poet wrote, “Crete, which a hundred cities doth maintain, cannot deny this, though to lying given.” Paul said, “Cretians are alway liars.” This does not mean that everybody who lived in Crete was a liar anymore than when you say that all Scottish people are tightfistedsome are very generous. But the Cretans had the general reputation of being liars. It is marvelous what the grace of God can do and did do among the people of Crete. They were liars, beastly, lazy people, who were big eaters. Many of them turned to Christ, and their lives were changed.
Titus 1:13
Paul tells Titus that he is going to have to be a little more strict with the Cretans than he would with others because of their background and their very nature.
Titus 1:14
“Not giving heed to Jewish fables.” Paul’s reference here is not just to legalism. There grew up around the Mosaic Law a great deal of writing which includes the Talmud and much more. I have not read very much in these Jewish writings because they never really interested me. But I have read some, and there are some pretty wild tales in them. “Commandments of men, that turn from the truth.” The Lord Jesus rebuked the religious rulers for adding traditions to God’s law, and that is what Paul is talking about here. The teaching of legalism is in two phasesone is that you are saved by the Law, and the other is that you are to live by the Law. Both of these teachings are very dangerous. We are saved by the grace of God and are actually called to live on a higher plane than that of the Ten Commandments. God gave the Ten Commandments to a nation, and I feel that they should be the law of the world today. When God says, “Thou shalt not kill,” that is for everyone, Christian and non-Christianthat is for the whole world. However, those who are saved by the grace of God are given instructions for living which are on an even higher plane than that.
Titus 1:15
This is the verse that is used by the folk who say that if we are saved by grace it doesn’t make any difference how we live; that is, if we are saved, we are pure and can live in any way we like. Certain cults have developed this teaching, saying they can live in sin (they don’t call it sinit’s not sin for them) because “unto the pure all things are pure.” What Paul is talking about has nothing to do with moral issues at all. He is speaking to this issue of legalism and the eating of meats. The teaching of many legalistic cults often includes a very unusual diet. But Paul says, “Unto the pure all things are pure.” In other words, whether you eat meat or don’t eat meat makes no difference at all. All food is clean. If you want to eat rattlesnake meat, that is your business; it’s my business to keep away from it if I can! You can eat anything you want"unto the pure all things are pure.” If you are an unbeliever, any special diet you might concoct will make no difference in your relationship to Godit will not save you. You can eat all the vegetables you want, but if you are not right with God, they will not make you pure. The Lord Jesus said that it is not the thing that goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of him (see Mat_15:18-20).
Titus 1:16
“They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him.” Many believers today can deny and do deny God by the lives that they live. And they deny the Word of God. I knew a man who was an officer in the church, and he carried the biggest Bible I have ever seen. When he put it under his arm, he leaned to that side! Everybody believed him to be very pious, but outside the church he had the reputation of not really being honest. He carried a big Bible, but he didn’t really believe it. You see, you can deny the Bible by the life you live, and you can deny God by the life you live. “Being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” Ceremonies and rituals cannot change the evil heart of man. Only the Word of God can change the human heart. When the heart is changed, the life will reveal the change. Paul and James were never in disagreementthey both said that faith without works is dead. Saving faith produces a godly life. As Calvin said, “Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone.”