Bible Studies In The Word of God

TITUS 1 

 

Verse 1. Paul mentions his relation to God as servant before that of apostle, which is a mark of humbleness. Faith of God’s elect. God elects or chooses as His own, all men who fully embrace the faith or New Testament system of religion. This service of Paul was according to that faith which embraced acknowledging of the truth. The truth meant here is that which is after godliness or piety.

Verse 2. The motive for such service as the preceding verse describes, is the hope of eternal life; nothing pertaining to the world. God cannot lie.  These words are from the Greek term APSEUDES, which does not occur in any other place in the New Testament.  Thayer and Robinson define it just as it is rendered in the King James version. It is to be understood on the basis that God is able to do that which is right only, but is not able to do wrong. Promised before the world began. The first recorded promise of eternal life is that made to Abraham (Galatians 3:16). But that was after man began to live upon the earth, hence the world which is from a Greek word that means; “age,” must mean the Jewish age or Dispensation. Such an explanation clarifies the apparent difficulty as to when the promise was made. It was after man began living on the earth, but before the period when the organized “age” (the meaning of world) or the Jewish Dispensation began.

Verse 3. The promise of salvation through Christ (the seed of Abraham) was made to the patriarch in prophetic language, but was revealed in its fulness by preachers.

Verse 4. Titus was Paul’s son in the same sense as was Timothy (1 Timothy 1:2), and it was after (or according to) the common faith, which means the faith adapted to all people who will accept it. Paul expresses the familiar salutation that has been commented upon sufiiciently before this.

Verse 5. Between the first and second imprisonment of Paul, he traveled among the churches in a few places, and Titus was with him a part of the time. When they came to Crete (a large island off the coast of Greece), they found the churches on the island somewhat out of order and without rulers. Paul went on his journey, but left Titus there as evangelist in charge to bring the work to a scriptural establishment. This consisted in whatever was necessary to bring conditions into line, and then ordrain (or appoint) elders. Note that he was to appoint a plurality of elders and it was to be in  every city. The plan of human practice is to have a plurality of churches under one elder, while the scriptural plan is a plurality of elders over one congregation. It was the duty of Titus under the instruction of Paul, to remain in Crete until he had completed t.his evangelistic work. For more detailed explanation of the work of an evangelist, see the comments at 2 Timothy 4:5.

Verse 6. In order t.hat Titus might know whom to appoint as elders (also called bishops here and elsewhere), the apostle devotes several paragraphs to describing their quailifications and work. Blameless, the husband of one wife. This is fully explained at 1 Timothy 3:2. Having faithful children. This phrase has raised a question among students of the Bible, and two different views have been maintained. One is that it means children who are faithful to the Lord, or who are believers in Him to the extent of having become members of the church.  The other is that it means children who are faithful or obedient to their fathers. I shall first give the reader the benefit of information I have in support of the first position, which is as follows. The word faithful is from the Greek word PISTOS and Thayer defines it, “One who has become convinced that Jesus is the Messiah and the author of salvation.” Robinson defines it, “A believer, Christian.” I have consulted four other lexicons, and they define it virtually the same as the two just quoted. I have consulted also tive translations that render it “believing.” I shall now give the other view, and state that I am not fully convinced that it is required that an elder’s children be faithful members of the church, and shall give my reasons for saying so. It is true the lexicons and various translations generally render the word as “believing,” but that would still leave unsettled the question whether the child is to be a believer in Christ or in his father; for if he believes in his father, he is likely to be obedient to him. That would show that the father has control over his child, which is'really the point that Paul was making. In 1 Timothy 3:4, 12, where the same point isunder consideration with reference to children of elders and deacons, there is no intimation of their religious relation to the Lord, but that the father is to have control of them. Therefore, my conclusion is that “faithful children” in Titus 1:6 is equivalent to controlled children in 1 Timothy 3:4, 12, and hence that they are to believe in and be faithful to their father, regardless of whether they are members of the church or not, or even that they are old enough to be members.  Not accused of riot or unruly. This is significant in view of the foregoing comments. Riot is from ASOTIA, which Thayer defines, “an abandoned, dissolute, life; profligacy [wastet'ulness], prodigality [extravagance in expenditure].” Unruly is from ANUPOTAKTOS which is defined by Thayer, “that cannot be subjected to control, disobedient,” etc. The fact that a son is not a member of the church cannot be blamed upon his father, for a man cannot use his parental authority to bring his children into it. But he does have authority as a father to control his son against the above described conduct.

Verse 7. Blameless is from the same word as that in the preceding verse, and takes the same general definition.  But it is given a special signiiicance here by calling the bishop (or elder) the steward of God. That means one who has charge of the affairs of another, which is true of a bishop, since he has charge of the flock of God. A steward or agent is expected to be faithful in the administration of his employer’s property. The qualifications, both affirmative and negative, are next given. Those in the rest of this verse are negative; that is, qualities that he must not have. Not selfwilled means he must not be seliish, insisting on having his own way regardless of the rights of others. Soon angry denotes one who becomes angered at the slightest provocation. Not given to wine.  This is explained by the comments at 1 Timothy 3:3. No striker. This also is defined at the passage in Timothy just cited. It can be seen that it means one who does not generally resort to physical assaults whenever he is opposed; that it does not refer to some incidental or isolated act. Given to filthy lucre is defined by Thayer to mean, “eager for base gain.” It means one who not only covets money, but who is willing to gain it in any kind of way, whether it be right or wrong.

Verse 8. Lover of hospitality. It should be known that the elder’s home is one in which any worthy person is welcome. Lover of good men. The last word is not in the original as a separate term, although it may be included in the phrase. The meaning of the phrase concerns a man who loves that which is good. Sober is defined as one who curbs his desires; he is self-controlled. Just signifiesone who is considerate of the rights of all, in his exercise of rulership over the flock.  Holy is another word for righteous. If an elder does not live rightly himself, he can have but little influence over others. Temperate has virtually the same meaning as sober, and it is added for the sake of emphasis.

Verse 9. This verse should be considered as an explanation of the phrase “apt to teach” in 1 Timothy 3:2, in that it shows how apt or able a man is as a teacher. Holding fast means he holds to the faithful (truthful) Word. The elder is not an inspired man, but he hath been taught what is the truth by those who are inspired.   Sound doctrine literally means wholesome teaching; and when used of spiritual matters, it denotes the kind that will result in spiritual health. When a disordered condition comes or threatens to come into a human body, a treatment must be used that will counteract the threatened disease. Likewise, an elder must have the ability to exhort those who are  threatening the spiritual health of the entire body. Then if exhortation does not stop them, he must use a stronger remedy, namely, convince them. That word  is from ELEGCHO, which Thayer defines, “To convict, refute, confute.”  Elders are required to be able to convict and expose false teachers, called here the gainsayers.  

Verse 10. Unruly and vain talkers are those who will not submit to the apostolic rules, and who deal in useless conversation for the purpose of misleading unsuspecting disciples. They of the circumcision means the Judaizers, who were the most prominent trouble makers in Paul’s day.

Verse 11. Mouths must be stopped.   Neither the evangelist nor an elder can use force literally to close the mouth of a false teacher. But he can use the means stated in verse 9 to expose him, and thus counteract the evil effects of his mouth. Subvert whole houses denotes that they sometimes mislead whole families with their false teaching. Filthy lucre’s sake. By their perverted use of the law of Moses, they sought to please their hearers, in the hope that it would bring them some money as a sort of “tip” from the dupes for their good feeling.

Verse 12. One of themselves means one of the natives of the island of Crete. One of their own writers accused the people of that region of being habitual liars, which would account for their disposition to pervert the truth when they had hopes of gain from it. Evil beasts is a figure of speech to indicate the low type of character the islanders possessed.  Slow bellies is rendered “lazy gluttons” by the Englishman’s Greek New Testament. If a man’s chief interest is his animal appetite, and he is too lazy to obtain wherewith to satisfy it honorably, he would naturally take the unprincipled course that has been described in these verses.

 

Verse 13. Paul   agrees with the Cretan prophet who said the accusing things ab ut his countrymen. Such people do not deserve much compassion, hence the apostle bids Titus rebuke them sharply. That they may be sound in the faith states the motive for the sharp rebuke, not that it is certain to have that result.

Verse 14.   The mention of Jewish fables or myths, confirms the remark at verse 10 about their being Judaizers who were disturbing the brethren in Crete. Commandfrnents of men signifies doctrines that have no divine authority behind them. Such teaching cannot be true, hence it will cause all who accept it to turn from the truth.

Verse 15. Unto the pure all things are pure. This is said because of the  agitation being made by the J udaizers.  The law of Moses had certain regulations regarding the eating of the flesh  of animals. But those rules were not based on any actual impurity of the meat, for “there is nothing unclean of itself” (Romans 14:14). The uncleanness was ceremonial only and was a part of the law. But that law has been cancelled, so that no reason exists any more for regarding the meats as impure. But these pretenders were impure in life themselves, hence they professed to believe that it was still wrong to eat the meats. If a man is pure in heart, he will see nothing wrong in eating these articles, since the only thing that ever did make it wrong, namely the legislation of the law, has been taken away.

Verse 16. While these Judaizers were busying themselves in disturbing the churches, they professed it was because of their love of God and their knowledge of His law. But, like many other religious frauds, their personal life was a contradiction of the purety of doctrine which they professed. Abominable pertains directly to the corrupt practices they were performing, and disobedient designates the relation of their practices to the law of God; they were in rebellion against it. Unto every good work reprobate. The last word means “useless,” denoting that the conduct of the Judaizers had nothing good in it.