Titus 1 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Titus 1:1-3

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 Saviour,

A. Find Out:

1. How does Paul first describe himself? v.1a
2. Why was he called to be this? v.v.1b (2 things)
3. What does that rest upon? v.2a
4. When did God promise this? v.2b
5. What did He bring, when? v.3a
6. How did that come? v.3b

B. Think:

1. What does Paul say is to be the end practical result of our salvation?
2. How do faith and knowledge help that to happen?
3. What is our ultimate goal according to God’s design?

C. Comment:

     These opening words are some of the most complex of all Paul’s greetings in his various letters. Within them there are two goals and two things leading us towards those goals.

     First the goals: godliness and eternal life. The purpose of bringing the Gospel is to bring people back into relationship with God. Such people then receive God’s Holy Spirit, and the rest of their lives are spent in becoming more and more Christ-like (2 Cor 3:18) or godly. The growth characteristic or life goal of the Christian is, therefore, godliness. But this godliness is simply the greater and greater expression of God in us. Because He IS life, a life that has no end, when we become Christians and receive Him, we receive eternal life, which is really seen in its fulfilment in us when our bodies die, and we continue to be with God in eternity.   

    Second, factors that lead us on to these goals.  First there is faith, that responsiveness to God. NOTHING in the Christian’s life is achieved of value except by faith. Faith is that simple response to God without knowledge, but along the way there is also the knowledge of the truth that comes to us that builds us. That is taught us by our leaders but is something we come to KNOW as we know God. This has all come to us because God promised it and revealed it through His apostles and now through His word.

D. Application:

1. Are we letting God work godliness in us?
2. Are we letting faith and knowledge increase in us?

Passage: Titus 1:4-9

4 To Titus, my true son in our common faith:

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour.

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 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.

A. Find Out:

1. To whom does Paul address this letter, and by what description? v.4
2. Where had he left him and why? v.5
3. What 3 requirements does he give of an elder? v.6
4. What 5 ways does he say an elder must be blameless? v.7
5. What positive things does he require of an elder? v.8
6. What also must he do, to be able to do what? v.9

B. Think:

1. Read 2 Cor 8:16,17,23    What does that tell us about Titus?
2. What are we told about the role of elders or overseers here?
3. How would you sum up Paul’s requirements for an elder?

C. Comment:

      As we have noted in the Introduction, we are not told in the New Testament how, when or why Paul and Titus have been in Crete. From verse 5 we can infer Paul had also been there, presumably preaching the Gospel, and then had to move on. Yet it was clearly early days for the church there and no structure had been established. Thus, it was that Paul left Titus to set up the structure. That structure was to be leaders in each town referred to as elders, overseers or bishops. As there would be just one church in each town such a ‘bishop’ was simply a local church leader. Paul had given Timothy similar guidelines (1 Tim 3:1-7) but now lays them out for Titus to follow.

    Essentially such a leader should already have a blameless life, so that he cannot be criticised in any way. Thus, an elder should be men with a stable marriage and able to lead his children into a knowledge of the Lord. This is the basic foundation that needs to be in place for such a spiritual leader. But more than that, they should have a stable character that is not aggressive, up and down, lacking self-control, or even dishonest. To the contrary, a leader is to be one who is open to others, going for good, self-controlled, morally upright, holy and pure and leading a disciplined life. Some strong requirements! Finally, he must hold onto the Gospel truths and be able to build others up in them.

D. Application:

1. Am I a leader? Are these things true of me?
2. Pray for your leaders that these may be true of them.

Passage: Titus 1:10-16

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.

A. Find Out:

1. Who does Paul talk about now? v.10
2. What were they doing? v.11
3. How had one of their prophets described them? v.12
4. What did Paul say to rebuke them? v.13, 14
5. How does Paul differentiate between 2 groups of people? v.15
6. How does he say such corrupted people are contradictory? v.16

B. Think:

1. How do these verses flow on from the previous ones?
2. How was the truth being perverted?
3. So what was Titus to do?

C. Comment:

       Paul has just said that the role of an elder is to uphold the truth and refute those who oppose it. Now he speaks about those who oppose the truth.

     First, he calls them rebellious and then later speaks of those whose minds are ‘corrupted’. He specifically identifies the ‘circumcision group’ – obviously those who still held to the belief that Christians needed to comply with the Law and be ‘Jewish’. (For Paul’s arguments against this see his letter to the Galatians). He also refers to their own prophets who are saying spurious things about the people. In all that he describes their activities: gossiping, conveying untruth (v.10), teaching wrong things (v.11), even for financial gain, & attending to Jewish myths (v.14). Note this is all about perverting the truth. These people claim to know God (v.16) but their actions deny this.

      Titus’s role, therefore, is to raise leaders (v.5) who can silence these people (v.11) by refuting what is being conveyed (v.9).   As God’s authority there, Titus is to rebuke these people (v.13). He is to provide correction, therefore, by establishing a sound teaching structure in the church, and by speaking powerfully against heresy. Paul himself is shortly going to lay out the teaching programme that Titus needs to apply into this church.

D. Application:

1. Do we understand how important doctrinal truth is?
2. Are we concerned to counter untruth?