Titus 1

The Epistle to Titus is a short letter of three chapters, of which chapter 1 is the first. It opens with a greeting and then turns to standards for appointing leaders in the churches of Crete and to instructions for dealing with false teachers.

Outline

• Verses 1–4 Paul introduces himself as a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. He explains that his apostleship serves the faith of God's elect and the hope of eternal life, and he then wishes grace and peace to "Titus, mine own son."
• Verses 5–9 Paul says he left Titus in Crete to set in order what was lacking and to appoint elders in every city. As qualifications for elders he lists being blameless, being the husband of one wife, and having faithful children. He goes on to say that a bishop, as God's steward, must avoid self-will, quick anger, wine, violence, and filthy lucre, and must hold fast the faithful word so that he can exhort by sound doctrine. This passage is treated separately in Titus 1:5–9.
• Verses 10–16 Paul warns that there are many deceivers, especially among those of the circumcision. They teach for the sake of filthy lucre and subvert whole houses. Quoting a Cretan prophet who said, "The Cretians are alway liars," Paul tells Titus to rebuke them sharply. He concludes that they profess to know God but deny him by their works.

Key Verses

• Titus 1:2 "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began": grounds the hope of eternal life in God's ancient promise.
• Titus 1:5 "and ordain elders in every city": reflects the early church organizing itself by appointing leaders.
• Titus 1:16 "They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him": frequently cited to teach that confession and life must agree.

People and Places

• Paul: the apostle who sent the letter.
• Titus: Paul's coworker who received the letter and was given charge of the churches in Crete.
• Crete: an island in the Mediterranean, now part of Greece.
• Those of the circumcision: understood to be a group that required Gentile believers to be circumcised and to observe the Law.
• A certain prophet of Crete: the text does not name him. Since antiquity he has been identified as the Cretan poet Epimenides.

Points for Reflection

• Traditions differ on how to understand "elder" in verse 5 and "bishop" in verse 7. Presbyterians regard them as two names for the same office and treat this passage as a basis for presbyterian polity. Churches with episcopal polity, such as the Anglican Communion, hold that even if the two terms overlap in the New Testament, the bishop later became established as a distinct office.
• The phrase "the husband of one wife" has been interpreted variously as a prohibition of polygamy, a prohibition of remarriage, or a call to faithfulness to one's wife. It also comes up in discussions of the ordination of women and divorce and remarriage.
• Acts contains no record of Paul evangelizing Crete; the island appears only in the account of the voyage in Acts 27. For this reason the letter has traditionally been dated after Paul's release from his first Roman imprisonment. Some scholars, however, hold that the Pastoral Epistles were written later by a disciple of Paul. The account that Titus became the first bishop of Crete is a church tradition not found in the text.
• Verse 15 connects with Mark 7:18–19 and Romans 14, which address questions of purity. The list of qualifications for elders is read alongside 1 Timothy 3.

In the Korean Church

• Together with 1 Timothy 3, this chapter is frequently used as a sermon text at ordination and installation services for elders, deacons, and kwonsa (exhorters).
• The phrase "not given to wine" in verse 7 is sometimes cited in discussions of alcohol and tobacco.