Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness-- (Titus 1:1)
a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, (Titus 1:2)
and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior, (Titus 1:3)
- (1:1-3) God's truth leads to godly living, implying religious lies do not. Eternal life is a hope (while other verses add to this truth); God can not lie. To preach God's word is a trust from God, our Savior.
To Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and
Christ Jesus our Savior. (Titus 1:4)
The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. (Titus 1:5)
- (1:4,5) Titus is Paul's son in the faith - his convert. Jesus is identified as the Savior here, while v.3 stated God is our Savior, together implying the deity of Christ. Titus was left alone in Crete to complete unfinished business not identified and to appoint elders in all the towns.
An elder
must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. (Titus 1:6)
Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work , he must be blameless - not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. (Titus 1:7)
Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. (Titus 1:8)
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. (Titus 1:9)
- (1:6-9) The conditions and qualifications for an elder to be appointed in the Christian congregations are listed. They exclude the polygamous as well as men unable to control their children. The "overseers" (called "elders" earlier) must be "blameless" with high qualifications as listed in verses 7 and 8. That same elder (or overseer) must be able to do 2 important things with scripture: encourage the saints by sound doctrine (implying scriptural truth is encouraging) and must also be able to refute those who are not sound. In other words, he must also speak out against and refute false doctrine.
For there are many rebellious people,
mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. (Titus 1:10)
They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach - and that for the sake of dishonest gain. (Titus 1:11)
Even one of their own prophets has said, "Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons." (Titus 1:12)
- (1:10-12) The cited problem was the "circumcision group," who must be silenced (refuted). [The book of Galatians was primarily written against them and their dangers.] They are religious deceivers and 'mere talkers', but ruining whole families with their false doctrines, which they taught for money ("dishonest gain"). True spiritual leaders must not be greedy (1 Peter 5:2) and must be able to refute them (and other false teachers) doctrinally, who also do similar destructive damage. IF not, they are disqualified on that point alone. Paul quoted a false prophet (one of the 'prophets' of the circumcision group) to supplement his description of them.
This testimony is true. Therefore,
rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith (Titus 1:13)
and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. (Titus 1:14)
- (1:13,14) Rebuke sharply the saints considering the lies of the circumcision group, so they will remain sound doctrinally and flatly reject the religious myths and commands of those false teachers.
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. (Titus 1:15)
They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. (Titus 1:16)
- (1:15,16) There are two type of people cited there: the PURE or the CORRUPTED (impure). The latter have both their minds and consciences "corrupted," also showing the mind is not the conscience. Though they were impure, they falsely "claimed to know God". Their actions, included their teachings and showed they denied God, just like the grace changers of Jude 4. Those false teachers are further described in v. 16b. Such was the circumcision group, who battled against Christian truth, and had to be refuted.
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