Paul's letter to Titus Titus was a Greek
follower of Jesus who was for years a
trusted co-worker and travelling
companion of Paul's he had helped Paul
in a number of crisis situations in the
past and in this letter we discover that
Paul had assigned him the task of going
to Crete a large island off the coast of
Greece to restore order to a network of
house churches now Cretan culture was
notorious in the ancient world one of
the Greek words for being a liar was
created though to be a Cretan these
people were infamous for treachery and
greed most of the men on the island had
served as mercenary soldiers to the
highest bidder and the island cities
were known as being unsafe plagued by
violence and sexual corruption however
the island of Crete had many strategic
harbours and they service cities all
over the ancient Mediterranean Sea and
so from Paul's point of view Crete was
the perfect place to start a network of
churches now we don't know the details
but somehow these churches came under
the influence of corrupt Cretan leaders
they said they were Christians but they
were ruining the churches and so Paul
assigned Titus with the task of going
there to set things straight and this
letter provided the instructions it has
a pretty straightforward design after a
brief introduction Paul gives Titus
clear instructions about his tasks in
the church he then offers guidance about
the new kind of household and then about
the new kind of humanity that the gospel
could create in these Cretan communities
Paul then closes the letter with some
final greetings
so Paul opens the whole thing by
reminding Titus that his message as an
apostle is about the hope of eternal
life that is the life of the new
creation that is available starting now
through Jesus the Messiah and this hope
was promised long ago by the God who
does not lie
now this little opening comment
introduces an important theme underlying
the whole letter one of the problems in
the Cretan churches was that they had
assimilated their ideas about Jesus the
Christian God to their ideas about the
Greek gods that they grew up with
specifically Zeus their chief God Cretan
people claimed that Zeus was actually
born on their Island and they loved to
tell stories and mythologies about Zeus
is underhanded
director he would seduce women and lie
to get his way and Paul wants to be
really clear the God revealed through
Jesus is totally different than Zeus his
basic character traits are faithfulness
and truth which means the Christian Way
of life will be about truth also which
will be a real change for these cretins
so Paul then addresses Titus with a
two-fold task he says the first one is
to appoint new leaders for each church
community a team of what he calls elders
mature husbands or fathers whose way of
life is totally different from Cretan
culture they're to be known for
integrity total devotion to Jesus for
self-control and generosity both in
their families and in the community at
large and these new leaders are to teach
the good news about Jesus and replace
the corrupt leaders who need to be
confronted
that's tight as a second task Paul
identifies the teachers as those of the
circumcision in other words they were
ethnically Jewish cretins who said that
they followed Jesus but similar to the
problems in Galatia these people
demanded that non Jewish Christians be
circumcised and follow the laws of the
Torah if they really wanted to become
followers of the Jewish Messiah Paul
says that they're obsessed with Jewish
myths and human commands and to top it
off they're just in the church
leadership business to make money
and so Paul in a brilliant move he pulls
a quote from an ancient Cretan poet
empanada
who was very frank and honest about the
character of his own people he said
cretins are always liars vicious beasts
and lazy gluttons they blur the lines
between true and false between good and
evil and they're just in it for the
money and so while these leaders claim
to know God their Cretan way of life
denies him they have to be dealt with
and this leads Paul into the next
section because of these corrupt leaders
many Christians in these churches now
have homes and personal lives that are a
total wreck in three different times
Paul highlights the result of all this
the message about Jesus is discredited
their non-christian neighbors now have
good cause to make evil accusations and
all of this makes the teaching about God
our Savior totally unattractive and not
compelling to anybody so Paul paints a
picture of the ideal
hold that is devoted to Jesus it would
be elderly men and women who are full of
integrity and self-control so they can
become models of character to the young
people and the young women shouldn't be
sleeping around and avoiding marriage as
was fashionable and creat at the time
but rather they should be looking for
faithful partners so they can raise
stable healthy families and the young
men are to do the same they're to be
known as productive healthy citizens
Christian slaves on Crete were in a
unique position because we know that
because of the gospel they were treated
as equals in Paul's church communities
however there was a danger that they
would use that equality as license to
disrespect their masters and then become
associated with slave rebellions which
would further discredit the Christian
message you can see Paul negotiating a
fine line here he believes that the
gospel about Jesus needs to prove its
redemptive power in the public square if
it's really going to transform Cretan
culture and that's not going to happen
through social upheaval or by Christians
cloister away from urban life the
Christian message will be compelling to
cretins when Christians fully
participate in public life when their
lives and homes look similar on the
surface because after a closer look
their neighbors will discover that
Christians live by a totally different
value system out of devotion to a
totally different God and that's the
difference that Paul beautifully
summarizes at the end of chapter 2 he
says the value system driving the
Christian Way of life is God's generous
grace which appeared in the person of
Jesus and will appear again at his
return this grace was demonstrated when
Jesus gave up his honor to die a
shameful death on behalf of his enemies
so that he could rescue and redeem them
and it's that same grace that calls
God's people to say no to corrupt ways
of life that are inconsistent with the
generous love of God Paul then zooms out
from the Christian household to a vision
of Christians living like new humans and
Cretan society of all people Christians
should be known as the ideal citizens
peaceable generous obedient to
authorities known for pursuing the
common good
is really different from how cretins
grew up how are Christians supposed to
sustain this countercultural way of life
and Paul believes the power source is
the transforming love of the
three-in-one God announced in the gospel
and he explores this with a really
beautiful poem he says God's kindness
and love are what saved us despite
ourselves so that through the holy
spirit God washed and rebirthed
and renewed people and through Jesus has
provided a way for people to be declared
right before him and all of this opens
up eternal life that is a new future in
the new creation this living story is so
powerful it can produce new kinds of
people Paul's convinced that
spirit-empowered faithfulness to the
teachings of Jesus will declare God's
grace all over the island of Crete and
all over the world Paul concludes by
promising to send backup for Titus
either Artemis or tikka kiss and then he
says hello to their common friends and
so the letter ends the letter of Titus
shows us Paul's missionary strategy for
churches to become agents of
transformation within their communities
it won't happen by waging a culture war
or by assimilating to the cretan way of
life rather he calls these Christians to
wisely participate in Cretan culture
they need to reject what's corrupt
but also embrace what's good there if
they can learn to live peaceably and
devote themselves to Jesus and to the
common good Christians will in his words
show the beauty of the message about our
saving God and that's what the letter to
Titus is all about