Titus | Chapter 3

Titus 3:1-8 

“Civic Minded” 

3:1-11 Daily maintenance

Vs. 1-2 Remind them  

Vs. 3 The way we were

Vs. 4-8 What a transformation    

Introduction

Having just written Titus about the personal impact that a relationship with Jesus has with the individual believer through: Redeeming Grace, Reforming Grace and Rewarding Grace. Paul now speaks on how that personal transformation would impact society. When you consider Christianity in the first century it doesn’t resemble what we see today. It was viewed within the Roman Empire with great suspicion as believers’ conduct was so vastly different from the accepted norms of society.

  • The practice of their faith didn’t involve trying to keep immorality out of society.  It was society that saw their lack of immorality as wrong. It was the believer’s personal lack of practicing immorality that made society suspicious of Christians and led to their persecution.
  • Their participation in church life was not public, there were no facilities at every street corner, no advertising or promotion of the Church. The church met house to house underground in what was largely private meetings for believers only. There was virtually no thought of trying to get unsaved people to go to church in order to “save” them. The emphasis was on transformed believers going into society and living their faith. This too added to the suspicions of the society with regards to the church.

In spite of these suspicions and prejudices, Christians and the Church were expected to be good citizens without compromising their faith. Their fellow neighbors may be practicing immorality condoned and accepted by the Government but where the Empire didn’t cause them to compromise their faith the believer was expected to be a model citizen.

Vs. 1-2 Remind them

Vs. 1-2 In the Greek the phrase “remind them” is in the present tense and means “keep on reminding them”. Thus Titus was to continue to remind Christians to show proper humility to all people especially those in a position of authority. The phrase “ready for every good work” follows Paul’s exhortation for believers to be “subject to rulers and authorities, to obey.”

As such the context is that believers were to be cooperating in those matters that involved the whole of society as long as they did not conflict with the higher authority of obedience to God and His word. Our heavenly citizenship does not absolve us from earthly responsibilities and those responsibilities are expandable and flexible enough to fit into any form of government at any time. We are NOT just to be “subject to rulers” which would make us not merely passive but active as we are “ready for every good work.”

Had Paul left it there, this exhortation would have been left up to each and every believer to interpret WHAT and HOW such an exhortation was to be applied but the following verses make it apparent that Paul wanted to give the Christian and the Church the specific obligations that would enhance the Church in its mission to transform society. It is clearly evident that in the Roman Empire in which the first century church was birthed, that this transforming mission was to be “covert” and impactful as each individual believer didn’t any longer conform to the image of society. It was this visible transformation of the individual believer no longer practicing the immorality of society that would impact the society.

  • “…to speak evil of no one”: The context of this is the phrase of verse 1 “be subject to rulers”. The idea behind these words is that the believer was not to have a bad attitude towards the government that was demonstrated by slanderous accusations and argumentative actions. Is it just me or do you also find this extremely difficult to practice? These words need to be placed into the context of the Roman Government which was far more inept and depraved than even our own present government. To me these words speak to the balance, as Paul is not suggesting that we agree with the evils of society that are legislated and encouraged by a wicked government.
  • What Paul is saying is that we need to love the sinner while we hate the sin! We are to speak evil of “NO ONE” not that we should not speak with regards to EVIL! Clearly this is a difficult thing to do as we speak against the EVIL of sexual immorality or abortion without speaking evil of those who are victims even though they practice these evils.
  • “…to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.”: The above admonition was in the negative, “what we are not to be towards rulers” here Paul tells Titus what the Christian citizen is to positively behave like and he uses Greek words that describe a “peaceful, sweet reasonableness”. The words describe an attitude that causes actions that do not insist on the letter of the law, but are willing to compromise where no moral or ethical issue is at stake.
  • We are to demonstrate humility to ALL MEN, especially those that we disagree with on issues. Again the balance as this isn’t suggesting that we compromise our opinions or views, only that we compromise our self-pride and insistence that every knee bow to us. We must never allow being right on an issue to overtake behaving right. I’d far rather a person disagree with my position than they reject my position because of my behavior.

Vs. 3 The way we were

Vs. 3 Paul linked the DUTY of Christian citizens with the DOCTRINE of their experience and as such we cannot divorce the two. Our expectation of godly behavior matches our experience and as such we are left without an excuse. Indirectly Paul’s words are saying, “Don’t be verbally condescending and combative to your unsaved community; remember what kind of person you were before Jesus transformed your life.”

Reading through the six examples of the expression of our former enslaved life ought to grant us kindness towards those who are currently afflicted with these same ailments. Saints, each of us ought to write down these “six deadly examples of our former life” and follow them up with personal examples from our past. I believe that none of us would have a hard time coming up with a few hundred examples from our past. This list of six should be laminated and keep with us at all times and before we say or act towards an unsaved person we should take the list out with our personal examples and read them to refresh our memory:

  • Foolish
  • Disobedient
  • Deceived
  • Serving various lusts and pleasures
  • Living in malice and envy
  • Hateful and hating one another  

At the start of the list of six characteristics of my former life Paul included himself saying “WE” as he graciously described our transformation saying, “FOR WE OURSELVES WERE ALSO ONCE”. The assumption and expectation is these six examples are indeed part of “my former life” not “illustrations of my current life”! I am left with “NO ROOM TO TALK” no high and mighty arrogance of superiority, only a humble gratitude of God’s Redeeming, Reforming and Rewarding grace! Remembering that we were once foolish, disobedient, and deceived builds four things in us:

  • Gratitude: For how God transformed us
  • Humility: When we realize that it was His work the changed us
  • Kindness: Towards others who are in the same place we were
  • Faith: In God to believe that since God has changed us He can change anyone

Vs. 4-8 What a transformation

Vs. 4 Oh what a difference “the kindness and the love of God our Savior” made to these six examples of my character. The list of six is one verse but the expression of God’s “kindness and love” is four verses in length. We will never appreciate what God has done until we examine the NEED for it to be done. Once we have come to personally admittance of our NEED we must spend far more time in appreciation for God who has transformed a wretch like ME.

Vs. 5 Here Paul explains that God’s salvation, kindness and love came “not by works of righteousness which we have done.. ” “but according to His mercy”. The object of the work is further described as “the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.” The point Paul is instilling in the reader is that our “WERE ALSO ONCE” cannot be accredited to our work but to Jesus’ work, so we have nothing to enable us to think and act superior to those still enslaved by those 6 characteristics. It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that “baptized” or washed us anew.

Vs. 6 Paul continues to tell us that the Holy Spirit was not “poured upon” us sparingly but rather “ABUNDANTLY”. If those 6 characteristics above are “illustrations of my current life” instead of “examples of my former life” the fault does not lie with the lack of God’s supply but rather my lack of obedient appropriation.

Vs. 7 There are words used in the Bible that we know, but we know not what they mean in relation to our lives and “having been JUSTIFIED by His grace” is just such a word. The doctrine of “justification” is more fully explained in Paul’s letter to the Romans in chapter 3:21 and 8:39 but the word describes the gracious act whereby God declares a believing sinner “right” because of the finished work of Jesus upon the cross.

The term is both a legal term as well as an accounting term as God declares us both RIGHT and ACCOUTS the rightness of Jesus to our account so that we can no longer be condemned. Because of this God not only forgets our sins, He forgets we were even sinners! The outcome of God’s kindness, love, mercy and grace is HEIRS of God and because of this we have the certain HOPE of eternal life! What that means dear ones is that we can begin to withdraw on God’s riches today, we don’t have to wait tell He comes as we are on the account with Him. And when He comes we will share His wealth and His kingdom forever.

Vs. 8 This inheritance doesn’t come without accountability as we will demonstrate that we have been transformed and heirs of God by “good works” which Paul says are good and profitable to men. The only evidence the unsaved world has that we have indeed changed kingdoms and are heirs is the sacrificial service of believers. Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone!

Titus 3:9-15 

“Dealing with problem people” 

Vs. 9-11 Detractors and Dissenters 

Vs. 12-15 Closing     

Introduction

Having given the church specific guidelines on how to be a Christian Citizen it appears that Paul anticipates the natural question, “Paul you said that we need to speak evil of NO ONE, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to ALL MEN.” “Did you really mean to say NO ONE and ALL MEN? What about PROBLEM PEOPLE?”

Vs. 9-11 Detractors and Dissenters

Vs. 9-11 Paul concludes this letter with “How to deal with PROBLEM PEOPLE.” Within and without the walls of the Church “problem people” exist and they usually come in two varieties:

  • Vs. 9 Detractors: These are people who like to debate, they have a lot of questions and hypothetical situations they want answers for. But the truth is they really don’t want answers, they want reasons to remain unchanged by truth and are hoping that you will provide them with just such an excuse. The favorite game for “detractors” is truth “Dodgeball” as you can spend a tremendous amount of time answering their questions but in the end unfortunately “detractors” are not looking for reasons to obey the truth they are looking for excuses not to! Paul gives four ways they played “Truth Dodgeball” by engaging in:
  • Foolish disputes: The word “foolish” comes from a Greek word that means stupid or absurd and “dispute” which comes from the Greek word questioning. Putting it together it would mean continual stupid questions. In chapter 1 verse 11 Paul told Titus that there are some things people will try to get you into debating worthless things and the best way to stop their mouths is not open yours.
  • Genealogies: This was a very common tactic of the Judaizers who like to engage in debates over ancestry as an establishment of authority and correctness. I suppose today folks would talk about their experience or education. That would be the reason that they are right. Today we see Mormons spending millions of dollars and man hours researching genealogies so that they may baptize for the dead as they believe you can save a person through proxy. The problem is twofold: They fail to understand the purpose of baptism, as a person isn’t baptized to be saved, they are saved and baptism is an outward sign that they have identified with the work of Christ and have surrendered to Him as Lord. Second, they fail to understand that such an act does a dead person no good as the author of Hebrews wrote in chapter 9 verse 27 saying, “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” So it’s best to just avoid arguments about genealogies.
  • Contentions: This word just refers to a quarrel but one that leads to contention and strife the point of which is to distract from getting at the heart of the matter.
  • Strivings about the law: This too was a favorite tactic of the legalists who would as Jesus said of them in Matthew 23:24 “strain at a gnat but swallow a camel”.

There will always be people who want to strain at a gnat while swallowing camel, and Paul’s word is avoid them. The fact that you evade this kind of person is avoidance, because engaging in this will be unprofitable and useless. The word “avoid” in the Greek means to “step around or stand aside”. So those who want you to play “Truth Dodgeball” you step around the game. These distractions are so that we will get off on tangents instead of keeping the main thing, the main thing.

  • Dissenters: The 2nd group of “problem people” are what Paul calls a “divisive” person which in the Greek is the word heretic the idea being that the person has chosen the opposite of the truth. They have made a choice to cause divisions as was the case with Korah who rose up against Moses and Aaron dividing the Israelites under the false premise that Moses and Aaron had too much power and that they were exalting themselves when in reality it was Korah that was exalting himself, drawing people away after himself.

It is unfortunate that these “church splits” happen but Paul gives sound advice on how to deal with “dissenters” as he says that the shepherd needs to lovingly confront a person who is causing dissention, warning them to stop repeating the confrontation if they won’t heed the council. If they still refuse to stop then they are to be refused fellowship.

Over the almost 30 years I’ve witnessed this many times where a person goes about trying to gain a following and a position and after they have enough folks following after them they get upset at the pastor or church leadership and leave the church with their followers in tow. Sometimes they start another church, other times they all start attending a new fellowship where in time this process will be repeated.

I’m always a little concerned when someone new comes into the fellowship with a following of people and after a few short weeks begin to tell me how great I am and how bad the former pastor was. I may not know their former pastor but their new shepherd is most definitely not worthy of praise! Paul says that a person that continues on in this pattern is “warped” in character as they continue to sin and are condemned in their behavior.

Not that long ago while out of town I noticed a church that had an unfortunate location as well as a name as it was called “West Division Street Church”. I don’t think I want to attend a church that is stuck on “Division Street”. There are many Christians that seem to think that this kind of “church growth” is attractive and will follow after this as number and popularity must mean God is in it and it is healthy.

Vs. 12-15 Closing

Vs. 12-13 These final verses Paul conveys his personal wishes and greetings as well as reminding Titus of the purpose of the letter verse 14, “let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that may not be unfruitful.” If you were to go to all the closing words of Paul throughout his 13 letters they all have a common end as they both greet people who were at the destination Paul was writing to as well as sending greetings for those who were with him.

Paul was not some stuffed shirt, he was a man who had many friends that cared for him, and he for them. Apparently Paul was at Nicopolis, there were three cities that bore this name in the ancient world: Cilicia, Thrace and Epirus. Most agree it was Epirus (on the west coastline of Greece) that Paul speaks of as they had work that would have suited him.

Of the names mentioned:

  • Artemas: Is a name that we have only mentioned here and we know nothing of him other than that he must have been a useful believer as Paul was considering sending him or Tychicus to Titus.
  • Tychicus: Is mentioned in Colossians 4:7 where he is called a beloved brother, faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. The same comments are made about him in Ephesians 6:21 and in Paul final 2 Timothy 4:12 Paul sends him back to Ephesus with the letter as well as to replace Timothy so he could come before Paul was executed.
  • Zenas: The word for lawyer is a word that is connected to the Mosaic Law, so he is most likely a converted Jewish lawyer and as much time as Paul spent in jail he needed a good lawyer. So for all the lawyer jokes here is an example that even lawyers can find the truth in Christ. He is mentioned as a believer and he and Apollos are to be sent on their journey at once.
  • Apollos: Apollos was a powerful orator, skilled in rhetoric, his name first comes up in Acts chapter 18:24 where we are told that he was a Jew from Alexandria, eloquent in speech and mighty in the scriptures. We are further told that He was “instructed in the way of the Lord, fervent in spirit and he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord” and based upon the context seems to indicate that his enthusiasm matched his education.
  • Yet with that said we are told that he “only knew the baptism of John”. He knew of the necessity of a changed heart, he spoke of the fact that such a changed heart would be visible in a changed life. And he spoke of the need for Jesus to live this new life. But he lacked the teaching with regards to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So Priscilla and Aquila act as personal trainers and fill in the missing Piece of his teaching the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. Apparently this worked as the carnal Corinthian believers were selecting him as a favorite teacher in 1 Corinthians 1:12.

Vs. 14-15 “Let our people also learn to maintain good works” in the Greek this phrase means “possess honest trades” and suggests that believers were to be able to support themselves by the work of their own hands so that they wouldn’t be a financial burden upon the church.  Paul defines this self-sufficient as the ability to meet their own urgent needs and then says that not doing so would be unfruitful. James would write that Christians need to be “Doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourself.”

He went on to say that if a Christian saw a brother or sister naked and destitute of daily food and only said “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled” but do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? James went on to say, “You have faith, and I have work. Show me your faith without your works, and I’ll show you my faith by my works.” Paul ends this letter with a benediction combining “love in the faith” and Grace to be with all!