Paul’s letter to Titus begins right away with a description of what a godly church leader looks like. His letter is a brief one, so he wastes no time getting right to the heart of the matter. As mentioned last week, the letter to Titus can be broken into three sections: Godliness when it comes to church leaders, godliness when it comes to church life, and godliness in the life of the individual believer.

You can see the continuing description of the elder in Titus 1:7-9:

At first glance, it seems like Paul is repeating himself here; he tells Titus that an elder must be blameless twice within the span of two sentences. Paul’s writing is usually very intentional. Why would he carelessly repeat what he just stated in the previous sentence?

The answer is that it was not a careless repetition. Here is a rule to live by when reading Paul’s letters, or any of the rest of the New Testament: When something is repeated, that means it is being emphasized. We need to pay closer attention. If Paul feels it bears stating twice, then we need to hear it. In this case, he is going to describe what being blameless looks like for the elder.

It’s worth noting that Paul switches words here from elder (presbuteros) in verse 5 to overseer (episkopos) in verse 7, however, the meaning behind both is the same. These words are both used to describe the same office in the church.

The letter to Titus is a very brief letter, and because of this, Paul wastes no time in getting to the point. His purpose in writing is to instruct Titus on several key points of his ministry on Crete, beginning with appointing elders.

You can see this week’s passage in Titus 1:5-6:

After a greeting that is typical for Paul, he jumps straight into his reasons for writing Titus. The first and foremost reason is so that Titus can continue the work that Paul began and appoint elders in the churches there.

The letter to Titus can be broken into three sections: Godliness when it comes to church leaders, godliness when it comes to church life, and godliness in the life of the individual believer. Paul begins with the leadership.

He states that this is one of the prime purposes for which he left Titus behind. This suggests that Paul was there himself, working to build the church on Crete. Paul was, in fact, on the island of Crete at one point, according to Acts 27:7-8. But these events don’t necessarily fit that timeline too well. An additional visit, after Paul was released from prison in Rome, however, is likely.

Paul begins his letter to Titus in much the same way he begins all of his letters, with a greeting that borders on doxology. As in his greeting in 1 Timothy as well as 2 Timothy, there is some deep theology here if we have eyes to see it.

You can see the greeting in this epistle in Titus 1:1-4:

Even though beginning his letters with a greeting is typical Pauline fashion, the greeting to Titus differs in several ways from his greetings in 1 and 2 Timothy. Only here in Titus and in Romans does Paul give extensive details about his apostleship. It seems that most of the rest of his letters were written to churches and people who knew and accepted his apostleship as valid. But the church Titus worked with and the Roman church were newer Christians, and Paul was new to them. He writes this to establish his authority.

First off, Paul introduces himself, and states that he is a slave to God. Most of the time, he states he is a slave to Christ Jesus, so the difference here is noteworthy. This speaks to Paul’s high view of Christ, equating him with God. And Paul is his slave, a servant, even a bondservant. Paul knows that he is not writing this from his own purpose. He is simply a tool in the hands of God, to be used however needed.

Next Paul states his purpose. In most of his other letters, he gives his authority as an apostle, but he has already indicated that with his description of himself. He moves on to his purpose. He understands God to have called him to ministry in order to bring faith to God’s elect, those who have accepted the gospel message of salvation by grace through faith. Paul’s mission is to instruct them in the faith.

Titus is the final letter in the collection called the Pastoral Epistles of Paul. Similar in design and purpose to the two letters to Timothy, Titus is a letter written to a young man in ministry who needed some encouragement and guidance as he struggled to be the leader of a church that faced some unique issues and problems.

The letter is named for the recipient, a young man named Titus, who is mentioned in the New Testament more than a dozen times, mostly in 2 Corinthians, who was serving on the island of Crete.

Author Of Titus

The author of this letter is Paul, and is stated so at the very beginning of the letter. This fact is virtually uncontested, and has been held throughout the centuries.

Date and Occasion

When Paul wrote Titus, he was either in Nicopolis, or on his way there. He planned to spend the winter there (Titus 3:12), and sent this letter to Titus during that same time frame. Titus had been left in Crete to lead the church that Paul had started there. This would place the letter somewhere around AD 62-64, after Paul had been released from his first imprisonment (Acts 28:30), but before his second imprisonment when he wrote 2 Timothy.