Bible Commentaries
Titus

Titus is one of the three important little books that are together known as the Pastoral Epistles. They are made up of First and Second Timothy and Titus. Rather than being written to churches, these books were written to Paul's ministerial helpers. However, it seems obvious, especially in Titus, that Paul is writing in such a manner as to be "overheard" by the churches. Like Timothy, Titus was a faithful helper of Paul and had traveled with him on many occasions. Unlike Timothy, he was not of Jewish blood but was rather a Gentile (Galatians 2:3).

Titus was also probably converted by Paul and thus considered as a spiritual "son" of the apostle just like Timothy (1 Timothy 1:2). Titus seems to have been one of Paul's most important helpers and trouble-shooters. We see Titus with Paul as early as the mid-century Jerusalem Conference mentioned in Galatians 2:1-3. It appears that Titus, the Gentile, was a sort of test-case in the Jerusalem debate concerning circumcision. Later he was working with the Corinthians in the delicate matter of raising a large offering for Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 7:13-14; 2 Corinthians 8:6,16,17,23; 2 Corinthians 12:18). Paul was seen anxiously awaiting him on his return from Corinth. The apostle was overjoyed with the good news he brought (2 Corinthians 2:13; 7:6,13,14). Not only was Titus assigned to Crete to straighten up the churches there but in 2 Timothy 4:10, we saw him sent also to Dalmatia. We noted in 2 Corinthians 8:16, that Titus was very likeminded with the apostle.

In this epistle we realize that Titus was laboring on the large island of Crete. Paul had apparently left him there after they had served together for some time. This almost had to have happened after Paul's first imprisonment in Rome, and would have to be dated sometime after AD 62. We note from Luke's account in Acts that Paul never visited Crete in his three missionary trips. The only time he was at Crete was when he was headed for Rome as a prisoner (Acts 27:7-13). Of course, there would have been no opportunity to preach at this time and also Titus was not with him.

The isle of Crete was the birthplace for the ancient Minoan civilization (c. 2700-1420 BC). This was probably the earliest recordedcivilization in all of Europe.^(F1) Crete was the largest of the Greek islands and was very well placed from a commercial standpoint, being an almost equal distance from Asia and Europe.

We cannot be certain as to the beginning of Christianity on the island. We do note in Acts 2:11 that there were Cretan Jews present at Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. It is very possible that some of these brought the faith back to their island from that experience. By the time of this epistle Paul and Titus had started a number of churches on the island. Apparently Paul had to move on to other places and he left Titus in charge of finishing the work. It is likely that he was writing to Titus from somewhere in Macedonia. To make matters worse on Crete, a heresy very similar to the one at Ephesus was brewing among the churches there. The heresy seemed to be a combination of Greek speculative thought (Gnosticism) and Jewish legalism, much like what Timothy had faced.^{Titus 1:10,14), while some of the Gentile believers were abusing the message of grace and turning it into license (Titus 2:11-15). (Warren W. Wiersbe, see below, p. 788).">(F2)}

This little letter is almost a condensation of First Timothy.^(F3) Since it deals in a compact manner with duty in the church (1:5-16), in the home (2:1-15) and in the world (3:1-11), it has been a popular book for Christians and Christian leaders.^(F4)