1-4 Salutation
- Paul - a servant - an apostle - for the sake of the faith - for the knowledge of the truth - in the hope of eternal life...
- ...that God - who never lies - promised before the ages began - revealing his word in due time - entrusting Paul with its proclamation. Both of these bullets are in one sentence, at least in the NRSV – one of those sentences of Paul's that is not just a greeting but a whole sermon, much like most of the sentences in the first chapter of Ephesians.
- To Titus - my loyal child in the faith we share. We don't know whether or not Paul converted Titus. At the very least, he was Titus's mentor.
- Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ our Savior. Exactly the same words he used in the greeting of both epistles to Timothy.
- Paul left Titus in Crete so he could put things in order; namely, to appoint elders
- He was to find men:
- who are blameless, married only once
- whose children are believers, not rebellious
- who are not arrogant, quick-tempered, addicted to wine, violent, or greedy
- who are hospitable, good, prudent, upright, devout, self-controlled
- who know the word so they can teach it and refute false teachers
- Titus is also to silence many who deceive, especially those of the circumcision, for they upset the body. Choosing able men to be elders would be of great help to Titus in this task.
- One of their very own called Cretans liars, vicious brutes and lazy gluttons. Paul says he was right.
- "To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure." Certainly a reminder to us not to be naive about those who are evil in this world, like those who victimize innocent children.
- Paul calls such people "detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work." We may excuse people who seem to be doing good things, but if they are corrupt, nothing they do can be called a "good work."
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