Page 86 - Pastoral Epistles I & 2 Timothy, Titus

both for ordaining ministers and in the whole government of the church. Because many people foolishly desired
another kind of teaching from the one they received from Titus, Paul repudiates all others and grants his sole
approval to Titus’s teaching, encouraging him to continue as he has begun.

First of all, Paul teaches what kind of people should be chosen as ministers. Among other qualifications, he
requires that a minister should be taught sound doctrine so that he can refute his adversaries. Here, Paul takes
the opportunity to censure the ways of the Cretans and especially rebukes the Jews, who made holiness consist of
making distinctions between foods and other outward ceremonies. To refute their follies, Paul contrasts with
them the genuine practices of godliness and Christian living, and to impress this on them even more strongly, he
describes the duties that belong to different vocations. He tells Titus to teach these carefully all the time, and he
also tells the others not to become tired of listening to such teaching. Paul shows that this is the purpose of the
redemption and salvation obtained through Christ. If anyone will not accept what he says, Paul tells Titus to have
nothing more to do with him. We now see that Paul’s single aim was to support Titus and to give him a helping
hand in carrying out the Lord’s work.

Excerpt taken from: 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus by John Calvin.

Paul hoped to join Titus again, but we have no way of knowing whether that meeting ever took place. Tradition
has it that Titus served out the rest of his life on the Island of Crete.

People came from hundreds of miles to hear Paul’s teaching. Educated, well-spoken, motivated, and filled with
the Holy Spirit, this man of God faithfully proclaimed the Good News throughout the Roman Empire; lives were
changed, and churches were started. But Paul knew that the church must be built on Christ and not on a person.
And he knew that eventually, he would not be there to build, encourage, disciple, and teach. So, Paul trained
young pastors to assume leadership in the churches after he was gone. Paul urged them to center their lives and
preaching on the Word of God and to train others to carry on the ministry.

Crete was an island in the Mediterranean Sea. In the first century, it was a training center for Roman soldiers, so
if a church was going to exist, it needed strong leadership.

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