Titus 3:1-15

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
​Series: Titus

Rusty's Notes

CHRISTIAN LIVING AMONG OUTSIDERS
TITUS 3
1 Remind them to submit to rulers and authorities,

• Paul’s words can be hard to understand and even embrace, especially for those who live in democratic nations.
• His point is not that we ought to blindly follow the governing authorities even if they lead us into error.
• But rather believers ought to recognize their position with humility and be subject to their implementation of laws.
• He doesn’t want believers to have a reputation for illegal activities.
• Christianity is not meant to be a movement built on force and the overthrow of governments.
• Instead, it is designed to permeate and transcend every circumstance.
• The Gospel does not call for violent revolutionaries but rather peaceful ambassadors of God’ grace.

to obey, to be ready for every good work, 2 to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people.

• Christians were often looked on with suspicion in the Roman Empire because their conduct was so different, and they met in private meetings for worship (see 1 Peter 2:11–25; 3:13–4:5).[1]
• The Greek word used here, blasphēmeō, describes speaking against someone with the purpose of harming his or her reputation.
• Believers will ruin their own reputation if they seek to ruin the reputation of others.[2]
• This is a hard bit of instruction, but government officials, employers, and any other persons of authority should be the recipients of our every good work.[3]
• Paul encourages Christians to love and respect the inherent value within all people.
• Christians are not to stir up discontent with people but rather to love and express the fruit of Christ in a hurting world.
• God has consideration for all people and therefore wants His children to share the same love.

3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another.

• Paul wanted this reality to encourage humility and compassion in believers towards others.
• As ugly as this world is we must remember that we too were once enslaved to the world system.
• But when we believed we were set free from sin.
• We can now see the errors of the world system in a way that we could not when we were spiritually dead.
• Now that believers are no longer enslaved, we can live free from the constraints of sin.
• Believers are often tempted to look down their noses at unbelievers—forgetting that they too were once lost.[4]

4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

• The love of God appeared in Jesus.
• The two are one and the same.
• Jesus is the love of God made flesh.
• This love of God was expressed perfectly in Christ’s sacrificial work for salvation.
• This salvation is not based on our deeds but the regeneration of the Holy Spirit.
• For Paul, regeneration occurs at faith in Jesus not prior to it.
• Faith, therefore, does not arise because of regeneration but precedes it.

6 He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

• Justification is often viewed as a position for Christians that is somehow disconnected from the fact of regeneration.
• In other words, we are justified even though we aren’t truly righteous to the core.
• However, such a concept is missing from Pauline theology.
• Justification is synonymous with the inner righteousness of regeneration.
• Justification is the gracious act of God whereby He declares a believing sinner righteous because of the finished work of Christ on the cross.
• God puts to our account the righteousness of His Son, so that we can be condemned no more.
• Not only does He forget our sins, but He forgets that we were even sinners![5]
• This is the message that Paul wanted the believers to be adamant about in the midst of their ministry to the world.

8 This saying is trustworthy. I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed God might be careful to devote themselves to good works. These are good and profitable for everyone.

• Paul connects the message of regeneration to engaging in good works.
• The good works flow out of our new nature.
• These good deeds impact the world and hopefully win people over to the Gospel.

9 But avoid foolish debates, genealogies, quarrels, and disputes about the law, because they are unprofitable and worthless.

• Few things drive away seekers like church infighting.
• Satan loves to encourage selfish strife and division among church members.[6]
• Paul is blatant in his insistence that disputes about the law are worthless.
• This is because of Paul’s overall perspective on the differences between the Old Covenant and New Covenant but also because he was writing to Greeks, non-Jews, who never had the law.
• Therefore, arguing about the law was pointless for them.
• These arguments were also pointless because all who believe in Jesus are participating in a New Covenant, not the Old Covenant.
• Such admonition would be encouraging for the Greek believers as they combatted the false teachers who were mixing law and Gospel.

10 Reject a divisive person after a first and second warning. 11 For you know that such a person has gone astray and is sinning; he is self-condemned.

• Notice that Paul believed the false teachers to be condemned, not by God, but buy their own performance under the law.
• The law condemns all people because it can be kept by nobody.
• God, however, is not condemning.
• He wants to save all people through Christ.

 
FINAL INSTRUCTIONS AND CLOSING
12 When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, make every effort to come to me in Nicopolis, because I have decided to spend the winter there.

• We know nothing about Artemas; Tychicus we met in Acts 20:4.
• He was with Paul in his first Roman imprisonment and carried the epistles from Paul to the Ephesians (Eph. 6:21), the Colossians (Col. 4:7–8), and to Philemon (cf. Col. 4:7–9 with Phile. 10).[7]
• Map of Nicopolis.

13 Diligently help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey, so that they will lack nothing.

• It is possible that Zenas and Apollos (see Acts 18:24ff) carried this letter to Titus.
• Paul had sent them on a mission and Titus was to aid them all he could.[8]

14 Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works for pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful.

• Paul reminded Titus of the main theme of the letter: Insist that God’s people devote them to good works for pressing needs…[9]
• For the Christian productiveness is fun because it arises out of our new natures.
• We do not produce good works to maintain or earn the righteousness which only comes from the regeneration of God.[10]

15 All those who are with me send you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with all of you.[11]

[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 267). Victor Books.
[2] Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Tt 3:2). Lexham Press.
[3] Evans, T. (2019). The Tony Evans Study Bible (p. 1447). Holman Bible.
[4] Evans, T. (2019). The Tony Evans Study Bible (pp. 1447–1448). Holman Bible.
[5] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, pp. 267–268). Victor Books.
[6] Evans, T. (2019). The Tony Evans Study Bible (p. 1448). Holman Bible.
[7] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 268). Victor Books.
[8] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 268). Victor Books.
[9] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 268). Victor Books.
[10] Farley, Andrew. www.BibleCommentary.com. Titus 2.
[11] Christian Standard Bible (Tt 3:1–15). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.