Tit 3:8 | KingComments | STEP | . Now you get to learn about the purpose of salvation. God has saved you, so that you could become ‘an heir’ “according to [the] hope of eternal life”. In the previous verses you have seen what God has done to that end. He appeared to you in His kindness and love to mankind; He showed you mercy; He cleansed and renewed you. But there was still something else to happen to make you an heir, for as an heir you ought to be fully in accordance with the righteousness of God. As a true heir your ‘right’ to the inheritance is not to be questioned. The Lord Jesus also took care of that through His work on the cross. He has perfectly fulfilled the right of God. Through faith in Him and His work for your sake God passes on His own righteousness to you ( ). You are a new creation in Christ. You have new life, life of God. You are a child of God and therefore also an heir of God ( ). God sees you in Christ Who became to you righteousness from God ( ). It will be evident that you owe that justification only to God’s “grace” ( ). It is not mentioned here what the inheritance entails. That doesn’t mean that you do not know what the inheritance consists of. It is after all everything that Christ inherits, because we are His fellow heirs ( ; ). Here the inheritance is connected to ‘the hope of eternal life’. The word ‘hope’ doesn’t indicate insecurity, but focuses you on the future. You will enjoy the inheritance in the same way as you will enjoy eternal life in the time that sin cannot possibly exert its pernicious influence. You and all believers will then be perfect and therefore the circumstances will also be perfect, without any chance for sin to penetrate again. The full result of the work of Christ will be seen and enjoyed in all His glory and through all eternity. And you may partake of that. That is quite an awesome perspective, isn’t it? . What Paul just said is an absolutely trustworthy statement. You can count on it. But it must not stop with nice reflections. Titus must urge that the believers believe this statement and arrange their lives accordingly. Just pass on the things you just learnt to others who also believe in God, which means that they believe Him without questioning His Word. They may not all know this, but if you start to tell them about these things you will notice that they are encouraged and helped by it. Just like you they will then focus themselves on “good deeds”, which means that they will carefully examine for themselves which good deeds they can do. They will work with deliberation. If you are occupied with good, honorable works you do not harm or burden other people, but on the contrary you are engaged with things that have a “good and profitable” effect for the people in your environment. . Concentrating on good deeds prevents you from wasting time on things that are not good. You will avoid those things. Paul mentions some of those things. Titus must avoid “foolish controversies”, which are disputes that are useless and make no sense at all. He must also remain far away from figuring out and discussing about “genealogies” because the wildest fantasies were expressed about them. He must also not partake of strife and disputes about the Law by the Jewish scribes to add all kinds of commands to it. All such empty rhetoric is without any sense and content. It produces nothing else than hot heads and cold hearts. He who mainly talks about outer things doesn’t understand much of God’s kindness and love to mankind. . Among the people who produce such foolishness, “a factious man” can reveal himself just like that. Therefore it is not surprising that in line with this, Paul gives Titus an instruction how he should deal with a factious man. A factious man can be a false teacher ( ), but not necessarily. The Pharisees were a factious group or a sect ( ). They made a controversial point of many things and excluded others who did not share their opinion. Still you could not say that they proclaimed a false doctrine. They were pure in doctrine, but added to God's Word, rendering it powerless ( ). A faction or a sect is a group of believers that distinguishes itself from other believers by putting an excessive emphasis on certain parts of the truth. In order to have fellowship with them they require that people embrace their concept about those parts of the truth. A sect comes to existence if the conditions to have fellowship are more than the Scripture requires. Nevertheless not everyone who belongs to a sect is a sectarian or factious man, but the leaders of the group certainly are. Then Paul tells Titus, and you too, how to deal with a factious man. Note carefully that this is a personal letter and not a letter to a church. Therefore it is about a personal attitude toward a factious man. There is also no mention of the command to ‘remove from among yourselves’ ( ), but about ‘warning’ and ‘rejecting’. The moment a person exposes himself as factious he must be warned once or twice. Only if it becomes evident that the warnings do not help, it can be determined that a person is a factious person and then rejection should follow. Such a person persists in his deviation in such a way that further efforts to bring him to repentance will be in vain. . Titus must reject such a person because he knows that that person “is perverted and is sinning”. Further contact will be harmful to himself ( ). Due to his stubborn attitude the factious man is condemning himself without really being conscious of that. . In a totally different tone Paul speaks about some fellow servants in his concluding words. He would love to have Titus with him. But Paul doesn’t want the believers at Crete to be without any leadership. Therefore he promises to send someone to replace Titus. He still doesn’t know whether to send Artemas or Tychicus. Of Artemas we do not know more than what is written here about him. He must have been a faithful fellow worker of Paul. Of Tychicus we know more ( ; ; ; ). Only when the replacement has arrived Titus could travel to him in Nicopolis, where Paul decided to spend the winter. Then he will be able to continue his journey in spring in the company of Titus. . Artemas and Tychicus appear to be fellow workers of the apostle who are able to represent him elsewhere. That doesn’t apply to someone like Apollos. He determines for himself in dependence on the Lord what his task is and where he should go (cf. ). It is a danger if you see the way clearly for yourself, to then define it also for others. That is not what Paul does. Zenas and Apollos will also come, but not sent by Paul, but by the Lord. Paul is not jealous that others come to the area where he has worked, but on the contrary, he is happy about that. He sees no competition, but a supporting one another. Because Zenas has knowledge of the law he is able to respond to the Judaic false teachers. Apollos is mighty in the Scriptures ( ). Paul asks Titus to make sure that these two servants will have no lack of anything. . The believers in Crete can give their contribution to that. Titus must exhort them to focus on this kind of “good deeds”. Then they will not remain “unfruitful”. “Our people” are in a direct sense all believers in Crete and in the broadest sense all believers on earth. We are not to limit that to those who go ‘with us the same denominational way'. You can learn to engage in good deeds. Are you also that eager to learn how “to meet pressing needs”? This exhortation becomes increasingly more topical, because we live in a world where people are building their lives for themselves alone more and more. This spirit also affects Christians more and more. That is to the detriment of lost sinners and needy believers. . Paul concludes with conveying the greetings to Titus from all who are with him. Wherever he is he has fellowship with other believers. In his turn Titus must greet without distinction all believers in Crete, from Paul and from those who are with him. He presumes that all believers in Crete love him and all who are with him as believers. He wishes grace to all in Crete. In that way he says goodbye. In that way also you and I may say goodbye to one another. We wish one another on our separate ways that grace will guide us and that we will be aware of that. Now read Titus 3:7-15 again. Reflection: What was Titus to avoid and what was he to cooperate with?

‏ Titus 3:8

Heirs, Instructions and Greetings

Tit 3:7. Now you get to learn about the purpose of salvation. God has saved you, so that you could become ‘an heir’ “according to [the] hope of eternal life”. In the previous verses you have seen what God has done to that end. He appeared to you in His kindness and love to mankind; He showed you mercy; He cleansed and renewed you. But there was still something else to happen to make you an heir, for as an heir you ought to be fully in accordance with the righteousness of God. As a true heir your ‘right’ to the inheritance is not to be questioned.

The Lord Jesus also took care of that through His work on the cross. He has perfectly fulfilled the right of God. Through faith in Him and His work for your sake God passes on His own righteousness to you (Rom 3:21-22). You are a new creation in Christ. You have new life, life of God. You are a child of God and therefore also an heir of God (Rom 8:17). God sees you in Christ Who became to you righteousness from God (1Cor 1:30). It will be evident that you owe that justification only to God’s “grace” (Rom 3:24).

It is not mentioned here what the inheritance entails. That doesn’t mean that you do not know what the inheritance consists of. It is after all everything that Christ inherits, because we are His fellow heirs (Rom 8:17; Eph 3:6). Here the inheritance is connected to ‘the hope of eternal life’. The word ‘hope’ doesn’t indicate insecurity, but focuses you on the future. You will enjoy the inheritance in the same way as you will enjoy eternal life in the time that sin cannot possibly exert its pernicious influence.

You and all believers will then be perfect and therefore the circumstances will also be perfect, without any chance for sin to penetrate again. The full result of the work of Christ will be seen and enjoyed in all His glory and through all eternity. And you may partake of that. That is quite an awesome perspective, isn’t it?

Tit 3:8. What Paul just said is an absolutely trustworthy statement. You can count on it. But it must not stop with nice reflections. Titus must urge that the believers believe this statement and arrange their lives accordingly. Just pass on the things you just learnt to others who also believe in God, which means that they believe Him without questioning His Word. They may not all know this, but if you start to tell them about these things you will notice that they are encouraged and helped by it.

Just like you they will then focus themselves on “good deeds”, which means that they will carefully examine for themselves which good deeds they can do. They will work with deliberation. If you are occupied with good, honorable works you do not harm or burden other people, but on the contrary you are engaged with things that have a “good and profitable” effect for the people in your environment.

Tit 3:9. Concentrating on good deeds prevents you from wasting time on things that are not good. You will avoid those things. Paul mentions some of those things. Titus must avoid “foolish controversies”, which are disputes that are useless and make no sense at all. He must also remain far away from figuring out and discussing about “genealogies” because the wildest fantasies were expressed about them.

He must also not partake of strife and disputes about the Law by the Jewish scribes to add all kinds of commands to it. All such empty rhetoric is without any sense and content. It produces nothing else than hot heads and cold hearts. He who mainly talks about outer things doesn’t understand much of God’s kindness and love to mankind.

Tit 3:10. Among the people who produce such foolishness, “a factious man” can reveal himself just like that. Therefore it is not surprising that in line with this, Paul gives Titus an instruction how he should deal with a factious man. A factious man can be a false teacher (2Pet 2:1), but not necessarily. The Pharisees were a factious group or a sect (Acts 15:5 ; Acts 26:5). They made a controversial point of many things and excluded others who did not share their opinion. Still you could not say that they proclaimed a false doctrine. They were pure in doctrine, but added to God's Word, rendering it powerless (Mt 15:6).

A faction or a sect is a group of believers that distinguishes itself from other believers by putting an excessive emphasis on certain parts of the truth. In order to have fellowship with them they require that people embrace their concept about those parts of the truth. A sect comes to existence if the conditions to have fellowship are more than the Scripture requires. Nevertheless not everyone who belongs to a sect is a sectarian or factious man, but the leaders of the group certainly are.

Then Paul tells Titus, and you too, how to deal with a factious man. Note carefully that this is a personal letter and not a letter to a church. Therefore it is about a personal attitude toward a factious man. There is also no mention of the command to ‘remove from among yourselves’ (1Cor 5:13b), but about ‘warning’ and ‘rejecting’. The moment a person exposes himself as factious he must be warned once or twice. Only if it becomes evident that the warnings do not help, it can be determined that a person is a factious person and then rejection should follow. Such a person persists in his deviation in such a way that further efforts to bring him to repentance will be in vain.

Tit 3:11. Titus must reject such a person because he knows that that person “is perverted and is sinning”. Further contact will be harmful to himself (1Cor 15:33). Due to his stubborn attitude the factious man is condemning himself without really being conscious of that.

Tit 3:12. In a totally different tone Paul speaks about some fellow servants in his concluding words. He would love to have Titus with him. But Paul doesn’t want the believers at Crete to be without any leadership. Therefore he promises to send someone to replace Titus. He still doesn’t know whether to send Artemas or Tychicus. Of Artemas we do not know more than what is written here about him. He must have been a faithful fellow worker of Paul. Of Tychicus we know more (Acts 20:4; Eph 6:21; Col 4:7; 2Tim 4:12). Only when the replacement has arrived Titus could travel to him in Nicopolis, where Paul decided to spend the winter. Then he will be able to continue his journey in spring in the company of Titus.

Tit 3:13. Artemas and Tychicus appear to be fellow workers of the apostle who are able to represent him elsewhere. That doesn’t apply to someone like Apollos. He determines for himself in dependence on the Lord what his task is and where he should go (cf. 1Cor 16:12). It is a danger if you see the way clearly for yourself, to then define it also for others. That is not what Paul does. Zenas and Apollos will also come, but not sent by Paul, but by the Lord.

Paul is not jealous that others come to the area where he has worked, but on the contrary, he is happy about that. He sees no competition, but a supporting one another. Because Zenas has knowledge of the law he is able to respond to the Judaic false teachers. Apollos is mighty in the Scriptures (Acts 18:24). Paul asks Titus to make sure that these two servants will have no lack of anything.

Tit 3:14. The believers in Crete can give their contribution to that. Titus must exhort them to focus on this kind of “good deeds”. Then they will not remain “unfruitful”. “Our people” are in a direct sense all believers in Crete and in the broadest sense all believers on earth. We are not to limit that to those who go ‘with us the same denominational way'.

You can learn to engage in good deeds. Are you also that eager to learn how “to meet pressing needs”? This exhortation becomes increasingly more topical, because we live in a world where people are building their lives for themselves alone more and more. This spirit also affects Christians more and more. That is to the detriment of lost sinners and needy believers.

Tit 3:15. Paul concludes with conveying the greetings to Titus from all who are with him. Wherever he is he has fellowship with other believers. In his turn Titus must greet without distinction all believers in Crete, from Paul and from those who are with him. He presumes that all believers in Crete love him and all who are with him as believers. He wishes grace to all in Crete.

In that way he says goodbye. In that way also you and I may say goodbye to one another. We wish one another on our separate ways that grace will guide us and that we will be aware of that.

Now read Titus 3:7-15 again.

Reflection: What was Titus to avoid and what was he to cooperate with?