Read with Me
Titus 1:1-4 (HCSB)
Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to build up the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. In His own time He has revealed His message in the proclamation that I was entrusted with by the command of God our Savior:
To Titus, my true son in our common faith.
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Listen with Me
Titus had partnered with Paul in the work of the kingdom for several years before Paul left him in Crete to help grow and stabilize the Church there. Now he is writing to give him additional guidance.
As usual, Paul begins this letter with a brief introductory paragraph about himself and his mission, even though both are well-known to Titus. First, he identifies himself as a servant or bond slave of God. Paul realized that from the moment he surrendered himself to the risen and exalted Jesus on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:3-9), he was no longer his own, but had been bought and paid for with the blood of Jesus. Therefore, he did not set his own agenda or make his own plans. He sought God’s will continually, and the moment he knew it, he did it wholeheartedly.
Next, Paul identifies himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ to build up the faith of God’s elect, for the truth that leads to godliness. Even though all believers are “sent ones” (the literal meaning of “apostle”) under the Great Commission mandate (Matthew 28:18-20), Paul had been specifically sent, not just to those he knew and worked with, but to the Jews and Gentiles in the far-flung Roman Empire. And he had been 100% faithful to that calling ever since.
Paul understood that the gospel he preached, and the eternal life that was promised through it, was not something new. Instead, it was the culmination, the fulfillment of God’s plan which had been progressively revealed over long ages to and through the Jewish people. But now, in the coming of Jesus, in His life, ministry and teaching, in His death and resurrection, and in His ascension to heaven and His pouring out of the Holy Spirit on all who believed in Him for salvation, those foreshadowings and promises had been made real.
Paul calls Titus his “true son” in their common faith. Even though Paul had never married, and thus had no physical children to leave a legacy to, he had many spiritual sons and daughters, those whom he had led to the Lord and helped to grow into powerful witnesses and leaders in their own right. And Titus was one of those who had grown into a wise and powerful man of God, capable of providing the needed leadership in Crete.
As usual, Paul conveys his prayer for God’s grace and peace to be poured into Titus’s life in abundance through Jesus, the risen and exalted Savior of all who trust in Him.
Pray with Me
Father, the thing that really strikes me most powerfully today is that since Paul had surrendered himself to Jesus, he no longer saw himself as autonomous, able, or even willing to set his own agenda, but wholly sold out to do Your will and only Your will. I am afraid that that can’t be said of many who claim the name of Jesus today. Even though they claim to have surrendered to Jesus, they still pursue their own agendas with their faith seeming to be an “add-on” to their lives instead of a new reality that directs them in Your ways. It’s no wonder that so many lack any real spiritual power, since Your power isn’t given to accomplish our goals and dreams but is only given to accomplish Your mission. Help me, Lord, to live every moment of my life for You, so that You can do everything through me that You want to do. Amen.