St. Titus
Titus 1:1-9
St. Titus was a companion of St. Paul and a coworker with him in the ministry of the gospel. The New Testament does not give us a lot of detail about his life, but it would seem that he was originally from Antioch, where he became a Christian within the congregation there.
Titus was a gentile. In his Epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul describes Titus as an uncircumcised “Greek.”
Titus is sometimes called an apostle, but this is meant in the broader sense of that term, according to which the companions of the “apostles” in the strict sense, are referred to by the same term through association. Titus did have an apostolic ministry, and was supervised and guided in that ministry by the apostle Paul. But he was not an apostle in the same sense in which Paul was.
In his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul writes that “God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus.” That comfort came specifically in the form of Titus reporting to Paul that the Corinthian Christians had taken to heart the admonitions Paul had addressed to them in his First Epistle to that congregation.
Titus had been Paul’s emissary to Corinth, where it would seem he dealt with the many disorders that had become evident in that congregation. The success of Titus’s pastoral visitation is indicated in his report to Paul that the Corinthian believers had repented, and reformed their ways.
We know from Paul’s Second Epistle to Timothy that Titus was later working to spread the gospel in Dalmatia, along the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, where the modern state of Croatia is now located. And in the Epistle that Paul sent to Titus himself – from which today’s Second Lesson is taken – we can see that Titus was then working on the island of Crete, where he was active in organizing the church and arranging for the appointment of pastoral leadership for the Christians there.
According to the later tradition of the church, Titus finished out his public ministry on Crete and died there of natural causes when he was over 90 years old. He was one of the few leaders of the church in these early years who did not die a martyr’s death. And this is why the ecclesiastical color for his commemoration is white, and not red.
One author has described Titus as “a troubleshooter, peacemaker, administrator, and missionary.” And he was all those things.
But Titus is best known to us, not because of what he did and said, but because of what was said to him by his teacher and mentor, St. Paul. Paul’s Epistle to Titus, in which Paul addresses him as “a true son in our common faith,” is a foundational text for our understanding of how the ministers of the Christian church should be chosen; and for our convictions on how the ministry of the church’s spiritual overseers should be conducted.
As we heard in the section from this epistle that was read as today’s lesson, there are some important moral qualifications for bishops, elders, or pastors in the church, which Titus was to take into account in the leadership arrangements he was to make for the Cretan Christians. In the time of the apostles, bishops (or overseers), presbyters (or elders), and pastors (or shepherds), were interchangeable terms.
These moral traits and ethical qualities are not unique to ministers, of course. All Christians should aspire to be people who could be described as “blameless”; and as “not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, …hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled.”
Still, in listing these things as qualifications specifically for pastors, Paul is accentuating the fact that the lives of the church’s ministers should be characterized by these traits and qualities in a more noticeable and exemplary way.
And St. Paul also gives what we might call professional qualifications specifically for pastors, that arise from their specialized training and competence, and that are not shared by all Christian men generally. Paul writes that a bishop or pastor must hold fast “the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict” God’s faithful word.
So, the primary qualifications of a pastor, as a pastor, are his understanding of the Word of God; his ability to expound and apply the Word of God among those whom he serves, and among those who come within the purview of his evangelistic outreach; and his ability to rebuke and correct those who defy, distort, or dismiss the Word of God and its saving message.
Having spiritual leaders and teachers who are able to do these things is not optional for the church. When Paul told Titus, “I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city,” this meant that the organization of Christian congregations would be incomplete and unfinished until such appointments had been made.
The specific details of how the ministry of pastoral oversight is set up, and the specific methods by which pastors are trained for their service, have not always been the same in all times and places. But the pastoral ministry in its essence is indispensable in all times and places.
According to the way in which Christ established his church, the church cannot exist without the public preaching and teaching of the gospel, or without the public administration of the sacraments, by properly-trained and properly called men. And so Martin Luther wrote – with respect to what St. Paul told Titus – that
“Whoever believes that here in Paul the Spirit of Christ is speaking and commanding, will be sure to recognize this as a divine institution and ordinance, that in each city there should be several bishops, or at least one. It is also evident that Paul considers elders and bishops to be one and the same thing…”
Because this is God’s will for his church, such a ministry should be valued by all of God’s people. But sadly this is often not the case.
People today often want a non-judgmental religion, where no one is criticized for his views, and where no one is told that there are certain things that he is obligated by God to believe. Tolerance is the modern watchword, not truth.
But the directives that St. Paul gives to Titus don’t fit those expectations. Immediately after the section of his Epistle to Titus that was read as today’s lesson, Paul also writes:
“For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers…, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not… Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to…fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth.”
Ouch! That’s pretty sharp. But God has the right to be clear and direct with us. Through the apostle Paul, it is indeed God who is speaking here.
And God has the right to expect us to be willing to believe things from his Word that most of the people we know do not believe. As God’s children we do not follow the crowd, but we follow, obey, and trust in, our heavenly Father.
Much of this epistle is dedicated to the promotion of good works, in accordance with God’s revealed moral law, and in the context of the vocations and stations of life in which people find themselves by divine providence.
Guidance is given for older people and for younger people, for masters and for servants. And then Paul summarizes the reasons why Christians should care about these things; and why they should want to lead lives that honor God, and that show forth love and respect for other people:
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”
God’s truth is not “out there,” waiting for us to search for it, and to try to find it. It is already here, with us, wherever and whenever the Holy Scriptures are properly taught among us.
Teenagers often think that disobeying their parents brings them freedom and happiness in life. This is seldom true.
Sinful men often think that disobeying God brings them freedom and happiness in life. This is never true.
The Son of God came into the world to redeem us from our sinful captivity to this disobedience and this foolishness. He came into this world to reconcile us with our creator, and to give us new hearts that desire what God desires, and that love what God loves.
This isn’t just someone’s opinion – mine or anyone else’s. This is the truth – God’s objective, unchanging truth – from which we must never turn away.
This is the truth that God would want the pastor or minister of every church on the face of the earth to proclaim, and to defend: holding fast to the faithful word; that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.
God’s Word does indeed teach a definite moral code. Because these are God’s ethics, all of us – as God’s creatures who are accountable to him – are obliged to commit ourselves to living as God would want us to live, and to treating others as God would want us to treat them.
Those who have authority over others – in the family, in the workplace, and in the larger society – are to exercise that authority with love and fairness. We are to submit to those who have rightful authority over us with love and respect.
We are to bear with the weaknesses of others, with patience and kindness. But we are not to compromise with the falsehoods that are embraced and promoted by many.
And yet, because there is sin inside all of us, we never live up to these obligations fully and consistently. We are not righteous, as God wants us to be righteous, by our own works, because sooner or later our works fail. We falter, and fail.
If we are going to be able to stand before God with a clear conscience, without fear of his judgment, it’s going to have to be by some method other than obeying the law. And God has made a way – a way that he reveals through his servant Paul in the Epistle to Titus! St. Paul writes:
“For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared – not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy – He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
This, too, is the truth. It is a truth that God invites you to believe, when you feel guilty or scared, when you doubt or are afraid, when you yearn for his peace and comfort, when you seek out the meaning of your life as a citizen of his kingdom.
And it is a truth that God would want the pastor or minister of every church on the face of the earth to proclaim, and to defend: holding fast to the faithful word; that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.
You have been baptized into the life of Christ, in the washing of regeneration. You have been baptized into the righteousness of Christ, which is draped over you to cover your unrighteousness, and to make you acceptable in God’s sight. You have been baptized into the hope of Christ, so that you know, through faith in him, what your eternal destiny will be.
This truth is not to be preached only once. It is not to be believed only once. It is the content of the preaching that God wants to sound forth everywhere and at all times, from the lips of all who have been called to be overseers of his flock, and stewards of his mysteries.
Whenever you slip or fall from the moral standards by which God calls you to live, in repentance you may then heed his other call – his call and invitation to return to your baptism, to be renewed in your baptismal life by his Holy Spirit.
In the introduction to his Epistle to Titus, St. Paul summarizes the gospel that he continually proclaims, when he writes that he is “a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior.”
You – who know the mercy of God in Christ – are God’s elect. For the sake of your faith – and for the sake of the daily renewal of your faith – the gospel of our God and Savior Jesus Christ is continually preached to you.
In this way you are preserved in your knowledge of his truth, and in your hope for eternal life.
Any human teaching that questions, compromises, or rejects this sacred divine teaching, must be repudiated in God’s name by the bishops and pastors of God’s church: if those bishops and pastors are to be faithful to the obligations of their office. Any teaching that points troubled sinners to their own works for salvation, and not to God’s baptismal gift of the righteousness of his Son, must not be heard or tolerated in God’s church.
It is for the sake of his truthful Word, and the teaching of his Word, that God has instituted the public ministry of pastoral oversight for his church. It is for the sake of your faith in his Word, and your justification in Christ by faith, that God gives you pastors who proclaim God’s eternal promises of grace and salvation: promises that God, who never lies, wants you to believe.
Titus, whom we commemorate today, was such a minister sent by God. We thank God for Titus’s example of faithful service.
And by means of the directions that God gave to Titus – in the letter that Paul wrote to him by God’s inspiration – God continues to guide and instruct his church, as he uses the church as his instrument for raising up new ministers of the gospel in every generation. We thank God for his faithfulness, in providing for our spiritual need.
May all Thy pastors faithful be; Not laboring for themselves, but Thee;
And may they feed, with wholesome food, The sheep and lambs bought by Thy blood;
Tending Thy flock, O may they prove How dearly they the Shepherd love!
That which the Holy Scriptures teach, That, and that only, may they preach; May they the true foundation lay, Build gold thereon, not wood or hay; And meekly preach in days of strife The sermon of a holy life. Amen.