Titus 1:1 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Paul, a servant of God.’ That word ‘servant’ is so important. Some people would prefer to translate it ‘slave’, and that is the most literal translation: ‘Paul a slave of God’. A number of people like to emphasise this. They say, ‘For servant in our King James Version, you should invariably read “slave”’, but it isn't actually completely right. It is very uncertain whether the word always means exactly slave, because it can be used in Greek literature for servant also. Yes, literally it is slave, but somewhat of a servant as well. Are we splitting hairs? Well, it's something between the two – Paul, a slave; Paul, a servant. We can explain it in this way: Paul saw himself as a slave in that he was purchased. Christ on Calvary had saved him from his sin, saved him from judgement and condemnation, saved him from a life of sin living for himself, and had purchased him and made him his own. So he would be happy to say, ‘I am an owned one; I am purchased by Christ; I am a slave.’ And yet at the same time, slave wouldn't be the whole picture, because Paul, like us, also had tremendous rewards. A slave isn't paid, but a servant is, and believers are paid. Believers are rewarded every day with light and understanding, with answers to their prayers, with help, with strength from above, with happiness and peace and consolation, with zeal and incentive to labour for the Lord, and ultimately with the great eternal reward which the apostle goes on to speak about. So we are not slaves in the strict sense; we are so rewarded. And of course, because we are saved, we labour, I hope, voluntary, freely, willingly, lovingly. That is not a slave; that is a devoted servant. So we slave-servants. You can't pin this down. And I think the King James translators did the very best they could, by choosing to translate slave as ‘servant’, for those reasons. And significantly, Paul does not do here as he does elsewhere; he puts servant before apostle, because the term is so rich for us all.‘And an apostle’ – a sent one. There were the eleven, after the loss of Judas, then Matthias, and then one born out of due time, the apostle Paul. So they are the apostles, once for all apostles, given for the foundation stage of the church, personally and directly commissioned by the risen Lord. That has not happened since. Apostles, witnesses of the resurrection. Many inspired, and together endorsing the inspired word of God, the New Testament canon of Scripture. Instructions are given, in the New Testament, in these pastoral epistles, for the appointment of pastors, of elders, of deacons, but we have no instruction for the appointment of prophets, no instruction for the appointment to apostles. Why not? Because they were only meant for that first stage of the church. If they were meant to go on, you can be absolutely sure we would have instructions for their appointment, but we don't have that.‘An apostle of Jesus Christ,’ – Christ is everything – ‘according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness.’ What does faith mean here? You might think just reading the passage superficially, that it refers to the whole faith, the whole body of doctrine. That is sometimes what we mean by ‘the faith’: he believes ‘the faith’, the Christian doctrine and gospel. But that is not what it means here. It means here, reliance and trust: the actual activity of trusting. The all-important thing is reliance upon Christ, dependence upon him, trust in him, faith in him. That is what the apostle is to minister to, to bring about: trust in Christ, ongoing faith in Christ. ‘According to’ means for the furtherance of. It is the big thing: to trust him. But look how he goes on: ‘and the acknowledging of the truth’ – if you like, for the increasing knowledge of the truth, which is after godliness. ‘Which is after godliness.’ That word godliness is a special word in the Greek. And we may think it is a synonym for godly living: the truth which promotes godly living. Well that is true, but the word translated ‘godliness’, in the Greek doesn't actually mean godly living; it means reverence to God. It is a worship word. It was used by the pagans. If you were a pagan, you had to have a right attitude to your idols; they used the word in that way. And Christians use the word, and Paul uses the word. It means basically ‘reverence to God’. If you have great reverence to God, then of course you will obey him; of course you will want to please him. Of course it leads to godly living. But the key thought is reverence to God.