Titus
- Titus and 2 Timothy, like 1 Timothy, are called the Pastoral Epistles. They are written to coworkers of Paul, Timothy and Titus. Timothy is at Ephesus; Titus was at Crete.
- Like 1 Timothy, Titus deals with the twin concerns of false teaching and church order. The false teaching in Titus seems to be Jewish in nature.
- Probably the most striking thing about Titus is the way it flat out calls Jesus God (Titus 2:13). Jesus is called Son of God, Christ, etc all over the place but it is really not too frequent that he is flat out called God.
- The reason 2 Timothy is put last in this series is because it is something like Paul's last will and testament. Some of Paul's farewell reminds me of his farewell to the Ephesians in Acts 20. Paul has fought the good fight.
- There's some personal information on Timothy in here.
- There are some good charges for pastors in here (thus, "pastoral" epistles). Pastors are to "rightly divide the word of truth," as the King James puts it.
- One of them has to do with the inspiration of Scripture. Important to recognize that Paul is talking about Scripture as a tool of formation that leads to salvation. He is not talking about Scripture as an answer book or limiting the instruction of Scripture only to its literal sense.
- He tells Timothy to preach the word and warns about the importance of sound teaching.
Personal take away today:
- 2 Timothy 2:15 just has always stood out to me--I want to "rightly divide the word of truth." I want to hear what God is really saying through the words of Scripture.
2 comments:
I have always found Titus 1:12 a bit harsh. "One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: 'Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.' This saying is true." However, I found some balance in the other "trustworthy statement" in Titus 3:3-8, in which Paul says that we were like that also.
II Timothy 4:17 is not talking about the lions in the Colosseum. (A Roman citizen would not be in danger of that---could not be executed that way). He must be speaking of Satan and the temptation to save his own life by compromising his testimony. One guesses that he could have talked his way out of this, flattered Caesar, also undermining the gospel. He chose instead to "fully proclaim" the truth. This earned him death, but brought him safe to the heavenly kingdom. In other words, he was left totally alone, was severely tempted to save himself, but the Lord gave him strength to deny self and die for the gospel. He finished well.
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