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Titus 1:1-4 Preach the Word

Titus 1:1-4 Preach the Word

Last updated on: December 18, 2015 at 5:14 pm by Jim Erwin

Titus 1:1-4 Preach the Word 2015-12-18T17:14:18-05:00 Jim Erwin

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Titus 1:1-4 Preach the Word

As we look in this first chapter, we see that Paul has written to a young man named Titus. Paul sent Titus to Crete to establish the church there. It was after he had been released from his first imprisonment in Rome that Paul most likely traveled to Crete and left Titus there to establish a work on the island.1

In the first couple of verses, we have an introduction to this letter. From one preacher to another, Paul encourages Titus to engage in three responsibilities. These three responsibilities are the primary functions of every pastor. These responsibilities are: (1) preach the Word, (2) ordain qualified leaders, and (3) silence false teachers. The first responsibility is to:

Preach the Word

In Titus 1:1-4, we see four words which describe the characteristics of the Word which is to be preached:

1. Build up the faith

“…to build up the faith of God’s elect …” (Titus 1:1, HCSB)

Pastors are encouraged to preach the Bible so that it builds up the faith. Building up the faith is like working spiritual muscles. Preaching is like instructing the Christian in the exercise room to prepare oneself for life.

2. Leads to godliness

“…the truth that leads to godliness,” (Titus 1:1, HCSB)

The truth of the Gospel changes a life from ungodliness (Titus 2:12) to holy living. Sad to say, there were people in the churches on Crete, like some church members today, who professed to be saved, but whose lives denied their profession (Titus 1:12).2

Doctrine becomes deadly when it is divorced from godly living. Truth must produce goodness, or it is not truth. The history of orthodoxy witnesses to this again and again.3 Therefore, preaching the Word should lead a Christian to more godliness, not less godliness. People should be more Godly because of the preaching, not more worldly.

“in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.” (Titus 1:2, HCSB)

This godliness is based on a hope. The strive to live a life that honors God because we know that God has kept His Word to us. We have a confident hope in eternal life because we have a promise from God and we trust that His promises are true. This promised hope comes to us by preaching the Good News.

Preaching the Word leads to godliness today and also in the future. We are called to be more Godly as time continues. God is Truth and cannot lie. As Christians, we follow a God who is true to Himself. He is not fake. We can trust Him. As a result, the preaching should be trustworthy.

One of those truths that we should be preaching is eternal life. God promised eternal life to those who follow Jesus Christ. That means there is a Heaven, and there is a Person who can show us the way to get there.

““For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:16–17, HCSB)

“Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6, HCSB)

3. Reveals God and His ways

“In His own time He has revealed His message in the proclamation that I was entrusted with by the command of God our Savior:” (Titus 1:3, HCSB)

Preaching is the way in which one learns about God’s ways. Preaching reveals God and His ways because it is based on the Word of God.

“Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not based on human thought. For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation from Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 1:11–12, HCSB)

Preaching allows the revelation of God to be shared with the people. It is essentially God’s wisdom, not man’s wisdom.

4. Promotes unity

“To Titus, my true son in our common faith. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.” (Titus 1:4, HCSB)

Paul ends this greeting by stating that he wants Titus to have grace and peace. Both true grace and peace come from Jesus Christ. The grace of God leads to the peace of God. One cannot have the peace of God without experiencing the grace of God. This grace and peace comes from a common faith.

Most early manuscripts have “grace and peace,” but a few early manuscripts and related later witnesses have “grace, mercy, and peace,” a phrase which also appears in 1 Tim 1:2 and 2 Tim 1:2.4

In his earlier letters, Paul used two words to greet people – grace and peace. In his greeting to individuals in the later letters, Paul used a pattern of grace, mercy, and peace.

We have a common faith. As a result, preaching should promote unity in the church. There are different ways to view some Scriptures. However, as a whole, preaching should promote unity, not divide the church.

Our faith is a common faith – even if there are different flavors. I tell couples who want to get married that it is important that you have a common faith. The Christian faith is like ice cream. Churches and denominations are like flavors of ice cream. Some people like vanilla. Some like chocolate, and others like rocky road. So a couple comes together and even though they are both of the same faith, the are not of the same flavor of the faith. They have to come to agreement about which flavor of the faith they want to enjoy.

Let me end with this illustration about church unity.

Someone has imagined the Carpenter’s tools holding a conference. Brother Hammer presided. Several suggested he leave the meeting because he was too noisy. Replied the Hammer, “If I have to leave this shop, Brother Screw must go also. You have to turn him around again and again to get him to accomplish anything.”

Brother Screw then spoke up. “If you wish, I’ll leave. But Brother Plane must leave too. All his work is on the surface. His efforts have no depth.”

To this Brother Plane responded, “Brother Rule will also have to withdraw, for he is always measuring folks as though he were the only one who is right.”

Brother Rule then complained against Brother Sandpaper, “You ought to leave too because you’re so rough and always rubbing people the wrong way.”

In the midst of all this discussion, in walked the Carpenter of Nazareth. He had arrived to start His day’s work. Putting on His apron, He went to the bench to make a pulpit from which to proclaim the Gospel. He employed the hammer, screw, plane, rule, sandpaper, and all the other tools. After the day’s work when the pulpit was finished, Brother Saw arose and remarked, “Brethren, I observe that all of us are workers together with the Lord.”*56

1 Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 1414.

2 Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 260.

3 Gary W. Demarest and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, 1, 2 Thessalonians / 1, 2 Timothy / Titus, vol. 32, The Preacher’s Commentary Series (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1984), 311.

4 Rick Brannan and Israel Loken, The Lexham Textual Notes on the Bible, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014), Tt 1:4.

5* Leslie B. Flynn, 19 Gifts of the Spirit (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1974), p. 28.

6 Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes, electronic ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000), 128–129.

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