Titus 1
Dear RTB’ers,
Titus. Titus is another of Paul’s “pastoral” epistles, Paul writing as a pastor to a member of his “flock”. This flock member, however, is very special to Paul. He gets some dozen mentions in Paul’s letters, especially in II Corinthians which we just read recently, where Titus was called upon by Paul to be his emissary and to “put out the (Corinthian) fires”. As in I Timothy, much of the content of this letter has to do with church institutions and discipline, Titus being left behind at Crete to complete the work there (v. 5a).
My guess is that most of us are more familiar with Timothy than with Titus. Surprisingly, Titus is not mentioned in Acts while Timothy is mentioned at least five times (Acts 16:1-3; 17:14-15; 18:5; 19:22; 20:4) Timothy is also included in the greeting in a number of Paul’s letters (Philippians, Colossians, Philemon), so we tend to be more familiar with Timothy. But here’s another surprising item about Titus – although he is not mentioned at all in Acts, he is mentioned some dozen times in Paul’s epistles!!
Titus, my true son… (v. 4a) Right away we see what STS says in its introduction, that Titus was very likely led to faith by Paul, himself. What a bond that must have been. He is also mentioned several times as one of Paul’s regular traveling companions, certainly contributing to that “father-son” bond. So let’s enjoy this short letter as we celebrate this Christmas season.
Blessings!