Titus 1:1-4
A Faith That Rests on a Promise
1Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness,
2in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.
3In His own time He has made His word evident in the proclamation entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior.
4To Titus, my true child in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Berean Standard Bible
Paul opens this letter the way anybody opens a letter, with his own name, and then does something you would not expect from a man in a hurry. Before he gets anywhere near the person he is writing to, he says where the message came from, and the sentence keeps opening outward instead of arriving at Titus.
The first two words he uses about himself do not sit easily together. He is a servant of God, which is somebody who takes orders, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, which is somebody sent with authority. He is both at the same time, and he puts the servant first, so whatever authority he carries is the authority of a man who is under orders himself.
Then he says what the whole arrangement rests on.
in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.
Three words in the middle of that verse hold up everything around them, and they are the words who cannot lie. Not who does not lie, which describes a habit, and habits slip. Cannot describes what God is, and a promise is only ever as good as the one who made it. This one was made before there was a world to hear it, and Paul says it was made in hope of eternal life, which is a long way to keep a word.
There is something pointed about that phrase in this particular letter. Titus 1:5 puts Titus on Crete, and Titus 1:12 quotes a line calling Cretans liars. Paul begins by naming a God who is incapable of it.
Verse 3 adds that God has made his word evident in his own time, through the proclamation entrusted to Paul by command. The promise waited a very long while, and Paul does not treat the waiting as delay. It was God keeping his own calendar. Then the long sentence finally lands where it was always going.
To Titus, my true child in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Titus is not Paul's son. What they share is not blood, and Paul calls it common, which is a plain word for a remarkable thing. The same faith, held by Paul and held by Titus, is one faith rather than two, and that is what makes them family.
One more thing sits in these four verses without any explanation attached. God the Father is called Savior at the end of verse 3, and Christ Jesus is called Savior at the end of verse 4. Paul hands the same title to both inside two sentences and moves on.
Questions
1 Paul says God cannot lie. Why is that a stronger thing to say than God does not lie?
AnswerDoes not lie describes a habit, and a habit can slip when it becomes inconvenient. Cannot describes what God actually is, all the way down. That matters here because everything Paul is about to ask of this church rests on a promise God made, and a promise is worth exactly what the one who made it is worth.
2 Paul calls himself two things in verse 1. What are they, and how do they fit together?
AnswerA servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. A servant takes orders and an apostle is sent with authority, which sounds like a contradiction until you notice the order he puts them in. He says servant first, so the authority he carries is the authority of a man under orders rather than a man who has his own.
3 When was the hope of eternal life promised, and what happened later?
AnswerIt was promised before time began, and in God's own time the word was made evident through the message entrusted to Paul. The promise is older than the world and the announcing of it is recent, which means the waiting was never God losing track.
4 Paul calls Titus his true child in their common faith. What does he mean, since Titus is not his son?
AnswerThat the faith they hold is one faith and not two. Paul treats him as family on the strength of what they share rather than on anything else, which is the work the word common is doing in that verse.
What This Means for Us
The promise comes first, and every other thing in this letter stands on top of it. Before Paul says a word about who should lead, or about what has gone wrong on Crete, or about how a household ought to run, he says who God is and what God said before there was anybody around to hear it. Everything he asks for later is a response to that rather than a way of earning it.
So each person names one promise of God they are actually leaning on this week. Not something they are hoping happens, but something God has already said. Then say out loud who it was who made it.
Prayer
Father, you cannot lie, and that is the reason we are sitting at this table at all. Thank you for a promise older than the world, and for keeping it in your own time. Teach us to rest on what you have said rather than on how well we think we are doing. In Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen.