Titus 3:12-15
Bring Zenas and Apollos
12As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, make every effort to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there.
13Do your best to equip Zenas the lawyer and Apollos, so that they will have everything they need.
14And our people must also learn to devote themselves to good works in order to meet the pressing needs of others, so that they will not be unfruitful.
15All who are with me send you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with all of you.
Berean Standard Bible
The letter ends the way real letters end, which is with arrangements. Paul will send either Artemas or Tychicus, and as soon as one of them arrives Titus is to make every effort to come to him at Nicopolis, because Paul has decided to winter there.
Four names, a town and a season, all inside four verses. This is not an essay with a greeting stuck on the end of it. Verse 12 sets an order to things: Titus is to come only once Paul has sent Artemas or Tychicus, so the work Titus was left with is not abandoned when he leaves. Paul also names a season rather than a date, and says he has decided to winter at Nicopolis.
Do your best to equip Zenas the lawyer and Apollos, so that they will have everything they need.
Zenas is given a profession in this verse and Apollos is not. The instruction about them is practical. Do your best, Paul says, so that they will have everything they need.
Then the letter turns and looks at everybody rather than at Titus alone. The instruction widens out to take in the whole congregation on the island, and what it asks of them is the same thing it has just asked of him.
And our people must also learn to devote themselves to good works in order to meet the pressing needs of others, so that they will not be unfruitful.
The word learn is the one carrying weight. Devotion to good works is not treated here as a temperament that some people are born with and others are not. It is treated as something a whole congregation has to be taught, the way anybody is taught a trade. And the aim is specific rather than general. Not goodness in the abstract, but the pressing needs of others, and verse 13 has just put two men with a journey ahead of them in front of this congregation.
Good works arrive here attached to something particular that somebody actually needs, with a name on it. Titus 2:11 says the grace of God has appeared, and this is what that grace looks like once it reaches a week with errands in it.
The closing line sends greetings from everyone with Paul, asks Titus to greet those who love them in the faith, and ends with grace to all of you. Grace is the word Titus 1:4 opened the letter with, and here at the end it is handed to all of them rather than to Titus alone.
How We Know
The travel plan can be checked against a real place. Nicopolis in Epirus, on the western coast of Greece, was founded by Octavian in 31 BC to commemorate his victory over Antony and Cleopatra at Actium, and it became the capital of the Roman province of Epirus. That is the town verse 12 names, and it can be located on a map today.
Tychicus and Apollos were not invented for this letter either. Tychicus is named at Acts 20:4 and Colossians 4:7, and Apollos at Acts 18:24 and 1 Corinthians 3:6.
- Nicopolis Actia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, britannica.com/place/Nicopolis-Actia
Questions
1 Why can Titus not leave Crete the moment Paul asks him to come?
AnswerBecause verse 12 puts one thing before the other. Paul will send Artemas or Tychicus, and only then is Titus to make every effort to come. The order is Paul's and the verse does not explain it.
2 What does this verse tell us about Zenas?
AnswerThat he is a lawyer. It is a small detail and this verse adds nothing else, but it is enough to make him a man with a profession rather than a name on a list of people passing through.
3 Our people must learn to devote themselves to good works. Why does the word learn matter?
AnswerBecause it means this is taught rather than inborn. Devotion to good works is not a temperament that some people happen to have and others do not. A whole congregation gets trained into it, the way anybody is trained into a trade.
4 What kind of needs does verse 14 have in view?
AnswerPressing ones, which means the needs actually standing in front of them rather than goodness in general. Verse 13 has just named two men with a journey ahead of them.
What This Means for Us
The letter ends in errands, and that is deliberate rather than an anticlimax. Titus 2:11-14 says grace appeared and Christ gave himself to make a people zealous for good deeds, and verse 14 here says that zeal has to be learned. What it looks like when it arrives is a lawyer, a journey and a winter.
So this family names one pressing need somebody near us actually has, and decides one concrete thing to do about it before next week.
Prayer
Father, thank you that your grace ends up in ordinary arrangements. Teach us to devote ourselves to good works, and to see the needs close enough for us to meet. Make this household useful to people who are traveling hard. Grace be with all of us. Amen.