📖 Biblical Definition
Paul's pastoral epistle to Titus, written about AD 63-64, charging Titus to establish church order on the island of Crete. Three short chapters cover: (1) elder qualifications and the need to silence false teachers, especially the many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision (1:10); (2) sound doctrine producing sound living — instructions for older men, older women, younger women, younger men, servants, with the great gospel-summary of 2:11-14 (For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ); (3) Christian conduct in the broader world, the regeneration-through-the-Holy-Ghost passage (3:5), and final greetings. Titus and 1-2 Timothy together form the Pastoral Epistles, the canonical handbook for church order, pastoral qualification, and doctrinal-discipline in the local church.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
TITUS, n. A companion of Paul; the epistle addressed to him.
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TITUS, n. A Gentile believer and intimate fellow-laborer of the apostle Paul, by whom he was sent to Crete to set in order the churches; also the canonical epistle giving him directions concerning elders, the doctrine of grace that teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and godly, and the maintenance of good works.
📖 Key Scripture
Titus 1:5 — "For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders."
Titus 2:11-12 — "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness…we should live soberly, righteously, and godly."
Titus 2:14 — "Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people."
Titus 3:5 — "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Grace divorced from the ethics it produces — turning Titus 2:11 into a slogan and ignoring 2:12.
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Modern grace-preaching loves Titus 2:11 ('the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared') and skips Titus 2:12 ('teaching us…to live soberly, righteously, and godly'). Grace was never meant to be a permission slip; Paul tells Titus it is a schoolmaster training believers in self-control.
The Cretans were liars and lazy gluttons by their own poet's admission. The gospel did not flatter them; it remade them. That is grace — not the cancellation of holiness but its only true engine.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Key terms: charis (grace), sōphronōs (soberly), kalos ergon (good works).
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Usage
"Titus is the gospel's ethics class — grace teaches."
"A church without qualified elders is a Crete-shaped problem."
"Good works adorn the doctrine of God our Savior."