Titus 3:1-2

Paul has written to encourage Titus in his efforts to bring the Cretan congregations to live Christian lives in the midst of a very immoral society. Paul’s repeating theme is that Christians should uphold the doctrine of God their Savior with the way they live, so that God’s word would be honored in the eyes of their contemporaries, and so that they would see evidence of the divine work of grace that God had done in their hearts, thereby bearing witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Chapter 3 breaks down like this: v1-2 is a command to right behavior (1 Peter 2:12); v3-7 offer a reason, a motive, for living rightly; v8 reiterates what Paul said in v1-7 as a “trustworthy saying;” finally, v9-15 offer summarizing positive and negative exhortations – don’t do this, but do this – along with final greetings.

¹Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, ²to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.

Paul begins this chapter with a command to Titus. Paul wants Titus to remind the Christian congregations on the island of Crete to keep living their lives on earth. They are to be in the world but not of the world. They are to be good earthly citizens under Roman government, even as they are members of God’s heavenly kingdom in Christ. Though their unbelieving Cretan friends and neighbors may resent the yoke of Roman authority, they as Christians are to have a proper attitude of respect to civil authority.

In fact, Paul lays out seven civic virtues, God-wrought and gracious virtues, for these Christians to display in their earthly relationships. They include: being submissive to authority (outwardly respectful of the lawful commands of lawful rulers and authorities), being obedient (inwardly willing and obedient to the particular commands of that government), being ready to do good (having a spirit of love and cooperation even with unbelieving neighbors), being slanderous of no one (to not revile or insult or abuse or malign with language), being peaceable (not to be contentious or quarrelsome, so far as it depends on us), being considerate (meek and gentle, to be genial and ready to yield personal advantage for the sake of others), and being humble toward all men (to show every consideration to every person, a generous, indiscriminate kindness). As we exhibit these God-given virtues, we make the doctrine of God attractive. See Romans 13 as well.