Titus 2 (MSG) · OmniBible

1Chapter

^1-4I, Paul, am God’s slave and Christ’s agent for promoting the faith among God’s chosen people, getting out the accurate word on God and how to respond rightly to it. My aim is to raise hopes by pointing the way to life without end. This is the life God promised long ago—and he doesn’t break promises! And then when the time was ripe, he went public with his truth. I’ve been entrusted to proclaim this Message by order of our Savior, God himself. Dear Titus, legitimate son in the faith: Receive everything God our Father and Jesus our Savior give you!

A Good Grip on the Message

^5-9I left you in charge in Crete so you could complete what I left half-done. Appoint leaders in every town according to my instructions. As you select them, ask, “Is this man well-thought-of? Is he committed to his wife? Are his children believers? Do they respect him and stay out of trouble?” It’s important that a church leader, responsible for the affairs in God’s house, be looked up to—not pushy, not short-tempered, not a drunk, not a bully, not money-hungry. He must welcome people, be helpful, wise, fair, reverent, have a good grip on himself, and have a good grip on the Message, knowing how to use the truth to either spur people on in knowledge or stop them in their tracks if they oppose it.
^10-16The Cretans are liars from the womb, barking dogs, lazy bellies. He certainly spoke the truth. Get on them right away. Stop that diseased talk of Jewish make-believe and made-up rules so they can recover a robust faith. Everything is clean to the clean-minded; nothing is clean to dirty-minded unbelievers. They leave their dirty fingerprints on every thought and act. They say they know God, but their actions speak louder than their words. They’re real creeps, disobedient good-for-nothings.

2Chapter

A God-Filled Life

^1-6Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives.
^7-8But mostly, show them all this by doing it yourself, trustworthy in your teaching, your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around.
^9-10Guide slaves into being loyal workers, a bonus to their masters—no back talk, no petty thievery. Then their good character will shine through their actions, adding luster to the teaching of our Savior God.
^11-14God’s readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation’s available for everyone! We’re being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.
¹⁵Tell them all this. Build up their courage, and discipline them if they get out of line. You’re in charge. Don’t let anyone put you down.

3Chapter

He Put Our Lives Together

^1-2Remind the people to respect the government and be law-abiding, always ready to lend a helping hand. No insults, no fights. God’s people should be bighearted and courteous.
^3-8It wasn’t so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, easy marks for sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there’s more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.
^8-11I want you to put your foot down. Take a firm stand on these matters so that those who have put their trust in God will concentrate on the essentials that are good for everyone. Stay away from mindless, pointless quarreling over genealogies and fine print in the law code. That gets you nowhere. Warn a quarrelsome person once or twice, but then be done with him. It’s obvious that such a person is out of line, rebellious against God. By persisting in divisiveness he cuts himself off.
^12-13As soon as I send either Artemas or Tychicus to you, come immediately and meet me in Nicopolis. I’ve decided to spend the winter there. Give Zenas the lawyer and Apollos a hearty send-off. Take good care of them.
¹⁴Our people have to learn to be diligent in their work so that all necessities are met (especially among the needy) and they don’t end up with nothing to show for their lives.
¹⁵All here want to be remembered to you. Say hello to our friends in the faith. Grace to all of you.

Study

Chapter 2

CSB

Can God Make a Rock So Big He Can’t Lift It?

When speaking at a university or when answering questions in an open forum on Christianity, it is common for someone to smugly ask me, “Can God make a rock so big that he can’t lift it?” The challenge inherent in this question is that there is something an omnipotent (all-powerful) God cannot do. Nonbelievers enjoy asking this question because it seems that either way we answer the question, we submit that there is, in fact, something God cannot accomplish. Either we answer that God can make a big rock he cannot lift or that God cannot make a rock big enough that he can’t lift it. Thus the question seemingly poses an insolvable conundrum. However, close examination reveals that it does not put God in some kind of cosmic checkmate. In fact, the question in no way proves that there’s something he cannot do. Rather, it is simply a meaningless question that implodes on itself.

Essentially, the questioner is asking, “Is there any way that the God who can make all things can make a rock so big that the God who can lift all things cannot lift it?” Worded this way, the inconsistency and meaninglessness of the question is revealed. It’s actually a pseudo-question. It proposes impossible conditions and thus makes no sense. This means the question itself has no truth value, and thus cannot be evaluated as either true or false. Trying to answer this question is much like trying to answer, “What does the color blue smell like?”

The question also reveals false ideas about the biblical concept of omnipotence. When speaking of God’s omnipotence, Christians are not claiming, “God can do anything at all.” Instead, omnipotence refers to God’s power to do anything which is both consistent with his holy character and logically possible. The “big rock” question asks if God can do something logically impossible. His inability to do such a thing does not count against his power. For example, God cannot make a square circle. So what? It’s a nonsense task. Likewise, it is a logical impossibility (and a nonsense thing to ask) for God to make a rock so big that he can’t lift it. And since God always acts in ways that are consistent with his holy nature, his inability to lie or sin does not count against his omnipotence either (Ti 1:2; Jms 1:13). The things that are true about his character will always be true, and he cannot do anything to contradict them.

This non-question of smug skeptics actually reminds us that we serve a logical, coherent, and all-powerful God. Reason and coherence are hardwired into the fabric of reality—reflecting the orderly God who created it. Contradictory questions and meaningless word puzzles such as the “big rock”question implode on themselves and remind us that we will never be able to outsmart the Lord. Nothing we can do and no question we can ask could ever disprove God’s omnipotence and perfect power.

ESV

Christian Living in Contrast to the False Teachers. Paul describes proper Christian living rooted in the gospel, which is in direct contrast to the behavior of the false teachers (1:10–16) but in conformity to what is required of true church leaders (1:5–9). This is the primary concern of the letter: right doctrine leads to right behavior. This section is composed of two parallel units (2:1–15 and 3:1–8) that describe right behavior, root this behavior in the gospel, and close with a charge to Titus to teach these things with authority.

ESV

Proper Living by Age and Gender Groups. Paul describes “what accords with sound doctrine” (v. 1), i.e., the type of living that corresponds with the gospel. Some argue that the behavior commanded here is not universally required but is culturally bound to the first century. They argue that the ground for this behavior is to avoid offense (see note on 2:5, 8, 10). However, v. 1 roots this behavior not in cultural ideas but in “sound doctrine” itself. Paul addresses the behavior of the church according to typical groups within the family structure (older men, older women, younger women, younger men, bondservants), with special attention to age and gender. While there are similarities in what is expected of each group, there are also distinctives.

ESV

But as for you indicates the sharp contrast that must exist between people, on one hand, whose deeds disprove their claim to know God (1:16), and Titus, on the other hand, who must teach the people to live in a way that accords with sound doctrine, i.e., that will affirm rather than deny their claim to know God.

ESV

The overall picture of older men is of Christian dignity and vibrant faith.

CSB

See note on 1Tm 2:11-15. Pr 31 (vv. 16,18,24) clarifies that it is not a sin for a wife to work outside the home. But Paul shows that her responsibility to her family is of greater importance.

ESV

The instruction to older women and young women is intertwined because part of the role of a Christian older woman is to train (Gk. sōphronizō, “to give instruction in wise behavior and good judgment”) the younger women. The topics comprising the teaching of the older women in vv. 4–5 are very practical and focused on the domestic sphere. Working at home does not prohibit working outside the home (cf. Prov. 31:16, 18, 24) but it does indicate that Paul expects wives to carry the primary responsibility for the day-to-day care of their homes and children. Yet this is to be done while being submissive to their own husbands, supporting their husbands’ leadership role in the family. See notes on Eph. 5:22; 5:23–24. While other instructions could be included, the focus here is on older women helping younger women learn about being godly wives and mothers.

ESV

, 8, 10 In each of these verses, important statements are made concerning the desired result of “gospel living.” Such living keeps Christians from providing any legitimate grounds for the gospel (the word of God) to be reviled (v. 5; cf. v. 8). More positively, such living highlights the attractiveness of the gospel (“adorn,” v. 10). In keeping with the overall thrust of the letter, this kind of living “proves” the gospel. Doctrine of God our Savior (v. 10) sets up the description of this doctrine in vv. 11–14. On God as “Savior,” see note on 2 Tim. 1:8–10; and chart.

CSB

Some critics argue that this verse contradicts Mt 23:10. However, Jesus’s words refer specifically to calling a spiritual teacher “master,” not to a slave referring to his owner by that title (see note on 1Tm 6:1).

CSB

Paul was not a universalist, believing that all people go to heaven. Rather, God’s grace is for all the kinds of people discussed in vv. 1-10 (young and old, men and women, slaves and masters). See note on 1Tm 4:10.

ESV

Gospel Basis. Paul gives the theological basis for the lifestyles he has described in vv. 1–10. Christians should live this way because (“for”) the grace of God that saves also instructs its recipients to live in a new way. One cannot truly claim to be a recipient of saving grace without also being a pupil of “training grace.” This change in lifestyle is rooted in the atonement (v. 14) and the expectation of Christ’s return (v. 13).

ESV

Bringing salvation for all people is sometimes misunderstood as meaning that all people will be saved. However, such a reading is not necessary here and flatly contradicts other Scripture (see note on 1 Tim. 2:4). It means, rather, that salvation has been offered to all people (including all ethnic groups), not just to some.

ESV

Saving grace teaches its recipients to say no to sin and yes to godliness. In the present age stresses that this godliness is to be lived out in the here and now. It also sets up the reference to the future return of Christ (v. 13). Certainty about the future enables constancy in the present.

CSB

Grammatically and contextually, this verse is a powerful reference to Christ’s deity. Paul’s belief in Jesus’s deity was based on his life-changing experience of seeing Jesus clothed in divine glory (Ac 9:3-9), his exegesis of important OT messianic texts (Ac 9:20-22), and Jesus’s personal claims and miraculous activities as reported to him by eyewitnesses. Paul also witnessed Jesus’s divine power at work in his disciples through the miracles that Paul and other disciples performed. See note on 1Tm 2:5.

ESV

The Greek for waiting (prosdechomai) often carries a connotation of eagerness. Eagerly expecting the return of Christ is the way grace trains Christians to renounce sin and live in a godly way (see vv. 11–12). Setting one’s mind on the truth of Christ’s return impels a person to holiness (see 1 John 3:2–3). Our blessed hope means Christ’s second coming, which Paul calls the appearing of … our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. It may seem unclear whether Paul refers here to two persons of the Godhead (God the Father and Jesus Christ) or whether he describes Jesus as God and Savior. The Greek grammar, however, is well reflected in this translation and indicates that Jesus is being identified as “our great God and Savior” (cf. John 1:1; 20:28; etc.).

ESV

Paul anchors his call for godliness in the fact that one purpose of Jesus’ death was to make his people holy. To forsake godliness is to despise the sacrifice of Christ. Paul roots this in the OT with the phrase to redeem us from all lawlessness, which in Greek closely resembles the Septuagint of Ps. 130:8. A people for his own possession translates an unusual phrase (Gk. laon periousion) with intentional echoes from the OT (see esp. Ex. 19:5; Mal. 3:17). It has the sense of “prized, treasured possession.” These people are to be zealous for good works, so again redemption is tied specifically to living in a godly manner. There is no room for claiming to be redeemed while providing no evidence of practical transformation (see James 2:14–26).

ESV

Summary Command. After describing the gospel, Paul returns to commanding Titus (as in vv. 1–10). The reference to all authority, and not allowing anyone to disregard Titus, shows that Paul expects this instruction to be given clearly and with certainty.