Titus 3

     3:1-2.  (Cf. Ro.13:1-7.)  As in 2:5, 9, we are to give due submission and honor to whom it is due (as in the fifth commandment).  The gospel does not seek to overturn society, but to transform people, families, and nations by being salt and light in a fallen world, i.e., “to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (2:12).

     3:3-7.  We are never to feel superior to other men, remembering what we once were, and on what basis we have been saved.  For it was not our righteousness that saved us, but the mercy of God the Father, the washing of regeneration (the sign and seal of which is baptism) and the ongoing renewing by God the Holy Spirit (cf. John 3:5), through the atoning work of God the Son, Jesus Christ our Savior.  It took the grace of the whole trinity to justify us, that we might be his heirs, having the hope of eternal life.  “Where then is boasting?  It is excluded” (Ro.3:27).

      3:8.  It is the preceding right doctrine of salvation that is a trustworthy statement.  Faith in what God has done must lead to good deeds, that is, an obedience that springs naturally from gratitude.

     3:9.  The good and profitable things that come from a humbled and grateful heart are in contrast to these unprofitable and worthless things.  Those who are good do good.  Others put their hope in such things as being sons of Abraham by natural generation (cf. John 8:39; Ro.9:6-8; Gal.3:29), or disputing about exactly where the Law draws the line in the sand that they must not cross.  (Cf. 1 Tim.1:4; 6:4, 20; 2 Tim.2:23.)

     3:10-11.  Such factious people are a threat to the weak, and must not be tolerated after a couple of warnings.  In such cases, the disciplining body should not assume guilt for the factious man’s exclusion.  He has cut himself off from Christ.

     3:12.  It is unknown where Paul was when he wrote to Titus.  If he were in Nicopolis already, he would likely have used the word here, not there.  (There were three towns by that name, this almost certainly being the one on the west coast of Greece.)

     3:13-15.  He encourages the good practice of hospitality and aid to evangelists, and others with pressing needs, and ends with greetings and the usual benediction to all in the church.  (15, the southerners are right.   Often, y’all avoids the possible confusion of a mere plural you.)