Paul introduces his letter to Titus in a straightforward and honest manner. He writes in Titus 1:1, “Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ”. When you realise that he is writing to someone he considered a spiritual “son” (Titus 1:4), you may wonder why he introduces his letter to Titus in this way. I mean, didn’t Titus already know these things? I am not sure there is a complete answer to that question. However, as a young preacher reading this, I imagine Titus would have been reminded of some important facts. First, if Paul was willing to describe himself as a servant, why would he see himself as anything more than that? Secondly, although Paul was a servant of God, he had authority from God as an apostle and therefore was to be heeded.
Although Paul didn’t see his apostleship as making himself better than others, he certainly understood it as a God-ordained role that carried authority. For Titus, reading this meant he had a duty to take this letter from Paul seriously.
That said, what was the purpose of Paul’s service and apostleship? Was it for personal gain? No, Paul says that his service and apostleship were “for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness – a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life”. It’s clear from what Paul says in this verse that his goal was to help others please God and to enjoy a relationship with him. He also clearly believed that faith and the knowledge of the truth (God’s Truth) were essential to achieving that. That proves that faith without truth is blind and useless. However, it shows that truth without faith is powerless and fails to produce change. To be pleasing to God, you need a faith in God that is aligned with His truth. That is, the truth He has revealed through the apostles and other writers of the New Testament.
Sadly, too many people claim to have faith in God but fail to please Him because they don’t know His truth. They may even attend local church gatherings but are prone to religious error, or they just live like the rest of the world throughout the week. If you want to change your life to be consistently pleasing to God, you must align your faith with the teachings in the New Testament. That requires taking the instructions in the New Testament documents seriously, prioritising time to study them and endeavouring to live out what you learn.
Paul says that when your faith is aligned with God’s truth, it leads to godliness which then allows you to possess the hope of eternal life. But, of course, this hope isn’t wishful thinking or temporal optimism but real hope that pulls you up and moves you confidently into an eternal future.
So, benefit from Paul’s service and apostleship by allowing his writings to bring your faith into alignment with truth which then produces godliness and consequently fuels eternal hope.
