Titus 3:4-5

 If God brings you to it…He will enable you to do it! 

We cannot do it on our own. Without our faith in the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish what we cannot..we can do nothing.

Titus was such a believer and doer.

God’s kindness and love appeared in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. In His saving work, Christ models the kindness and love that believers must show all people.

Since Paul has been exhorting Titus to emphasize good works in his ministry with the Cretans, he wants to make it clear that such works have no value in saving a person. Rather, it is solely on the basis of God’s mercy that we are delivered from the penalty of our sin. It is work of the Holy Spirit, who in a moment makes a person new by the cleansing of regeneration (the new birth). This new nature is the ground for living the Christian life and performing good deeds. NKJ Bible.

Titus 3:4–5 (NKJV)

⁴ But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, ⁵ not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,

Titus

“Point man,” “pinch hitter,” “clutch player,” “go-getter.” These terms describe a person who can be counted on, someone who knows what to do and how to do it and who works tirelessly to get it done. Titus was that kind of person.

He had to be. Much of his work, like the apostle Paul’s, was dangerous, unpopular, difficult, and tiring. It involved traveling, introducing strangers to new ideas, constantly making new friends, consistently battling new enemies, and even deflecting threats on one’s life. The number of people who could share such a load was small, but the early church desperately needed them. Not just anyone could start and maintain a new church in a hostile world. Yet Titus rose to the challenge.

The believers in Crete lacked leadership and were suffering as a result. False teachers were taking advantage of the absence of sound doctrine. Judging from Paul’s exhortations, the harmony and morals of the young congregation were disrupted. Paul relied on Titus to help them establish their leadership and make up their other deficits. Their struggles are repeated in every age, and this letter is as relevant today as it was to Titus.

Crete is a large island, approximately 160 miles long and 35 miles wide, in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is located 100 miles southeast of Greece. The Cretans developed a relatively prosperous agriculture and trading economy, creating one of the best-known business centers of the ancient world. Such prosperity also fostered a great deal of excess. In 1:12, Paul quotes the Greek poet Epimenides, who wrote “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”

Paul may have planted a church on the island of Crete during a missionary trip after his first imprisonment in Rome, which ended about a.d. 62. When Paul departed from Crete, he left Titus behind to “set in order the things that [were] lacking” in the church

Titus is mentioned numerous times in the New Testament as one of Paul’s most trusted assistants. He was a Greek and was converted by Paul.

Early church tradition says that Titus returned to Crete and spent the remainder of his life there.

Although Titus contains only 46 verses, it covers a wide range of topics. It is a key New Testament book for church organization, with its guidelines for elders, pastors, and other believers. Furthermore, it contains one of the clearest statements about God’s grace in all of the New Testament. It explicates the significance of Christ’s first and second coming. The book contributes to our understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation and the Christian life. But it is known most for its practical instruction about the roles of men, women, and servants and its instruction for dealing with false teaching. A church needs organization, sound doctrine, and good teaching to survive. In this letter, Paul gives Titus a succinct overview on how to lead a church.

Whereas the letters to Timothy emphasize sound doctrine, the letter to Titus emphasizes good works. There were influential people in the church who were motivated by personal interest and selfish gain. In his letter, Paul exposes the ways this was affecting the doctrine and practice of the church and urges Titus to champion purity, service, and kindness toward others. Paul reminds Titus that salvation is not based on our own “works of righteousness” but rather is the result of God’s work of kindness and love toward us. We are unable to do good works in our disobedient and selfish state. Salvation in Christ frees us to do good works, and the “washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” enables us.