1:1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
according to the faith of God's chosen ones,
and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,
1:2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who can't lie, promised before eternal times;
1:3 but in his own time revealed his word in the message
with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior;

1:4 to Titus, my true child according to a common faith:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.

1:5 I left you in Crete for this reason,
that you would set in order the things that were lacking,
and appoint elders in every city, as I directed you;

1:6 if anyone is blameless, the husband of one wife,
having children who believe, who are not accused of loose or unruly behavior.
1:7 For the overseer must be blameless, as God's steward;
not self-pleasing, not easily angered, not given to wine,
not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain;
1:8 but given to hospitality, as a lover of good, sober-minded, fair, holy, self-controlled;
1:9 holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching,
that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine,
and to convict those who contradict him.

1:10 For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers,
especially those of the circumcision,
1:11 whose mouths must be stopped; men who overthrow whole houses,
teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain's sake.
1:12 One of them, a prophet of their own, said,
"Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons."
1:13 This testimony is true.
For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,
1:14 not paying attention to Jewish fables
and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.
 

1:15 To the pure, all things are pure;
but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure;
but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.
1:16 They profess that they know God, but by their works they deny him,
being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.

Heb 10:26 "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left" (niv)

2Peter 2:20 "If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning." (niv)

vs 2 I would take issue with the NIV with its phrase "a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life" (niv) The words "faith" and "knowledge" are not in verse 2 in the greek. And neither do other translations like the NKJV and NASB have them there. The NIV is making an interpretation which I think is inaccurate. For I think what Paul means is "a godliness resting on the hope of eternal life". The hope of eternal life leads to godliness, as Titus 2:11-14 indicates, as does 1John 3:2,3 as also much of Titus chapter 3 implies. In fact Godliness is the theme of Titus.

vs 3 Paul tries to give the sense of the enormity of God's plan. It started in eternity past and now is being revealed. But now he focuses all of God's eternal plan into a particular time, place and person - himself!  Paul is the channel through which the gospel would be revealed to the world. Now that would seem a bit egocentric if were not in fact true. Why does he say this here. For you would think he would put the focus on Christ rather than himself. But realize that what he is trying to establish is his authority and the authority of his teachings which was conferred by God upon him so that Titus may have confidence in applying his commands and teaching with conviction; being not merely opinion or human dogma, but the Word of God. The letters that Paul wrote to the churches are not to be read in the sense of simply gaining insight into how early Christians thought, but rather to be taken as the revealed Word of God. For even Jesus himself did not reveal the message in all its explicit details and as systematically as Paul did. For that was Paul's job. Therefore Paul's writings should be taken very seriously.

vs 6 "blameless" does not mean sinless. But rather refers to the person's reputation. There's been some debate as to what "the husband of one wife" means. But the most obvious meaning is simply not a polygamist. Although we find polygamy practiced even among the men of God in the Old Testament, this practice was revealed to be adulterous. There are two forms of polygamy. Parallel polygamy as practiced in the Old Testament and also serial polygamy which is the practice of divorcing one's wife and marrying another. This second form is more commonly practiced today even in the Christian community to an extent. It is adulterous as Jesus had revealed. (See also the Marriage, Divorce, and Adultery web page). However, it is apparent that God does not view the adultery associated with polygamy (in whatever form) in the same way as he views the more overt forms of adultery. For in the Old Testament, adultery in its more overt forms was punishable by death, but there was no punishment for polygamy, other than the natural corrupting effect it has on one's family. Although in some cases serial polygamy was not allowed as in the case of priests who were not allowed to marry a divorced women. God tolerated polygamy, however, and so also in the New Testament I suspect polygamy in the church was tolerated to an extent. But polygamists were not allowed leadership positions as they didn't serve as an appropriate model of the Christian life.

We notice also that leadership was limited to those whose children were also believers and not only believers but well behaved. But this is not under the complete control of the candidate. Realize that Paul wanted people who were freed up for ministering outside of their family, which would be hindered if they had enough problems at home to deal with. As such, single people would be a better choice, as he mentions in 1Cor 7:32,33, and as both he and Jesus served as examples. But such people are rare among older men as most marry and have children. So best to chose elders whose family wouldn't get in the way of ministry. And having kids that are well behaved believers is also evidence that one is applying one's faith at home.

vs 7 He repeats again the idea of being blameless, but whereas verse 6 I think regards one's general reputation, verse 7 regards his handling of God's work. Is he blameless in doing his ministry? The rest of verse 7 can be summarized by saying that an overseer should be a person who keeps his passions under control.

vs 9 Naturally an elder must not just have a good character, but also hold to what is true. He must be able to debate, refuting false ideas. This characteristic can be rare. For today, many Christians are not encouraged to think and to debate. Even for simple basic questions as to how do you know God exists and how do you know the Bible is the Word of God, most Christians seem to have little idea how to answer properly. Because most grow up in an institutional enviroment where they are simply subjected to lectures, few are used to carrying on an intelligent conversation about spiritual things. To prepare for leadership, Christians should study the Bible for themselves and not just rely on church dogma. In our minds we should debate the questions and issues that the Bible brings up to come to our own convictions. For when one has debated the questions for oneself and develops convictions which are applied to one's life, that is when one is really prepared to refute false ideas, rather than simply being told what answers to give to what questions, like a mindless catechism.

vs 10-11 Throughout his ministry Paul had much conflict with the group of the circumcision. While claiming to follow the Law, they were rebellious. For they manufactured their own system of righteousness contrary to the righteousness which is of faith as revealed in the gospel by Paul. And not only did they teach false things, but demanded to get paid for it as well!  Christians should be aware not to be gullible by believing anything you hear, for there has been a tremendous amount of human dogma and false teachings throughout the history of post-Biblical Christianity. Be wise. Be a skeptic. Test the teachings to see if they are consistent with Biblical truth. For after everything has been shaken, the truth will still stand. Don't believe everything I or your pastor or some other Christian says, but compare it against the Bible.

vs 12 Today it is politically incorrect to make distinctions between population groups, or to characterize the general behavior of a population group.  But the truth is that certain population groups do in fact have certain characteristics. It is not unBiblical to make such characterizations, just as Jesus typified the religious elite as a bunch of hypocrites. Cretans were be noted for being fat, lazy liars. And thus some found it convenient to not do honest work for a living, but just get people to pay them for telling lies - like a psychic hotline.

Some have tried to make out a logical fallacy in this verse. For if a Cretan says that Cretans are liars, then doesn't that mean that very statement is a lie? But this is not the sense in which the statement is to be understood. For he is making a general observation, not to be taken with mathematical precision. The statement means not that everything they says is a lie, nor that they do nothing but evil, nor that they do nothing but eat, nor never do any work. Nor does it even mean that such is the characteristic of every single Cretan. Adding the words "Generally speaking" to the beginning of the sentence gives a better sense of the meaning.

vs 13-16  "Rebuke them sharply" is applied not simply to the false teachers. For they probably won't listen anyway. But more importantly rebuke should be directed to those who listen to them and are being influenced by them. To be sound in faith one must be believing the truth and not distracted by all kinds of tabloid accounts and myths so common even today. Legalists like the circumcision were known for dogmatically demanding obedience from their followers to all kinds of ritualistic things. They think of just about everything as unclean. But Paul infers from their attitude that even their minds and conscience are impure, being corrupted by sin. So that they reckon everything around them to be sinful in a ceremonial sense.

These type of people may try to achieve a kind of ceremonial perfectionism - a symbolic holiness. They may reckon themselves sinless, but since both their mind and conscience have been defiled they are simply not aware of their own sinfulness. (1John 1:8)  (See also the legalistic branch of Arminian theology)