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Titus Studies | Titus 1:1-8 | Titus 1:9-16 | Titus 2:1-5 | Titus 2:6-10 | Titus 2:11-15 | Titus 3:1-7 | Titus 3:8-15 | PDF |

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These small group studies of Titus 3:1-7 contain outlines, cross-references, Bible study discussion questions, and applications.  Visit our library of inductive Bible studies for more in depth inductive studies on this and other books of the Bible you can use in your small group.

Titus 3:1-7 Bible Study Commentary and Questions

Outline

I. Being a good testimony in society (1-2)
II. Our new condition in Christ (3-7)

I. Being a good testimony in society (1-2)

Discussion Questions

• Who is the “them” in verse 1?
• What does it mean to “be subject”?
• Who would classify as rulers or authorities?
• Which authorities do you have the most challenging time submitting to? Why? What if the leaders are not Christian? What if you disagree?
• How can you be “ready for every good deed?” What does this imply about how we should approach each day?
• What can we do to be peaceable with others? What if someone just wants to fight?
• What is the significance of the adjective “all” in “all men”? How can we show consideration for all men?

Cross-References

Romans 12:18 – If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

1 Peter 2:13-15 – Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

Romans 13:1-3 – Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1. Remind – As overseer of the churches on Crete, Titus was responsible for continually exhorting the believers to live in a Christlike way. This is not something that can be done once and then finished. It is like taking a shower or washing the dishes. You never finish these things. They need to be repeated again and again.

Scripture is not always new revelation. Much of it is reminders of past instruction. God gives us frequent reminders because we tend to forget what He has said and drift away.
Christian leaders also need to remind the flock again and again how to live and follow Christ. Some preachers may feel the need to give a new perspective, insight, or angle every time they give a sermon. But this is not necessary. Most of the time, the preacher’s job is to give reminders of what the flock already knows.

Every one of us needs reminders and encouragement to keep pushing forward in our walks with Christ because the world’s influence is very strong. The rest of this chapter is mostly very practical and application-oriented. The book of Titus is focused on the qualities of a mature church. And to have a sound church, you must have mature individual believers in the church. And the sign of maturity is not having a wealth of knowledge but obedience to what is already known.

2. Be subject to authorities – The first reminder Titus was to give was to be subject to authorities.

A. The sin of rebellion

It is not always easy to be subject to authorities. We will all go through life having various authorities at different times, including parents, teachers, bosses, and the government. Our flesh does not naturally like to submit to the will of others.

The very first sin in history was rebellion against authority. Satan had a great life in heaven in paradise. He was powerful, beautiful, and smart. He had everything he needed to live and be joyful. But for him, it wasn’t enough. He lusted for power. He wanted to be in charge.

The second recorded sin was once again a rebellion against authority. Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command in the garden. Satan convinced Eve that God was unfairly restricting their freedom. By eating the fruit God had told them not to eat, they were casting off God’s authority and declaring themselves to be independent of Him. It’s a crazy thing to declare independence from your creator.

From that time until now, people have resisted authority.

Reflect – Why is it difficult for people to submit to authority?

People don’t only rebel against “unfair” authorities. They rebel against any authority. It is our sin nature.

For over a decade, I taught at a training center with many young children. One of their very favorite words was “no.” From very early on, children struggle against authority. You see it in babies who arch their backs and scream when their parents try to change them.

On the rebellious tendency of humans from the very earliest stages, Voddie Bauchum said, “People who don’t believe in original sin, don’t have children. It’s not a little angel. It is a viper in a diaper. The angry cry happens early. The demanding cry happens early. The stiffening up of the body happens early. It’s so cute! Nah, that isn’t cute. One of the reason God makes them so small is so that they won’t kill you. One of the reasons He makes them so cute is so that you won’t kill them.”

B. Submission requires doing things we don’t like –

Sometimes it is easier to obey authorities than others. For example, if a mother gives a child 100 dollars and tells him to go buy himself something, most children will be delighted to obey their mothers. But if the mother tells the child to stop playing and do his homework, he might not be so happy.

Submission often requires doing things that we don’t want to do. It is not finding the parts in the Bible that we agree with and following those. Submission requires joyful obedience to things that we don’t enjoy doing, think we could do another better way, or even disagree with. Some might make the excuse that their authority (be it the government, boss, teacher, etc.) is just unreasonable and not worthy of submitting to.

C. All authorities are established by God –

But in fact, all authorities are established by God. They are not perfect, but they have a purpose. The Cretans were under the authority of the Roman government. Was that a good government? No, it was pagan, corrupt, and war-hungry. It condoned slavery, gladiators, and at times was rife with homosexuality. But Paul still told the people to submit to authority. No government is perfect, but we are commanded to obey. Only if a government requires us to sin must we disobey, choosing to follow “God rather than man.”

Application – Submit to governing authorities. Do so with a good attitude from the heart.

3. Be ready for every good deed – Two words stand out in that sentence. The first is “ready.”

Doing good deeds is not something that will happen automatically. Our flesh will often resist the chance and instead choose the lazy, easy, or selfish route.

Reflect – What does it mean to be “ready” to do good works?

Here are a couple of examples. If you are sitting on a bus and not mentally prepared or thinking about giving your seat to someone in need, it will be easy to offer excuses or just ignore the need when the chance to give your seat comes.

The better way to approach it is to have the mentality that you are reserving the seat for the old. Then when you see them, you can jump up and give it to them right away.

I had a friend who took the bus often. He looked for opportunities to give his seat away. He would try to sit near the front of the bus so that he could quickly offer his seat if anyone elderly boarded the bus. He was ready to do this good deed.

Another example is giving to beggars. If you are not ready, you will probably walk past and not offer any assistance.

How can you get ready?

You could prepare some small bills to have in your wallet all the time so that when you see a person begging, your immediate reaction is to help.

Reflect – What good deeds can you be “ready” to do in everyday life?

Application – Being ready requires a willingness and quickness to help. We should look for opportunities to do good to others. We should then take the initiative when those opportunities come.

4. Be ready for every good deed –

God has prepared good deeds for us to do. We should be looking for these opportunities with our eyes wide open and alert minds. That means we need to be observant of situations around us.

Maybe there are some good deeds we like to do (perhaps playing an instrument on the worship team, giving gifts to our wives, or playing with our children). There may also be some good deeds we don’t like doing, such as the dishes, the laundry, cleaning the bathroom, putting out the trash, showing hospitality to the ungrateful, sending messages, emails, or phone calls to check how brothers/sisters are doing, etc. But we must not pick and choose which good deeds to do, just as we cannot pick which authorities to obey or when to obey them. We should do every good deed that God has prepared for us, not just the ones that are more enjoyable for us.

Here are a few ideas on being observant so that we can be ready to do every good deed.

• When you go to someone’s house, look for ways to serve. Can you help wash dishes after the meal? Can you help move chairs?
• When you are on an airplane, maybe you can help someone by switching seats so that they can be together or lifting their luggage to the overhead bin.
• Let someone in who wants to change into your lane on the highway.
• Pick up a hitchhiker.
• Immediately offer to pray for someone who shares a need or problem with you.

The list goes on and on. If you have the mentality to look for ways to serve others, you will find no shortage of opportunities.

4. Speak evil of no one – Let us be on guard against every form of gossip. We must also be careful not to speak evil of others even when we are alone with our spouse in our room.

Allowing bitterness to take root in our hearts is unhealthy spiritually and will result in many rotten “fruits” as that hostility works its way to the surface.

5. Be gentle and avoid quarreling –

Reflect – What triggers you to lose your cool?

Many things can cause us to get frustrated and shorten our fuse. Here are a few:

• Long lines
• Lack of sleep
• Annoying people
• Inconveniences
• People being rude to or taking advantage of us
• A perceived lack of fairness in how we are treated

As someone once said, “it takes two to tango.” While we cannot control others’ behavior, we can control our own. It is often our pride that gets us into trouble. But we should remember the example of Christ was wrongfully accused and opened not His mouth. When we are lifted up in our own minds, slights against us are magnified, and we feel that we must respond. However, when we take on the humility of Jesus, we realize that the rights we thought we had, aren’t rights at all.

Proverbs 15:1 – A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

5. Show perfect courtesy toward all people – Wow, this is a high standard to aim for! Be perfectly courteous to everyone all the time!

Titus is to remind the church that our testimony in society is important. Believers are not only to be courteous toward those who deserve it or treat them nicely but also to those who are undeserving. Jesus said that if we love only those who love us, we are just like the world. He calls us to love and be gracious even to those who ill-treat us.

In this verse, all our excuses for rude behavior are taken away. It doesn’t matter how the other side behaves; we are called to a higher standard. We are called to respond with grace.

Our attitude in society can either attract people to Jesus or repel them from Him. When others sin against us, that gives us an opportunity to show the love and forgiveness of Christ in action. And that testimony can be more powerful than mere words.

1 John 3:18 – Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

II. Our new condition in Christ (3-7)

Discussion Questions

• What is the relationship between verse 3 to verse 2? In what way were you deceived (not only doctrinally, but personally)?
• In what way were you foolish?
• Were you envious of others?
• What are some examples of things which the world views as being wise or clever but God views as being foolish?
• What changed this desperate condition? What is this that appeared? How did He appear?
• What does verse 5 tell us about the conditions for salvation? Who saved us (ourselves?)? Why? How? To what degree (6)?
• What was the result of this salvation? Heirs of what?

Cross-References

Colossians 2:13-14 – And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1. Why should we have this attitude (in verses 1-2) in society?

Titus 3:3 – For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. Why should we be courteous and gentle toward people who are rude and undeserving?

Note the “for.” That word links verses 3-7 with verses 1-2. Paul says that we should be gentle and courteous because we ourselves have received grace. We should show grace toward others because we are sinners like them.

John 1:16 – For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

The grace we have received motivates us to show that same grace toward others.

Our flesh will naturally react “But they don’t deserve it. They don’t show this kindness to me. They are sinners and they don’t follow God. ” Paul pre-empts that excuse with a reminder that we were all in the same boat prior to receiving Christ. We are not any better or superior to those who don’t know Christ. In fact, all of us at one point in our lives didn’t know Christ. All of us were as lost as lost could be. Therefore, we should show compassion (and not pride or judgment) towards those who are still lost.

Jesus made the same point in the parable of the unforgiving servant. In that story, a servant was forgiven an enormous debt but would not forgive a small debt to his fellow servant. Sadly, we are often like that. We want others to forgive us and show us grace, but we are less ready to do the same to them.

2. We were once foolish –

What is a fool? A fool is a person who does not believe in or follow God.

Psalms 14:1 – The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.

In the Bible, being a “fool” does not refer to IQ level but rather to one’s spiritual life and worldview.

We cannot expect a person without God to behave in a moral way.

3. Led astray – Satan is the master of deception. He prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. A lion does not walk up and tell the deer, “I am going to eat you, don’t move.” Neither does a false teacher announce from the pulpit, “I am on a mission from Satan to deceive you. Now listen up and do what I say.”

Their methods are subtle and deceptive.

Reflect – How can we grow in discernment so that we can see through deception and temptation?

We can all be watchmen like Ezekiel.

4. Slaves to various passions and pleasures – Some pleasures are not sin.

• Playing or watching sports
• Playing a board game
• Riding a bike
• Going hiking
• Going on vacation
• Sleeping

Others are sinful.
• Gluttony
• Becoming drunk
• Pornography
• Getting high

Partaking of anything on the first list is not a sin. Dabbling in anything on the second list is sinful. Being a slave of anything on either list is sin. Watching sports or going on vacation can become an idol. We need to take care that Jesus stays on the pedestal of our hearts and is not replaced by any worldly pleasure.

5. Malice, envy, and hate – We have discussed the first and second sins (rebellion) occurring in history that are recorded.

What about the third recorded sin?

That was Cain killing his brother Abel because of envy and hate. This rivalry, competition, and selfishness is still corrupting the world today.

Application – Resentment toward others, if left undealt with, can grow in our hearts. It is important that we be quick to forgive so that we remove the root of bitterness which results in malice, envy, and hatred.

6. What is one of the most important single words in the Bible?

Titus 3:4-5 – But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

Answer: The word “but.”

It is such a simple word but such a powerful one. Without Christ, we are lost, desperate, hopeless, deceived, and in bondage to sin. But that is not the end of the story. God chose to do something about it. Because of Him, everything changed. Because of Him, we have hope. Because of Him, we are no longer lost but found.
He did not leave us in that lost condition. Instead, he took action to change the situation and give us hope.

7. What principles can we learn from verses 4-7?

A. God took the initiative. He took action. He loved us first.

B. He saved us. We didn’t save ourselves.

C. This salvation can not be earned or deserved. It is NOT because of our own deeds. It is NOT because of our own righteousness. Remember back in verse 3. We were lost like everyone else. Because salvation is not from ourselves, we can never be prideful about our salvation or look down on those who are not saved. We are not better than them.

D. This salvation comes from God’s mercy. This is very basic. I hope all of us understand this fact. We are saved by grace, not by works. When you share with others, this must also be emphasized.

Ephesians 2:1 – And you were dead in the trespasses and sins.

We were dead in our sins. We were not mostly good. We were not in need of some help or advice. We didn’t need to turn over a new leaf. A dead person can’t do anything to influence his situation. The only thing he can do is remain dead.

There is an illustration that salvation is like a life ring thrown to a drowning person and the lost person need only grab it. There is some merit to this illustration. We are called to believe the gospel. However, a dead person cannot grab onto anything.

We are saved 100% as a result of God’s grace.

E. When we are saved, we are washed. Our old is gone. The new has come. We are transformed and regenerated. We are a new person. We must live like this. Do not live like a verse 3 person. Live like a verse 5 person.

Psalms 103:12 – As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

F. The Holy Spirit is integral in this process of renewal and regeneration.

Reflect – Are this washing and renewal a one-time thing or continuous?

G. God is not stingy. Once again, we see a superlative word describing the way that God gives grace to us. What is the word? Poured. He pours out the Holy Spirit upon us. And how does he pour? Richly.

Application – God has been very generous with us. He richly pours out His blessings on us. We should be generous with others.

H. We are justified by His grace. Just as if I never sinned. He declares a guilty person innocent because of Christ’s work on the cross.

I. We are heirs with Christ. We are heirs of eternal life. We have hope.

Romans 8:17 – And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

1 Peter 1:3-5 – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

There is an eternal inheritance waiting for us. It cannot be destroyed. It will never rust. It will never disappear in a stock market collapse. He is holding it in heaven for us. Let that hope motivate us to live faithfully for the Lord during our time in this world

Application – When you are tempted to lose your cool, to get angry, to argue, or to complain, remember that you have received grace upon grace. Remember where you were and where you are. Acknowledge that without the grace of God, you would be foolish, disobedient, a slave of passion, and hating others as you used to be.

When we focus on and remember God’s grace, it has several fruits in our life.

• It brings gratitude.
• It brings humility.
• It fills our hearts with love and grace toward others.
• As our hearts fill with love toward the lost around us, our attitudes and countenance will change. We will not be filled with acid, waiting to spill it on anyone who bumps us. Instead, we will be like the disciple Jesus described in John 7:38, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

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