Titus 1:4

4 Titus, I am sending you this letter. You are my true son in the faith we share. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior give you grace and peace.

Titus 1:4 Meaning and Commentary

Titus 1:4

To Titus, mine own son after the common faith
Not in a natural, but in a spiritual sense; the apostle being the instrument of his conversion, as he was of the conversion of Onesimus, and of many of the Corinthians, and therefore is said to beget them, ( Philemon 1:10 ) ( 1 Corinthians 4:15 ) and so was their spiritual father, and they his children: Titus was, in this sense, his "own son", or a true son, a legitimate one; a true convert; one really born again; a sincere believer, an Israelite indeed: and this he was "after the common faith"; either the doctrine of faith, which is but one, and is common to all the saints; or the grace of faith, which though different in degrees, yet is alike precious faith in all; the same for nature, kind, object, operation, and effects: and this phrase is used to show in what sense Titus was son to the apostle; as he was a believer, and no otherwise.

Grace, mercy, and peace
which is the apostle's usual salutation; see ( 1 Timothy 1:2 ) . The word "mercy" is left out in the Claromontane copy, and in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions.

Titus 1:4 In-Context

2 Faith and understanding rest on the hope of eternal life. Before time began, God promised to give that life. And he does not lie.

3 At just the right time he made his word plain. He did it through the preaching that he trusted me with. God our Savior has commanded all those things.

4 Titus, I am sending you this letter. You are my true son in the faith we share. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior give you grace and peace.

5 I left you on the island of Crete. There were some things that hadn't been finished. You needed to sort them out. You also had to appoint elders in every town. I told you how to do it.

6 An elder must be without blame. He must be faithful to his wife. His children must be believers. They must not give anyone a reason to say that they are wild and don't obey.