Titus 3:1-3 consists of Paul’s final encouragement to Titus on what key behaviors to remind the Cretan believers to emulate. Living as believers in Christ looks like obeying local governments and being generally obedient and ready to do good at all times. Believers should not speak badly of others, but should exhibit peace and kindness toward all people. Paul reflects how apart from Christ, we are driven by our desire to exploit other people, rather than serve them in love.
In Titus 3:1-3, Paul contrasts how believers ought to treat others with kindness compared to how we were before faith in Christ—hostile and self-seeking.
In Chapter 1, Paul focused on the character traits, spiritual maturity, and behavioral patterns Titus should factor when assigning elders to the various churches in Crete (Titus 1:5-9). Paul also stressed that the false teachers in Crete were causing problems and needed to be confronted and corrected (Titus 1:10-16).
In Chapter 2, Paul advised Titus on specific sinful behaviors the Cretans needed to cease as well as the godly behaviors they should begin to practice; in so doing, Paul went through various demographics with particular advice to each, beginning with the elder men on Crete, then the elder women, the younger women, the young men, and the bond-servants. On several occasions Paul highlighted that the Cretans need to abstain from getting drunk with wine (Titus 2:2-3), and the prevailing positive behavior he directed them toward was to live sensibly (Titus 2:2, 5, 6).
There is a consistent exhortation for all to be grounded in "sound doctrine," to honor "God's word," and that God’s grace and salvation is "instructing us" to act out good deeds and forego "lawless deeds" (Titus 2:1, 5, 12, 14).
Here in the final chapter of this letter, Paul gives general direction for how all of the new Cretan believers should behave now that they are new creations in Christ. This continues the overall theme of this letter, which is to confront false teaching and promote sound teaching, or doctrine.
Paul begins by saying,
Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed (v. 1).
Believers are called to be subject to rulers and to authorities. Paul told Titus to Remind them of this as he also does in several of his other letters (Romans 13:1-7,1 Timothy 2:1-2). The Apostle Peter also emphasized that being subject to the rulers and authorities is key to living out our faith (1 Peter 2:13-17, 4:15-16).
This reminder demonstrates a truth about our true citizenship, which is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). We have a King, who is Jesus. His Kingdom is currently not of this world (John 18:36). It will be over all the earth when He returns (John 18:36-37,Matthew 24:30,Revelation 11:15). Thus, believers are living in a sort of exile. So we are to live as the Jews were instructed to live when exiled to Babylon. In Jeremiah 29:7, God instructed them to seek Babylon's welfare while in exile.
In a similar manner, believers are to continue living peaceably during our lives on this earth. We can bear in mind that God told the Jews in exile to Babylon to contribute to the welfare of Babylon even though it had sacked their city and taken them captive. Similarly, Paul will die at the hand of a corrupt Roman emperor. But while living in this worldly exile, believers are to honor the authorities God has appointed; as Romans 13:1 tells us, there is no human authority other than that which is appointed by God.
The Jews, Greeks, Romans, and other Gentiles who believed in Jesus when the gospel was first preached were taught both to anticipate the coming of Jesus's kingdom but to be content with the present authorities on earth. The exception we can observe was when these authorities tried to stand between them and being a faithful witness for Christ (Acts 4:5:29).
Some, like the Thessalonians, misunderstood the anticipation of Jesus’s imminent return by quitting their jobs and idly waiting for Jesus to come back (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12,2 Thessalonians 3:6-15). Paul had to correct them, instructing them that believers should still work and take care of our family and friends, rather than become a burden to them.
This is also consistent with God's admonition for those living in exile, expecting to go to their true home in the near future. In Jeremiah 29:10, God makes it clear that the Jews will return to their land after seventy years. In the meantime, while in exile in Babylon, God told the Jewish people to "build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce" (Jeremiah 29:5). They were to work and bless Babylon while there. Similarly, New Testament believers are to work to bless this current earth, even though it is a temporary location.
The gospel teaches believers that we are all free and equal as children of God (whether man or women, Jew or Greek, etc.) (Galatians 3:26-29,Romans 10:12-13,1 Corinthians 12:12-13,Colossians 3:9-11,Ephesians 2:11-22). At the same time, bond-servants are instructed to work cheerfully for their masters, and yet be made free if legally possible (1 Corinthians 7:21-23,Philemon 1:15-16). The pattern is consistent; we are to honor authority, while seeking improvement within proper limits of authority, when that avenue is available.
Though our true king is Jesus, He establishes/allows all governing authorities on this earth (Romans 31:1). This includes those who oppose Him. The temple and most of the nation of Israel would be destroyed by Rome a few years after Paul wrote this letter, due to revolt against the Roman imperials. One of Jesus's own disciples was a formal zealot (Matthew 10:4). The disciples displayed many zealot traits, which is expected, since the center of the zealot movement was in Galilee, and eleven of the twelve appear to have been from there.
We can see this in passages like John 11:16, where Thomas expresses a willingness to die for the cause. Jesus spent much of His effort redirecting the zealot spirit of the disciples away from "We will die for our plan" (which was to remove the Romans) and instead be willing to die for God's plan. We see this redirection take root when the disciples fled from Jesus once they realized He was not going to follow their plan (Mark 14:50).
The disciples proved a willingness to die for the cause so long as Jesus was doing what they expected (Mark 14:47). But when He submitted to arrest, their zeal dissipated. After Jesus rose and they received the Holy Spirit, they laid down their lives for the gospel, which eventually conquered Rome, but with zero use of force. Meanwhile, the remaining zealots, who were not similarly redirected, tore Israel apart with internal strife while simultaneously provoking Rome with violence. The result was that, in a mere generation, the temple was destroyed and many perished.
It is possible that the Cretans and the readers of Peter’s letters thought that since Jesus was their true king, they could scoff at Rome and ignore the laws of the day. This is not living at peace with others or loving our neighbors. Jesus taught that we should pay our taxes, while also stating the greater truth that all things belong to God (Mark 12:17).
We can then see, based on the teachings of the Old Testament, Christ, and the Apostles, that while we wait for the coming kingdom, our lives should be marked by harmonious living and showing a witness of our faith. Our king is Christ, but that kingdom is a spiritual one at present. God has allowed other men to serve in governments during this waiting period (Daniel 4:17). Many in authority are also believers, which gives them an added opportunity to be good stewards of the gospel.
Those in government will be held accountable to God for their leadership decisions (Isaiah 10:1-3,Romans 2:5-6). Believers will be held accountable by how well we demonstrated our faith and did the good works God prepared for us (1 Corinthians 3:12-15, 4:1-5, Ephesians 2:10). We cannot force the kingdom of God or institute it through revolt, as the contrast between Jesus’s zealot disciples and zealots who were not redirected illustrates.
Jesus came first to die for us and invite us into His kingdom as sons and heirs (Romans 8:16-17); He did not rally an army of revolutionaries or establish His kingdom right away as some of His disciples once mistakenly believed He should do (John 6:15,Luke 19:11, 22:49, Mark 8:31-32).
For believers, our battle is not against "flesh and blood" (other humans), but against "the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12). The spiritual forces in service to Satan seek to lead us away from fellowship with God and into sin and failure to carry out God's will (1 Peter 5:8). They are our true enemy. Satan is the current ruler of this world (John 12:31). But Jesus has conquered and been given all authority (Matthew 28:18,Hebrews 2:9). This means it is just a matter of time until Satan is displaced and Jesus begins His reign (Revelation 20:4).
Paul told Titus to Remind the Cretans to be subject to their local rulers and authorities; to be obedient to them, because our calling in this life is to do the works God has assigned to us (Ephesians 2:10). Rather than struggling against other humans, we need to focus on doing these good works, to be ready for every good deed.
Our focus should be on every good deed God has tasked us with, and we will not do these good deeds if we are not ready to do them. We should be standing by to serve and love one another as our primary priority.
Believers should be politically active, especially in self-governing countries. Self-governance rises or falls on the willingness of its citizens to take responsibility and use authority to serve. It is good to run for political office. But in all cases, we should remember our true king and true citizenship. Our overarching loyalty is to Christ, and His command to us is to serve and love others, and seek our primary rewards from Him rather than men.
Paul reminded the Philippians to follow his example, and not that of those "who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ…" (Philippians 3:19-20).
Paul continues this contrast between doing good in service to others instead of being at odds with others:
to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men (v. 2).
The Cretans are to be reminded to malign no one. The word malign is translated from the Greek "blasphēmeō," which is to speak evil, usually about someone else, like God or other people. This echoes Paul’s earlier commendation for the older women on Crete to not be "diabolos," to not be accusers. They should not falsely accuse or maliciously slander other people like Satan the chief accuser does (Titus 2:3).
Rather, we are to be peaceable. Some translations render this, "to not be brawlers," translating the Greek word "amachos" which means "not contentious" or "abstaining from fighting." We should live in a peaceable way with our fellow man, avoiding violence or harm to others. Paul underscores this by adding the word gentle. The opposite of gentle is rough, or harmful, or violent.
In showing every consideration for all men, we can accomplish gentle peace with others. This is another way of showing how God wants us to love our neighbor (everyone) as we love ourselves. It is like Jesus's "Golden Rule": "In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you" (Matthew 7:12). No human should be our enemy. Satan and sin are the enemy. We should treat other people with the love and consideration we afford ourselves.
Paul is speaking from a place of experience. These instructions for the Cretan believers are for all believers. Paul reflects on his own sinful, worldly living before faith in Jesus. He includes Titus:
For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another (v. 3).
Just as the Cretans are having to unlearn sinful practices, Paul and Titus similarly had the same journey from sinful living toward living rightly. Paul has emphasized that the Cretans need to learn to be sensible (Titus 2:2, 5, 6), something he also had to learn, For we also once were foolish ourselves. To be foolish is to act against our true best self-interest and benefit. It is to make decisions that ultimately harm us or others.
Paul lists multiple ways he once walked according to the flesh, displaying a present humility and understanding. In addition to being foolish, he was also disobedient and deceived.
Before Paul spoke to Jesus on the Road to Damascus and put his faith in Him, these sins were on full display. Paul was foolish, disobedient, and deceived as he relentlessly attacked believers in Jesus. He began as an enemy to the gospel of Jesus. Paul approved of the murder of Stephen, he volunteered to lead the persecution of the church, putting people in prison and voting for their deaths (Acts 7:58, 8:1-3, 9:1-2, 13-14, 21, 22:4-5, 19-20, 26:9-11, Galatians 1:13-14,1 Corinthians 15:9,Philippians 3:6,1 Timothy 1:13). This was foolish and disobedient because he was going against God’s will, and he was deceived because he thought he was doing the will of God.
Paul confesses that before believing in Christ, he was spending his life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. His self-deception that the church of believers deserved to be put to death was founded on these destructive outward feelings.
He, like the other Pharisees and the priests who persecuted the church, was motivated by envy. Multiple other scriptures point to this particular sin as being the root of the Jewish leaderships’ hostility toward Jesus and His disciples (Matthew 27:18,Mark 15:10). They feared Him and hated His influence (Luke 19:47-48,John 12:19). They were so fearful of loss of position and influence that after Jesus raised Lazurus from the dead, they did not even pause to consider whether to believe in Him (who had just shown power over death). Instead, they plotted to put Jesus to death (John 11:47-50).
They hated their inability to control Him and feared Jesus’s influence would diminish their own. This envy grew into malice and culminated in a hateful campaign to end Jesus’s life, and in the years after His resurrection, to hunt down believers in Him to put them to death.
This is what sin does when it is full grown in us; it "brings forth death" (James 1:15). All our foolish, disobedient, and deceived points of view lead to a life spent in malice and envy. Envy and malice toward other people result in our hating of one another.
Hatred is the spiritual seed of the desire to destroy others (1 John 3:12-15,James 4:1-2); Jesus explained that hate was essentially murder because murder is the acting out of the inner desire to bring harm to another (Matthew 5:21-22). This is the opposite of God’s command to love our neighbors as ourselves (Leviticus 19:17-18). Prior to believing in Christ, Paul’s purpose in life became to destroy the lives of others, rather than serve them.
Paul also confesses that he used to be enslaved to various lusts and pleasures. We can only speculate what Paul is referring to here, since it is not made explicit in the Biblical accounts. The temptation toward lusts and pleasures is a typical inclination in most humans. However, a reasonable speculation is to believe that Paul lusted for power himself, given his willingness to persecute others who threatened the power of the Pharisees, the group of which he was a member.
But Paul has not only been describing himself here; he writes in the first person plural, we also once were foolish ourselves...spending our lifein malice...This description of the past applies to Titus also. This lets the Cretans know there is nothing especially wrong with them. Even the men who preached the gospel to them once lived in sinful darkness.
This is a human problem, not a Cretan problem. Any realistic reader of these verses can include themselves in Paul’s confession, that apart from Jesus we are prone to spend our life being foolish, disobedient to God, and in slavery to pleasures and lusts of various kinds.
This is our base nature, our fallen nature (Romans 7:18). To live apart from Christ is to live according to the ways of the world, which always ultimately results in hating one another.
Sin leads us to take advantage of others, to use them to fulfill our needs or to remove them if we envy them and view them as a threat. Following Jesus leads us to serve one another, as Paul described in Titus 2.
This confession also serves to give hope to the Cretans, that the enslavement of sin is something Paul describes as a life we also once lived. Believers can speak of sinful enslavement in the past tense because Jesus frees us from enslavement to sin (Galatians 5:13). Believers have the power of the Holy Spirit and Christ’s resurrection life in us which enables us to choose not to hate and lust after one another, but rather to serve one another, showing every consideration for all men (v. 2).
The freedom we have in Christ is the power to choose. As Paul says in Galatians:
"For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." (Galatians 5:13)
This verse makes clear that believers are freed from being slaves to sin because we are free to choose. Slaves do not get to choose—they only do as they are commanded. However, freedom means we decide; our choice is whether to go back under sin's dominion and serve the flesh or to serve Christ by serving one another in love.
In Romans 6:13, 16, Paul exhorts the Roman believers to cease "presenting the members of [their] body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness." Paul makes clear in Galatians 5:16-17 andRomans 6:16 that our fundamental choice is between obeying the Spirit or the flesh.
Paul is making basically the same argument here in Titus. He is pointing out that believers have been delivered from old ways, and encourages them not to go back into them. Paul elevates what it looks like to live as unto the Lord and walk in the power of His Spirit.
Titus 3:1-3
Godly Living
1 Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed,
2 to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.
3 For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.
Set to dark mode
Titus 3:1-3 meaning
In Titus 3:1-3, Paul contrasts how believers ought to treat others with kindness compared to how we were before faith in Christ—hostile and self-seeking.
In Chapter 1, Paul focused on the character traits, spiritual maturity, and behavioral patterns Titus should factor when assigning elders to the various churches in Crete (Titus 1:5-9). Paul also stressed that the false teachers in Crete were causing problems and needed to be confronted and corrected (Titus 1:10-16).
In Chapter 2, Paul advised Titus on specific sinful behaviors the Cretans needed to cease as well as the godly behaviors they should begin to practice; in so doing, Paul went through various demographics with particular advice to each, beginning with the elder men on Crete, then the elder women, the younger women, the young men, and the bond-servants. On several occasions Paul highlighted that the Cretans need to abstain from getting drunk with wine (Titus 2:2-3), and the prevailing positive behavior he directed them toward was to live sensibly (Titus 2:2, 5, 6).
There is a consistent exhortation for all to be grounded in "sound doctrine," to honor "God's word," and that God’s grace and salvation is "instructing us" to act out good deeds and forego "lawless deeds" (Titus 2:1, 5, 12, 14).
Here in the final chapter of this letter, Paul gives general direction for how all of the new Cretan believers should behave now that they are new creations in Christ. This continues the overall theme of this letter, which is to confront false teaching and promote sound teaching, or doctrine.
Paul begins by saying,
Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed (v. 1).
Believers are called to be subject to rulers and to authorities. Paul told Titus to Remind them of this as he also does in several of his other letters (Romans 13:1-7, 1 Timothy 2:1-2). The Apostle Peter also emphasized that being subject to the rulers and authorities is key to living out our faith (1 Peter 2:13-17, 4:15-16).
This reminder demonstrates a truth about our true citizenship, which is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). We have a King, who is Jesus. His Kingdom is currently not of this world (John 18:36). It will be over all the earth when He returns (John 18:36-37, Matthew 24:30, Revelation 11:15). Thus, believers are living in a sort of exile. So we are to live as the Jews were instructed to live when exiled to Babylon. In Jeremiah 29:7, God instructed them to seek Babylon's welfare while in exile.
In a similar manner, believers are to continue living peaceably during our lives on this earth. We can bear in mind that God told the Jews in exile to Babylon to contribute to the welfare of Babylon even though it had sacked their city and taken them captive. Similarly, Paul will die at the hand of a corrupt Roman emperor. But while living in this worldly exile, believers are to honor the authorities God has appointed; as Romans 13:1 tells us, there is no human authority other than that which is appointed by God.
The Jews, Greeks, Romans, and other Gentiles who believed in Jesus when the gospel was first preached were taught both to anticipate the coming of Jesus's kingdom but to be content with the present authorities on earth. The exception we can observe was when these authorities tried to stand between them and being a faithful witness for Christ (Acts 4:5:29).
Some, like the Thessalonians, misunderstood the anticipation of Jesus’s imminent return by quitting their jobs and idly waiting for Jesus to come back (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15). Paul had to correct them, instructing them that believers should still work and take care of our family and friends, rather than become a burden to them.
This is also consistent with God's admonition for those living in exile, expecting to go to their true home in the near future. In Jeremiah 29:10, God makes it clear that the Jews will return to their land after seventy years. In the meantime, while in exile in Babylon, God told the Jewish people to "build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce" (Jeremiah 29:5). They were to work and bless Babylon while there. Similarly, New Testament believers are to work to bless this current earth, even though it is a temporary location.
The gospel teaches believers that we are all free and equal as children of God (whether man or women, Jew or Greek, etc.) (Galatians 3:26-29, Romans 10:12-13, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, Colossians 3:9-11, Ephesians 2:11-22). At the same time, bond-servants are instructed to work cheerfully for their masters, and yet be made free if legally possible (1 Corinthians 7:21-23, Philemon 1:15-16). The pattern is consistent; we are to honor authority, while seeking improvement within proper limits of authority, when that avenue is available.
Though our true king is Jesus, He establishes/allows all governing authorities on this earth (Romans 31:1). This includes those who oppose Him. The temple and most of the nation of Israel would be destroyed by Rome a few years after Paul wrote this letter, due to revolt against the Roman imperials. One of Jesus's own disciples was a formal zealot (Matthew 10:4). The disciples displayed many zealot traits, which is expected, since the center of the zealot movement was in Galilee, and eleven of the twelve appear to have been from there.
We can see this in passages like John 11:16, where Thomas expresses a willingness to die for the cause. Jesus spent much of His effort redirecting the zealot spirit of the disciples away from "We will die for our plan" (which was to remove the Romans) and instead be willing to die for God's plan. We see this redirection take root when the disciples fled from Jesus once they realized He was not going to follow their plan (Mark 14:50).
The disciples proved a willingness to die for the cause so long as Jesus was doing what they expected (Mark 14:47). But when He submitted to arrest, their zeal dissipated. After Jesus rose and they received the Holy Spirit, they laid down their lives for the gospel, which eventually conquered Rome, but with zero use of force. Meanwhile, the remaining zealots, who were not similarly redirected, tore Israel apart with internal strife while simultaneously provoking Rome with violence. The result was that, in a mere generation, the temple was destroyed and many perished.
It is possible that the Cretans and the readers of Peter’s letters thought that since Jesus was their true king, they could scoff at Rome and ignore the laws of the day. This is not living at peace with others or loving our neighbors. Jesus taught that we should pay our taxes, while also stating the greater truth that all things belong to God (Mark 12:17).
We can then see, based on the teachings of the Old Testament, Christ, and the Apostles, that while we wait for the coming kingdom, our lives should be marked by harmonious living and showing a witness of our faith. Our king is Christ, but that kingdom is a spiritual one at present. God has allowed other men to serve in governments during this waiting period (Daniel 4:17). Many in authority are also believers, which gives them an added opportunity to be good stewards of the gospel.
Those in government will be held accountable to God for their leadership decisions (Isaiah 10:1-3, Romans 2:5-6). Believers will be held accountable by how well we demonstrated our faith and did the good works God prepared for us (1 Corinthians 3:12-15, 4:1-5, Ephesians 2:10). We cannot force the kingdom of God or institute it through revolt, as the contrast between Jesus’s zealot disciples and zealots who were not redirected illustrates.
Jesus came first to die for us and invite us into His kingdom as sons and heirs (Romans 8:16-17); He did not rally an army of revolutionaries or establish His kingdom right away as some of His disciples once mistakenly believed He should do (John 6:15, Luke 19:11, 22:49, Mark 8:31-32).
For believers, our battle is not against "flesh and blood" (other humans), but against "the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12). The spiritual forces in service to Satan seek to lead us away from fellowship with God and into sin and failure to carry out God's will (1 Peter 5:8). They are our true enemy. Satan is the current ruler of this world (John 12:31). But Jesus has conquered and been given all authority (Matthew 28:18, Hebrews 2:9). This means it is just a matter of time until Satan is displaced and Jesus begins His reign (Revelation 20:4).
Paul told Titus to Remind the Cretans to be subject to their local rulers and authorities; to be obedient to them, because our calling in this life is to do the works God has assigned to us (Ephesians 2:10). Rather than struggling against other humans, we need to focus on doing these good works, to be ready for every good deed.
Our focus should be on every good deed God has tasked us with, and we will not do these good deeds if we are not ready to do them. We should be standing by to serve and love one another as our primary priority.
Believers should be politically active, especially in self-governing countries. Self-governance rises or falls on the willingness of its citizens to take responsibility and use authority to serve. It is good to run for political office. But in all cases, we should remember our true king and true citizenship. Our overarching loyalty is to Christ, and His command to us is to serve and love others, and seek our primary rewards from Him rather than men.
Paul reminded the Philippians to follow his example, and not that of those "who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ…" (Philippians 3:19-20).
Paul continues this contrast between doing good in service to others instead of being at odds with others:
to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men (v. 2).
The Cretans are to be reminded to malign no one. The word malign is translated from the Greek "blasphēmeō," which is to speak evil, usually about someone else, like God or other people. This echoes Paul’s earlier commendation for the older women on Crete to not be "diabolos," to not be accusers. They should not falsely accuse or maliciously slander other people like Satan the chief accuser does (Titus 2:3).
Rather, we are to be peaceable. Some translations render this, "to not be brawlers," translating the Greek word "amachos" which means "not contentious" or "abstaining from fighting." We should live in a peaceable way with our fellow man, avoiding violence or harm to others. Paul underscores this by adding the word gentle. The opposite of gentle is rough, or harmful, or violent.
In showing every consideration for all men, we can accomplish gentle peace with others. This is another way of showing how God wants us to love our neighbor (everyone) as we love ourselves. It is like Jesus's "Golden Rule": "In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you" (Matthew 7:12). No human should be our enemy. Satan and sin are the enemy. We should treat other people with the love and consideration we afford ourselves.
Paul is speaking from a place of experience. These instructions for the Cretan believers are for all believers. Paul reflects on his own sinful, worldly living before faith in Jesus. He includes Titus:
For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another (v. 3).
Just as the Cretans are having to unlearn sinful practices, Paul and Titus similarly had the same journey from sinful living toward living rightly. Paul has emphasized that the Cretans need to learn to be sensible (Titus 2:2, 5, 6), something he also had to learn, For we also once were foolish ourselves. To be foolish is to act against our true best self-interest and benefit. It is to make decisions that ultimately harm us or others.
Paul lists multiple ways he once walked according to the flesh, displaying a present humility and understanding. In addition to being foolish, he was also disobedient and deceived.
Before Paul spoke to Jesus on the Road to Damascus and put his faith in Him, these sins were on full display. Paul was foolish, disobedient, and deceived as he relentlessly attacked believers in Jesus. He began as an enemy to the gospel of Jesus. Paul approved of the murder of Stephen, he volunteered to lead the persecution of the church, putting people in prison and voting for their deaths (Acts 7:58, 8:1-3, 9:1-2, 13-14, 21, 22:4-5, 19-20, 26:9-11, Galatians 1:13-14, 1 Corinthians 15:9, Philippians 3:6, 1 Timothy 1:13). This was foolish and disobedient because he was going against God’s will, and he was deceived because he thought he was doing the will of God.
Paul confesses that before believing in Christ, he was spending his life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. His self-deception that the church of believers deserved to be put to death was founded on these destructive outward feelings.
He, like the other Pharisees and the priests who persecuted the church, was motivated by envy. Multiple other scriptures point to this particular sin as being the root of the Jewish leaderships’ hostility toward Jesus and His disciples (Matthew 27:18, Mark 15:10). They feared Him and hated His influence (Luke 19:47-48, John 12:19). They were so fearful of loss of position and influence that after Jesus raised Lazurus from the dead, they did not even pause to consider whether to believe in Him (who had just shown power over death). Instead, they plotted to put Jesus to death (John 11:47-50).
They hated their inability to control Him and feared Jesus’s influence would diminish their own. This envy grew into malice and culminated in a hateful campaign to end Jesus’s life, and in the years after His resurrection, to hunt down believers in Him to put them to death.
This is what sin does when it is full grown in us; it "brings forth death" (James 1:15). All our foolish, disobedient, and deceived points of view lead to a life spent in malice and envy. Envy and malice toward other people result in our hating of one another.
Hatred is the spiritual seed of the desire to destroy others (1 John 3:12-15, James 4:1-2); Jesus explained that hate was essentially murder because murder is the acting out of the inner desire to bring harm to another (Matthew 5:21-22). This is the opposite of God’s command to love our neighbors as ourselves (Leviticus 19:17-18). Prior to believing in Christ, Paul’s purpose in life became to destroy the lives of others, rather than serve them.
Paul also confesses that he used to be enslaved to various lusts and pleasures. We can only speculate what Paul is referring to here, since it is not made explicit in the Biblical accounts. The temptation toward lusts and pleasures is a typical inclination in most humans. However, a reasonable speculation is to believe that Paul lusted for power himself, given his willingness to persecute others who threatened the power of the Pharisees, the group of which he was a member.
But Paul has not only been describing himself here; he writes in the first person plural, we also once were foolish ourselves...spending our life in malice...This description of the past applies to Titus also. This lets the Cretans know there is nothing especially wrong with them. Even the men who preached the gospel to them once lived in sinful darkness.
This is a human problem, not a Cretan problem. Any realistic reader of these verses can include themselves in Paul’s confession, that apart from Jesus we are prone to spend our life being foolish, disobedient to God, and in slavery to pleasures and lusts of various kinds.
This is our base nature, our fallen nature (Romans 7:18). To live apart from Christ is to live according to the ways of the world, which always ultimately results in hating one another.
Sin leads us to take advantage of others, to use them to fulfill our needs or to remove them if we envy them and view them as a threat. Following Jesus leads us to serve one another, as Paul described in Titus 2.
This confession also serves to give hope to the Cretans, that the enslavement of sin is something Paul describes as a life we also once lived. Believers can speak of sinful enslavement in the past tense because Jesus frees us from enslavement to sin (Galatians 5:13). Believers have the power of the Holy Spirit and Christ’s resurrection life in us which enables us to choose not to hate and lust after one another, but rather to serve one another, showing every consideration for all men (v. 2).
The freedom we have in Christ is the power to choose. As Paul says in Galatians:
"For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."
(Galatians 5:13)
This verse makes clear that believers are freed from being slaves to sin because we are free to choose. Slaves do not get to choose—they only do as they are commanded. However, freedom means we decide; our choice is whether to go back under sin's dominion and serve the flesh or to serve Christ by serving one another in love.
In Romans 6:13, 16, Paul exhorts the Roman believers to cease "presenting the members of [their] body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness." Paul makes clear in Galatians 5:16-17 and Romans 6:16 that our fundamental choice is between obeying the Spirit or the flesh.
Paul is making basically the same argument here in Titus. He is pointing out that believers have been delivered from old ways, and encourages them not to go back into them. Paul elevates what it looks like to live as unto the Lord and walk in the power of His Spirit.