Titus 3:8

Titus 3:8

⁸  This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.

Verse 8

This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.

trustworthy statement

Trustworthy here is the Greek word pistos (pistoV) which is more commonly translated as “faith” or “faithful.”  This is the same basic word that we saw earlier in Titus 1:6 claiming that an elder should have faithful children.  Even more interestingly it is identical to Titus 1:9 where elders are commanded to be “holding fast the faithful word.”  Paul is saying that this is, just as the rest of scripture, good doctrine that is worthy to be taught, learned and applied.  What, however, is it that is a “trustworthy statement”?  Titus 3: 5-7 :

⁵  He saved us, not on the basis of righteous deeds which we have done, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,  ⁶  whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,  ⁷  so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to [the] hope of eternal life.

So, here Paul is affirming the statement he made before, which is one of the clearest statements of the gospel, and what takes place in the life of the believer at the moment of belief.  This is what he calls “faithful word” which he earlier told the elders to hold fast to!  The fact that he would use these words so closely together is a good argument that Paul knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was writing Scripture.

Concerning

This is the word peri which can be translated around or concerning.  It can mean in a physical sense to go around something, but here it very obviously takes on the contextual meaning of concerning or regarding this.  So regarding the professing of the gospel.  It is surrounding this, it is also important to notice that in these verses Paul is quite clear about the believers position in the whole thing.  There is no law to be fulfilled, nor is there any good thing to do in order to gain salvation.  This is massively important as we hear every day the casual “bad people go to hell, good people go to heaven” comments that reflect people's real beliefs systems.  It is not by good works that we are saved, and we are supposed to speak out concerning this issue.

want

Boulomai is the Greek word here.  It has the sense of something that is desired after, or even yearned for.  Vines notes that it is one of the stronger words for wanting willing or desiring.  This is not something that Paul wants casually, but it is a serious and deep desire that they would be involved in this assertion of the gospel.  It is also quite personal.  Paul deeply desires that Titus would be boldly preaching the gospel.  Surely the desire for us to spread the gospel is implicit in this command.  The importance of spreading the Gospel of Christ cannot be a command limited to the first century!

speak confidently

Other translations have this as “assert strongly.”  Paul's wish is that the gospel would be professed boldly and consistently.  This one Greek word contains the meaning that Paul wanted the Word preached both boldly and seriously, especially around the issue of the Gospel.  This is something that we should not be ashamed to bring up, as is so common now.  The world and the culture have made it a faux pas to even mention issues of faith in daily discussion.  We are not required to fulfill the demands of the culture, we are not of this world any longer, we need not play by it's rules when it comes to sharing the good news about our Lord Jesus Christ.

Believed

Here the word “believed” is in the perfect tense and the active voice.  There is great significance to each of these things.  Firstly the perfect tense indicates that the belief was a completed past actions that has ongoing effects into the present.  It is not conditioned upon anything else, simply belief.  The active voice displays the fact that the believer is actively choosing to believe.  The Holy Spirit is not believing for the believer, but rather a person will make a decision to believe God and His Gospel, or not, and God's judgment will be made on that crux of that issue.

Careful

This word would be quite literally translated “mindful” or to be “seriously in consideration of the thing.”  It means to be concentrating on doing something.  So this is not just: “that they would do...”  but rather:  “that they would, with consideration, deliberately...”

engage in good deeds

WHOA!  Stop everything!  What's this?  After all of the time spent in this letter, in Romans, and in countless other passages talking about how we are saved by faith through grace now Paul is going back to this good works thing?  How can that be?  What can possibly be going on here?  It is of the utmost importance to realize that Paul is not saying “...and if they don't do this they are going to lose their salvation!”  Quite to the contrary, that would mean that our salvation was based on something other than faith, that is, our continuing good deeds! 

            Paul is agreeing with James here.  The verse that is so commonly quoted (and misquoted, and misinterpreted) from James to be a passage that suggests that salvation can be lost.  “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.  But someone will say, 'you have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by works.” (Jas. 2: 17-18) Good works are to be the outflow of faith in Christ.  If we believe this gospel is true, and that while we could do nothing for ourselves God saved us (Rom. 5:8) the natural outflow of that is to submit ourselves to God and, walking by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, walk in the good works God has set aside for us to do (Eph. 2:9-10). 

good and profitable

Here is a restatement and an addition.  The acting out of good works based on our position in Christ is good!  It is good for the doer of these good works as by submission of our members to the Holy Spirit we are sanctified (Rom. 6:13).  But is also good and profitable for the recipient of those good works.  If it is a believer the believer will obviously be encouraged in love and in faith having beheld the might working of Christ's life through another believer.  If the recipient is a non-believer he or she will certainly have beheld something of what the life of Christ and the Gospel is all about.  This may be the tool that the Lord uses to bring them to Himself!  Whatever the case we see that being careful, or thoughtful, of doing good deeds is both good and profitable to all of men.  Though we are not earning, nor preserving our good salvation by those good works, we are acting out of the great gift of salvation that has been given us.  Remember you can inspire loyalty by being able to take someones house, but the greatest loyalty will come if the house is freely given.