This is to recognize God's authority and respect His government over men (Rom. 13:1-2).

Not quarrelsome; peaceable.

See note 1 Tim. 3:3^3b.

We should remember that in nature we were the same as others, living in the fallen condition; therefore, we should sympathize with their pitiful life and pray for their salvation (1 Tim. 2:1, 4).

Or, desires and gratifications.

It is the kindness and the love of our Savior God that saved us and made us different from others.

I.e., works of righteousness done in the element and sphere of righteousness, denoting genuine works of righteousness. Even such genuine works of righteousness are not sufficient to be the basis and condition of our salvation. Only the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, brought to us by God's mercy, are sufficient to cause us to be saved.

Verse Titus 2:11 says that the grace of God brings salvation to man, and v. 7 of this chapter says that we are justified by the grace of the Lord. But this verse says that according to His mercy God saved us. God's mercy reaches farther than His grace. Our pitiful condition created a wide gap between us and God's grace. It was God's mercy that bridged this gap and brought us to His salvation of grace. See note Heb. 4:16^2b and note Matt. 9:13².

Lit., laver; for the washing away of uncleanness.

The Greek word for regeneration is different from that for regenerated in 1 Pet. 1:23. The only other place the word is used is Matt. 19:28, where it is used for the restoration in the millennium (see note 1 there). Here it refers to a change from one state to another. Being born again is the commencing of this change. The washing of regeneration begins with our being born again and continues with the renewing of the Holy Spirit as the process of God's new creation, a process that makes us a new man. It is a kind of reconditioning, remaking, or remodeling, with life. Baptism (Rom. 6:3-5), the putting off of the old man, the putting on of the new man (Eph. 4:22, 24; Col. 3:9-11), and transformation by the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23) are all related to this wonderful process. The washing of regeneration purges away all the things of the old nature of our old man, and the renewing of the Holy Spirit imparts something new — the divine essence of the new man — into our being. In this is a passing from our old state into a wholly new one, from the old creation into the status of a new creation. Hence, both the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit are working in us continually throughout our life until the completion of the new creation.

In 1 Timothy the church is stressed (1 Tim. 3:15-16), in 2 Timothy the Scripture (2 Tim. 3:15-16), and in Titus the Holy Spirit. The church is the house of the living God, expressing God in the flesh, and is the pillar and base of the truth, the divine reality of the great mystery — God manifested in the flesh. The Scripture is the breath of God, containing and conveying His divine essence for our nourishing and equipping to make us perfect and complete for His use. The Holy Spirit is the divine person, washing and renewing us in the divine element to make us a new creation with the divine nature, that we might be heirs of God in His eternal life, inheriting all the riches of the Triune God.

The Holy Spirit, who is the Triune God reaching man, has been not only given to us but poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Savior, to impart to us all the divine riches in Christ, including God's eternal life and His divine nature, as an eternal portion for us to enjoy.

This verse speaks forth the issue and goal of God's salvation (v. 5) and justification (v. 7), which include the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit (vv. 5-6). This issue and goal are to make us heirs of God according to the hope of eternal life.

The grace of the Savior God, who is mentioned in v. 4 (cf. Rom. 3:24; 5:2, 15).

Not merely sons but heirs who are qualified to inherit the Father's estate (Rom. 4:14; 8:17; Gal. 3:29; 4:7). Such heirs are born (John 1:12-13) of God's eternal life (John 3:16). This eternal life enables them not only to live and enjoy God in this age but also to inherit in the coming age and in eternity all the riches of what God is to them. Hence, there is the hope of eternal life. God's eternal life is our enjoyment today and our hope for tomorrow (see note Titus 1:2^1a). According to this hope we become heirs of God to inherit all His riches for eternity. This is the climax, the eternal goal, of His eternal salvation with His eternal life, which has been given to us by grace in Christ.

The word in vv. 3-7.

The things mentioned in vv. 1-7.

Or, consistently, steadfastly, positively affirm (with persistence and thoroughness). The same Greek word is used in 1 Tim. 1:7. See note 1 Tim. 1:7^2b.

The positive things stressed in vv. 4-8 should be affirmed strongly and consistently, such as our Savior God, Jesus Christ our Savior, the Holy Spirit, God's kindness, love, mercy, grace, and eternal life, with His acts of justifying, saving, washing, regenerating, and renewing. These are the Triune God with His attributes and virtues, plus His divine actions in His eternal salvation; they are things of life, which belong to the tree of life (Gen. 2:9) and produce heirs who will inherit all that God is to them. The negative things dealt with in vv. 9-11 should be avoided, such as foolish questionings, genealogies, strifes, contentions about the law, and factious, opinionated men. These are matters of (deadening) knowledge, which belong to the tree of knowledge and kill their victims. The things of life, which belong to the tree of life, should be stressed, whereas the matters of knowledge, which belong to the tree of knowledge, should be avoided.

Questions stirred up by genealogies (1 Tim. 1:4).

See note 1 Tim. 1:4^2b.

Issuing out of the questionings and genealogies.

Or, fightings. These are due to different opinions that issue from the deviant and mythological studies of the law.

Referring to the Jewish law. That law was used by Gnostic Judaism, which was set up to oppose the simplicity of the gospel.

Aimless, without result.

A heretical, sectarian man who causes divisions by forming parties in the church according to his own opinions (see note 2 Pet. 2:1³). The Gnostic Judaism referred to in the preceding verse must be related to this.

In order to maintain good order in the church, a factious, divisive person should be refused, rejected, after a first and second admonition. This is done to stop intercourse with a contagiously divisive person for the church's profit.

Lit., turned out of the way. It is more extreme than being turned away from the right path (Titus 1:14).

A city in the southwestern corner of Macedonia, where this Epistle was written. See note 2 Tim. 4:6^2b.

Artemas and Tychicus were intimate fellow workers of Paul; Zenas and Apollos worked independently of him. Yet Paul still charged Titus to care for the latter two, showing that there was no jealousy between the two groups of co-workers.

See note Matt. 22:35^1a.

Referring to subjective faith, the act of our believing, which brings us into an organic union with the Lord (John 3:15; Gal. 3:26) and operates through love (Gal. 5:6). It is in the element and operation of this faith that the saints who were one with the Lord in His concern loved the suffering and faithful apostle.

Faith and love are two inseparable, excellent virtues of the believers in Christ. Faith is given to us by God (note 2 Pet. 1:1^5d) that by it we may receive Christ (John 1:12), the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9), and thereby enter into the Triune God and be joined to Him as one, having Him as our life, life supply, and everything. Love issues out of such a wonderful faith and enables us to live out all the riches of the Triune God in Christ with those who have believed into Christ with us, that the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — may have a glorious expression. Faith is for appreciating, substantiating, and receiving the unlimited riches of the Triune God; love is for experiencing, enjoying, and living out the immeasurably rich Triune God. Faith is for the believers to be joined to the Triune God, who is everything to them; love is for the believers to minister and transmit the Triune God to their fellow believers so that, in such a wonderful and powerful faith, all the believers may love one another with divine, transcendent love and live a corporate life in Christ. In this way the Body of Christ is realized and the processed Triune God is expressed today on the earth in the all-inclusive Christ through the immeasurable life-giving Spirit.

The Epistle to Titus is the conclusion of the three books, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, and it concludes with the wonderful faith and the super-excellent love. This implies that, in the current of the church's degradation, in order to be able to effectively stand firm and overcome the downward trend and factor in the church, this wonderful faith and this super-excellent love are indispensable. We should not walk by sight or care for the outward situation. Rather, in this wonderful faith we should enjoy its source, which is the Triune God, to whom we have been joined through this faith, and by this super-excellent love of the Triune God we should love Him and all those who belong to Him. Only in this way can we become, in the current of the church's degradation, the overcomers whom the Lord is calling and is desiring to obtain in Revelation 2 and 3.

This wonderful faith and this super-excellent love are out of the Triune God, who earnestly desires to be joined to us to be our everything. This Triune God passed through the process of incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection from the dead, and ascension to the heavens on high and was ultimately consummated as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). This Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), who includes divinity, humanity, and Christ's crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension and is the reality of the all-inclusive Christ (John 14:16-20), dwells in our regenerated spirit (Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22). When we contact this Triune God through prayer and by looking to Him, by means of our spirit, which was once dead and was made alive, He infuses Himself into us in many ways to become the faith within us toward Him and the love outside of us toward those who belong to Him. Such faith and such love are the reality and expression (1 John 4:8, 16) of the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — in whom we believe and whom we worship and receive. Also, they are the rich grace given to us in Christ by the Triune God (1 Tim. 1:14), not only to be the motivating power and expression of our spiritual life but also to become our breastplate (1 Thes. 5:8), which covers and protects the vital parts of our being. It is by such faith that we receive and enjoy the divine life that is revealed and ministered to us in the entire Gospel of John (John 3:16, 36), and it is by such love that we love the Lord and those who belong to Him (John 21:15-17; 13:34-35). Such faith and love are connected and go together: love comes from faith, and faith operates and works through love (Gal. 5:6). Love with faith enables us to love our Lord in incorruptibility so that we may have an overcoming church life (Eph. 6:23-24) for the fulfillment of God's New Testament economy in Christ for the church. Therefore, it is in this faith that we are well pleasing to God (Heb. 11:6) and in this love that we are blessed of the Lord (1 Cor. 16:22). May this love with this faith be to the brothers from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 6:23).