CHAPTER IX

Titus-The Most Efficient of Paul's Friends

The record of Titus's career is found in the following passage:-2nd Cor. 2:12-13, 7:5-17, 8:1-24, 12:18, Gal. 2:1-4, 2nd Tim. 4:10, and all of Paul's epistle to him.

Ο

UR characterization of Titus will in all likelihood arouse strenuous dissent. The names and services of Luke, Timothy, Barnabas and others, will at once come to mind, and it will be said "surely Titus was inferior to any and all of these." It may even be slightingly asked-"Who was Titus anyway?"

By casual reading of the New Testament it must be confessed that his name, personality, and work, might not attract and fix the attention. It would be recalled that Paul addressed a letter to him, and perhaps also the farther fact that he left him in Crete on some sort of a mission. Beyond this little would be remembered by any except the more diligent students of Paul's life and the New Testament as a whole. But to have it asserted that. Titus was one of the most efficient men of the early church will, perhaps, surprise even those who are fairly conversant with his career.

By the word "efficient" as used in this sketch, we mean as an achiever of immediate practical results in difficult situations. Not for a moment is he to be compared with Barnabas and Apollos as a preacher; nor was he a writer like Luke and Mark. But he was a man who could do things at any time and anywhere; and whenever Paul had a task too difficult for any of his other friends, he always turned to Titus, and Titus never refused and never failed.

I

Who Then Was Titus?

Of the man himself we know very little. Of his birthplace and early life, we know nothing. We do not know when or where he first met St. Paul, nor what their earlier associations were. The scantiness of our knowledge is due largely to the fact that Luke never once mentions his name in the entire book of Acts, though during the period covered by this narrative Titus was rendering indispensable services in behalf of Paul and for the good of the early church.

Why Luke totally ignored the great part played by Titus in those stirring days and scenes, we are left entirely in the dark; but it is safe to say he had some reason which appeared ample to himself. Is it possible to conjecture what his reasons were? I think it may be safely done. One conjecture is that as Titus's most eminent service at that time was in healing a frightful breach in one of the greatest of the churches, Luke ignored the entire story as the

struggle was over some years before he wrote Acts, and hence he did not wish to recall painful memories by even so much as an allusion to them. Therefore he did not refer to Titus at all as this would hardly have been possible without telling something about his work in settling a quarrel now long a thing of the past. Another reason why he may not have mentioned Titus is, possibly, because the latter's work did not seem to him to contribute as directly as that of some of Paul's other friends in hastening the onward sweep of Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome, the story of which, as we have seen, is the theme of the book of Acts.

A few definite details are, however, known in regard to Titus the man. First of all we know that he was a Greek, Paul so stating in his letter to the Galatians. And farther we know that he was converted through the direct influence of Paul himself, for the latter addresses his letter to him as "his own son after the common faith." Perhaps it is fair to assume that Titus's conversion took place at Antioch, and that he was a part of the fruit of Paul's labors there. At any rate we first hear of him in association with Paul in that city when the latter, some fourteen years after his own conversion, went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas to consult the leading Apostles in regard to the question of circumcision of Gentile converts. On this journey Paul took Titus with him. This visit to Jerusalem was after Paul's first missionary journey, and may or may not be identical with that one related in Acts

15. It is conjectured by some that Titus was with Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey together; and that it was from Titus that Luke gained most of his information about the movements of St. Paul during those periods when he himself was not with him. All this is very possible, but by no means capable of any proof.

After Titus's journey to Jerusalem with Paul, Barnabas and others, we entirely lose sight of him for several years; but it is likely that he was with Paul all the time, or laboring somewhere under his supervision. We next find him for a certainty with Paul on the latter's third missionary journey; and from a comparison of Acts with Paul's letters to Corinth, we know that he was with Paul at least part of the time during his ministry at Ephesus when all the province of Asia was evangelized by him and his friends. The evidence of this is that it was from Ephesus that Paul sent him on his most difficult missions.

II

The Proof of Titus's Efficiency

The best proof of Titus's efficiency is a simple recital of the services he performed.

While Paul was at Ephesus he received the disastrous reports of affairs at Corinth. Things were at a crisis and demanded immediate and tactful, yet at the same time the most masterful, handling, or all Paul's work there would be wrecked and the church and cause of Christ go down in irretrievable

ruin. We need not here go into the details of the situation at Corinth. Its evils may be roughly summed up under a few general heads: the lax morals of the members of the church; fierce factional broils; confusion in public worship and drunkenness at the communion table; and the lending of greedy ears to the malicious enemies of Paul himself who denounced him, his message, and his Apostolic standing.

How could such a situation be met? Paul begged Apollos to go to Corinth and try his hand in composing the difficulties. Apollos declined for reasons we have already examined. Paul was nearly desperate. He feared to go himself lest his presence make matters worse. He then, for some reason, dispatched Timothy; but fearful of his ability to cope with the situation he wrote to the Corinthians pleading with them to give Timothy a favorable reception. Now either he failed in his mission, or else Paul, growing more and more distrustful of his ability to accomplish anything, recalled him before he even reached the scene of disturbance. Matters at Corinth were going from bad to worse every hour. There was but one thing left to do-send Titus. Neither Timothy, nor Apollos, nor even Paul himself, was the man for such a crisis as the troubles at Corinth had now reached.

It is likely that Titus had already been there sometime previously, possibly he was the bearer of 1st Corinthians; and it may have been his report on the condition of things there that suggested to Paul