 Hi everyone, I am just recording this video to make up for the class that was cancelled last week. Today we are going to be looking at Titus and Philemon, two of the episodes written by the Apostle Paul. So we will take a quick look at these two books and I hope that you are able to watch this video and catch up on what we missed this past week. So let me just share my screen. So just to begin with we see that Titus was written by Paul. We see that right in the first verse of the first chapter saying Paul the servant of God and an Apostle of Jesus Christ. And then he continues to say that this is written to Titus my true son in our common faith. So we have the recipient there as well. Like we've talked about before these introductions to the letters are very important because in that description of Paul of who Paul is or what the work that he's doing is usually an important indication of what he wants to communicate through the letter. So if we look at Titus 1-1 right after he says who he is he says he's the Apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God's elect and then knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness in the hope of eternal life. So he is looking at increasing the faith of those who belong to the church and then knowledge of the truth with the goal that through that increase in faith and knowledge they are going to grow in godliness in the hope of eternal life in Christ. So this is what he's going to be talking a lot about in the letter in Titus and we'll see how he addresses this issue of holiness, of faith, of godliness and looking forward to Christ's return. So the letter was written sometime after 1st Timothy and it was written while Paul was on his way to a place called Nicopolis because we see him mentioned that place a little later on in Titus chapter 3 verse 12 written around AD 62 to 66. So just a little bit about who Titus is because we know that he's the recipient of this letter. Galatians 2 1 to 5 gives us an introduction to Titus. Paul is writing to the Galatians and he's telling them about some of the work that he did and he says after 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also we see Titus mentioned here. I went in response to a revelation and meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders. I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain yet not even Titus who was with me was compelled to be circumcised even though he was a Greek. This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. So here Paul is talking about Titus joining him and Barnabas when they went back to the council in Jerusalem to address this issue of Jews coming in and calling Gentile believers to follow some of the laws that were in the Hebrew scriptures and one of the specific things was circumcision and we also know from this passage in Galatians that Titus was a Gentile believer he was a Greek. So he says that even Titus was not compelled to be circumcised by the Jerusalem council. A few other things we know about Titus is that he was sent through the Corinthian church when we read in 2 Corinthians about this situation that arises with the church where there is a misunderstanding there is some conflict that arises with the Corinthian church when Paul addresses some people who have come against him who are not not very supportive of his leadership and some issues that have risen in the church he has to deal with it with a certain degree of severity and when he does that there is a little bit of tension that comes into his relationship with the Corinthian church and so he sends Titus to the church to check on how they are doing and how they are responding to the things that he had kind of addressed in the church and then Titus returns back to Paul to tell him that the church is continuing to walk in readings to what Paul had taught them and this brings Paul great joy and then Titus is sent back with the second letter to the Corinthians and to finish this collection that the church in Corinth was making for the Jerusalem church. So Titus was definitely someone that Paul trusted and Paul had entrusted him with some important tasks in the ministry with also being very much part of the work that Paul was doing. We see in Titus 1.5 that Paul leaves Titus in Crete which is an island and this is where Titus is believed to have been till he died so he stayed there and oversaw the church. We see in 2nd Timothy 4.10 that Titus did go to another province called Dalmatia but that seems to have been something temporary and then he goes back to the island of Crete where he continues to minister to the church there. So a little bit about Crete. We know a little bit of background about this place that people from Crete were viewed by outsiders as people who were lusting after wealth and this led to violence even in the island. Crete had a reputation for arrogance, deceptiveness, betrayal and greed and we see in Titus 1.12 where Paul quotes from one of their poets and he uses the word gluttony to describe them. Now gluttony here is used to talk about their love for pleasure rather than their love for knowledge. So to distinguish between where, what were they pursuing? They were pursuing things of the flesh, material things rather than things that would edify them intellectually and so this was something that was very much a part of the culture of the people who lived on the island of Crete. So a little bit on the background of Titus. Crete is first mentioned in Acts 2.11 and this is during the Pentecost. There are Jews and Gentile converts to Judaism who are in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit comes on the believers in the upper room and it's mentioned that there were Cretans there who heard the disciples declaring the wonders of God in their own town. So we don't know if there were people here who heard the gospel who came to faith and then took that back to the island. That is one possibility. We also know that Paul visited Crete on his journey to Rome to be imprisoned. So when he was being imprisoned, being sent into house arrest that first time, the ship harbours at the island of Crete but we have no record of Paul actually getting off and meeting people and sharing the gospel. So we don't know if at this time there was any work for establishing a church in Crete that happened but another possibility is that on his fourth missionary journey, Paul travels to Crete, shares the gospel, begins a church there and Titus is left behind to oversee the church. So we don't know at what point a church started in this island but these are the three instances that it could have begun. So we see the issue here in Titus that Paul is addressing is the issue of Jews who are coming in and trying to speak to the Cretan believers and make them follow some of the Jewish laws. So although the culture in Crete was completely different, these people were trying to bring in some of those laws and this is what Paul wants to address through the letter. So we see Paul addressing some of the opposition in right in the first chapter of Titus. I'll just read verses 10 to 11 of chapter 1 for us. It says for there are many rebellious people full of meaningless talk and deception especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach and that for the sake of dishonest gain. So here he mentions specific group which is the circumcision group. We know the circumcision group is obviously the Jews who were insisting on circumcision of new believers from a dental background and he says that they are teaching not only bringing in wrong teaching but also their intentions are wrong because they are trying to gain monetary benefits through bringing in this teaching. So there's they're seeking after dishonest gain and so this is why Paul wants to highlight these false teachers in the letter. So we see a lot of also what Paul talks about in 1st Timothy being repeated here. So it seems like that same teaching that was spreading in the congregation that Timothy was overseeing was also spreading to other congregations and so it was something that was catching on across different churches and needed to be addressed. So in Galatians we see the same group of people being talked about and it seems like they were continuing to oppose Paul's work. Not only is Paul writing to address false teaching that was coming into the church his other purpose for writing is to give Titus a sense of authorization to be a leader in the church, to be able to correct people, to be able to teach sound doctrine. So we just read from chapter 1 verse 5. It says the reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. So this is one aspect of why he's writing this letter is to give Titus that sense of authority that he is going to lead these churches and lead the elders that are appointed over the churches in Crete and then we continue to see in chapter 2 I'm just going to read verses 1, 7, 8 and 15 they are noted here on the slide. So verse 1 you however must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine in everything set them an example by doing what is good in your teaching show integrity seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. These then are the things you should teach encourage and rebuke with all authority do not let anyone despise you. So we see Paul telling Titus this is your this is your task it is to teach sound doctrine to live a life that also displays this gospel that we are preaching and then to be able to encourage the believers to also correct the believers with this authority that is yours I'm giving you this authority or I am entrusting you with this authority over the churches in Crete. So that is Paul's purpose of writing the letter. Some of the unique features of Titus of this epistle Titus addresses this issue of grace as well as good works so it emphasizes that we are saved by the grace of God that it is through the work of Christ that we are saved but at the same time just as James the episode written by the book written by James emphasizes good works Titus will also Paul and his letter to Titus will also emphasize good works as a way for believers to reveal whole crisis to be witnesses for the faith that we have we have accepted as our owner that we have converted to and we also see another unique features that Paul quotes from a Cretan poet. We see this also in Acts 1728 where Paul uses somebody from the culture to which he's ministering he uses one of their own writings to address things within the culture and so we see him doing that here as well in Titus 112. Comparing this letter with other books in second Corinthians that letter was taken by Titus to the church in Corinth here Titus is a recipient of the letter rather than a carrier of the letter is a recipient of the letter in first Timothy and Titus we see an emphasis on church organization first second Timothy and Titus are all past order letters first and second Timothy tend to fall into a more personal category of writing that is Titus is a little more official and then like James Titus also emphasizes good works as proof of the faith that we proclaim faith in Jesus Christ. The theme of Titus is the godly life of a believer and so we'll see keywords like good and good works mentioned a lot because that is displayed in the life of a believer who is truly pursuing godliness and then the key verse is in chapter 2 verses 11 to 14 I'll read that out for us for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope the appearing of the glory of our great god and savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself for people that are his very own eager to do what is good so just as we read this verse we can see so many things that Paul is addressing within the culture itself right like we read about the people there being people who were known for their deceptiveness who were known for being greedy for being people who pursued pleasure and so he's saying instead of those things Christ came to redeem us from wickedness to purify us to set us apart as a people who are godly and so he's calling them to live these to live such godly lives so that they can be a witness and to live the live such lives in in anticipation of Christ's return we'll just go through quickly the outline of this book so it begins like every other letter with a salutation greeting Titus and then he addresses certain things to do with elders so the first thing we read about was why he left Titus in this island and it was to choose elders for the different churches that had been established and then from there he goes on to say so what are the kinds of qualities we're looking for when we choose elders and that is in chapter one verse six to nine he talks about the family life of the of a believer the character that is displayed by them and then their ability to teach sound doctrine so these were three things that he says are important in choosing the right people to serve as elders over the church and why is sound doctrine important is where he continues in chapter one to talk about the false teachers who had come in and specifically mentions the circumcision group and Jewish myths as two threats to the teaching that he had taken to the church then he goes on in chapter two to address various groups in the congregation and the main goal of addressing these groups is to say that they have to be witnesses through their lives so the church should stand out from the culture around them and through their godly lives to be able to witness to the gospel just read verse 15 from chapter two it says encourage and rebuke with all authority do not let anyone despise you so this is part of that key verse that we read earlier in chapter three he goes on to talk about believers in general and he talks about being transformed by grace received through Christ being reborn to eternal life through the Holy Spirit and he addresses certain errors in in spiritual teaching that had come in from verses nine to eleven of chapter three so he says but avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law because these are unprofitable and useless again going back to that wrong teaching that had come in and he says don't waste your time on these things these things are not worth your time and they're not going to be fruitful for you he closes the letter with an invitation to Titus to visit him as he's going to Nicopolis and then with certain greetings from other people who were with him with that we come to the end of Titus and we can just take a quick look at Philemon. Philemon is a very short book it's just one chapter so we will take a quick look at it and with that we will end this video. So Philemon was a letter that was written to a specific person and it's a letter addressing a private issue that is relevant to that person it's quite different from Paul's other letters because all of his other letters have to do with the church and with ministry but this is an issue that is particular to Philemon and Paul is writing a letter to him to address that issue it's probably written from Rome while Paul was in prison and it was sent to Philemon who lived at Colossia. Now how do we know that Philemon lived at Colossia? If we look at the book of Colossians there are certain people who are named there who are also named in the book in the letter to Philemon and in Colossians those people are named as people who are from Colossia so we'll just read these three verses that I put down here verse 9 from chapter 4 of Colossians it says he is coming with Onesimus our faithful and dear brother who is one of you they will tell you everything that is happening here so Onesimus is from Colossia and we know that Onesimus is the main subject of the letter to Philemon he is a slave that belonged to Philemon and Paul is writing on his behalf to Philemon to address some issues that had come up. Verse 12 of chapter 4 in Colossians Paul says Epiphris who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus sends greetings and so this same Epiphris is also named in Philemon 1 23 and then in verse 17 of Colossians 4 Paul says tell Archipus see to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord meaning that Archipus was in Colossia and so he is giving them a specific message to pass on to Archipus and Archipus is also mentioned in Philemon 1 2 so considering all of these people who are named in this letter to Philemon and in Colossians as people who belong to the church at Colossia we conclude that Philemon was from Colossia so from verse 2 of the letter to Philemon we see that there was a church that was meeting in his home we also can gather from some of the things that are said in the letter that Philemon was someone who had considerable wealth we see that he was someone who was generous towards the church maybe not necessarily limited to monetary generosity because we see love for God's holy people mentioned partnership with Paul in the faith and then being someone who has refreshed the hearts of the Lord's people so Philemon was definitely contributing to the work of ministry in more ways than just by monetary support but it seems that this is one of the ways in which he was supporting the work we also see that Paul makes a request to Philemon to keep a place ready for him to stay with Philemon when he goes to Colossia and so that is another indication that he was someone who could who could host Paul during his time there we also just from the content of the letter know that the main issue that Paul is addressing here is the issue of a slave named Onesimus who belonged to Philemon and for Philemon to own a slave it would have required him to to pay a certain sum of money so he was able to also own the slave to to make that payment which is not a small amount so we also know that Paul never went to Colossia so it's possible that he met Philemon in Ephesus and Philemon came to faith during Paul's ministry there because in verse 19 of of Philemon Paul says you owe me a very self indicating that Philemon kind of owed his whole eternal that eternal life that he had received owed it to Paul's ministry so it's likely that this happened in Ephesus since Paul had never been to Colossia so what is it that Paul is addressing in the letter to Philemon we look a little bit at Onesimus and who he was and what it is that prompted Paul to write this letter to Philemon so Onesimus was a slave of Philemon who had run away it's possible that he had taken some of Philemon's money this could have happened in two ways one is that Philemon had sent him on an errand and had entrusted him with some money to carry out that errand and so while Onesimus was doing that work that Philemon had sent him out for he instead of going back to Philemon ran away and fled to Rome so he had Philemon's money with him and escaped to Rome another reason we can say that he had taken Philemon's money was because Philemon had paid to own Onesimus as his slave he had made a payment to have Onesimus under his authority and so Onesimus was of value to him of monetary value to him and the fact that Onesimus had run away was like he had actually stolen from Philemon but when Onesimus goes to Rome is where he meets Paul and comes to faith and becomes a disciple of Christ Paul could have chosen to keep Onesimus as a helper with him but because he didn't have Philemon's consent he's sending Onesimus back to Philemon and allowing Philemon that freedom to decide whether he's going to send him back to continue to assist Paul now as for Roman law this was required of Paul he could not hide a runaway slave that would be against the law of the of the Roman government and so Paul was following what was required of him under the law some background on slavery just so we understand why Paul had to write this letter slaves while they were recognized as people were also from an economic perspective they were considered as a property of their owners so they were not only just people who who had whatever relationships had a status in society all of that they were also people who belonged to who were completely under the authority of their owners there were two kinds of slaves that was the household slaves and the urban slaves Paul in his writings addresses only household slaves and so this issue of urban slavery is not addressed really by Paul household slaves could could eventually be freed from their masters they could work to earn enough to pay for their freedom and once they were free under Roman custom it was it was almost required of the one who had freed them their previous owners to support the these former slaves and help them become wealthy so it is it is possible that a slave could work for their freedom also slaves were economically socially and also in terms of being able to determine what their future would look like they had more privileges than the average free person in the Roman Empire so most of the people who were free were rural peasants they would serve as farmers on the estates of wealthy landowners so they had very little economic or social status and in terms of thinking about a different future for themselves that was very very limited for them because they were in a place of complete dependence on these landowners whereas slaves actually had a lot more potential to grow economically socially think about a different future for themselves we don't see slavery as something that was recognized as an issue in that society so in a time like that Paul's message is quite quite quite different he goes quite beyond the culture of that time to address this issue of a slave who has run away and to request the owner to show grace towards that person but not only to show them grace also to possibly release them from slavery so that he could join Paul in the ministry because he now is a believer so Paul what he's doing to even represent Onesimus who is in a position of complete dependence complete submission to a master but also has run away and actually would be subject to grave consequences for what he had done Paul is writing in a way that is quite counter through the culture counter cultural in that sense to talk about grace and to talk about even setting such a slave free so that is that's something to see Paul bringing in the faith and how you can address an issue that may be culturally acceptable but to talk about how does our faith a faith change the way we respond to a certain situation some features of this letter Philemon is the only completely private letter in scripture so all of the other letters are written to ministers to churches they are letters that circulated in the churches so they were written from a ministry perspective but this is to a person regarding a personal issue it also gives us a glimpse into the social life and relationships at this time so Paul is not socially at the same level as Philemon he doesn't share the same social status but his request comes from someone who has authority as an apostle as someone who had brought Philemon to faith and as a brother in Christ and he uses this relationship to plead on behalf of Onesimus the date and place of writing is while Paul was under house arrest and Rome's thought to be around 60 to 62 AD compared to other books we see in 1st Corinthians 12-13 this abolishing of differences within the church between Jews and Gentiles slave those who are slaves and those who are free all of those boundaries do not exist anymore in the body of Christ and so this letter is almost like a practical example of how those boundaries are to be broken down when Paul asks Philemon to receive Onesimus back as a brother in Christ as a beloved brother in Christ so Philemon along with Ephesians, Philippines, Colossians and 2nd Timothy is one of the epistles that was written while Paul was in prison so it's one of the prison epistles Philemon talks about how love is to be illustrated or love is to be shown within the body of Christ while Ephesians and Colossians show that Christians form the body of Christ and then in comparison Colossians except for Philemon and Athea everyone mentioned in this letter to Philemon is also mentioned in Colossians be that some of those names earlier so we see that the same people who are in this letter are also in Colossians except for Philemon and Athea the theme of Philemon is Paul's intercession or pleading for a runaway slave the key verse from 15b to 18 and just read that for us you might have him back forever no longer as a slave but better than a slave as a dear brother he is very dear to me but even dearer to you both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord so if you consider me a partner welcome him as you would welcome me if he has done you any wrong or owes you anything charge it to me so here Paul is willing to take personal ownership of Onesimus's mistakes and the consequences of those mistakes Paul is willing to take that on himself we will not look at an outline of this letter since it's just a single chapter and we've covered so much of the content as we've discussed the book itself but we'll just close with some spiritual lessons that we can learn from Paul's example in this letter one is to sympathize with those who are in positions of disadvantage so with the lowly here Paul didn't have to take on this as his responsibility but he stands on behalf of Onesimus using on the power the authority the friendship the relationship that exists with filament to be able to to help Onesimus out in a difficult situation he we also see that the law obedience to the law is something that is not discarded as unimportant rather it is upheld the law is upheld where Onesimus must return to filament and Paul must send him back as someone who is aware of Onesimus's where Onesimus is he doesn't try to hide him rather he's encouraging Onesimus to go back to filament and then the third is that in this relationship of brotherhood and sisterhood in Christ all social and class distinctions that may have existed in the cultures we come from are broken down are removed within the body of Christ that is the ideal we pursue that we should come to a place of equality of respect mutual respect and honor towards one another as brothers and sisters in Christ we close here thank you for watching and thank you for for allowing me to do this video to catch up on what we missed I trust that you've been blessed through these two books and I didn't I didn't pray right at the beginning of class so I'll close us in prayer and then we can end today's class father we just thank you thank you for these letters that written by paul thank you lord that they were inspired by your holy spirit thank you father for speaking to us through these letters for teaching us who you are teaching us the things that you value lord that you value godly lives you value lives that are completely surrendered you lord that you value all people slave of free no matter what the background is lord you invite us to follow you and you place us on equal grounding with each other lord father we just pray that what we have discussed today what we have looked at in your word would take root in our hearts lord that it would be something that addresses our own ways of thinking our own ways of seeing the world lord that it would bring the transformation that you would desire to see in us we thank you for this time lord in jesus name we pray amen thank you all and we continue from here to go on to the rest of the books and letters that we have and continue in our new testament survey thank you