We know little more of Titus than the above mentioned facts. He evidently visited

Crete with Paul after his liberation and was left there to `set in order the things that are

wanting, and ordain elders in every city' (Titus 1: 5). He is bidden to come to the Apostle

(After the arrival of Artemas or Tychicus--3: 12). Paul had decided to spend the winter

at Nicopolis and Titus is exhorted to join him there. The next reference is in Paul's last

epistle, II Timothy.  He has now been apprehended the second time from which he

realizes there will be no deliverance and is prepared to give his life for his Saviour and

Lord very shortly (II Tim. 4: 6). Only Luke is with him (II Tim. 4: 11). Demas has

forsaken him, Crescens had gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia (verse 10). This is the last

reference to Titus in the Scriptures. We cannot help noticing that he is mentioned and

Crescens in the same breath almost as forsaking Demas. One is left wondering. Does

this mean that Titus had also manifested the same spirit as Demas? Nothing definite is

said, only the context is not an encouraging one. We can only hope he made the journey

to Dalmatia at the advice of the Apostle, although Paul does not state this to be the case.

We may now ask what Christian witness existed in Crete at this time. We know from

Josephus that it abounded with Jews of wealth and influence (Ant. 17:12,1). But how did

the gospel reach there? In Acts 2: 11 Cretans are named among those who heard the

utterance of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. It is more than likely that the Cretan

churches owed their origin to the witness of those people who brought back a knowledge

of salvation with them.

Two things remain to be noticed, the condition of the churches and the character of the

Cretans in general. From the epistle it is evident that false teachers had crept in and were

putting forward doctrines which were essentially antichristian. There is much that is

parallel between I Timothy and Titus, for they had more or less the same errors to face.

From the start Satan has never left the truth unchallenged. It is all a part of the great

conflict of the ages and will not cease until the mystery of iniquity has been revealed and

dealt with by the glorious Return of Christ to the earth and Satan is bound and cast into

the abyss. In our day we must expect opposition to the proclamation of the Truth of a

rightly divided Word and the sacred deposit committed to our charge. This opposition is

more likely to come from within than from without, and we must not be unprepared to

meet it.

Concerning the Cretans themselves, Paul apparently quotes one of their own poets,

Epimenides who lived in the 6th century B.100: "Always liars and beasts are the Cretans

and inwardly sluggish" (1: 12). So infamous were some of them for their habitual

practice of falsehood that the Greek word kretizein, to act like a Cretan, was a proverbial

term for telling a lie.

What unlikely and difficult material for the grace of God to work upon! Yet this but

magnifies that grace all the more, reminding us that God has not picked the best, rather

sometimes He has apparently chosen the worst to lavish His love and mercy upon with

the object that He may have all the glory at the end. "God hath chosen the foolish things

. . . . . the weak things . . . . . the base things and things which are despised . . . . . that no

flesh should glory in His Presence" (I Cor. 1: 27-29).