The Letters to Timothy and Titus

By Robert W. Yarbrough

The Pastoral Letters—1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus—have made an enduring contribution to understanding the role of pastors in the church. With a spirited devotion to the text, Robert Yarbrough helps unlock the meaning of these short but rich letters in this commentary.

In keeping with the character of Pillar New Testament Commentary volumes, The Letters to Timothy and Titus offers a straightforward reading of these texts. Their primary concerns—God, salvation, and the pastoral task—remain central to Yarbrough’s thorough and comprehensive exegesis. Engaging with the best scholarship and resources, Yarbrough shows how these letters are as relevant today as they were to the early Christians. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Release date: Sep 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781467450690

Robert W. Yarbrough

Bob Yarbrough (PhD, University of Aberdeen, Scotland) is professor of New Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. He was previously professor of New Testament and department chair at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author or coauthor of several books and is active in pastoral training in Africa.

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2013.

Introduction

I. THE PASTORAL HERITAGE AND THE PASTORAL EPISTLES: EIGHT THESES

Serious readers of the Pastoral Epistles (hereafter PE) often study them for insight into the pastoral task. Each of the three PE presents itself as counsel to church leaders serving in a pastoral or pastoral oversight capacity. In each, a ‘shepherd’ writes to ‘shepherds’ and addresses them squarely in their ecclesial shepherd capacity.¹ But what is a pastor? What exactly does Paul (authorship and other questions of introduction will be discussed below) hope to encourage in his original readers? One commentator notes, The Pastorals contain valuable counsel not found elsewhere in the New Testament on how to administer and teach in the church.²

While the pastoral task varies with times, locations, confessions, persons, and other variables, that same commentator, Thomas Oden (1931–2016), has helpfully distilled eight conclusions on the care of souls in what he calls the classical pastoral literature.³ His observations are all the more trenchant in light of his personal story,⁴ which in this respect mirrors that of the apostle Paul. Oden’s academic convictions and religious views were at odds with Scripture and historic Christian teaching until well into his teaching career. But then he had a drastic change of heart. Like Paul, he realized he was resisting and in fact opposing the truth as revealed by the very God he claimed to serve. He began to rethink and restudy the primary sources of Christian testimony through the centuries, beginning with Scripture and extending into the church fathers and beyond. With the aid of this altered vision, Oden surveyed church history to rethink the rudiments of pastoral care.

The eight rubrics at which Oden arrived⁵ are brought into dialogue below with the PE as a means of giving contour to what this commentary finds in the PE and what the PE, for their part, have contributed over the centuries (and still offer today) in terms of the instruction and exhortation of pastoral leaders and workers.⁶ Of course pastors in classical pastoral ministry have drawn from the whole of the Bible, not just or even primarily the PE. And the PE do not address all eight of Oden’s conclusions with equal thoroughness. Moreover, as will be argued below, the PE are less about ministry than they are about God himself and Christ, who made and makes him known. There are points of difference and tensions between Paul’s own original convictions and testimony in the PE, the initial receptions of the PE by Timothy at Ephesus and Titus on Crete, and the appropriation of those writings in subsequent eras and locales of ecclesial history. Still, Oden’s conclusions furnish a structure for thinking of the pastoral heritage in a variegated yet unified manner and for identifying ways the PE interface with it, whether by way of confirmation or by way of contrast. Oden’s rubrics also serve to remind of the breadth of the duties entrusted to pastors and pastoral workers. These responsibilities involve far more than the most obvious and visible action of presiding over a weekly public meeting and preaching.

1. Pastors owe a duty not only to care for the flock, but to care for themselves . . . in the sense of feeding and nurturing one’s own soul. Paul’s letters to Timothy are explicit that Timothy must give attention to his own beliefs and behaviors. Watch your life and doctrine closely, Paul writes. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers (1 Tim 4:16).⁷ Desultory or occasional close attention is insufficient: Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress (1 Tim 4:15). Stagnation or a poor example is to be avoided. Other examples of Paul’s concern that Timothy not be oblivious to his own needs and duties are abundant:

Train yourself to be godly. (1 Tim 4:7)

Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. (1 Tim 4:13)

Keep yourself pure. (1 Tim 5:22)

Present yourself to God as one approved. (2 Tim 2:15)

Paul’s relationship with Titus as reflected in the epistle to him is not as transparently personal as his tie with Timothy. There could be many reasons for this difference, from Paul’s mood when he wrote, to the chemistry between Paul and Timothy that may not have been present vis-à-vis Titus at the times of composition of the respective letters, to Paul’s ties with Lois and Eunice (2 Tim 1:5), which may have created a soft spot in his heart for their grandson and son Timothy, to the brevity (for whatever reason) of Paul’s letter to Titus compared with the pair of canonical letters to Timothy, to Titus’s strength of character—perhaps he was a more seasoned and stable Pauline coworker and did not attract or need the seemingly more personally targeted counsel that 1–2 Timothy contain.

Still, at the center of Titus is Paul’s directive, In everything set [the young men] an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned (2:7–8). Titus is Paul’s true son (1:4), in whom Paul placed great confidence to identify leaders and defend the faith in a challenging environment (ch. 1), to admonish the faithful in view of Christ’s appearing (ch. 2), and to stress high and holy truths so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good (3:8). Paul assumed that Titus fully shared and deeply understood the heart and soul of Paul’s gospel conviction and missiological passion. If he expends fewer words urging care for himself than he wrote to Timothy, it is probably not because he felt this was unimportant for Titus but because he did not see in Titus the same vacillation and angst-unto-tears (see 2 Tim 1:4) that he observed in Timothy. Or perhaps conditions on Crete were not tempting Titus to cut and run like Timothy may have felt pressured to do at Ephesus (1 Tim 1:3). Paul’s letter itself is a means for Titus to care for himself in the sense of feeding and nurturing his own soul. It was no doubt avidly pored over by Titus to extract from it all he could for that purpose—and perhaps commended, directly or indirectly, to congregations he oversaw as well.

Support glimpsed in the PE for Oden’s call for pastoral self-care, however, should not overshadow a countervailing truth: Paul did not practice or envision a pastoral self-understanding that may be common in a Western setting saturated in what has been called expressive individualism.⁸ Yes, Titus and Timothy should be self-aware before God, exercising vocational, spiritual, and moral responsibility. But this self-awareness does not mean self-indulgence, much less self-centeredness, both acute temptations in a sensual and narcissistic age. The pastoral role as Paul describes it is not a safe space for therapeutic self-actualization but a demanding and sometimes bruising vocation. Oden’s feeding and nurturing one’s own soul should be seen in the light of Paul’s example of often forgoing his own rights, becoming a servant of all, exercising studied self-control, and subjugating his own body lest selfish interests cancel the integrity of his own preaching (1 Cor 9:15, 19, 25–27; see his appeal to Timothy in 2 Tim 2:3: Share [with Paul] in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus).

2. Pastoral care occurs not only in individuated conversation but also through preaching, a public task intrinsic to the care of souls. The PE may be thought of as a form of individuated conversation from Paul to a pair of coworkers. They may be appreciated as such. But they reflect the existence and aim at the refinement of a community brought into being and sustained by kerygmatic⁹ and didactic¹⁰ proclamation.

The elaborate opening verses of Titus state programmatically that God’s eternal redemptive promises were announced through Paul’s preaching; they were at his appointed season . . . brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior (1:3). The ecclesial activity Titus oversees will in part be a continuation of that kerygmatic ministry. This focus on preaching is confirmed by how the précis of Titus’s duties to members of the church (ch. 2) is bookended by what he is to speak (see 2:1, 15; NIV teach, Gk. lalei, say, speak). This speaking was not limited to a formal activity called preaching, but preaching was surely a primary means of Titus achieving the goals Paul sets for him.

Paul summarizes his aims for Timothy with the command that he preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching (2 Tim 4:2). These commands and counsel not only prescribe preaching but describe its optimal frequency (continuous), key intents (reproof, rebuke, and exhortation), and delivery requirements (through patience and instruction). Timothy had grown up hearing preaching in the synagogue. He had observed Paul and others preaching and had engaged in preaching for years. Neither epistle to Timothy is or should be expected to constitute a homiletics guide. But Christian assemblies were led by those whose work is preaching and teaching (1 Tim 5:17). Like the Shema, which calls God’s people to hear (Deut 6:4), Paul affirms that saving faith arises from listening to a word proclaimed (Rom 10:17; Gal 3:2, 5). Accordingly, Paul writes, Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching (1 Tim 4:13). Even if the PE are not a homiletics guide, they are certainly a motivational refresher in the imperative and substance of sound and sustainable pastoral proclamation.

3. Soul care occurs within a community whose primary corporate act is the praise of God’s care. This worshiping body provides the necessary matrix for individuals to receive the Christian nurture, encouragement, and instruction they require. Since the PE are not a book of church order, they do not prescribe formal corporate activities (which surely became a fixture in the Pauline churches) as does, for example, the Didache, with its instructions on baptism (ch. 7), fasting (ch. 8), the Eucharist (ch. 9), formal prayers of thanksgiving (ch. 10), and assembly for worship (ch. 14). Still, the PE are suffused with a spirit of praise, its close cousin gratitude, also with pastoral care and worship, all with a view toward building up Christ’s body.

The second person plural (not sing.) closing of all three PE is a reminder that, even in writing to individuals, Paul has the whole church in mind (1 Tim 6:21; 2 Tim 4:22; Titus 3:15). Paul’s overt doxologies (1 Tim 1:17; 6:16; 2 Tim 4:18) give formal expression to the reverent corporate regard for God intrinsic to the early church’s roots in the synagogue (where praise in the form of the Psalms was sung) and in the Scriptures, hallowed among Jesus and his followers. That the worshiping community, the church, is at the core of Paul’s PE counsel is clear from references to ekklēsia (congregation, fellowship, church) in 1 Timothy (see 3:5, 15; 5:16).¹¹ When Paul writes Titus to appoint elders in every town (1:5), this action is for leadership in Christian assemblies.

In short, the gospel mandate embraced by Paul with missionary zeal¹² translated into an ecclesial commission for those building on the foundation Paul established (see 1 Cor 3:10). The PE, while written to individuals, are written for the flourishing of churches. Believers who benefit most from the PE are those who accept and develop their identity not only as individual elements (such as sodium, a highly reactive metal, or chlorine, a toxic gas in high concentrations) but as a united compound (such as sodium chloride, or common table salt).

4. Soul care is mediated powerfully through sacramental actions, the first of which is the ministry of beginnings—baptism. Of Oden’s eight conclusions pertaining to classical pastoral literature and care, this is one of two with marginal explicit grounding in the PE. Adolf Schlatter wrote that one of the most important themes of church-historical study is the difference between biblical and ecclesial Christianity.¹³ It is possible that sacramental convictions that develop in church history do not always find secure grounding in early church doctrine and practice.

Yet, in broad terms the PE document a community unquestionably defined in part by acts such as baptism, which was in any case prescribed by Jesus (Matt 28:19–20) and practiced in the early church (mentioned over two dozen times in Acts). Paul was baptized (Acts 9:18). Timothy as a disciple (Acts 16:1) can be assumed to have been baptized, along with others who had become disciples in Lystra (Acts ¹⁴:30; Paul may refer to the beginnings of Timothy’s faith in 1 Tim 1:18; 2 Tim 1:6). There would not have been clusters of Christians in Ephesus (Timothy’s domain) or Crete (Titus’s field of labor) had people not believed the gospel and been baptized.14 Whether this act was sacramental depends on definitions and need not be debated here. What can be affirmed is that the kinds of understandings and practices addressed in the Didache (see Oden’s thesis 3 above), which included baptism and other ritual acts, can be attested in New Testament documents as a whole and were surely factors, in some form or other, in the Ephesian and Cretan churches. Pastors reading the PE today will often find at least indirect insight into their ecclesial practices such as baptism, the theology that undergirds it, and the spirituality and ethical responses that characterize the baptized life. Scholarly scrutiny of baptism in the early Christian era references the PE at over thirty places.¹⁵

The PE also offer salutary correction to later church custom. For example, when the church becomes so preoccupied with itself that it loses Pauline theocentricity (see sec. II. below), or when its own concerns and autonomy supplant the authority of Christ in Scripture, whom the church purports to confess,¹⁶ the PE serve to call the church back to its roots, possibly via repentance and behavioral or doctrinal change.

5. The quintessential Christian pastoral act is one of feeding: eating and drinking, receiving spiritual nourishment for our souls. Oden continues: No pastoral act is more central to the care of souls than the Supper where the resurrected Christ is present at table with the community. Confession is intrinsically connected with holy communion.¹⁷

Like baptism (see rubric 4), the formal administration of bread and cup associated with 1 Cor 11:17–34 and Gospel parallels is not attested in the PE. Just as other Pauline writings except for 1 Corinthians are virtually silent on the practice, so the PE do not address it. But also as in the case of baptism, it can be assumed that believers celebrated the Lord’s death until he comes (1 Cor 11:26) through a regular observance that came to be termed an ordinance or sacrament. By way of analogy, it may be assumed that prayer was a regular activity under Timothy’s and Titus’s leadership, though it is barely mentioned in the PE (see 1 Tim 2:1–2, 8; 4:5; 5:5). Singing and praise, surely fixtures in congregational meetings, are likewise not mentioned. The PE take up salient points of concern and conflict; there is no need to rehearse settled custom.

While it would be fruitless to try to wring evidence of explicit baptismal or communion practice out of the PE, it is reasonable to observe that the PE do contribute to a Christocentric orientation (see sec. IV below) that gives impetus to the varying communion practices found in later churches. Ancient churches gathered in Christ’s name, reaffirmed his lordship under prophetic or pastoral proclamation including exposition of the Scriptures, and sealed reception of the preached word by ingesting the communion elements (likely bread and drink from a common meal at first, with an eventual shift to a format less susceptible to abuse, possibly in light of apostolic warning; see 1 Cor 11:20–22, 33–34; cf. Jude 12) that called Christ to mind and in some understandings mediated his grace. The PE capture the dynamics of first-generation believers founding communities in which baptismal and communion practices began to establish themselves and take on definition (variously parsed subsequently).

Oden’s mention of penitential confession is also not foreign to the PE, as Paul’s frequent reference to aberrant beliefs and actions are implicit calls for acknowledgment of wrongdoing and invitations for reform. Paul frankly acknowledged his own grave transgression (1 Tim 1:12–16; cf. Titus 3:3). Pastors must have assumed some role in overseeing the progress of their members in such matters of nurture and even discipline (a ubiquitous concern in the PE) requiring the acknowledgment of and turning (repentance) from sin.

6. The pastor is a teacher of the soul, educating the soul toward behavioral excellence. . . . If the care of souls is the pedagogy of the inner life, then the pastor must develop the art of teaching. Two concerns are foremost in this statement: behavior and teaching. As for behavior, Titus contains multiple exhortations for believers to perform good works (e.g., 2:7, 14; 3:14). The letters to Timothy are studded with imperatives (over ninety total) that call for action, either by Timothy or his hearers or both. Pastors longing for behavioral change in their own lives and among their parishioners will find the PE to be richly suggestive for both motives and outcomes.

As for the pastoral task of explaining and instilling the doctrines of the Christian faith, the importance of this concern is indicated by nearly three dozen occurrences of words such as teach, teacher, or teaching in the PE. In the early church overall, pastors were shepherds of God’s flock (1 Pet 5:2; cf. Acts 20:28) under the Chief Shepherd (1 Pet 5:4; cf. Heb 13:20; 1 Pet 2:25; Rev 7:17), who distinguished himself in his earthly course not least by teaching. He founded a community of disciples, which means pupils, learners. Such emphasis on instruction does not make the church an academy, but it does make serious followers of Christ fervent hearers and ready thinkers, grateful for pastoral leaders who can expand their horizons in understanding the Scriptures and all they convey about God, the world, and the Christian mandate. Pastors also help provide structures in which God’s people can live out what they come to understand, often gaining wisdom from pastoral example.

In the PE, the concern for pedagogy that instructs the mind and thereby nourishes the soul is epitomized by some nine references to sound or healthy teaching, doctrine, or faith (1 Tim 1:10; 6:3; 2 Tim 1:13; 4:3; Titus 1:9, 13; 2:1, 2, 8; see more on sound doctrine in sec. IX.D below). Perhaps no other Pauline letters furnish more direct and succinct instruction for why and what pastors must teach if they wish to remain faithful to the New Testament’s dominical (i.e., having to do with Jesus the dominus / kyrios / Lord) and apostolic charge to them.

7. "The care of souls occurs not only individualistically, but extends to institutional nurture and accountability, and beyond the parameters of the congregation to the nurture of community in the parish, the civil sphere, the polis, and ultimately to the world." This conclusion, like the previous one, is also twofold: pertaining to the nurture and accountability of the church, and then pertaining to the interface between church and its social nexus, both local and extended.

Regarding the nurture and accountability of the church beyond the level of individuals, the PE deal with these issues whenever they promote love, agapē. This Greek word occurs ten times in the PE, testifying to an attribute of God that, when he bestows it on humans through faith in Christ, becomes a powerful glue for mutual compassion, social adhesion, self-sacrifice for the sake of others, and missional outreach. In 1 Timothy this divinely given love was poured out on Paul at his conversion (1:14). It is a means of grace for women (2:15). It is an imperative for Timothy (4:12; 6:11). A pastor who embraces and catalyzes such love in a congregation will go far toward extending the nurture and accountability it creates. This result will come about, in part, through the repudiation of the love of money among leaders (3:3) and congregants (6:10) alike, along with other idolatries.

In 2 Timothy, love is a gift of the Spirit, along with power and self-discipline, that makes boldness in ministry possible (1:7). Along with faith, it enables appropriation of apostolic teaching (1:13). Through pursuing it, the evil desires of youth can be circumvented (2:22). Without divine love, people will be lovers of themselves and lovers of money, a recipe for community dysfunction (3:2). The absence or distortion of love (3:3) is of a piece with persons becoming lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (3:4), a fatal passion if such a mentality engulfs a congregation, with Demas serving as a possible example: his love became set on this world (4:10). Paul’s model over decades previous was quite different and love-affirming (3:10).

Love is a factor in Titus, too. It appeared in Christ’s coming (3:4) and is therefore available through faith to elders (1:8) and those under their care (2:2, 4).

Across the PE, the nurture and accountability that are intended to flourish in the Ephesian and Cretan congregations are promoted by the pastoral administration of God’s gift of love, along with rejection and correction of its subversion by unholy blandishments.

Regarding the nurture of community beyond the parameters of the congregation, the PE, by shaping community-minded enclaves at the microcosmic level, condition persons to display social openness and interactive potential beyond the confines of church geography and relationships. To be closed to the wider world by a sense of indifference, hostility, or superiority is proscribed; there should be cooperation with rulers and authorities and graciousness toward all (Titus 3:1–2). Prayer in the church should be offered for all people, including possibly hostile government authorities (1 Tim 2:1–2), for the God of the church wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4). God is not just savior in the church; he is the Savior of all people (4:10), who need to be called to faith by those who already possess it. Such observations serve as de facto prods to missionary outreach.

The horizons of compassion in the churches implied in the PE render them not faith ghettoes but staging points for lives of integrity that will be a positive social force to uplift family, local community, and sociopolitical networks beyond. Yet, they will not merely aid and abet conditions outside the church but often will challenge them, as when slaves are exhorted to behavior that will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive (Titus 2:10; cf. 1 Tim 6:1–2). Locales populated with believers from all walks of life, if they are possessed of the marks of grace limned in the PE, will tend to make social spheres at all levels more reflective of God’s kindness and love (Titus 3:4). This positive projection does not preclude the likelihood that, because of social resistance, leaders and laity alike will suffer in the process (2 Tim 3:12). What God approves and promotes in the church, and sanctions as a centrifugal activity (such as mission, attempts at social reform, and even simple benevolences such as food distribution and medical care), may well be condemned, opposed, and even criminalized by those hostile to Christian expression, as can be observed around the world currently.¹⁸

8. Soul care requires the support of the laity through voluntary gifts grounded in biblical imperatives, rather than on a fee-for-service basis. . . . When pastoral abuses occur, they require rigorous inquiry which presumes innocence and seeks procedures for fair hearing and due process. This conclusion addresses, first, the issue of mercenary motivation. The PE present a pastoral model of freedom from the love of money (1 Tim 3:3), which in turn produces people encouraged to practice generosity (1 Tim 6:17–19) and selfless care for those in real need among them such as widows (1 Tim 5). Pastors and people alike are content with what God has granted them (1 Tim 6:6–8), a lesson learned earlier by Paul himself (Phil 4:11–12) and dramatized by his self-support and refusal to receive funds from most churches in most settings (see Acts ²⁰:33–35; 1 Cor 9:12; 2 Cor 2:17; 7:2; 11:9; 12:14–17; 1 Thess 2:5).

Then there is the issue of church discipline, particularly of its leaders. The PE recognize how often those in the church go astray, including those in oversight roles. Hymenaeus and Alexander could be examples (1 Tim 1:20; cf. 2 Tim 2:16–18). Paul’s appeals to Timothy to stay on the straight and narrow may be expressions of apprehension that his loyalty to the faith could be compromised amid the pressures he faced. Paul gives graphic directions for the reward but also reproof of church elders (1 Tim 5:17–25). Even if Titus’s ministry is scoffed at (Titus 2:15), he is to discern and, after due admonition, excommunicate a person making trouble in the church (3:10–11).

More could be said about the interface of the PE with Oden’s conclusions regarding the care of souls in the classical pastoral literature. The above should suffice to remind of numerous ties, along with some dislocations, between the PE of the earliest Christian generations and the pastoral mandate in subsequent eras, as it has been variously understood and practiced. Whatever its envisioned form, that mandate is the motivation that drives many to the PE to find resources for pastoral labor in its myriad manifestations in the twenty-first century. This is a time seeing the effects and feeling the demands of unprecedented numerical growth in the church worldwide.¹⁹ The need for wise and godly pastors has not decreased since Paul’s time—quite the contrary. The counsel of the PE along the lines sketched above (and others too) is needed, then, like never before.

II. HISTORY, EXEGESIS, AND THEOLOGY: THE PRIMACY OF GOD IN THE PE

The PE urge pastoral leaders named Timothy in the city of Ephesus and Titus on the island of Crete to commend and defend the Christian faith in congregations over which they have oversight. While each of the three letters reflects a historical setting, that setting is widely disputed. And since over the last few generations (with roots going back to ca. 1800) a majority of scholarly interpreters reject Paul’s authorship of the PE, any proposed historical setting is necessarily speculative. For if we know few details of the scenario proposed in patristic sources,20 in which Paul is released from his first Roman imprisonment and pens the PE before (or during: 2 Tim) a second and final imprisonment prior to his martyrdom, we have no concrete knowledge at all of pseudo-Pauline persons or locations making up Pauline schools to which many seek to attribute the PE, under the assumption that Paul did not write them. Nor, in this scenario, is it clear just who may have been addressed. Both author and audience are, according to the consensus, fictive.²¹ Jens Herzer has pointed out the quandary this poses:²² many scholars are agreed that the PE (1) are rightly viewed as a homogeneous trio of documents²³ that (2) were not written by the apostle Paul. But there is no consensus among major scholarly commentaries (particularly in German) regarding a positive historical or geographic location for either the composition of the PE or their reception.²⁴

This commentary will take Paul to have been the author of the PE (see sec. X.B below). Throughout, I seek to avoid the situation described by Linda Belleville in which theological analysis of the Pastoral Epistles . . . has suffered from a one-sided emphasis on the question of authenticity.²⁵ She notes that some major recent commentaries—she mentions those by Mounce, Knight, Witherington, and Marshall with Towner—devote inordinate attention to the authorship question. Others (rejecting Paul’s authorship) place the PE a generation or more after Paul’s death and focus on the ecclesial or social setting of the PE. In such presentations, statements about Christ are just traditional formulations, and the PE as a whole are about social organization. They describe the times of the AF, not the early church. She mentions commentaries in English by Dibelius and Conzelmann, Easton, Hanson, Oden, and Scott, and a number of others in German by Brox, Hasler, Merkel, Oberlinner, and Roloff that follow these trends. Belleville concludes, While most commentaries note that Christology in some form is central to the Pastorals, there is little detailed attention given to it (though she gives some credit to commentaries by Marshall and Towner on this score).²⁶

Belleville, however, could have extended her worthwhile point. The main concern of the PE, if what the author mentions most frequently and foundationally is any indication, is not simply Christ (though he is undoubtedly central) but more broadly God. This is not to dispute the obvious fact that throughout church history, going back at least to the Muratorian Fragment (latter half of second century), the PE were seen as germane to church organization and practice: [Paul also wrote] out of affection and love one [letter] to Philemon, one to Titus, and two to Timothy; and these are held sacred in the esteem of the Church catholic for the regulation of ecclesiastical discipline.²⁷ This perception of the PE is evident in other patristic-era sources, including Ambrosiaster, Cassiodorus, Chrysostom, Didymus, John of Damascus, Pelagius, and Theodoret.²⁸ But another function was intertwined with it: the refutation of aberrant teaching and practice by the presentation of what is true and good. That is, we must give attention to what the PE say about divine truth—starting with God himself—as revealed in Scripture. Such truth is the focus of the PE themselves, as the accompanying table illustrates. It will be seen that God (or the Son of God) is far and away the major point of focus and assertion in the PE. And many sentences talk about God (or Christ) without using a name for him: instead there is (in English translation) a pronoun.

Table 1. Significant Greek words in the PE²⁹

Preponderance of God-language does not mean that other concerns are not also important. Bernhard Mutschler, for example, has thoroughly investigated faith and believing in the PE.³⁰ A collection of essays on Paul’s theology in relation to the PE treats topics such as ecclesiology, ethics, mission, salvation, and stewardship in the PE.³¹ Still, a theological approach to the PE corpus, with theos (God) at the center, is justified, since, unlike many modern theologians who do not think in terms of a God outside of the created universe who materially affects matters within it, including history,³² Paul did believe in such a God. It is fair to say that the language in his epistles depicts him as enthralled with this Being to whom, he argued, he personally owed infinitely much (see, e.g., 1 Tim 1:12–17), and who in his view holds the world’s only ultimate hope in his hands.

It is accordingly reasonable to regard theology, the substance of Christian faith and its proper exercise, as at least as justifiable a dominant focus in studying the PE as the rarified social or speculative historical reconstructions that are common. The theology of the New Testament, including the convictions articulated in the PE, is "no mere epiphenomenon superimposed upon history (as Geschichte), but is part of the chain of cause and effect which prompted all the characters in the story, Jesus too."³³ PE theology and first-century history intertwine, despite the strong (and largely dominant) trend in Western historiography in recent centuries to divorce the two.³⁴ An introduction to detailed commentary on these epistles does well to characterize and reflect on their theological representations, since this is a primary concern of the documents themselves (see table 1 above).

But what is Christian faith? As a clear and widespread articulation of core Christian belief across cultures and communions through the centuries, it is hard to improve on the so-called Apostles’ Creed. An analysis of the PE using this historic confession of faith as a heuristic aid will afford a useful summary of the overarching content of the PE in anticipation of additional introductory discussion and verse-by-verse commentary later on.

III. GOD THE FATHER IN THE PE

Affirming Trinitarian understanding of God (not absent from earlier Pauline letters: see 2 Cor 13:13),³⁵ the Apostles’ Creed epitomizes biblical teaching in three statements. The first: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.³⁶

Every chapter of the PE contains explicit reference to God (theos). In fact, theos appears more frequently than any other noun in the PE: twenty-two times in 1 Timothy and thirteen times each in 2 Timothy and Titus. This God is called Father (patēr) in the opening of all three epistles (1 Tim 1:2; 2 Tim 1:2; Titus 1:4). He is Almighty (sovereign, ruler over all) in that he is the eschatological righteous Judge (2 Tim 4:8) and the eternal King (1 Tim 1:17; 6:15) over a kingdom (2 Tim 4:1, 18)³⁷ that encompasses heaven and earth and extends, where humans are concerned, even to conferral of eternal life (Titus 1:2; 3:7). His identity as Creator, implicit in any reference to God by a writer such as Paul, who so ubiquitously affirms the God revealed in the Old Testament, is highlighted particularly in 1 Timothy.

A. God the Father in 1 Timothy

In 1 Timothy it is God whose command made Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus (1:1). This same God is our Savior (1:1; also 2:3; 4:10). Along with Christ Jesus our Lord, he is the source of the grace, mercy and peace (1:2) Paul wishes for Timothy. God exercises management (see 1:4: oikonomia) over a household (oikos), which is the church (3:15; cf. 3:5). Paul blesses this God because of the glorious gospel he entrusted to Paul (1:11). Paul accords God honor and glory for ever and ever because he is the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God (1:17). In the polytheistic world of the Pauline Gentile churches, the God of whom Paul speaks is the starkly singular God well known from Old Testament narrative (e.g., Gen 1) and commandment (e.g., Exod 20:3: You shall have no other gods before me). In Paul’s own words, There is one God (1 Tim 2:5).

This God is the creator who made all things, among them marriage and food, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth (4:3). God gives life to all things that have it (6:13). Admittedly Paul views lives filled with the word of God and prayer (4:5) as integral to God-honoring enjoyment of creation’s bounty.

God is not a philosophical postulate or category of human consciousness or self-projection but the living God, upon whom believers rightly set their hope (4:10; 5:5). The rich in particular are urged to vest all hope in God and not their earthly wealth (6:17). God takes pleasure and personal interest in each individual of his household, the rich and the poor, as the example of families who care for their widows shows (5:4). He is the stern transcendent witness over Paul’s admonitions to Timothy as Paul addresses his young charge in the sight of God (5:21; also 6:13). He has a reputation (name), a magnificent and incomparable identity, that is to be reverenced (6:1), especially by a pastoral leader such as Timothy, whom Paul terms a man of God (6:11: anthrōpos theou; see also 2 Tim 3:17), a designation reserved in the Old Testament for figures such as Moses (Deut 33:1), Samuel (1 Sam 9:7, 14), David (Neh 12:24), and other seers and prophets. This phrase is never used elsewhere in the New Testament, throwing into sharp relief the theocentric existence Paul writes to confirm and promote in Timothy.

God is central in 1 Timothy and other PE in passages that do not actually use the word God. For example, the theological climax of 1 Timothy is Paul’s concluding doxological statement preceded by mention of Christ’s return (6:14), which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen (6:15–16). The word God does not appear here in the Greek text but is rightly and necessarily present in English translation, since God is implied as the subject of the Greek verbs.

B. God the Father in 2 Timothy

God is no less prominent in 2 Timothy. Explicit references to God in this letter are concentrated in the opening verses. Paul is an apostle by the will of God (1:1), who is the source of the grace, mercy and peace that Paul affirms for Timothy (1:2). Paul thanks God (1:3) for Timothy and affirms the gift Timothy received from God (1:6). God gifts all believers with a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline (1:7) and can enable Timothy to join with Paul in suffering, by the power of God (1:8).

God has sent forth a saving word that is not chained (2:9) and that sets the agenda and furnishes the resources for Paul’s perseverance as he serves even to the point of being chained like a criminal (2:8). God is to be at the center of Timothy’s ministry, as he is to warn quarreling parishioners before God of the error of their ways (2:14) and thereby to present himself to God unashamed and competent in his handling of God’s true word (2:15). In the face of false teaching about central matters such as the resurrection (2:18), God’s solid foundation stands firm (2:19). Attesting to this fact are two uses of the word Lord (kyrios) to refer to God (2:19), unusual in the PE, where Lord generally refers to Christ (see below).

Timothy’s confidence in ministry has its basis largely in the fact that God can grant repentance to those in error, leading them to a knowledge of the truth (2:25) and enabling them to escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will (2:26). Satan and evil can ensnare and destroy people, but God is sovereign over the evil one’s designs, even in an age where people are pleasure-lovers (philēdonoi) rather than God-lovers (philotheoi; 3:4).

In the end, Paul makes the core of his appeal in 2 Timothy in the presence of God (4:1) along with Christ Jesus. It will be seen below that what is predicated of one in the PE is also very largely shared by the other.

C. God the Father in Titus

Of the thirteen occurrences of God in Titus, six come in the first seven verses. Does the abject godlessness that Paul attributes to the Cretans in general (1:12–13, 16) prod him to call Titus’s attention all the more to the one true God’s relevance and centrality?

Paul opens his epistle with the reminder that he is a servant of God (doulos theou; 1:1), entrusted with a message by the command of God our Savior (1:4). But this ministry is not merely interaction between Paul and God. It rather relates closely to the faith of God’s elect (1:1), based on promises from God, who does not lie (1:2). From this same God Paul wishes Titus grace and peace (1:4). At the center of Paul’s counsel to Titus will be directions for appointing pastoral overseers who can serve effectively directing God’s work (1:7)³⁸ in the Cretan congregations. This work will be arduous, because in the churches are many who claim to know God, but by their actions . . . deny him (1:16). Not all confession of God is authentic, accounting for much of Paul’s instruction both to Titus and to Timothy.

In the Cretan congregations, a key need is for young women to conduct themselves is such a way that no one will malign the word of God (2:5). Older women’s mentorship is likewise vital, as is Titus’s service to the older women, who (like the older men) require equipping so they can pass gospel lore and graces along to peers and to the next generation. Slaves too have a role to play in making the teaching about God our Savior attractive (2:10). God’s salvation-bearing grace has appeared to all persons (2:10) and encourages believers to live in expectation of the appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ (2:13), Paul here blurring the line between Father and Son by using a customary title for the former to refer to the latter. A few verses later Paul reverts to speaking of God alone as Savior (3:4). The final reference to God the Father in Titus comes as Paul characterizes Christian believers as those who have trusted in God (3:8).

IV. GOD THE SON IN THE PE

The second major division of the Apostles’ Creed is I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead. The PE are replete with references to Jesus: there is no chapter in the PE that lacks explicit mention of him.

A. Jesus in 1 Timothy

In 1 Timothy the phrase Christ Jesus occurs twelve times, and Jesus Christ twice (6:3, 14). Christ occurs alone, without an accompanying Jesus, in 5:11. Four times Lord (kyrios) is added to Christ Jesus, heightening his already exalted status (1:2, 12; 6:3, 14). Once Lord is used of the Son with no further designation: The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly (1:14).

If Paul is the author of the PE, such terms and titles signified a human (eerily transformed)³⁹ with whom he had had personal interchange. At the very least, Paul encountered Jesus in risen form on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:5), shortly after which Acts depicts Paul as preaching in Damascus synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God (9:20) and proving that Jesus is the Christ (9:22). Barnabas confirms, in Luke’s account, that Saul preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus directly after his Damascus Road encounter (9:27). Paul’s focus was not a concept or even distant divine being but a person defined and known by an earthly and historical existence and career.

Paul’s personal knowledge of Jesus can probably be traced back earlier than the Damascus encounter. It is hard to imagine that Saul of Tarsus had no knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth during the latter’s earthly ministry, if Gospel accounts of the stir Jesus caused are even remotely accurate. To draw only from Matthew’s account: people went out to hear Jesus’s forerunner, John, from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan (3:5). Once Jesus began preaching, news about him spread all over Syria. . . . Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him (4:24–25). After the Sermon on the Mount, large crowds followed him (8:1). As Jesus preached and healed, news of this spread throughout the various regions (9:26). On one occasion, such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore (13:2).

It is unnecessary to belabor the point. If Saul/Paul was resident anywhere from Tarsus to Judea (and perhaps even beyond) during Jesus’s lifetime and was a mainstream rabbinic student and teacher (which there is no reason to deny), it is hard to imagine that he never had at least enough knowledge of Jesus to be impressed that this controversial but in the end to Paul laudable figure had laid down his life to save even hardened, hateful opponents like Saul (see 1 Tim 1:12–16). Firsthand knowledge of the man and the movement he sparked conditioned Paul’s sense of connection with him following his death and resurrection.⁴⁰ This personal history should not be forgotten while analyzing words referring to Jesus in the PE. Particularly if Paul wrote them, they are not just words.

Paul is an apostle of Christ Jesus, who is also the hope of Paul and Timothy and all who have trusted him (1 Tim 1:1). Along with God the Father, Christ Jesus is the source of grace, mercy and peace (1:2). He empowers Paul for ministry (1:12). In him are faith and love (1:14). He came into the world to save the very worst of transgressors, most notably Paul (1:15), for whose sake Jesus displayed his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life (1:16). He is the one mediator between God and men, . . . who gave himself as a ransom for all men (2:5–6). He is relevant not just to apostles who encountered him; deacons, too, who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus (3:13). Analogous bright prospects lie before Timothy, whom Paul reminds: If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed (4:6). In contrast to this positive response to Christ, younger widows who are put on the list for church support run the risk of letting their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ (5:11), a contingency Paul gives instructions to circumvent.

As seen above, Paul’s charge to Timothy is extended in the sight of God and Christ Jesus (5:21), as the young leader opposes and seeks to correct those who do not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ (6:3). Jesus’s example of unwavering confession before Pontius Pilate (6:13) should put backbone in Timothy to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ (6:14). He is a figure of the past, the present, and the future all at once.

His present and future stature, as risen Lord and returning Judge, are at center stage in 1 Timothy and in fact all the PE. But his earthly identity and accomplishment are far from minimized. For one thing, every one of the fourteen occurrences of Jesus is a reminder of the man from Nazareth, so named because of an angelic appearance to his ostensible father Joseph (Matt 1:20–21). This Jesus came into the world (1 Tim 1:15) and showed unlimited patience (1:16). He gave himself a ransom (2:6), an obvious reference to the cross. His work on earth comprises a great mystery of godliness (3:16): He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory. Here Paul covers the whole of Jesus’s earthly accomplishment in one sweeping flourish culminating in his ascension.

Certain teachings or actions of Jesus are likewise evoked if not explicitly referenced in 1 Timothy. Paul’s concern about proper regard for the law of Moses (e.g., 1:7–11) is foreshadowed by Jesus’s constant sparring with various priestly and rabbinic leaders (e.g. Mark 11:27) and their associates (e.g., Mark 12:13, 28) over this same topic. Paul’s sense of women’s strength as learners (1 Tim 2:11–12) and ministers particularly to other women in the church (see Titus 2:3–5) is anticipated by Jesus’s instruction and deployment of his female followers, who served alongside though not over their fellow male disciples. Paul’s assessment of all foods as clean (1 Tim 4:4) was a doctrine whose foundation was laid by Jesus (e.g., Mark 7:18–19). The same could be said of Paul’s defense of marriage in the same passage, as Jesus too hallowed this institution as God-given (e.g., Matt 19:4–6). Paul’s instruction on care for widows (1 Tim 5) was foreshadowed by Jesus’s outreach to disenfranchised women, including those who had lost their husbands, among whom was possibly his own mother. Paul likely cites words of Jesus alongside Old Testament Scripture (5:18) and reflects Jesus’s teaching in counseling Timothy how to handle accusations of transgression within a congregation (5:19–20). Paul’s instruction on use of wealth (6:6–10, 17–19) parallels Jesus’s frequent teachings on the subject, which are perhaps best summed up in his command to store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matt 6:20–21). Paul echoes this instruction in telling Timothy to teach the rich to lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age (1 Tim 6:19). We have already mentioned Paul’s reference to Jesus’s confession before Pontius Pilate as relevant for Timothy’s own confessional readiness.

In the end, of all that the Apostles’ Creed affirms regarding Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, the only details lacking explicit mention in 1 Timothy are conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary, along with he descended into hell (which many think is not affirmed in Scripture anywhere). Major features of the whole sweep of Jesus’s coming, earthly life, death, resurrection, ascension, and return are present in this PE alone. So are particular aspects of Jesus’s teaching.

B. Jesus in 2 Timothy

Every time Paul mentions Jesus in 2 Timothy, it is in conjunction with the word Christ. Twelve times Paul writes Christ Jesus. In 2:8 he writes Jesus Christ. But neither word occurs without the other in their total of thirteen occurrences.

Second Timothy gets off to a strongly Christocentric start. Paul is an apostle of Christ Jesus . . . according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus (1:1), from whom Paul can also bid Timothy grace, mercy and peace (1:2). Grace is not just a greeting but a gift, given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time (1:9). Moreover, this grace has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus (1:10). Timothy is to uphold Paul’s teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus (2:1). Paul calls him to emulate Paul in enduring hardship like a good soldier of Christ Jesus (2:3). This is not some ideal Hellenistic savior-figure but the historical person of Jewish ancestry who was raised from the dead, descended from David (2:8). Through him, the elect obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory (2:10).

Yet, this salvation will not come without cost. Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (3:12). But Timothy has the means to stand firm and prosper because from infancy he has known the holy Scriptures, which impart wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (3:15). There is every incentive for Timothy to persevere because Paul admonishes him in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead (4:1)—and Paul has already reminded Timothy that if we disown him, he will also disown us (2:12).

A substantial set of verses in 2 Timothy refers to Jesus as Lord (kyrios). The word does not occur in Titus, and usually when it appears in 1 Timothy, it is in conjunction with the additional words Christ Jesus (four times; see discussion above). But in 2 Timothy Christ Jesus our Lord appears just once. Yet, fifteen other times Paul speaks of the Lord.

It will be reserved to the commentary below to determine, if possible, precisely which of these Lord references is to the Father, which to the Son, and which to God generically. In 2 Timothy it seems likely that Christ Jesus is near to hand for Paul at least when he speaks of Lord in 1:8, 16, 18a; 2:7, 24. In other Lord passages Paul may have God in all his fullness in mind, without in any way diminishing the particular functions and ministries of God as either Father, Son, or Spirit: 1:18b; 2:19, 22; 3:11; 4:8, 14, 17, 18, 22. Yet, explicit reference to Jesus even in some if not most of these verses can perhaps not be ruled out. The words of the Apostles’ Creed Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord find strong resonance in 2 Timothy.

No proper title for Jesus appears at all in 2 Tim 1:12: I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. But this verse likely refers to him.

References to Jesus’s life and teaching (a few already touched on above) are less frequent in 2 Timothy than in 1 Timothy (in part because the former is considerably shorter). But they are nonetheless present. Paul mentions the incarnation and the fact that Jesus destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (1:10). Destroying death may draw on accounts of Jesus’s numerous resuscitation miracles, his defeat of the devil, his own resurrection from the dead, or some combination of these. Bringing life and immortality to light through the gospel could refer to the salutary effects of Jesus’s own preaching of the good news, to the enlivening and enlightening work of the gospel preached by Jesus’s followers like Paul, or to both. In any case, Paul reminds Timothy of the life Jesus lived on this earth.

Jesus’s life and ministry are at the forefront of one of Paul’s key hortatory remarks (2:11–13): If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself. There are at least hints here of Jesus’s death, resurrection, and ascension and heavenly reign. When it comes to disowning Jesus and being disowned by him, possibly Paul draws on knowledge of Judas’s duplicity and Jesus’s handing him over to his own self-destructive wiles. With if we are faithless, he will remain faithful Paul could easily be referring to the night Christ was betrayed, when all the disciples fled, a night of which Paul was certainly aware (1 Cor 11:23).

It is also easy to imagine Jesus’s influence in Paul’s counsel (2 Tim 2:2) to make disciples who will in turn make disciples of others (cf. Matt 28:19–20).

The writer of 2 Timothy no less than the writer of 1 Timothy proceeds from an insider’s knowledge of and loyalty to a Jesus Christ resembling God’s only Son, our Lord as extolled in the Apostles’ Creed.

C. Jesus in Titus

Titus, the shortest of the PE,⁴¹ has correspondingly the fewest references to Jesus. There are four references to Jesus Christ (1:1; 2:13; 3:6) or Christ Jesus (1:4). These passages refer to Paul’s apostleship at Jesus’s command, the grace and peace that he grants, and his role as Savior. Jesus is implicated in the preaching that God entrusted to Paul (1:3) and that Paul passes along to others (1:9). Paul’s concern for erroneous Jewish teachings (1:10, 14) have their correlate in Jesus’s disputations with his countrymen over their law and traditions. People who claim to know God but by their deeds deny him (1:16) were warned against already in Jesus’s sermons (Matt 7:21). The prominence of the act, ministry, and substance of teaching in Titus (e.g., Titus 1:9, 11; 2:1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 12, 15) is reminiscent of Jesus’s example of calling and making disciples. The notion of readiness for the return of Christ (2:13; 3:7) is found by many in Jesus’s teachings about the coming of the Son of Man (e.g., Matt 24–25). Paul’s directions for dealing with divisive members of a congregation (3:10) echo counsel set forth much earlier by Jesus (Matt 18:15–17).

While references to Jesus are not numerous or extensive in Titus, those that are present do not differ materially from what is found in 1–2 Timothy. The PE taken together testify solidly to a Jesus preached by Paul and taught about by Timothy and Titus in their churches, who is very much like the figure confessed in the Apostles’ Creed.

V. GOD THE SPIRIT AND HIS FRUIT IN THE PE

The third major division of the Apostles’ Creed is I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. Mention of the Spirit in the PE is far more sparing than mention of the Father and the Son, but by no means lacking. And the other five items of this segment of the Apostles’ Creed—church, communion, forgiveness, resurrection, eternal life—are not only common but prominent in the PE. For example, without a Spirit-induced church there is no need for a pastor, and these are the Pastoral Epistles. So the PE themselves as a whole are eloquent witness to the Lord whose Spirit constitutes the church and who for Paul is one with the Father and the Son. Since in Pauline theology it is in part the Spirit’s work to bring about things like the one universal church, fellowship, forgiveness of sins, resurrection, and eternal life, we refer to the Spirit and his fruit (see Gal 5:22) in this section to summarize the items mentioned in the third portion of the Apostles’ Creed.

A. The Spirit in the PE

In 1 Timothy, Christ was vindicated by the Spirit (3:16), and Paul asserts that the Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons (4:1). In 2 Timothy the spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline (1:7) is likely to involve the divine Spirit, since the charismatic gift he imparts is mentioned in the preceding verse. This is confirmed by explicit reference a few verses later: Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us (1:14). However theopneustos be defined in 3:16 ("All Scripture is God-breathed"), the Spirit’s influence is part of the mix in inscripturation of God’s word, the pneu- in theopneustos coming from the pneuma (Spirit) of the Lord, who for Paul is the Lord (2 Cor 3:17). In Titus, Paul writes that God saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior (3:5–6). It is unnecessary, and would have