Titus was mentioned in Galatians (Chapter 2, verses 1 and 3) where Paul wrote of going to Jerusalem with Barnabas, along with Titus. He was then sent to Corinth, Greece, where he helped the Christians there to follow Paul's teachings. Titus was later left on the island of Crete to help organize the Church, and later met back with the Apostle Paul in Nicopolis. He soon went to Dalmatia (now Croatia). Then he served as the first bishop of Crete.
In Chapter 1, verse 9, Paul says that some among the Jewish Christians are false teachers. Paul says the false teachers are rebellious, empty talkers who claim to teach the law "without understanding" They cause the Christians to believe false things. Calvin wrote that vain (empty) talking (Greek: mataiologia) is not the same as useful doctrine. The false teachings don't help people to show piety and fear of God.
In Chapter 2, Paul tells how the people in the church should act. He talks about older men, older women, younger women, young men, and slaves. Each group is given their proper way to live. All are told to live for God while they wait for the return of Jesus who died to buy us back from evil living and make us into good people.
Chapter 3 tells the Christians to obey the government leaders and to live a good life and be gentle. The adds that Jesus has saved us not because of the good things we had done, but through his grace and mercy and now wants to make us into people always who do good things. The letter ends with a final warning against those who stir up fights and some personal greetings.
In the Epistle to Titus it says in chapter 1 verse 12 and 13 "One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, 'Cretans are always liars'". This is called a logical paradox since if a member of a group says that all members of the group are liars we can't know if what he says is true since he must also be a liar. Students of logic think about this and try to find an answer. The one who said this was Epimenides, so it is named for him.
Epistle to Philemon
The Epistle to Philemon is the fifty-seventh book in the Christian Bible, and the eighteenth in the New Testament. Almost everyone agrees that letter was written by the Saint Paul to Philemon. It is the shortest of Paul's letters, consisting of only 335 words in the Greek text.
Paul wrote this letter on behalf of Onesimus, who may have been a runaway slave who had wronged his owner Philemon. We don't know what Onesimus had done, but perhaps he ran away after stealing money. Paul says in verse 18 that if Onesimus owes anything, Philemon should charge it to Paul's account. It is thought that Philemon lived in Colossae; in the letter to the Colossians, Onesimus (the slave who fled from Philemon) and Archippus (whom Paul greets in the letter to Philemon) are said to be members of the church there.
Paul says that Onesimus has been very helpful to him while he was in prison in Rome. He would like for Philemon to free him and send him back to Rome. Paul says that Philemon should receive him not as a slave but as a brother. Paul did not seem to think that Onesimus should be punished, even though Roman law allowed the owner of a runaway slave to punish or even kill them.
Some see this letter as a step towards thinking of slaves as fully human. Before Paul, Ruden argues, a slave was considered subhuman, and entitled to no more consideration than an animal. Others think that Paul and the early Christians should have done more to combat the evil of slavery. In history, some Christians used the book to justify slavery. Pope Benedict XVI refers to this letter in the Encyclic, "Spe salvi", to tell of the power of Christianity to improve society. He says that Christianity was very important to the large decrease of slavery during the Middle Ages and after.
Epistle of James
The Epistle of James is a book inclused in the Christian Bible, the twentieth in the New Testament.
According to its opening verse, this epistle was written by James (often identified with the “brother of the Lord” who leaded the Jerusalem Church about 20 years and was killed around 62 AD).
The title “servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (which suggest a Church official), the courage to address “the twelve tribes in the Dispersion” (i.e. Jewish Christian communities outside Palestine, or all faithful living in a non-Christian environment), and the tone of authority throughout the letter, all indicate someone well known and respected.
The writer appears concerned in clarifying Paul’s teaching on faith/action, against Christians who deform it. This indicates that the letter was written after those of Paul had begun to circulate diffusely, in the last decades of the 1st century.
This late dating, together with the quite elegant Greek style and the lack of any real emphasis on the Jewish legalism which was part of James’ approach to religion, have persuaded a growing majority of contemporary scholars that a Christian versed in both Hellenism and Judaism wrote using James’ name.
May be early tradition stemming from James was updated and published by an unknown Christian teacher of a later generation: possibly this is why the letter was not universally accepted by the Churches until near the end of the 4th century.
The author’s two chief sources are OT Wisdom books and the teaching found in the Gospels, though he hardly ever uses direct quotations.
Reflecting Jewish Christian assemblies, he rethinks OT sayings in the light of Jesus’ teachings and re-presents them in an original way.
The epistle consists of a long series of exhortations, mostly brief and loosely connected, some developed at length.
The one common trait, which gives the letter its distinctive quality, is a concern that the faith be implemented in every aspect of life; otherwise it is useless.
The author takes for granted Jesus' saving work, but is especially interested in Christians' moral life. So, there is no real contradiction between Paul's and James' teachings, for Paul was speaking of the impossibility of earning salvation by one's own efforts, not of the works of charity and justice to which the Christians are called.
James used a friendly way of addressing his readers on the day-to-day problems we also meet and in which we must follow faith and love for others: community life, prejudice or discrimination, care for poor, widows and orphans, jealousy and selfish ambition, controlling the tongue, community concern for the sick, matters of justice, speaking evil against each other. He said in effect: “Love first and it will prove your faith”.
The central theme is the true wisdom that comes from God as opposed to false wisdom. The moral teaching revealed from on high, is not human but divine wisdom. Humans can only analyse it, enter into it more deeply and put it into practice. It is an objective ethics needed to see life in its proper perspective and to be guided in action. Earthly wisdom, on the contrary, is a permanent temptation in people who want to decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong, only to end in justifying wicked behaviour.
The other main theme is God’s preference for the lowly: so in this manifesto for social justice the author praises the poor and threatens the rich. Respect for the dignity of every person is fundamental especially that of the poor, exposed to contempt by the powerful. This evidently takes up the task undertaken by the prophets, but it also refers to Christ, whose glory guarantees the dignity of everyone redeemed by his blood, and excludes every kind of favouritism.
James insists much on bridling the tongue: in this respect, teachers have a special responsibility within the Church since their instructions (and their writings) can create dissent and division in her. Those with a strong influence on public also have a similar responsibility.
More in detail, we read: