Titus

Titus is a short, three-chapter letter addressed to a coworker left on the island of Crete to "set in order" what was lacking and appoint leaders. The context was hard: Paul quotes, with irony, a local poet who described Cretans in far from flattering terms. The letter lists qualities expected of leaders — almost all about character and family life — and then instructs different groups in the community: older men and women, younger ones, workers. The connecting thread is consistency: grace "instructs us to live". Two passages are frequently quoted in liturgies, summarizing the gospel in a few lines, in chapters 2 and 3.