Grace That Teaches, Not Just Saves

Despite its brevity, Titus contains one of the New Testament's more compact statements of salvation theology, at 2:11 to 14 and again at 3:4 to 7, describing grace that "trains us to renounce ungodliness" and salvation "not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy," language that later theological traditions, particularly the Reformed tradition, have drawn on heavily in debates about the relationship between grace, faith and good works. The letter's insistence that sound doctrine must issue in visible, attractive conduct, rather than functioning as abstract belief alone, has made it a frequently cited text in Christian catechetical and confirmation instruction across traditions that otherwise disagree sharply about the fine points of salvation theology.

Titus shares fully in the authorship debate that surrounds 1 and 2 Timothy, and because it offers less of the personal, biographical detail that complicates that debate for 2 Timothy specifically, most scholars who doubt Pauline authorship of the Pastorals as a group treat the case against Titus as no weaker, and in some respects stronger, than the case against its two companion letters. Its canonical standing has never been questioned regardless of where that debate lands.