Sermons on Titus 3:3-5
The various sermons below converge on a tight exegesis of Titus 3:3–5: Paul sets up a stark before/after contrast between humanity’s former bondage and God’s gratuitous intervention, the Spirit as the agent of regeneration, and salvation as a gracious gift that cleanses (forensic reckoning) and re-creates (ongoing renewal). Preachers repeatedly link memory of “we too were once” to humility that fuels gentleness, restraint of the tongue, and willing submission to just civil order; they also insist good works are the fruit and evidence of grace, not its purchase. Nuances that stand out for a preacher preparing a sermon include the use of vivid sensory metaphors to make “washing” tactile and visceral, careful attention to Greek verbal force behind terms like “slander,” and divergent pastoral moves—some sermons press memory-work as the key homiletical engine, others turn the passage toward organized church life or toward evangelistic hospitality driven by the “kindness and loving‑kindness of God.”
The differences are primarily matters of framing and pastoral aim: some preachers treat the text as primarily about inner cleansing and the Spirit’s re-creation (leaning into forensic and physical-cleaning imagery), others foreground ethical consequences for speech and civic behavior (pressing memory and public witness), a third strand frames the passage as Paul’s pastoral hinge to move believers from assurance to organized good works, and another renders it diagnostically missional—proclaim mercy and practice hospitable evangelism rather than moralizing. Those choices dictate homiletical moves (imagery vs. lexical exegesis vs. programmatic application vs. evangelistic appeal), so decide whether your sermon will prioritize assurance and inward renewal, the formation of public habits and restrained speech, congregational mobilization for good works, or hospitable proclamation—each will push you toward different images, exegetical emphases, and pastoral applications
Titus 3:3-5 Interpretation:
Embracing the Transformative Power of God's Grace(Las Lomas Community Church) reads Titus 3:3-5 as a gospel-centered contrast between our pre-conversion condition and God's gratuitous intervention, unpacking verse 3 as a catalogue of human bondage and verses 4–5 as the decisive arrival of God's mercy; the preacher uses vivid sensory metaphors (e.g., the Holy Spirit as “the best Ajax and Clorox” that cleanses us, and a “dirty rag” becoming a “clean cloth”) to insist that regeneration is the Spirit’s work (not human effort), emphasizes that salvation is received as a gift (Ephesians 2:8–9 in his argument), and repeatedly interprets “washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” as both forensic cleansing and ongoing internal renewal so that grace transforms affections, motivates gratitude, and requires a response of sustained obedience (but never as a meritorious work).
Reflecting God's Character in Our Daily Lives(Reach City Church Cleveland) interprets Titus 3:3-5 not primarily as abstract doctrine but as the ethical foundation for how Christians speak and act toward government and neighbors, reading the catalogue of verse 3 as the memory that should humble us and the “kindness and love of God” (v.4) as the motive for gentleness; the preacher goes beyond surface translation by drawing on Greek nuance (arguing that the verb behind “slander” carries demeaning, maligning senses, not merely “lying”), treats “washing…regeneration…renewing” as evidence the Spirit effects both conversion and character reform, and frames the passage as an anchor for radically different social conduct — submission to just civil order and a countercultural restraint of the tongue — because we were once the very people we might despise.
Embracing Grace: A Call to Healthy Living(North Valley Church) reads Titus 3:3-5 as Paul’s pastoral hinge: first reminding believers of their former enslaved state, then locating salvation wholly in God’s mercy and the Spirit’s regenerating work; the pastor emphasizes that this is why good works follow (not precede) salvation, unpacks “washing of regeneration” as God’s initiative that justifies and creates an inheritance-hope (v.7), and applies the passage to contemporary church life by urging memory-work (remember sin, remember salvation) so believers are motivated into the “good works” Paul wants Titus to insist upon, seeing Christian service as the outgrowth and evidence — not the purchase — of salvation.
Responding to Moral Chaos with Hope and Love(Alistair Begg) places Titus 3:3-5 in a diagnostic-and-remedial frame: diagnostically the preacher surveys humanity’s moral disorder (mirroring Paul’s list) as the condition from which God rescues us; remedially he emphasizes that the response to such a condition is proclamation of mercy rather than moralizing condemnation, arguing that the “kindness and loving‑kindness of God” that “appeared” (v.4) is the gospel’s drawing power and must shape how Christians engage sinners — with patient, life‑changing hospitality and proclamation, not mere rebuke — so Titus 3:3-5 becomes a programmatic call to evangelistic kindness grounded in the Spirit’s regenerating work.
Titus 3:3-5 Theological Themes:
Embracing the Transformative Power of God's Grace(Las Lomas Community Church) emphasizes the theme of grace as both forensic gift and ongoing “drenching” that secures justification and initiates sanctification, insisting the Holy Spirit’s renewal is best pictured as a thorough cleansing and physical re-creation (new spirit, new body metaphor) rather than primarily moral improvement by human effort; this sermon uniquely frames grace as God’s character overflow (tied to Exodus 34 language) and then insists believers “make grace last” — a practical stewardship of receiving and maintaining transformation.
Reflecting God's Character in Our Daily Lives(Reach City Church Cleveland) develops a distinct pastoral-theological theme that memory of prior sin is the primary ethical motive for Christian gentleness and civic submission: because “we too were once…” Christians must treat rulers and neighbors with respectful restraint and gentleness, reframing Titus 3:3-5 as instruction that the gospel’s grace should produce a distinctive public ethic (submission to just civil order, careful speech) rather than fueling moral triumphalism.
Embracing Grace: A Call to Healthy Living(North Valley Church) articulates a thematic triad tied to Titus 3:3-5 — memory of sin, assurance of salvation, and mission in good works — and stresses a theological hierarchy: regeneration by mercy (foundation) → justification by grace (status) → devotion to good works (fruit); the fresh facet here is the sermon’s structural insistence that Paul’s pastoral exhortation intends not only private piety but practical, organized devotion to good works within the church’s life and mission.
Responding to Moral Chaos with Hope and Love(Alistair Begg) surfaces a theological theme that judgment and moral collapse are real consequences of human idolatry, but Paul’s pastoral call in Titus 3 is not to punitive condemnation but to gospel proclamation and hospitality rooted in the “kindness and loving‑kindness of God”; Begg’s distinct addition is turning the passage into a missional theology: the kind of grace that saved us should be the means by which others are reclaimed.
Titus 3:3-5 Historical and Contextual Insights:
Reflecting God's Character in Our Daily Lives(Reach City Church Cleveland) explicitly situates Paul’s commands in Titus within first‑century realities — noting Paul wrote amid hostile civil powers (he cites Nero-era persecution as the background that made “submit to rulers” a counterintuitive injunction), emphasizes that Paul assumes government’s divinely‑ordained role to punish evil (drawing on Romans 13) and that submission is qualified (obey what can be obeyed consistent with God’s law), and explains how early church exemplars (Hebrew midwives, Daniel, Peter and John) modeled civil disobedience when human law contradicted divine law, thereby giving Titus’ ethical directives both urgency and limits in their original Greco‑Roman context.
Embracing Grace: A Call to Healthy Living(North Valley Church) offers historical context for Titus itself (Paul’s young protégé sent to Crete to organize and teach churches), explains that Titus 3 is Paul’s closing pastoral strategy for a church‑plant movement in a culture suspicious of Christian claims, and treats Paul’s language (washing, regeneration, Spirit renewal) as part of early‑Christian vocabulary for conversion and ecclesial identity formation in that island/church‑planting context.
Responding to Moral Chaos with Hope and Love(Alistair Begg) places Paul’s moral catalogue and Titus’ reminders against the backdrop of Roman social disintegration: he explains that Paul is diagnosing a cultural trajectory when God is “given up” and idolatry displaces the theistic norms that undergird social order, notes the public and communal quality of Paul’s list (it’s corporate, not merely individual), and emphasizes that the historical point of Paul’s gospel‑answer (the kindness and loving‑kindness appearing in Christ) is the proper corrective to societies that have jettisoned the God‑centered moral frame.
Titus 3:3-5 Cross-References in the Bible:
Embracing the Transformative Power of God's Grace(Las Lomas Community Church) groups and uses a string of cross‑references to reinforce Titus 3:3-5: Ephesians 2:8–9 (to argue salvation is a gift, not earned), Exodus 34:6–7 (to underscore God’s compassionate, gracious, forgiving character as the source of mercy), Romans 3:23 and Romans 5:8 (to diagnose universal sin and exemplify God’s love demonstrated in Christ’s death), Titus 2:11–12 (to show grace empowers righteous living), Colossians 3:13 and 2 Corinthians 1:3–4 (to connect forgiveness, mutual comfort, and pastoral consolation) — each citation is deployed to move from doctrine (we are saved by mercy) to pastoral application (forgiveness, transformation, community restoration).
Reflecting God's Character in Our Daily Lives(Reach City Church Cleveland) clusters several New Testament references around Titus 3:3-5: Romans 13:1–4 (used to justify Paul’s call to submit to governing authorities because government is instituted by God), Galatians 6:1 and Matthew 5 / 10 (to nuance gentleness and the need to correct in humility rather than quarrelsomeness), 1 Peter 2–3 and James 5 (to balance suffering unjustly with patient witness and to show restorative discipline when needed), and Titus 2:11 (grace that trains us to renounce ungodliness) — the preacher uses each passage to build his twofold ethical application (submission to civil order and reform of speech) grounded in gospel memory.
Embracing Grace: A Call to Healthy Living(North Valley Church) connects Titus 3:3-5 to a small network of biblical texts: Romans 13 (authority and civil order), Acts 2 (the early church’s devotion and the practical outworking of salvation into communal devotion and good works), and John 3 imagery (new birth) — Paul’s lines about “washing” and “renewal” are read alongside these to show how justification by grace leads to communal activity and mission, and Acts 2 is appealed to as the NT paradigm for “devoted” communities that do good works out of gospel gratitude.
Responding to Moral Chaos with Hope and Love(Alistair Begg) frames Titus 3:3-5 in continuity with Romans 1 (the catalogue of moral failure begins there), references 2 Timothy and other Pauline lists of last‑days deformity (to show the pattern of idolatry → immorality → social breakdown), and contrasts the list of human depravity with the gospel statements (e.g., “God judged the secrets of men by Jesus Christ” and the Gentiles’ conscience in Romans) — Begg uses these cross‑references to support his claim that proclamation and kindness (not mere moral rebuke) are the gospel responses Paul prescribes.
Titus 3:3-5 Christian References outside the Bible:
Responding to Moral Chaos with Hope and Love(Alistair Begg) explicitly cites non‑biblical Christian commentators and writers to illuminate Titus‑related themes: Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase is quoted as a contemporary paraphrase of Paul’s “God gave them up” idea (“they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them”), Murray is named (commentarial tradition) to emphasize the sober theological judgment Paul describes (that people both damn themselves and congratulate others in that damnation), and Begg also references works and voices on culture and modern art (e.g., Ramm/Modern Art criticisms) and contemporary testimonies (Rosaria Butterfield’s related experience mentioned) to argue that cultural decadence and gospel witness should be read together; these authors are used to sharpen the pastoral conclusion that gospel proclamation mixed with hospitality is the proper response to moral collapse.
Titus 3:3-5 Illustrations from Secular Sources:
Embracing the Transformative Power of God's Grace(Las Lomas Community Church) uses everyday cleaning products as a concrete secular image for the Holy Spirit’s work: the pastor jokes that the Spirit “uses the best Ajax and Clorox” to wash and regenerate us, a deliberately domestic, sensory metaphor that ties Titus 3:5’s “washing of rebirth” to household cleaning imagery so listeners sense both thoroughness and normalcy in the Spirit’s sanctifying action; he also uses family/celebration scenes (birthday, Christmas baby imagery) to dramatize the incarnation and its saving effect.
Reflecting God's Character in Our Daily Lives(Reach City Church Cleveland) deploys multiple modern, secular analogies to make Titus 3:3-5 concrete: motorcycle and speed‑limit banter illustrates the pastor’s point about lawful submission to civil authority (he jokes about his bike “growling” at a 65 mph limit), the “drive‑by” metaphor and the scenario of a father at a Little League game dramatize the folly of vindictive retaliation versus lawful restraint, examples from contemporary media/YouTube culture (Christian content creators behaving like TMZ) are used to show how speech can be harsh and sensational rather than gentle, and personal/domestic images (torn jeans, patching clothes, spouses nagging, one‑on‑one basketball with his wife) are used to show how humility, gentleness and remembering one’s former sin should reshape everyday speech and relationships as demanded by Titus 3:3-5.
Embracing Grace: A Call to Healthy Living(North Valley Church) mixes sports and pop‑culture examples into his pastoral plea: he mentions Tom Brady’s framing (ask about failures rather than successes) to show the value of remembering struggle (parallel to remembering one’s sin) and jokes about misremembering Luke Bryan vs. Luke Combs to model pastoral humility; he also uses a pair of contrasting “fictional” church members (Pete and Charles) as a realistic, almost case‑study illustration of sacrificial giving versus pragmatic withholding, tying the money/generosity story to Titus’ point that salvation by mercy should spur devoted good works in the community.
Responding to Moral Chaos with Hope and Love(Alistair Begg) repeatedly reaches to cultural artifacts to illustrate what happens when God is set aside: he uses a Little League father losing self‑control to dramatize the failure of lawless dominance versus the need for order, cites Simon & Garfunkel singing Silent Night as an example of cultural memory of moral beauty amid decline, points to contemporary modern‑art controversies and the spectacle culture of destroying guitars or staging scandal as examples of decadence that flows from a “debased mind,” and closes with a real‑life conversion anecdote (the Reverend who welcomed addicts for tea) to illustrate that kindness, not social scolding, often breaks the hard shell caused by moral chaos — all tied back to Titus 3:3-5’s movement from human depravity to saving kindness.