Titus 1:4
To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour. To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Paul addresses Titus as his own son after the common faith. To him he conveys grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour. That grace, mercy, and peace come from God and Christ, not from any human fountain. Paul approaches as a servant of God, not a master, and as an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth that leads to godliness, writing in hope of eternal life, which the God who cannot lie promised before the world began and in due time revealed through preaching entrusted to Paul by the command of God our Saviour.
That word of eternal life was to be preached so that many would be made sound in the faith. The greeting introduces instruction on the qualifications required of those placed in charge of the flock of God. For this purpose Titus was left in Crete to set in order the things that were lacking and to ordain elders in every city. Titus was to do this work of ordering and ordaining as Paul had appointed him. The elders were to be blameless stewards of God who hold fast the faithful word in order to exhort and convince opponents, standing against the many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers.