The Church of England commemorates Timothy on the same day as another of Paul's co-workers, Titus. Now, while Timothy is reasonably well known to most church-goers, the name Titus might not ring so many bells for some. Paul wrote him a letter, but that's not about Titus himself. So, other than a few verses in Paul's letter to the Galatian church and his second letters to the church in Corinth and to Timothy, we have little to go on. However, those few verses show us that this apostle who managed to keep himself quite well out of the limelight of history was in fact a powerhouse for the gospel.
Titus was a companion of Paul by the time of the Council of Jerusalem in 49 AD. Paul had recently completed his first missionary journey and went to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus to explain why Gentile Christians, like Titus, should not be circumcised. The next we hear of him is about eight years later, when Paul and Timothy wrote to the church in Corinth. Titus had been sent there previously and had by all accounts done a good job in a difficult church situation. He came up to meet Paul in Macedonia with a good report of the church's situation and attitude, which provided some comfort for Paul. So he was sent back to continue the work.
After Paul was released from his first imprisonment and house arrest in Rome, it seems that he went to Crete with Titus and left him there as the apostolic overseer of the island - the same position that Paul entrusted Timothy with in Ephesus. Like Timothy, Titus was sent a letter from Paul in Macedonia, explaining to him various leadership issues, including the appointment of church leaders. However, as in the case of Timothy, he was later replaced there, by Artemas or Tychicus (Paul hadn't made up his mind when writing the letter). Titus was to join Paul in Nicopolis to overwinter there. It seems that from Nicopolis he was eventually sent to Dalmatia, presumably to head up a new missionary work in that region.
What do we learn from Titus' story? In some ways it was similar to Timothy's. He actually joined Paul's team a few years earlier, but they both ended up with similar responsibilities as city-wide church overseers and heading up international missionary teams. We might think of Timothy as Paul's closest co-worker, but Titus is also referred to as Paul's true child in a common faith. Timothy is probably seriously overlooked, even though we know a fair bit about him; Titus is almost unheard of, because of the lack of information about him, but from what we do know we can see that he was equally a giant in the furtherance of the gospel for Christ. Being well known and leaving an obvious legacy is not what serving Jesus is about. The rapid growth of the early Church was all about team work - with each other and with God. Most co-workers were never really well known and have been long forgotten. Those who are remembered may well be vastly underappreciated. However, our reward comes from the one who sees in secret - and he rewards us in secret.
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