Paul opens his letter to Titus with a remarkable claim: he is a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
But here's what stopped me when I studied this passage: Paul uses two different greetings in his letters. To the Romans, he writes "bondservant of Jesus Christ." To Titus, he writes "bondservant of God." Either Paul is serving two different masters — which is impossible — or Jesus and God are the same person.
The text itself makes the case. We just have to follow where it leads.
What It Means to Choose Forever
The word "bondservant" isn't just about service. It's about a specific choice made under specific conditions. Let's read what God commanded in Exodus 21:
*"If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing... But if the servant plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,' then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever."* (Exodus 21:2, 5-6)
Notice the steps. First, the servant must have paid his debt and be free. Then, he must choose to serve the master. And finally, the master must accept him before the judges.
Only after those three steps does the servant become a bondservant — marked, accepted, and bound to the master forever.
Paul had paid his debt. He had chosen his master. And his master had accepted him.
Before Time Began
Titus 1:2 says something that should take our breath away: God promised eternal life "before time began."
Not at the beginning. Before the beginning. Before the garden, before the fall, before creation itself.
This answers the questions people wrestle with — why did God allow sin? Why did He permit the devil? The answer is simple and staggering: He had the solution before He even created the possibility of our failing.
Grace wasn't God's backup plan. Grace was always the plan.
The Evidence of Our Lives
Paul warns Titus about people who "profess to know God, but in works they deny Him" (Titus 1:16).
This still exists today. Many claim to know God. Some even claim to know God while denying Jesus — whom Paul clearly teaches, in both letters, are the same.
But the evidence of our lives tells the real story. If we have truly been freed from our debt, if we have truly chosen the Master, if He has truly accepted us — then our lives will show it. Not in perfection, but in direction. Not in flawless performance, but in faithfulness to sound doctrine and good works that flow from grace, not from striving.
We were once "foolish, disobedient, deceived... living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another." But "when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared," He saved us — not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy (Titus 3:3-5).
A Question Worth Asking
Have you paid your debt? Not by your own effort — that debt was too great. But through the one Master who could pay it for you?
Have you chosen to serve Him forever — not out of obligation, but because you love Him and cannot imagine life without Him?
If so, then you are marked. You are accepted. And you serve Him forever.
That is what it means to be a bondservant of God — and of Jesus Christ our Savior.
Titus 1:1-2; Exodus 21:5-6, NKJV