Titus 3:3 is Paul’s honest description of what life looked like before people came to know God: foolish, disobedient, deceived, and driven by selfish desires, bitterness, and hostility toward others. The verse is not meant to shame believers, but to remind them where grace found them. Paul writes it to Titus, a trusted co-worker he had left on the island of Crete to organize churches and guide the believers there.
For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
Titus 3:3 (WEB)
What Titus 3:3 Means
Paul begins with “we were also once,” which places the whole list in the past. He is not describing the Christians of Crete as they are now, but as they were before they belonged to Christ. The words “foolish” and “disobedient” point to a life that ignored what is good and resisted what is right. “Deceived” suggests that people had been led astray, believing that their pursuits would satisfy them when they did not.
The rest of the verse names the things that filled that life: “various lusts and pleasures,” “malice and envy,” and a habit of “hating one another.” Paul is describing a life that turned inward and grew sour toward other people. The verse does not promise that Christians will never feel these pulls again. It establishes a contrast: this is how things were, and that is not the end of the story.
The Context of Titus 3:3
Titus is one of the Pastoral Letters, written by Paul to a younger leader who was carrying real responsibility in a difficult place. Crete had a reputation in the ancient world for unruly behavior, and Paul had already warned Titus about false teachers and quarrelsome people in the churches. Traditionally, Paul is named as the author, and the letter is addressed to Titus directly.
The verses just before Titus 3:3 ask believers to submit to rulers, to be ready for good work, to speak evil of no one, and to be gentle toward all people. Verse 3 is the reason for that instruction: since believers once lived in the same condition as everyone else, they have no grounds for looking down on others. The verses that follow, beginning in verse 4, shift to “the kindness of God our Savior,” which is the turning point of the passage. Read in that setting, Titus 3:3 works as a humbling mirror that makes grace and gentleness make sense.
Key Phrases in Titus 3:3
Ephesians 2:1-5
1 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience; 3 among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)…
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Paul makes a similar point here, describing people who were dead in their transgressions and following the course of the world. Reading it alongside Titus 3:3 shows that the honest account of the old life is paired with God’s rich mercy that makes new life possible.
Romans 12:2
Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
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This verse speaks of being transformed by the renewing of the mind rather than being shaped by the patterns of the age. It helps explain how the change Paul describes in Titus 3 takes place in the thinking and desires of a believer over time.
A Short Prayer From Titus 3:3
Lord, you know how easily my heart drifts toward envy, impatience, and the things that promise more than they deliver. Thank you that I am not defined by how I once lived. Help me remember where your kindness found me, so that I can be gentle with others and quick to speak well of them. Shape my desires, correct my foolishness, and let your mercy show itself in the way I treat the people around me today. Amen.
