It is difficult to miss the adjective “sound” in the first
couple chapters of Titus. In fact, it occurs more times in Titus than
anywhere else in the New Testament. In instructing his younger associate, the
apostle Paul refers repeatedly to both “sound doctrine” and being “sound in the
faith”, the latter being the result of the former. Soundness was the apostle’s
desire for the Christians in Crete, and indeed for all believers everywhere.
In Greek, the word “sound” is hygiainÅ, which means “healthy”. It has the sense of fitness and
functionality. In Luke it is contrasted with both sickness
and injury.
