For apostle see 1 Tim 1.1. In his two letters to Timothy, Paul identifies himself as an apostle, and he does the same thing here. But he adds another designation, namely, servant of God. Many New Testament writers also call themselves servants, but of Jesus Christ rather than of God (see, for example, Rom 1.1; James 1.1; 2 Peter 1.1; and Jude 1). In these cases the meaning of servant is almost identical to “slave” (which is the literal translation of the Greek word), and the emphasis is on being owned by Jesus Christ and being committed to him in complete obedience. In the present case, however, the proper background is that of the Old Testament characters who are designated in the same way, as for example Moses (1 Chr 6.49; 2 Chr 24.9; Neh 10.29; and Dan 9.11), Daniel (“servant of the living God,” Dan 6.20), David (Psa 89.3), and Abraham (Psa 105.42). The focus, then, is on being called by God and designated to perform certain tasks among God’s people. In cultures where “slaves” are unknown, one may translate, for example, “I, Paul, who serves God with complete obedience.”

The word order Jesus Christ is used here, whereas the usual order in the Pastoral Letters is “Christ Jesus.” Another exception is 2 Tim 2.8, for which see discussion there.

To further the faith is literally “according to the faith,” which opens up two possibilities of reading the Greek text.
(1) Faith is a further description of the nature of Paul’s apostleship; in fact it is its distinctive mark and, together with knowledge and hope, is the standard by which it is measured. So Revised English Bible “marked as such by the faith of God’s chosen people….”
(2) Faith defines the purpose of Paul’s apostleship; “according to” can then be understood as “for the sake of” (New Revised Standard Version). A further concern then is to define more closely how in fact Paul’s apostleship benefits the faith of God’s elect, and here there are several possibilities as well:
(a) Paul’s purpose is to initiate faith, that is, to make believers out of unbelievers (so New Jerusalem Bible “to bring those whom God has chosen to faith”). This is in agreement with 2 Tim 2.10. But does it make sense to make God’s elect believe? Unless of course the term God’s elect refers only to Jews, but then that would go against the very claim of Paul that he was sent as an apostle to the Gentiles. Or unless the term God’s elect is a definite entity that includes those who already believe and those who have not yet believed! It is suggested that one way out of this dilemma is to read the text to mean that the purpose of Paul’s apostleship is to initiate among nonbelievers the same kind of faith that is possessed by the elect.
(b) Paul’s purpose is to build up the faith of the elect. This is the option followed by Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and some other translations (for example, Translator’s New Testament “to build up the faith”). This interpretation at least avoids the problems mentioned in (a) above (compare Contemporary English Version “encourage God’s own people to have more faith”), and this is the interpretation recommended by this Handbook.

For faith see 1 Tim 1.2, 4. Here it can be taken subjectively, referring to trust in and commitment to Jesus Christ, or objectively, referring to accepted teaching or doctrine. This second option is possible only when “according to” is taken to mean “build up” (point 2b above).

For elect see 1 Tim 5.21, where the term is used in connection with angels, and 2 Tim 2.10, which has the same meaning as here.

For knowledge of the truth see 1 Tim 2.4.

For godliness see 1 Tim 2.2 (“godly”) and 4.7. How is truth related to godliness? The Greek here is literally “truth according to godliness,” which presents us with a similar problem that was encountered at the beginning of this verse. Several possibilities may be mentioned: (1) Truth agrees with godliness. This is the popular choice of most translations. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation choose this option, although they vary in their interpretation of godliness, with Revised Standard Version taking it as a quality of life (compare Phillips “a God-fearing life”), and Good News Bible as referring to the Christian faith as a religious body. (2) Truth results in godliness (see, for example, New Jerusalem Bible “truth that leads to true religion,” New International Version “truth that leads to godliness”). Here definitely godliness has to be taken in its moral or ethical sense, that is, living as God wants.

Alternative translation models for the final part of this verse are:

• They [God and Jesus Christ] sent me to help God’s people to believe more strongly and to gain a better understanding of the true teachings about Christ, which will help them to live as God wants them to live.

Or:

• … and to gain a better understanding of the true doctrine which our [inclusive] religion teaches.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to Titus. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .