Titus 1

⁹ He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. ¹⁰ For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. ¹¹ They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. ¹² One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” ¹³ This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, ¹⁴ not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. ¹⁵ To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. ¹⁶ They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Some years back, a video was posted online that was simultaneously awkward and fascinating and moving. It set off a very interesting conversation among viewers concerning the rightness or wrongness of what happened. In the video, a self-proclaimed prophetess had set up her tent in an American city and was holding nightly meetings. One pastor realized that a number of his congregants were going to hear this lady speak. Some, he said, were going to evangelize but others were seemingly listening to her and possibly coming under her influence. The pastor said that her presence was divisive and, most importantly, that she was teaching false doctrine. So, the pastor went to the tent to hear her himself.

In the midst of her teaching, the pastor went forward and asked to speak. He proceeded to call the woman a false prophet and to confront her for her false teaching. He was not rude or belligerent, unless you consider the whole thing rude! But he seemed to be trying his best to state the truth in a way that was clear and bold without being overly combative.

It was, to use the word again, fascinating! In truth, having seen the video, I support the pastor’s actions. At the very least it must be acknowledged that Paul felt it was the responsibility of an elder to protect the flock from false teaching and to confront false teachers. This pastor did just that.

Titus 1:9–16 presents us with a biblical foundation for an elder’s watch care over what is taught to the church. It seems that false teachers were disrupting the life of the church on the island of Crete. Paul gives Titus instructions on how to respond.

The necessity for doctrinal soundness.

We begin with the absolute necessity for those leading the church to be doctrinally sound. Paul writes this of the elder:

⁹ He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

There are two stated reasons why an elder must be sound in his doctrine.

1. So that he can instruct others in sound doctrine.
2. So that he can rebuke false teachers.

In verses 10 and 11, Paul warns of the pervasiveness of false teachers and of their bitter fruit.

¹⁰ For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. ¹¹ They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

There is no reason to think that our situation is any different than that of the church in Crete. How many false teachers and deceivers are there? “Many.” And they “must be silenced” because of the damage they are causing.

For this reason, doctrinal soundness and a love of good theology must mark those who would lead the body of Christ. Unfortunately, in a day in which the church competes in a marketplace, we tend to prize speaking ability or charm or charisma more than doctrinal soundness. But these attributes must not be prized more than soundness in doctrine.

John Chrysostom, in 407 AD, wrote this concerning the leadership of the church:

There is need not of pomp of words but of strong minds, of skill in the Scriptures and of powerful thoughts. Do you not see that Paul put to flight the whole world, that he was more powerful than Plato and all the rest?[1]

Jerome, in 420 AD, wrote:

To Titus he gives commandment that among a bishop’s other virtues [which he briefly describes] he should be careful to seek a knowledge of the Scriptures…In fact, want of education in a clergyman prevents him from doing good to any one but himself. Even if the virtue of his life may build up Christ’s church, he does it an injury as great by failing to resist those who are trying to pull it down.[2]

It is absolutely essential that the people of God have a clear sense of what the gospel is and what false gospels are. We must resist false gospels and false teaching. These are ruinous to the people of God.

Tragically, it can no longer be assumed that those called “clergy” in our day have a high commitment to scripture or doctrinal soundness. So chaotic has the theological scene become that theologian Thomas Oden wrote, “The rediscovery of boundaries in theology will be the preoccupation of the twenty-first century of Christian theology.”[3]

Yes, we must know the theological boundaries. If we do not, then false gospels will run amuck in the body of Christ.

The specific challenge to the church of Crete.

And, what, specifically, were the false teachings being peddled to the early Christians of Crete? Paul gives us some clues.

¹⁰ For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

¹⁴ not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. ¹⁵ To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. ¹⁶ They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Here is the picture that emerges of the false teachers from these verses.

• They were “of the circumcision party.” These are perhaps the Judaizers, those who said that a person, in essence, needed to become Jewish in addition to trusting in Jesus in order to be saved (i.e., be circumcised, keep kosher).
• They were teaching “Jewish myths.”
• They were seemingly fixated on purity laws, perhaps especially in the area of food (i.e., pure and impure or clean and unclean foods).
• They were godless in their behavior.

Again, this is likely some variation of the Judaizing party that consistently sought to foist their legalisms upon the churches that Paul planted. In this way, Gentile believes in particular were harried into become Jewish believers. They fixated on the outer realities—circumcision and food—to the neglect of the inner realities.

Time and time again, Paul had to remind the churches of the reality that Jesus had made so plain in Matthew 15.

¹⁰ And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: ¹¹ it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

¹⁷ Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? ¹⁸ But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. ²⁰ These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

It is not what you eat or what procedure you have done to your body that renders you holy or unclean. It is the reality of your heart. Our external sins are simply manifestations of the eternal sickness of our hearts. And those external actions that are not sins (i.e., what you eat, whether or not you are circumcised) should not be presented as that which renders us holy or unholy.

Paul specifically cautions Titus to be on guard against and to confront those who bring empty legalisms—and the wickedness that always hides in the shadows of such legalisms—into the body of Christ.

The called-for response against false teaching.

And what, then, was Titus to do in the face of such false teachers and troublemakers? Paul writes:

¹¹ They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. ¹² One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” ¹³ This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith

Let us deal first with what Paul says about Cretans. Verse 12 is quite interesting. In it, Paul quotes an ancient Cretan and comments on the quotation: “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” What is happening here? Why is Paul seemingly lapsing into an ethnic generalization against a whole people?

Craig Keener offers some very interesting insight on this saying and Paul’s employment of it.

The saying Paul quotes here has been attributed to several sources, the earliest being the sixth-century B.C. teacher Epimenides of Knossos in Crete. (The real source may more likely be Hesiod by way of the third-century B.C. Callimachus’s Hymn to Zeus. As was widely known, Crete claimed to possess both the birthplace and grave of Zeus; the latter claim drew outsiders’ scorn and charge of falsehood. But that the words were often attributed to a Cretan in Paul’s day is sufficient for him to make the point for Titus. Paul is clearly not citing his own view, because he would not consider a liar to be a true prophet. Greek logicians played with the claim by a Cretan that all Cretans were liars: if he had told the truth, he was lying; but if he was lying, then they reasoned that all Cretans told the truth—reasonable, except that this Cretan had not!)…Ancient ethnographers attributed certain characteristics (both good and bad) to various peoples whose cultures emphasized those traits. (That Paul could cite these negative characteristics of Cretans in a letter that Cretan believers would hear suggests that he must have been on very good terms with them and that Cretans recognized these characteristics of their own culture; he is not offering here a model for crosscultural sensitivity in normal situations.)[4]

However you understand this, it would seem that Paul was employing a common saying to a people who likely would not have seen him as literally saying it of all of them. He is probably using a kind of hyperbole here: Yes, there are a lot of liars there. It is likely the case that the audience hearing this would have nodded in agreement. Regardless, Keener is correct: Paul “is not offering here a model for crosscultural sensitivity in normal situation.”

Most important of all are Paul’s instructions in verses 11 and 13.

¹¹ They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

¹³ This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith

How was Titus to handle the false teachers?

• He was to silence them.
• He was to rebuke them.

Scot McKnight translates verse 13 like this:

¹³ This witness is true, for this reason convince them cuttingly so they may be healthy in the faith[5]

What might this look like in the modern church? A few thoughts:

1. Church leaders must not allow those who teach false teachings to continue doing so in the church when they become aware of such.
2. Church leaders must stop anybody from preaching false doctrine from the pulpit, even if this means interrupting the sermon.
3. Church leaders must not allow curriculum that espouses false teaching to be disseminated and used within the church.

I hasten to add that the responsible fulfillment of these requirements will call upon church leaders to draw a distinction between doctrines that are essential, doctrines that are important but not essential that Christians may honestly disagree with, and the leader’s own personal preferences. Not every preference of the pastor is a first-tier doctrinal issue. But first-tier doctrines do exist! If we cannot draw a distinction between the two, we might find ourselves rebuking people not for violations of the gospel but for violations of our pet beliefs that may not even by substantiated by Scripture.

Some years ago, Albert Mohler articulated the idea of “theological triage.” He was not the first to do so. The idea goes back to the early history of the church. It is the idea that we need to distinguish between first, second, and third-level doctrines. Mohler gives some helpful definitions.

First-level theological issues would include those doctrines most central and essential to the Christian faith. Included among these most crucial doctrines would be doctrines such as the Trinity, the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, justification by faith, and the authority of Scripture…

The set of second-order doctrines is distinguished from the first-order set by the fact that believing Christians may disagree on the second-order issues, though this disagreement will create significant boundaries between believers. When Christians organize themselves into congregations and denominational forms, these boundaries become evident…

Third-order issues are doctrines over which Christians may disagree and remain in close fellowship, even within local congregations…[6]

There is wisdom here. Pastors and congregations are called to discern the difference between doctrines and guard them appropriately. For instance, different views of the specifics of how Jesus is going to return need to be tolerated. However, any teaching that Jesus did not rise bodily from the grave should not be tolerated. Whether or not Adam had a belly-button (to use a popular humorous example) is utterly inconsequential to the church’s life and mission. However, that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins is utterly essential and to reject this belief is to reject the faith.

The leaders and members of the church must safeguard and steward the gospel. Attacks on the gospel must be silenced. Lesser issues call for patience and appropriately-measured responses. Regardless, this calls for theological knowledge and commitment in the church, and backbone, and love for the brethren, and love for God!

 

[1] https://catenabible.com/ti/1

[2] https://catenabible.com/ti/1

[3] Thomas C. Oden, Requiem: A Lament in Three Movements (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995), p.47.

[4] Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (IVP Bible Background Commentary Set) (p. 627). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

[5] McKnight, Scot. The Second Testament: A New Translation (p. 241). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

[6] https://albertmohler.com/2005/07/12/a-call-for-theological-triage-and-christian-maturity/