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THE ESTABLISHING OF A HEALTHY CHURCH - II
Titus 1:12-16
January 18, 2009
Bob Bonner
Many of us, having grown up in the United States, have witnessed religious hypocrisy to the point that for some it totally turned us off from considering the possibility that Jesus Christ is real and that church had any real purpose in the world. We witnessed “Christians” going to church Sunday after Sunday. Many would go there feeling guilty because of the way they had behaved during the previous week. Wanting to find freedom from their guilt, they went to church, sang songs, prayed, took communion, gave money, and maybe even practiced confession of their sins. Upon doing so their conscience was massaged, and leaving they felt better.
However during the drive home, their own version of “The Family Feud” commonly took place. Dad would go watch a football game, while Mom, hurt, would go outside and cry as she worked in the garden. The kids would go to their rooms or scatter to the neighbors. The next day as people went to work, gossip, slander, lying, and stealing probably took place, leaving these “Christians” feeling guilty and needing their religious fix. But no worries, Sunday’s coming! It was this kind of religious upbringing that many in this country were exposed to, leaving some to believe that Christianity is a joke!
Where does this type of religious thinking and lifestyle come from? What are we as genuine followers of Christ to do about this so that we don’t repeat it and thus bring shame to our beloved Savior and God? That’s just what our passage of Scripture, Titus 1, deals with this morning.
After the Apostle Paul’s introductory remarks in Titus 1:1-4, we come to his first major unit of thought in this letter to Titus. It covers verses 5-16. In these verses, Paul has two primary instructions that explain his command in verse 5 to “set in order what remains,” meaning to do that which remains necessary to establish a healthy church on the island of Crete.
His first major instruction we have already studied. It was explained in verses 5-9. Paul told Titus to appoint elders in every city.
While he was establishing the eldership on the island, Titus was also to continue what Paul presumably had begun before he sailed away from the island, the silencing of the false teachers. Paul’s instructions to silence these false teachers make up verses 10-16. These seven verses fall into three divisions.
The first division we looked at last time. In verses 10-11 Paul describes a group of opposing teachers in the Cretan churches that are causing disruption. The second division, which we will begin with this morning, makes up verses 12-13a. In these verses, Paul links these false teachers to the most base element in Cretan society. The final division, verses 13b-16, makes up Paul’s command to Titus to engage and silence these opponents. In those verses, Paul gives us a sobering assessment of the depravity of the false teachers.
With that as an overview, follow along as I read these verses, and then we will come back to look more closely at them.
10For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers,
especially those of the circumcision, 11who must be silenced because
they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not
teach for the sake of sordid gain. 12One of themselves, a prophet of
their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy
gluttons.” 13This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them
severely so that they may be sound in the faith, 14not paying
attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn
away from the truth. 15To the pure, all things are pure; but to those
who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their
mind and their conscience are defiled. 16They profess to know God,
but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient
and worthless for any good deed.
In verse 12, Paul alludes to a prophet of their own. This expression of “prophet” was not one describing what we understand to be a biblical prophet. Rather, on Crete the term prophet was a title of honor, conferred upon highly respected Greek intellectuals such as Plato and Aristotle. This reference to “a prophet of their own” is thought by some scholars to be from the Cretan poet Epimenides who lived about 600 years before Christ. Epimenides was considered to be one of the seven great wise men of Greece. Plato called him “a divinely-inspired man.” Plutarch calls him, “A man dear to the gods.” As a native of Crete, Epimenides knew the people well and was not speaking out of malice as an enemy when he said “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” He was speaking more as an author of political and historical works. Over the centuries, the Cretans had developed such a reputation for lying and stealing that eventually the word “Cretan” became the Greek word for “lie.”
By the first century, the Cretans had expanded their reputation from being liars to being the island that housed robbers and pirates. The first century Roman statesman Cicero said of the Cretans that they “. . . consider piracy and the practice of establishing and running with gangs honorable.” This is what led to their being labeled “evil beasts.” This expression points to their behavior as being that of wild animals, living solely on the level of sensual appetites and passions. It describes the pirate-like, barbaric behavior in Crete, as well as the known practice of homosexual religious rites. Epimenides went further and joked that the “well-known absence of wild beasts on the island of Crete was supplied or replaced by its human inhabitants.”
“Lazy gluttons” is an expression made up of two Greek terms that literally are the words “slow” and “bellies.” These terms eventually came to mean “lazy” and “gluttonous.” As gluttons, the observation was made that Cretans hated to work but loved to eat. In addition, this expression came to have an extended meaning which described a person with little or no self-discipline, who would do anything to turn a profit.
Paul’s statement, “this testimony is true,” is his way of giving apostolic authority to something said by a non-Christian. As you can tell from these three expressions, the society on the island of Crete was far from sophisticated. It was a rough place to live a morally upright life. To be a Christian on that island meant that you had to associate with self-indulgent, greedy, lustful, overfed, untrustworthy, lazy people you could never count on. It was not an environment conducive to a spiritual walk.
Because the typical Cretan lived this way, and because Paul knew that the truth of the Gospel could be discounted by a so called “Christian’s” evil behavior, Paul tells Titus to engage and severely reprove these false teachers who claim to be Christians. The word “reprove” means to correct, convince, expose error, and in some cases discipline. Because the matter is so important, Paul adds “severely.” In other words, don’t mince words. Don’t worry about being delicate. Just lay it out for them as plainly as possible. And to be sure, some of these false teachers were Christians but simply untaught. That’s why he adds, “so that they may be sound in the faith.” Paul’s goal was not to be mean or cruel. The goal of “reproving severely” was the hope that this would to lead to the false teachers’ repentance, to a change of their thinking with the result that they would become sound in their faith. But if this didn’t work, according to Titus 3:9-10, these divisive false teachers were to be cast out as unbelievers, excommunicated from the church.
As I mentioned last week, the word “sound” is the same word used in verse 9 and later in chapter 2. The word means healthy; we get our word hygiene from it. To be sound in the faith means to be spiritually healthy and growing in accordance with correct Biblical teaching. Because, as we will see, only when we first understand what the truth really is will we be able to live godly lives. Knowing and acting upon truth always leads to godliness. In contrast, the false teachings were always harming, ruining households, causing chaos, and ultimately destroying the very hope of salvation.
From here, Paul begins to explain the unsound teaching of these false teachers. What exactly did this unhealthy doctrine to consist of? Paul highlights two characteristics. First is their “Jewish myths.” This term “myths” is used only in the Pastoral epistles and 2 Peter, and always in a disparaging sense. In the Old Testament, it referred to anything dreamt up or created in the human mind, such as plans on how a person can succeed in life, what someone can do to be blessed by God or to win His approval, or theories on how God operates. All of these myths, these ideas, were separate from or beyond what the Word of God teaches. But, with “itching ears” the naive could be easily led astray by false teachers.
The second component of the typical contents of their false teachings were the man-devised commands, not Biblical commands, concerning what one could or could not do or should or should not do. Some examples are, “Don’t eat this,” “Don’t do that,” “Wash in this manner, this many times,” and so on.
This expression “the commandments of men” reflects back to Isaiah 29:13, which Christ quoted in Mark 7:5-8 and Matthew 15:7-9. In both of those passages, Jesus was condemning the practices of the Pharisees, the forerunners of the Judaizers. We read in Mark 7:5-8:
The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him [Jesus], “Why do Your
disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders [myths
and commandments of men], but eat their bread with impure
hands?” And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you
hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from Me.
But in vain do they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. [myths and
commandments of men]
Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”
[myths and commandments of men]
Paul continues in verse 15 to specifically explain the foolish thinking that is behind these Judaizers’ teachings which allowed for their evil lifestyles. The origin of their foolish thinking started with their concept of “purity.” He says, “15To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.”
The context of Paul’s letter to Titus indicates that Paul is referring to the practices of the Judaizers and, among other things, their outward ceremonial rites of purification. Their wrongful teaching stated that as long as you followed the outward religious rituals, you were made pure or acceptable in God’s eyes and could do whatever you wanted. Similar to our modern idea, “Go to church, do your religious thing once a week, and then you can live anyway you please.” You could touch anything, do anything, think about any immoral thing you wanted and remain as morally pure as the driven snow, as long as you followed their false teachings concerning religious ritual.
That may be surprising to some and they may wonder, “How could anyone come to believe that?” Simple. It comes from a misunderstanding of the Biblical concept of “purity.” The term “pure” is used in two ways Biblically: one refers to a ritual and outward purity, the other to the inner moral purity of the heart. In Old Testament Law, outward purity was maintained by not touching dead animals or another person’s blood, by not eating forbidden foods, or by making sure you followed the Old Testament laws of purification. Paul’s Jewish Christian opponents taught that an inwardly morally pure person was made unclean inwardly by doing any of these forbidden outward actions. Further, Paul’s opponents taught that one could attain inner moral purity by following the outward ritualistic ascetic laws. Through their religious practices, they were teaching that one could win or maintain God’s approval by them, which is the antithesis to the gospel.
What Paul is asserting here is that those who are inwardly morally defiled are so because their internal parts, their minds and consciences, are corrupted because they refuse to believe what God says. In particular, they refused to believe that the finished work of Christ is the only way to be made pure and thus acceptable to God. As a result of their refusal to put their trust in Christ, they remained inwardly impure, defiled, and corrupt. (The verb “defilement” signals a state of corruption resulting from past actions, decisions, or wrong thinking.) Hence, to the inwardly morally defiled and impure, nothing, even ritualistic acts, were accepted by God as pure, nor were their religious acts able to help them earn God’s approval.
Jesus clearly spoke out against this kind of pharisaical thinking and outwardly religious living and instead exalted purity to the realm of the inner man. Regarding purity in the inner man as being more important than outward ritual automatically does away with the idea that ceremonial acts like special washings lead to inner purity. Look what Luke records Jesus saying in Luke 11:37-40. We read:
Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch
with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table. When the
Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He [Jesus] had not first
ceremonially washed before the meal. But the Lord said to him,
“Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter;
but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. You
foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside
also?”
Do you remember in Acts 10 when Peter was on the housetop and became hungry and fell into a trance, that the Lord presented him with foods that previously the Jews were prohibited to eat? Peter refused to eat the food because he didn’t want to become “unclean.” But Jesus said to him in verse 15, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” Both here, and in Luke, Jesus makes it clear that a pure mind or heart cannot be contaminated by physical contact with anything impure. Furthermore, the purest minds or hearts will have no relish in seeking that which is impure, defiled, or corrupted.
Hence when the Apostle Paul says, “To the pure, all things are pure,” his intended meaning of “pure” is exemplified in those persons who are pure in heart by virtue of their faith being placed alone in Christ’s work upon the cross on their behalf. This is clear because he states that “those who are defiled (impure, corrupted, polluted)” are specifically referred to as “those who do not believe.”
Let’s return to Titus 1:16. Whereas verse 15 looks at the attitudes of the false teachers, verse 16 views their actions. It says, “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.” The false teachers’ behavior and actions betray who they really are as opposed to who they claim to be. They profess to know God, or to even have a better knowledge of God than others, but their behavior disproves that claim.
The behavior that gave away their true beliefs is described by three words. “Detestable” is an Old Testament term describing the spiritual impurity that came from being an idol worshiper. The idea is that something other than God was really number one in their lives. To be accused of being an idolater as a Judaizer would have been unacceptable to them, but in their case, it was true.
Secondly, Paul describes them as “disobedient,” which is self-explanatory. And finally they are “worthless,” which envisions a test that has failed and denotes potential disqualification. As a result, “any good deed” that they may do is profitless. And by the way, that expression “good deed” refers to any eternally good work, not morally good work. So anything they think they are investing their time and energy in, with the hope that it will bring some form of eternal benefit, will actually be empty and worthless.
In the end, Paul’s opponents were teaching by their actions and their beliefs that what a person believes and how a person behaves are not related, and that godly living is not necessary to be a follower of Christ. This has been some of the same religious teaching and permissiveness that has been allowed to exist in the church today. That’s why in the next two chapters, Paul hammers out one practical area of living as a godly believer after another. Paul makes it his mission through the rest of the letter to make sure that in that immoral culture of Crete, godliness does mean something. Godliness is important. Furthermore, godliness comes as a direct result of being saved and being a follower of Christ. The opposite is also true: no change in one’s personal godliness is evidence that one has not been saved.
So, let’s think about how this might apply to us as Christians today. How does a Christian maintain a mind and conscience that is pure amidst a corrupt and polluted world? By staying out of bars? By giving up booze and drugs? By refusing to watch TV? By turning over twenty “new leaves” and choosing to clean up one's act? Practicing these things may be somewhat beneficial, but they don’t go to the root of the problem in the inner man. The only solution for a Christian who struggles with sin in their life is to attack it in the area of the inner man. And from the rest of Scripture, we learn that this attack begins with the mind and what one thinks and believes. The New Testament continually stresses that the transforming of our minds is what leads to the transforming of our lives. Proverbs 23:7 teaches us, “For as a man thinketh, so is he.”
Hence I suggest three actions one can take to find freedom from the entanglement of any sin in your life. The order in which you take these actions may or may not follow the order in which I mention them. The three actions are: to flee, to confess, and to reprogram your mind. In 2 Timothy 2:22, Paul tells Timothy, “Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” Obviously, there is some wisdom in “fleeing youthful lusts” by obviously not putting your self physically in a position to be tempted by various lusts. If your struggle is with food, drink, pornography, or anger, don’t put yourself in positions where people or those objects will be a temptation to you.
But simply running from those temptations does nothing to change the inner man. Hence the second action is required. Lust is a desire, and desire is a mental attitude. So to “flee lusts” is more than just running or avoiding certain tempting circumstances. To nip the sin problem in the bud, hit it head on in the mind. So how do you do that? By confessing or admitting that what you are thinking or feeling is wrong. Admit it to God and yourself. Maybe you are beating up on yourself because you made a mistake and you feel like a failure or that you are unworthy. If so, admit that you are feeling insecure due to rejection or feeling like a failure because you didn’t perform well. Or, maybe you are struggling with a food addiction, drinking, pornography, or anger management. If your living patterns are going to change, you must begin with admitting to yourself and God that you have a problem.
But the third action is really the key. This is where you isolate your temptation in your life and zero in on God’s Word. Go to the Lord and ask Him to reprogram your mind with the truth of His Word concerning who you are now, as His new creation in Christ. You know well what you were before you committed your life to Christ, but now you need to learn who you are in Christ. This is where you isolate that sin which so easily entangles you and learn from Scripture what God’s word says is true about you in relation to the temptation of that sin. The more you understand what the Scripture says is true about you, and you believe what it says is true about you, the more your life and actions will change.
Spiritual warfare, according to 2 Corinthians 10:1-5, is not made up of cursing or yelling at Satan, demanding him to leave you alone. Spiritual warfare is a battle of the mind, choosing either to believe what God says is true or what others say is true. Hence, when you believe what God says is true, you are standing against and resisting Satan. James 4:7 promises that if you resist Satan, he will flee from you. And the best way to resist him is to focus on and believe what God says to be true. Believing what God says does not make it true. It is true, whether you believe it or not. So why not believe it?
Let me demonstrate how this resisting Satan by believing in God’s Word can untangle you from temptation. Let’s say that you, a Christian, are struggling with being a failure, or lacking confidence, or feeling accepted. You have had significant others in your life who have rejected you, condemned you, and put you down, and as a result you keep looking for others to affirm you. You may even doubt that you are worthy of being loved or that God even loves you. Regardless of your past hurts and rejection, regardless of your past failures, look at what God says is true about you ever since you put your trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
John 1:12 I am God’s beloved chosen child.
John 15:15 I am God’s “friend.”
Romans 5:1 I have been “justified,” made approved before God.
Ephesians 1:1 I am a “set apart” one for God’s purposes.
Romans 8:1,2 I am free forever from others’ condemnation.
Matthew 5:13,14 I am the “salt of the earth” and “light of the world.”
John 15:16 I have been chosen by God to “bear fruit.”
There are many more truths about who you are in Christ. But for now, let’s practice something. Repeat out loud these Biblical truths with me.
When you feel slighted, rejected, or put down by others, you need to go back to God’s Word and isolate those facts that God says are true about you. Repeat them to yourself, out loud if necessary. Focus on them. As you do, the hurt and confusion that comes from the rejection of others will loosen its grip on you. In the end, you can lift up your head and say, “Because God loves me and has saved me, I am important! I have worth, regardless of what others say! In spite of the mistakes I have made, my worth is not based on my performance or on what others think of me, but my worth is based on what Christ has done on my behalf. And what God says is true about me.”
Let’s try one more: Let’s say that you are struggling with fantasies or immoral thoughts. What does God’s Word say about who you are in Christ as a new creation? Not who you are to become, but who you really are, right now as a believer? Let me just show you a few. By the way, Neil Anderson has a great book that explains and summarizes each of these verses. You can find several of these truths listed in the appendix of his book entitled Who I Am In Christ.
Ephesians 1:1 I am a “set apart” one for God’s purposes.
2 Corinthians 4:7 I am a holy “vessel” carrying around Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:9 I am a royal priest of God.
John 15:16 I have been “chosen” by God and appointed to “bear fruit.”
1 Corinthians 3:16 I am God’s “temple.”
Now, let’s repeat those out loud together.
There are many more truths about who you are in Christ that directly affect the way you think about you and your body and how you chose to use your body. When you focus on these truths about who you are in Christ when immoral temptation comes and believe what God’s Word says about you, you are resisting the devil, and he will flee from you; and with his fleeing so will that momentary temptation. When you realize the truth about who you are and believe that you are a holy royal priest before God, you will quit thinking immoral thoughts.
Changes in one’s lifestyle are the direct product of having one’s thoughts and beliefs changed. When your thinking becomes more Biblical, Christian growth is the result.
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