Wouldn’t it be great if everyone in the church was like you? I’ve heard it said before that “church is great – except for all the people.” The fact is, the church is the people – imperfect members of the human race who came to Christ from various backgrounds and dysfunctions.
Sometimes I wish that when we knelt down to receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior – when He cleansed our sin he also put us through some sort of bio-filter that would cleanse our personalities as well.
Alas, God, in His wisdom, decided that he would remodel instead of rebuild us – after giving us a heart of flesh – new eternal life – He sets about fixing up our personalities by tearing us down and rebuilding us up more and more in His image.
Such is the case on the island of Crete where Paul sends Titus to clean up some messes that occurred thanks to the Old Man creeping into the church. Crete is located southeast of Greece in the Mediterranean. It’s a large island – 160 x 35 miles. In Paul’s day it had hundreds of cities – all fiercely independent. The Cretans were called “liars, evil beasts, slow bellies” and “always brigands, piratical, unjust.” (Epimenedes and Leonides). We’ll see one of these quotes in verse 12.
On the day of Pentecost, Cretan Jews were in Jerusalem and heard the gospel – got saved, then went back home and shared it with their fellow countrymen. But this was a saved bunch of Cretans – and their personality traits came right along with them into the church – causing all sorts of problems – problems Titus must address.
So this book gives us some ways to help us deal with the flesh and help our churches reflect more the character of Jesus Christ. The book was probably written just after 1 Timothy. Paul and Titus had traveled together and had gone to Crete. Paul left – and left Titus behind to clean things up (“thanks a lot, Paul”). And, yes, Titus was much like Timothy in that he was a protégé Paul was training for ministry work.
Titus was not a pastor of a specific church or a “bishop” over all the churches on the island. He was Paul’s apostolic representative – and so carried a lot more weight – if perhaps not in the eyes of the Cretans. Paul wrote the letter to give Titus more authority and instructions on what to do.
There are three characteristics of the Cretans that we too can fall prey to, and they are a deadly combination: immorality, independence, and idleness.
1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— 2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3 and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
4 To Titus, my true son in our common faith:
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
There were three influences on Crete that caused problems for the church and for young Christians. It was both a training center for Roman soldiers and a stopping off point for ships crossing the Mediterranean. Thirdly, there was a large population of Jews on the island – Jews who did not want to give up much of their religion – and brought it into Christianity. Judaizers – they were called – wanted Christians to follow Jewish law and custom before they came to Christ.
So you have – a brutal violence being lauded (Roman soldiers), a careless lifestyle applauded (seafaring people) and the culture of legalism demanded – so you get trouble and confusion. Apparently the Cretans were really open to any doctrine that floated around so Paul from stem to stern makes this a doctrine heavy epistle.
(1) Right off in verse 1 notice that he says the “faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness.” It is the combination of our faith or response to God’s choosing of us that leads to salvation – not works we’ve done according to some law or code – nor are we simply passive – we must respond. And contrary to the false teaching that was going on there – this faith leads somewhere - and that is recognition of the truth that leads to a change in character and a change in behavior. Think dynamic, not static.
(2-3) It was part of God’s design from the beginning but was hidden until Jesus but now God Himself commanded Paul to preach it. This seems really aimed at the notion of having to become a Jew before becoming a Christian. “God our Savior” is a common term found in the Old Testament – (Chronicles and Psalms, mostly) but here it is definitely connected to Jesus Christ. Jesus is God! Paul will repeat this phrase two more times in this book alone.
So – God appointed you to salvation – if you respond and believe – and trust that you are being changed by Him! Now on to the reason for the letter:
5 The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.
So Titus had two jobs: fix up some broken stuff and appoint good leaders for the churches. What was broken was their understanding of true doctrine, and then good leaders to help back that up. Bad doctrine led them to bad assumptions and bad decisions and then bad character. You have to start with good ingredients to make a nutritious meal. More on that in verse 15.
Paul then first gives guidelines for good leadership.
6 An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. 7 Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless — not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. 8 Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. 9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
Many of these qualities are similar to the ones found in 1 Timothy 3. I would refer you to that study for an in-depth discussion of the qualifications for leadership. What I would like to focus on is how the characteristics of good elders here deals with the situation at hand:
To Timothy – good leaders were needed to get the church in Ephesus back on track – here Paul wants Titus to appoint good leaders to the get the church moving in the right direction. It was like a powerful sports car just idling its engine – lots of potential but not in gear. Good leaders can help push in the clutch and step on the gas while steering on the road!
(6) Paul says a good leader should not be promiscuous – and should be a good example at home first – of good teaching. He’s not saying necessarily that if a leader’s kids rebel they should resign – but a leader’s first ministry should be teaching his kids – and it’s a gauge for that in choosing leaders. Paul adds that they should “believe” – this isn’t an exhaustive list of qualifications for all time – otherwise Ephesian elders could have unbelieving kids but Cretan elders couldn’t. These were relatively young believers – so they should first attend to their own household and sharing the gospel before leading the church.
He uses the word “blameless” twice – in verses 6 and 7. This was especially important in Crete – where bad character was looked upon as good. That’s not always the way leaders are looked at in a culture – so Paul emphasizes it here. It suggests that a person’s character will reflect on the church.
(7-8) We’re going to see in a moment that the people who were influencing the Cretan Christians were the opposite of these characteristics. Leaders should desire to lead out of love – not for money. They should solve problems with patience and gentleness – not out of arrogance (looking down on others), over-bearing (pushing people around), quick-tempered (making snap judgments and forcing their way on others) and not so addicted as to be ineffective (addicted to wine).
(9) Then he talks about what they should be: open to people, loving and sticking to good character, and sticking to the truth of the gospel and able to pass on that truth.
So now he gives the other side of the coin – these are the people who were speaking into the lives of the Cretans – and were supporting a culture and personality that already existed:
10 For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. 11 They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach — and that for the sake of dishonest gain. 12 Even one of their own prophets has said, "Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons." 13 This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith 14 and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth.
(10) Titus was not being attacked by false teachers like Timothy – but they were a big influence on the people none-the-less. Here he focuses on the Judaizers. These were Jewish leaders who insisted that Christians must become Jews and follow all the Jewish laws in order to be saved. Here they are called the “circumcision group” because they also told the men to become circumcised – to become a Jew.
Gal 2:16 … a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
(11) “Put a muzzle on it” would be a good way to translated “they must be silenced.” The stuff they were spewing was not only ruining individual lives but whole families. It’s amazing how one bad seed can grow into a big bad crop. These people were basically creating their own religion – for the purpose of profit. Always look out if money is emphasized – always.
(12) This saying was made by Epimenedes 600 years earlier – and that’s why Paul says it was prophetic – not in the Biblical sense – but he was right.
Liars – they would rather believe and spread a lie than dig in to find the truth
Evil brutes – out of control – given to violence (thus the Roman soldier influence)
Lazy Gluttons – more into making money than in earning it.
(13) The culture had worn off on these people – you know, sometimes we just need to realize that what the Word says about us is in fact true and stop trying to self-justify.
James 1:22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it — he will be blessed in what he does.
(14) So what were they believing? Jewish myths. Apparently they were creating new stuff out of the Old Testament. They then mixed that together with paganism in a process known as syncretism – to create a whole new and totally false religion. Secondly they were listening to the “commands of those who reject the truth” - basically humanistic or human ideas rather than Biblical ideas.
There are warnings for us today here too: don’t take the Old Testament out of context – it points to Jesus Christ. And don’t let your own thinking cloud your judgment of the Word. There are lots of guys and gals out there teaching stuff that is a bunch of bunk but sounds good. Check everything out against the “outline” of the word (from 2 Timothy Chapter 1).
15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16 They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
Whew – pretty strong words. Verse 15 isn’t moral relativism – “because I’m pure I can do anything.” Paul is coming against legalism – we don’t win God’s favor by following dietary or ceremonial restrictions – all foods are pure and we aren’t made pure by obeying external commands. However, to these Judaizers – nothing is pure because of their twisted way of looking at God’s grace – so even in their thought patterns they are corrupted.
They claim to know God – but what they do goes against that. Just because someone claims to know God and even knows their Bible – does not mean their teaching is good or that they are saved – more on that in a moment.
They are detestable: they give a bad taste in God’s mouth. They are disobedient because they don’t follow the Word, and they then are simply not useful for any good purpose – you can’t turn their syncretism into some valuable doctrine.
Today we have this thing where there is value in everything anyone says. I reject that – if something is patently contrary to the revealed Word of God then it is false and should be rejected.
Conclusions
Good character starts with good modeling
How to spot bad teachers
- Focus more attention on themselves than on Christ;
- Ask you to do something that will compromise or dilute your faith;
- De-emphasize the divine nature of Christ or the inspiration of the Bible;
- Divide believers with quarrelsome and contentious teaching;
- Urge believers to make decisions based more on human judgment than on prayer and biblical guidelines. (from The Life Application Commentary Series copyright (C)
When you look around do you see nothing but good or nothing but evil?
Phil 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.
To us who have been made pure by Christ – we look for and appreciate the good even in an evil world. To those caught in legalism, nothing looks good.
How to fight immorality, independence, and idleness.
Be self inspective – you aren’t as perfect as you may think.
Engage in active fellowship – with God and with His family, everyone believer has something to teach you.
Realize you haven’t arrived yet – there’s work to be done in your life – more remodeling, so pick up a hammer and swing away.
For an audio copy of this message and many more Bible studies, visit www.Calvarychapelnewberg.org
