Thoughts on Titus VI: Threats to the Church

This is a consideration of the letter that Paul wrote to Titus, a christian coworker of his whom he
sent to Crete to set things in order there. In previous articles we saw that Paul has emphasized a
couple things in the letter. First, he’s talked about the word, which he has also called the faith
(Titus 1:1, 3, 9). This is all that God has to say to men, namely the Old and New Testaments.
Then, in 1:5, Paul begins to talk about the importance of the elder/overseer, and the requirement
that he have a character molded by the word of God, which men who occupy that office must
hold fast. Now, Paul is pivoting to talk about the threat that he and the elders of the church of
God face—false teachers. These are people in the church of God who refuse to submit to the
authority of God and teach false things. In this two-part article, I will first examine the
characteristics and actions that these threats to the church have, and in the next part I will take a
stab at identifying some historical and current threats to the Church.

Titus 1:10 For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of
the circumcision, Titus 1:11 who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families,
teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. Titus 1:12 One of themselves,
a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” Titus
1:13 This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in
the faith, Titus 1:14 not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn
away from the truth. Titus 1:15 To 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. Titus
1:16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and
disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

Firstly, the threat that successfully preaching the gospel and leading the church face are men and
women who refuse to submit to the will of God. Paul first tells Titus that rebellious men pose a
threat to the church. The Greek adjective ἀνυπότακτος which Paul uses here occurs four times in
the New Testament. One of them is in Titus 1:6, where Paul states that an overseer’s son ought
not to be accused of dissipation or rebellion. In that context the rebellion is against the father
whose eligibility to lead in the church is in question. Is Paul saying that the men in 1:10 are
rebellious against their parents, too? No, he is pointing out that these men are not subject to the
heavenly Father. These men are independent of Him. Whatever they know of God— be it the
love of their mother who put their children’s needs before their own, the beauty of the sun as it
sets on the Greek archipelagos, or the conscience which if not completely suppressed, which is
enflamed because of their evil deeds—they have rejected it. They may have even heard the
gospel’s hope of eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ and have rejected it. Paul uses words
of a similar meaning to bear this out: in 1:15-16, he says that the same people are unbelieving
and disobedient. This is all with respect to the God who created them and offered redemption for them.

The rejection of God has consequences, both in this life and in the next. In 1:12, Paul tells Titus
that these men are evil beasts. They’re monsters. They give free-reign to their base appetites, be
it sex, drugs, or even the merciless competition of the business or sports world. Now, before we
wag our finger at the CEO whose sexual misconduct brings on him the wrath of social media,
Let us first look in the mirror. We are all monsters. Jedediah Leland’s summary of Citizen Kane fits us all: “…he was never brutal; he just did brutal things.” Somehow, since our sins don’t
make the front page of X, we have convinced ourselves that we are not as bad as Donald Trump
or Kevin Spacey. Yet, the words of Jesus set the standard: “…but I say to you that everyone who
looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Mt.
5:28).” Is there a man or woman who has not sinned against another in their heart? Now, if it’s
true that all men have sinned, then what makes the evil beast of whom Paul warns Titus different
from the apostle and his coworker? Are we not all monsters? The difference is that when Paul
and Titus heard all that God has to say to men, they did not continue in rebellion against Him,
but they recognized that they were in rebellion against their Creator. God showed them they were monsters, and they, faced with the facts, repented and placed their faith in God who was
powerful to save. These men, the threat of which Paul warns Titus, have not repented, but have
rejected God, and so God has given them over to their worldly pleasures (cf. Rom 1:17ff). Paul
even describes these men lazy gluttons, defiled and even detestable (1:12, 15, 16).

It would be one thing if such men kept to themselves. This, as Paul points out, is not the case.
After describing them as rebellious men, Paul tells Titus that they are empty talkers and
deceivers. The word which the NASB translates “empty talkers” is ματαιολόγος. It’s a
compound word, the deriving ultimately from the word μάτη, which means fault or folly , and
λόγος, which means word. In contrast to the word (λόγος) which is the faith and knowledge of
the truth in Titus 1:1, which God manifested in Titus 1:3, and which He wants the overseers of
His church to hold fast in Titus 1:9, the λόγος οf these rebellious men is foolish. In addition to
this, they intend to deceive people into thinking that their rebellious ways are good. As we will
see in the next part, they even try to adorn their folly in religious language so that their teachings
might pass as Christian truth, when in fact, they are teaching what they should not teach for the
sake of sordid gain (1:11). Paul’s focus here is not to call out those who are of the world and
deceive others of the world. the apostle has no concern for this. Rather, he is warning Titus that
such men are operating in the Church. They are upsetting whole families in which there are the
saints chosen of God (1:11). Think of the Lord Jesus in the temple. He overturns the tables of the
money changers (John 2:15). This verb overturn is the same verb which Paul uses to express the
upset these men are causing in Christian homes. What Jesus does justly to clear out corruption in
the temple, these rebels do unjustly to inculcate corruption in christian houses. They are
introducing teachings into the church at Crete that are opposite to those that God entrusted Paul
to communicate and protect—all that God has to say to men. Paul later says of these deceivers
that, “they profess to know to God, but by their deeds they deny him. (1:16)”

After reminding Titus of the faith of the saints, the word with which God entrusted him and
which the overseers must hold fast, Paul issues him a grave warning about the many men who
intend to pervert the sound teaching of Christianity. These men are in the church of God. They
refuse to submit to the authority of God and they teach false things.

Matthew lives in Northern Virginia. He is a teacher by trade and loves to study the Scriptures and the history of the church. His wife Marina and he fellowship at Nokesville Bible Chapel.