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Titus 1:10  (King James Version)
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<< Titus 1:9   Titus 1:11 >>


Titus 1:10-16

The New King James titles this section "The Elder's Task." It covers instructions to the ministry in their job to protect the church from false teachers. In this section is the famous verse 12, "Cretans are always liars," and then he talks about those who are preaching Jewish fables and teaching the commandments of men.

Paul is giving general guidelines to Titus, the pastor on Crete, to help him to read the motives of the people who were affecting the congregation. One might say he was helping Titus to read their fruit. Does not scripture say, "You will know them by their fruits?" This is one of Christ's prime teachings in the Sermon on the Mount so that we would know the wolves that come among the flock. Paul is doing this same with Titus except putting it into different words.

He is telling the ministry that they have to get inside the heads of the people to sense the type of people that they are. Ministers have to be able to "read their minds" by observing what they say and do. This is not a Gestapo action, but an exercise to protect the flock. Among a minister's primary jobs is to ensure that no one has entered the flock who does not belong there, and to usher him out, if need be, to protect the rest of flock.

Oftentimes, goats come in among the sheep, and the goats need to be chased off due to their contrary influence on the sheep. Matthew 25 is clear about where the sheep end up, and where the goats end up.

Paul is instructing Titus in how to do his job—how to protect the flock of which he was made leader.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Is God in All Our Thoughts?



Titus 1:10-13

Paul laid it on the line, did he not? Of course, we must remember that this was a letter to an individual, Titus, meaning that this was private correspondence—but it could not have been all that private because it has survived almost 2,000 years! Yet, knowing what we do of the apostle Paul, it is doubtful that he would have pulled his punches much had he given this directly to the Cretans in a sermon. Perhaps he would have used more tact, but he would have certainly delivered his stinging message without apology. Paul is instructing Titus that the members of his congregation will be tough folk to teach. To "set in order the things that are lacking," a certain amount of bluntness would be needed.

Paul commands in Titus 3:2, "speak evil of no one," yet he says some seemingly harsh things about the Cretans. Is this a contradiction? How can we balance his words with this instruction? First, the Greek word translated as "evil" is blasphemeo (Strong's #987). Its relationship to the English "blaspheme" is easily seen, and that is indeed what it means, "to blaspheme," "to be profane, foul, abusive, and coarse." Was what Paul said any of these?

Second, it seems that the Cretans had quite a reputation as immoral people. The "prophet" Paul quotes in Titus 1:12 was Epimenides, a Cretan writer who died in 538 BC. In a poem of his, well known in the ancient world, he writes that his countrymen are "always liars, evil beasts and idle bellies [gluttons]." From this comes the Epimenides Paradox: Epimenides said all Cretans were liars, and Epimenides was a Cretan. If all Cretans are liars, then is his statement true or false? It is an interesting exercise, to be sure. Nevertheless, "to act like a Cretan" in the ancient world meant "to lie."

The Roman historian Titus Livius speaks of Cretan "avarice." The Greek historian Polybius writes of their "ferocity and fraud" and "their mendacity"—which could be called second-century BC political correctness. "Ferocity and fraud" and "mendacity" simply mean that Polybius thought Cretans were fierce, lying cheats. Another Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, writes that the Cretans tend to "riotous insubordination." In Halley's Bible Handbook, Henry Halley comments that they were "bold sailors and great bowmen with loose morals."

This is what Titus is up against and why Paul is so blunt in his assessment of the situation. Paul was not speaking evil of them; he was being truthful. He in no way blasphemed them. When he quotes the writings of Epimenides, calling the Cretans "lazy" and "liars," he could have softened his rhetoric to "motivationally dispossessed" and "accuracy challenged," but would that have served Titus as well? Or us?

Paul's instructions to Titus are still very relevant today. We have been called out of a world not unlike that of ancient Crete, and we are in daily contact with similar immoral and ungodly people whose actions and attitudes can infect us if we let down our guard. Following the same advice Paul gave Titus can help us maintain our vigilance and "set in order the things that are lacking."

Mike Ford
Paul's 'Politically Incorrect' Advice to Titus (Part One)


 
<< Titus 1:9   Titus 1:11 >>



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