Lesson for January 11, 2023
The Book of Titus
Chapter 1:7-16
“For the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word, which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teachfor the sake of sordid gain.”
Paul had just reminded Titus of his responsibility on the island of Crete, which was to establish churches and identify men with the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher. Paul then reminded Titus of the qualifications for the position of pastor-teacher. There are three Greek words used to identify the pastor: 1) elder which is the Greek word “presbuteros,” which emphasizes the person and the rank of the pastor, the highest authority in the local church 2) bishop which is the Greek word “episkopos,” which means overseer, or manager. This emphasizes work and function of the pastor 3) pastor-teacher is a hyphenated Greek word “poimenos-didaskalos, which is the function of the same principle. “Poimenos,” means shepherd, “didaskalos,” means teacher. The shepherd keeps the congregation from straying doctrinally, by protecting them against false doctrine (shepherding them) and by feeding them accurate doctrine (teaching).
These three words for the pastor are interchangeable, according to Acts 20:17 where the pastors-teachers in Ephesus were called elders (“presbuteros”). In Acts 20:28, the pastor-teachers in Ephesus were called overseers or bishops which is “episkopos” and they were commanded to shepherd the sheep which is the Greek word “poimainos.” All three words are used to indicate that elders, bishops, and pastor-teachers are all the same person. The three words all carry the connotation of authority within the local church. (I Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:7,17)
For the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain. We now have some personal standards for the appointment of pastors. The Greek word for above reproach is “anenkletos,” which means not to charge, not to accuse, or not to institute judicial proceedings against someone.
For the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward. Overseer is the Greek word “episkopos,” which means bishop and is a word of authority, a synonym for the pastor. This word emphasizes the function of leadership, the authority of a pastor. The Greek word for steward is “oikonomos,” which means good administrator. The connection between “oikonomos” and “episkopos” establishes the principle of a pastor’s authority within the church. The pastor is the final authority in both spiritual and temporal matters of the local church. (Hebrews 13:7)
There is to be a team concept of the local church with the pastor as the “quarterback.” Remember that in Acts 6:1-7, the deacons began to perform the administrative functions to release the pastor’s time for studying and praying. Authority by the pastor is established by accurately teaching God’s Word.
(I Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:7,17)
Not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain.Self-willed means stubbornness and antagonism toward people. Under the principle of grace toward all, a pastor must be fair. Prejudice must never destroy his fairness. Everyone in the congregation is to be treated equally.
Not quick-tempered means a relaxed mental attitude. The Greek words mean not prone to jump to conclusions that lead to anger. Not addicted to wine, means not prone to drunkenness, or addicted to it. This doesn’t forbid drinking, but it does prohibit drunkenness. Not pugnacious means not quarrelsome. Not fond of sordid gain means not interested in becoming wealthy.
But hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word, which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. Hospitable means having a gracious attitude toward everyone. Loving what is good refers to love to produce divine good under the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Sensible means stability of mind, a relaxed mental attitude, and freedom from mental attitude sins, which cause instability. Just means fair or equitable. Devout means holy or set apart to God, which is demonstrated by impersonal love for everyone. Self-controlled has to do with mastery of the details of life or self-disciplined. Holding fast the faithful word means to never deviate from accurate Bible doctrine. The pastor-teacher must love Bible doctrine and communicate it in a way that every believer can properly apply it. Faithful means trustworthy or dependable with reference to the Word of God. In accordance with the teaching means according to the teaching of the mystery doctrine of the church Age, which Paul had taught Titus.
So that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict means a pastor must be able to encourage believers to live their spiritual lives in accordance with accurate Bible doctrine. And the pastor must be able to defend his doctrinal position against those who oppose the accurate teaching of God’s Word.
For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teachfor the sake of sordid gain. The island of Crete was an unruly society. Without a spiritual shepherd the churches could not function and were prone to deception from false teachers. Titus, as Paul’s “trouble-shooter” had the responsibility of bringing order out of chaos and refuting the false teaching.
Rebellious is the Greek word “anupotaktos” meaning insubordinate, undisciplined, or unruly. These were the characteristics of those who had rejected Bible doctrine and were teaching false doctrine. Empty talkers is the Greek words “mataioo” and “logos” meaning to speak empty or vain words (false doctrine).
Deceivers is the Greek word “phrenapates” meaning to defraud or to trick. The ones teaching this false doctrine were obviously attempting to trick people deliberately in order to deceive them into giving them money.
Especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. The circumcision refers to Jews who were teaching false doctrine, such as the Judaizers. Whether they were believers or unbelievers, we are not told. What we do know was that their false teaching was corrupting the churches of Crete and causing entire families to be deceived. False teaching always destroys the local church, when left unchecked. Therefore, there had to be a strong doctrinal emphasis by the pastor-teacher to protect the congregation and Titus had the knowledge of Bible doctrine and the spiritual maturity to handle it.
Verses 12-16
“One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. For this reason, reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. 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. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.”
The Cretans were so famous for lying that Attic Greek had a verb, “kretizo,” which meant to speak like a Cretan, which means to lie. Attic Greek also had a noun, “kretismos,” which meant to behave like a Cretan. The Greek word for beast is used for either a wild animal or a brute, referring to a person who had lost the function of his mind and was mentally unstable. Lazy gluttons refers to people who were minus self-discipline and who overindulged in everything.
For this reason, reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. The Greek word for reprove is “elenco,” which means to rebuke and refute. Those who were spreading false teaching and those believers who were following them needed a harsh rebuke for their actions in order to bring them back to the reality of accurate Bible doctrine. And those who had accepted these false teachings and their teachers needed to be reassured that the doctrine they had been taught by Paul was accurate.
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. The Greek word for pure is “katharos,” which means clean, referring to those who were not being deceived by false doctrine and were remaining true to accurate doctrine.
Defiled is the Greek word “miaino,” which literally means to be walking down the street and the contents of the chamber pot are dumped on you. In the time of the writing of Titus, sewage was collected in chamber pots and dumped from the balcony onto the street. This often resulted in clothes being stained or polluted. Mental attitude sins are “the sewage” of the mind which pollute and destroy accurate Bible doctrine. The reason a lot of believers are not happy is that they are full of mental attitude sins which defile them. (Hebrews 12:15) Unbelieving refers to a believer who refuses to believe accurate Bible doctrine.
But both their mind and their conscience are defiled. The mentality of the soul has three parts: the conscious mind, divided into two lobes (left and right) and the subconscious mind. The left lobe (the mind) is the Greek word “nous.” This is the perceptive lobe, the area into which academic knowledge is received. The right lobe (the heart) is the Greek word “kardia” where academic knowledge is converted into spiritual knowledge. Conscience is the Greek word “suneidesis,” referring to our norms and standards.
They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. Remember, Paul was writing about those who were defiling the churches on Crete by believing the false doctrines of Jewish tradition and human viewpoint teaching. The Greek word for profess is “homologeo” and means to confess, to cite, to admit or to acknowledge. These people said they knew God, which meant Paul was referring to certain believers in the churches of Crete. So, they denied, renounced, or contradicted God by their evil deeds of believing the distortion of the truth. They contradicted their own profession of faith in Christ and were out of fellowship with God and had no divine production.
Instead of divine production, these believers in Crete were accepting false teaching and were producing human good but calling it divine good. Paul said this type of deceit was detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. This is what mental attitude sins do to believers. Detestable is the Greek word “bdelktos” meaning foul, abominable, or abhorrent.
Mental attitude sins indicate that no matter what you do, you destroy the purity of your production of divine good because you are operating out of fellowship with God and are being controlled by your sin nature. Mental attitude sinning turns what should or could be divine good into human good.
Disobedient is a reference to negative volition toward Bible doctrine. The Greek word for disobedient is “apeithes,” which means unwilling to be persuaded or to believe. Because of negative volition toward doctrine, certain believers on Crete were accepting the lies of the false teachers and were destroying their spiritual lives.
Worthless is the Greek word “adokimos,” meaning depraved or unprincipled. So, they acknowledged that they knew God, but in production they contradicted this statement. Therefore, they had made their spiritual lives null and void because of their negative volition and rejection of the accurate teaching of God’s Word.