“Appropriate Behaviour”
Chapter 3: 8b-15
Introduction:
The apostle Paul always carried around with him a deep burden for the spiritual welfare of those assemblies he had planted by the power and authority of the Holy Spirit. After writing about the trials he had experienced in his apostolic work he also mentions that he had an added burden. “Apart from these external trials, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:28). His burden was expressed in this letter to Titus. It was a real concern to Paul because after he had established assemblies and then moved on false teachers would come in to turn believers away from what Paul had been teaching. Many of these were false apostles masquerading as angels of light and like their father the devil agents of spiritual deception and lies spawned by that father of lies himself (2 Corinthians 11:12-14) (John 8:44).
Paul wanted to have those elders over whom the Holy Spirit had made overseers in the local assemblies and communities on the island of Crete to be sound in doctrine and in holy living. He had ordained some elders on Crete but after he had left he wanted Titus to complete the ordination of others who were also called by the Holy Spirit to be elders. After setting out the qualifications for elders Paul then addresses the false teachers infiltrating the assemblies and that Titus was to deal decisively with them. Paul also gave Titus the command to teach what was in accord with sound doctrine and practical instructions for the women and men in the assemblies both the young and the old including slaves. He then reaffirms the message of the gospel and the effects that it produces in the lives of those who have been saved according to the grace of God, and that these matters he had raised were trustworthy because they had come from God. And he addresses the matter of appropriate behaviour of all those who have trusted in God to save them and ends his letter mentioning the importance of personal relationships which he does in all of his letters and also giving personal directives to Titus.
Chapter 3: 8b-15
(Vs 8b-15) And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.” As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need. Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives. Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.”
Exposition:
“And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.”
“And I want you to stress these things” the phrase “to stress” describes; “to constantly affirm and strongly assert with absolute confidence.” This was no casual requirement Paul was expressing, but a command backed by apostolic authority that carried with it a sense of urgency and the necessity to carry it out. Godliness in the assembly members was the goal of the things Paul had been teaching.
“…so that those who have trusted in God,” who have placed their full confidence in God, who have the deep conviction that God can be trusted and that He will always do what is best for them in all the ever changing circumstances of life. It is to trust one’s soul to their faithful creator, especially in times of adversity, trial and persecution (1 Peter 4:19). That these…
“…may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.” To “be careful” is “to carefully and thoughtfully, and with an anxiousness to do what is good” in God’s sight and to please Him in every way possible. Those who have this attitude are “to devote themselves to doing what is good.” The phrase “to devote” describes “to practice continuously, to set in place, to superintend or to preside over and to be a protector or guardian” in matters of doing “what is good.”
The word “good” describes doing those things which are “beautiful, handsome, excellent, eminent, choice, surpassing, precious, useful, suitable, commendable, admirable, beautiful to look at, shapely, magnificent, excellent in its nature and characteristics, and therefore well adapted to its ends, genuine, approved and precious, that are praiseworthy and noble, beautiful by reason of purity of heart and life, and hence praiseworthy, morally good, honourable, conferring honour and affecting the mind agreeably and that are comforting and confirming.”
Such expressions and actions reflect the nature and character of our Triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These spiritual qualities in themselves, when exercised in the power of the Holy Spirit, enable us to be increasingly conformed to the image of the Son of God which God has predestined for us.
As Paul writes to the assemblies at Rome; “And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified” (Romans 8:28-30).
“These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.” For those who devote themselves to doing what is good, the things they do are excellent in God’s sight and approved by Him and every member of the assembly benefits from these excellent good works approved by God and man. For those with spiritual oversight of the assemblies they are also to devote themselves to good works but also to avoid certain things.
“But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.”
Titus was to avoid matters that were unprofitable and useless where spiritual matters were concerned. “To avoid” describes “to place around one’s self a protective barrier, to turn one’s self about for the purpose of avoiding something, to avoid it, or to shun it.” In other words Titus was to have nothing to do with the things Paul mentions. Titus was to avoid “foolish impious and godless controversies, debating about matters of controversy.” In Paul’s day there were stupid religious disputes over clean and unclean foods, Sabbath regulations, and observances of holy days and arguments over genealogies, both angelic and human. Paul mentions about these people doing this as rebellious, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision being the religious Jews who could not accept Paul’s teaching, as those ruining whole households teaching things they ought not to be teaching and in many cases that for the sake of getting money out of people (1:10-11). While Titus was to avoid useless disputes or from being side tracked by useless matters he was to rebuke those teachers sharply so that they might be sound in the faith and pay no attention to Jewish myths and the commands of those who reject the truth (1:13-14).
Foolish impious and godless controversies happen when those within a local fellowship fall into tangents which can have many differing aspects such as majoring on one truth to the exclusion of all else, or by preaching only on their favourite texts while neglecting and ignoring to preach on others, or over allegorising scriptures until they become absurd, or arguing over something like how Church seating should be arranged or whether to have wine or grape juice for communion, just to name a few, and there are many more that could be mentioned which can be classified as foolish controversies that have nothing to do with godliness but everything to do with people’s opinions. It is interesting that the word “Laodicea” means exactly that. It means “people’s opinions,” replacing the teaching of God’s Word,” a mark of a lukewarm, spiritually backslidden assembly which we see today infesting wider Christendom.
Foolish, impious and godless controversies can also involve theological ‘nit-picking’ which edifies no one over matters that are not part of the basic essential truths and tenants of scripture held by all who have been born again and who make the Bible the benchmark for faith, doctrine and Christian living. Controversy can even happen when assemblies get side-tracked by political opinions.
There are also those well intentioned who major on miner issues or a specific doctrinal ‘hobby horse’ driving a wedge between their fellow believers and who refuse to get of that ‘hobby horse.’ Paul then instructs Titus what to do with such men and women who will not be restrained and seek to divide the local fellowship by their unbiblical beliefs and actions.
“Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them.”
Divisiveness among brethren is one of the seven things God hates, As we read in the book of Proverbs; “There are six things which the Lord hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife (sows discord or division) among brothers” (Proverbs 6:16-19).
The word used for “a divisive person” describes one who is “schismatic, factious and a follower or propagator of a false doctrine, or a heretic.” False doctrine will divide any assembly if it is not nipped in the bud. Often we see this in relation to one in the fellowship who starts to spread unbiblical teaching and by doing this is spiritually unsettling the other fellowship members, especially those who are young in the faith. These heretics are not grounded in solid sound doctrine even though in some cases they may have been solid doctrinally at one time but have turned aside to false doctrine and unbiblical practices.
Many ministers and leaders today, especially in ecumenical circles, and in a growing number within charismatic circles put sound doctrine on the ‘backburner’ in the name of ‘love’ and ‘acceptance’ and ‘unity’ and not wanting ‘to offend people’ and this is also another form of heresy, because it is usually replaced with doctrines that scratch the itching ears of those who want to hear what they want to hear, and not what they need to hear. It takes only one rotten apple in the barrel of apples to pollute the other apples. Satan does not tell outright lies but always mixes truth with error.
The apostle Peter writes about this; “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep” (2 Peter 2:1-3). The phrase “destructive heresies” describes “By stealth laying truth and error side by side.” For example you can have a solid diet of beautiful gourmet sandwiches filled with all kinds of nutritious and tasty ingredients, however, if you have a small amount of arsenic, an almost undetectable slow acting poison, mixed in with the healthy ingredients, over time it will accumulate in the body resulting in death.
Spiritually speaking heresy does this and Satan is behind all such spiritual deception and heretics who teach and promote them. Today within evangelical and charismatic circles we see a growing movement within ecumenism where compromising Biblical doctrines are on the rise like never before and related to the final apostasy that has already started within wider Christendom which is a subject in itself.
Today we see an increasing number of leaders both in evangelical and charismatic churches seeking unity with Roman Catholic Churches and this in itself is aligning with a widespread Christian denomination promoting a false gospel. The Church of Rome preaches another gospel. Heresy is a departure from apostolic doctrine which we have in the completed canon of scripture, which is unified in its teaching of salvation and the nature and character of our Triune God being The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. A heretic is to be warned once and then a second time but if he persists in his ‘doctrine’ then after that, no one in the fellowship is to associate with him or with her for that matter. Leaven in scripture represents three things. It represents hypocrisy, sin and false doctrine taught by men and not by God.
Today the internet is rife with false prophets and teachers, both men and women. The largest Christian Television network in the world TBN is a prime example of those preaching truth and error being given an equal amount of air time. If you go to the website they are listed with their photos displayed in the website. This is what Peter was writing about when he mentions those introducing by stealth “destructive heresies.” Paul goes on to describe the character of the heretic or the one causing divisiveness within the local fellowship.
“You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.”
“…warped and sinful” These two things are linked together. “warped” describes something that is “twisted out of shape, torn, or turned inside out to be changed for the worst, something perverted and corrupt and subversive in nature.” Such is the character of the heretics who promote their unbiblical doctrines and refuse correction, and subsequently are “self-condemned” in that by their doctrine and divisive demeanour they have pronounced sentence upon themselves. The one who is forming a heretical sect is sinning and self-condemned because he or she is stubbornly clinging to his or her wickedness after being warned at least twice by responsible believers in the assembly. In closing his letter to Titus Paul now addresses the matter of personal relationships and gives directives to Titus.
“As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there.”
Paul recognised the weight of responsibility he had placed upon Titus and valued that fact that leadership was plural in all of the assemblies of the saints. The Lord Jesus never intended the assemblies to be “a one man show.” Paul clearly enunciated this in his letter to the Ephesian assembly when he wrote; “So it was He (Messiah Himself) gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to equip (prepare God’s people) for works of service, so that the body of Messiah may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Messiah (Ephesians 2:11-13).
Today within wider Christendom they ordain ministers or pastors and send them out to preside over the local assemblies that they have been sent to. The ascension gifts are largely neglected in that you have pastors in pulpits that are expected to fulfil all five roles. Added to this you have the gifts of the Spirit that are given for the local body of Messiah to build one another up spiritually but are played down or treated as if they have ceased to operate which cannot be proven, either by scripture of by Church history.
A real problem we have today in evangelical Christendom is that you have gifted evangelists trying to be pastors, and pastors who are trying to be evangelists, and prophets who are trying to do the work of an evangelist, or an evangelist trying to do the work of a prophet, or there are some professing to be apostles who do not have the spiritual power or authority that accompanies one with an apostolic calling upon his life (2 Corinthians 12:12). This office of ministry of course is not the same as the authority the 12 apostles of the Lord Jesus had, some of whom wrote the New Testament. In most congregations its members by and large just sit in the pews. Some are rostered to read scripture or lead communion or the pastoral prayer and this is good but is that all? The gifts of the Spirit are by and large neglected or ignored and the body becomes unbalanced. Imagine the hand in the physical body doing all the work or the foot doing all of the work? What happens to the other parts of the body? They would atrophy over time.
Paul deals with these matters in his first letter to the assembly at Corinth (Chapters 12 and 14) also in his letter to the Ephesians (Ephesians 5:18-21) and to the assembly at Rome (Romans 12:3-8). When you read the gospels, the book of Acts, being the Acts of the Apostles, and the letters in the New Testament you clearly see the ascension gifts operating, where there is plurality in leadership and where individual assembly members operate in the gifts given by the Spirit in those assembly meetings.
Now Paul wanted to send one of two of his companions in ministry to relieve Titus. There was Artemas and Tychicus. In three letters Tychicus is mentioned (Acts 20:4), who Paul calls a dear brother and faithful servant in the LORD to encourage the assembly at Ephesus (Ephesians 6:21), and undoubtedly a man Paul trusted in ministry (Colossians 4:7-9), and would send either him or Artemus to relieve Titus as Paul wanted Titus to join him at Nicopolis where Paul had determined to spend the winter. In those days there were at least seven cities called Nicopolis but most Bible commentators believe Titus chose the one in Epirus, in western Greece. However the text does not say which Nicopolis it was. Paul then continues…
“Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need.”
Titus was going to have visitors being Zenas the lawyer and Apollos. Perhaps these two men were the ones who brought the letter from Paul to Titus. There were two kinds of lawyers in those days being scribes, who expounded the religious law, and advocates, who handled matters of civil law. We do not know to which fraternity Zenas belonged to. He would have been skilled in debating and defending his arguments with great clarity and would be a valuable asset in helping Titus to quell the interminable squabbles and the foolish controversies especially those related to the Law of Moses (Vs.9). If Zenas was a civil lawyer, he would have been an honest one, however to handle the situation Titus was seeking to handle more than likely Zenas would have been one who expounded religious law in order to debate and dethrone the doctrines of the agitators seeking to ruin whole households by their heretical teaching.
Then you have Apollos of whom we read about in the New Testament in the Book of Acts of whom we read “was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the LORD, and he spoke with great fervour and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah (Acts 18:24-28).
This man would have been awesome in his ability to expound the scriptures and refute the heretics who were teaching doctrinal error. While these two men were passing through Crete they would have been invaluable in helping Titus in the situation he was seeking to deal with. When Paul told Titus to send these two men on their journey with haste, he included in his letter that they were to be given hospitality during their stay in Crete and given everything necessary to continue their journey. Paul then continued…
“Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.”
Paul never excluded himself from the responsibilities that the LORD required of all His people regardless of their gifting and calling. Paul addresses the fellowship members on Crete as “our people” because he saw himself as one of them and identified himself with them as a fellow member of those who had experienced the grace of God through the new birth, the washing of the Word of God and the blood of Messiah and by the spiritual renewing power of the blessed Holy Spirit.
Once again Paul mentions that the assembly members were to devote themselves to doing what is good, and to superintended or to preside over others for their spiritual and physical wellbeing, to be a protector or guardian, to give aid in every way when necessary, to care for and to give attention to those in urgent need. They were to show hospitality, to care for the sick and afflicted, and to be generous to those in urgent need, whether in the spiritual, physical or temporal realm. Instead of working only to meet their own needs and interests, they were also to take an interest in others in the fellowship especially those less fortunate (Ephesians 4:28b). In doing these things for one another they would not live unproductive lives or be living lives that were spiritually unfruitful or barren and not yielding the fruit of the Spirit which ought to be released in and through their lives.
Living in this way is a learning curve in spiritual matters as fellow members of the Body of Messiah. The words “to learn” describes “to learn by practice and to be in the habit of practicing good” a spiritual discipline which must be cultivated with the help of the Spirit which is not always easy to exercise, especially towards those who do not agree with us or make life difficult for us, or who even oppose us in some way. Also we have to contend with the selfish fleshly desires of the fallen sinful nature which are constantly at war with the desires of the new nature from God also dwelling in us if we have been born again by the Spirit of God (Galatians 5:16-25) (Romans 8:5-14). Doing good should become increasingly habitual as we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Messiah our Lord Jesus, and seek to be imitators of God as His beloved children (Ephesians 5:1-2). Living in this way will save us from the misery of selfishness and the tragedy of a wasted, unfruitful life. Paul continues…
“Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.”
Paul always travelled with his companions in ministry and along with them sent his greetings to Titus and to the members of the assemblies over whom Titus had spiritual oversight, especially Paul mentions those who really loved him and his companions working alongside of him in their mutually shared faith, or by the faith that the blessed Holy Spirit had brought to birth deep down on the inside of the assembly members. This greeting was always the distinguishing mark of all of Paul’s letters.
Once again he encourages them by saying “grace be with you all.” The unmerited, unearned lavish favour of God that Paul experienced throughout his life and ministry with its many trials, persecutions, tests, afflictions, joys, sorrows and changing circumstances, both good and not so good as an apostle, dominates all of his letters, and this great grace of God he experienced daily he always extended towards those in the assemblies that he carried in his heart as he worked tirelessly for their spiritual wellbeing in a wicked and perverse generation in a fallen and sinful world.
