Jan 9
2008

For there are many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped; men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons. This testimony is true. For which cause reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. To the pure all things are pure: but to them that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess that they know God; but by their works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. (Tit 1:10-16)

Paul is never to be considered politically correct, especially not in this part where he is talking about people from the island of Crete, however when he is talking here it is a quote from one of their own philosophers, Epimenides the Cretan who in a paradox claimed that “All Cretans are liars”. Paul obviously doesn’t believe this statement totally though because he has already set Titus to the task of finding people to lead the church in that area!

This then is more a warning that there are people out there who shouldn’t be taken at face value. This is a great warning for us today. How do we take in the Word of God? Many of us sit in church on a Sunday and we take what is being said at face value, we let it wash over us, and if we are lucky we absorb some of it. Bible teaching is meant to be an active 2 way thing, not a passive pedagogy. Listen to a sermon on a Sunday or whenever you have your Bible teaching, but then go and search out the scriptures about the truth of what is being said. The first thing we need to ask is “is it in the Bible?” sometimes people take things that sound like they are in the Bible, but would be nowhere to be found. If you’ve found the teaching in the Bible ask, “is it in context?” Read around the passage, this can make a huge difference to the way that we perceive a verse. Does what the preacher is saying agree with the spirit of the passage? Are there other places to back this teaching up? A lot of Bibles feature “cross-references” which allow you to trace similar verses and teachings throughout the Bible. Lastly, does the preaching glorify God or Man?

These people that Paul was warning about preached vainly. Following their own pattern and bias, spreading mistruth and splitting up families, and the family of God in that area, often for money. We have this to a lesser extent in the UK than in America, in the UK some pretty odd laws actually protect us from a lot of TV Evangelism, (it’s the same law that stopped Cross Rhythms from being allowed a national FM radio license!) but the US is rife with faith healers and evangelists who seem to fill their coffers, and the Kingdom second.

They profess to know God; but by there works deny him. A preacher starts the DC Talk song What If I Stumble? saying ”The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is christians who profess Jesus with their lips and then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. This is what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable!” We need to be real Christians 24/7 when we are doing well and going on with God and when we make mistakes, both at home before God and in the world. We need to be ourselves, being changed by the Holy Spirit, not putting up an image of ourselves as holy, pious and perfect.

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