Titus 1:10–16

1:10 “Many” false teachers have already infiltrated the church in Crete. This development should not surprise us, because Jesus himself warned his disciples that it would be this way (Matt. 7:15–16). While the presence of false teachers might cause alarm, it should not be unexpected. Their presence simply means that the Cretan believers must be ever vigilant.

These false teachers are “insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers.” The term “insubordinate” is the same one used in verse 6 to describe what a pastor must not be. From this we see that one reason Paul says pastors must exhibit certain character traits is that false teachers display the opposite. “Insubordinate” refers to that which is “refusing submission to authority, undisciplined, disobedient, rebellious” (BDAG, s.v. ἀνυπότακτος, italics original). These false teachers are insubordinate to God’s authority because they do not submit to his Word. In fact, they distort and contradict it.

False teachers are “empty talkers” (mataiologoi; cf. mataiologian in 1 Tim. 1:6). Such men exhibit the kind of “irreverent babble” (kenophōnias) that 2 Timothy 2:16 says “will lead people into more and more ungodliness.” These teachers are thus themselves disobedient, and their teaching leads others into disobedience as well, which is why Paul calls them “deceivers.” They mislead people by giving them the impression they are following Christ while actually they are leading people away from him.

Finally, Paul refers to “especially those of the circumcision party,” which suggests they are Jewish. But what else is known about this “circumcision party”? Paul does not provide a specific description of what this party is teaching, but commentator George Knight concludes that it is “concerned with Jewish myths and genealogies, which apparently set the tone for the way in which it handles the law. It is ascetic but also rebellious and disobedient, it opposes the apostolic teaching and turns away from it, and it is motivated by gain.”¹

1:11 These false teachers must be silenced because their teaching does not address merely matters of theological indifference, or adiaphora; rather, they are “upsetting whole families.” The only actual “commands” from false teachers mentioned in the Pastorals are those in 1 Timothy 4:1–3, which records that the false teachers were prohibiting marriage and the eating of certain foods. Perhaps their prohibition of marriage had led to the termination of existing marriages.² Whatever these men were teaching, it was destroying families. That they sought “shameful gain” indicates that they taught for money.

1:12 In the first century, Cretans had a reputation for gross immorality. That sad truth is reflected in the writings of one of their own countrymen, a epic poet named Epimenides (6th century BC). Although a Cretan himself, Epimenides wrote famously that “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” The work from which Paul quotes is no longer extant, but some early Christian writers—including Clement of Alexandria, Chrysostom, and Jerome—identify Epimenides as the source.³ As a Cretan, Epimenides would have had more credibility to speak critically about Cretans than Paul would have as an outsider. Paul references the quotation to show that the Cretan false teachers behave like stereotypical Cretans. They do not tell the truth. They behave like “evil beasts” and as such are vicious and unreasoning. They are “lazy gluttons” who live for their appetites. Such behavior is rotten, and Paul says that it is clearly evidenced by these false teachers. Knight concludes, “Paul is not making an ethnic slur, but is merely accurately observing, as the Cretans themselves and others did, how the sin that affects the whole human race comes to particular expression in this group.”⁴

1:13 When Paul declares that “this testimony is true,” he is stating that the false teachers are living up to the Cretan stereotype. This sharp accusation may have been particularly galling to these false teachers if they thought of themselves as scrupulous Jewish Christians. Yet they are behaving not with Jewish integrity but with pagan insubordination. This is why Paul instructs Titus to “rebuke them sharply,” to confront them with their wrongdoing in order to convince them of their error. The rebuke must be delivered “sharply,” or “severely, rigorously” (BDAG, s.v. ἀποτόμως, italics original). The goal of this pointed reproof is “that they may be sound in the faith.” In this way, Paul holds out hope that the false teachers might yet be won over to the truth. This is not the first time Paul has spoken of false teachers with such hopefulness. In 2 Timothy 2:24–26 he writes, “The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but . . . correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”

1:14 To “be sound in the faith” (v. 13) is, in this context, to avoid being devoted to “Jewish myths” or the “commands of people who turn away from the truth.” Titus’s rebuke is intended to steer false teachers away from such error. What precisely does Paul mean by “Jewish myths”? In 1 Timothy 1:4, “myths” are linked to “endless genealogies.” In that light, perhaps the myths in Titus should be understood as fictional stories based on the genealogies of the OT.⁵ Whatever the precise meaning, the point is that these “myths” are just that—myths. They are not true, and no one should be listening to or believing them. As in 2 Timothy 4:4, to “wander off into myths” is to “turn away from listening to the truth.” Paul’s hope is that the false teachers would give up on their false teaching and return to the truth.

The “commands of people” (i.e., “commandments of men”) has a parallel in Jesus’ statement in Matthew 15:9, “In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (cf. Isa. 29:13 LXX; Mark 7:7; Col. 2:22). In this text and elsewhere, the phrase “commandments of men” refers to “what is put in the place of obedience to God and what he requires.”⁶ Titus must repudiate this error and call its proponents to repentance.

1:15 “To the pure, all things are pure” may seem cryptic at first glance, but its meaning is perhaps not that difficult to understand. “All things” refers to creation. The statement simply asserts that “the pure”—those who have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus—know that God has given them all of creation to enjoy (cf. 1 Tim. 6:17). The “pure” know that “everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:4–5). Thus, the pure do not regard the things forbidden by the false teachers as impure (cf. 1 Tim. 4:3, where Paul reveals that false teachers forbid “marriage” and “certain foods”). In that sense, to the pure, all things are pure. “But to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure.” In other words, there is nothing “pure” to the Jewish false teachers. “Their minds and their consciences” are defiled in the sense that they do not evaluate God’s creation correctly. They forbid marriage and certain foods as impure. Nevertheless, marriage and food are actually happy and wholesome gifts from God to every disciple who has eyes to see the goodness of God’s creation.

1:16 The false teachers are deceptive. They “profess” to know the one true and living God. In terms of external appearances, they look and talk like Christians; their orthodox profession of faith enables them to dwell undetected among the faithful. They have all the appearances and religious performances of the faithful, but a closer look reveals that they “deny” God despite their words. Their “works” are antithetical to what they claim to believe. Their actions speak louder than their words.

As a result, they are “detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.” “Detestable” may be an echo of Proverbs 17:15: “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.” Likewise, the false teachers are detestable precisely because they forsake the commandments of God as if they were unrighteous while shilling for myths that are transparently unrighteous. “Disobedient” refers to their defiance of God’s will and revelation. “Unfit for any good work” means “unqualified” or “worthless” to produce works conforming to God’s will. Their error keeps them from producing real spiritual fruit.