Ready for Every Good Work - Part 2 (Titus 3:8-11)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to Titus 3:8-11.

We’re almost out of Titus (and thus, the pastoral epistles), with this week and last week left. This week’s passage builds on last week’s passage, low let me give you a little bit of a recap before we start this week.

In last week’s passage, Paul gave a list of things for the church in Crete to be taught—I explained that he does this almost in a rapid-fire way with little description, but we can note the fact that if Paul feels that he needs to bring up these points, it’s probably because the Christians in Crete weren’t living rightly concerning those particular issues. So, Paul points out several things that they ought to be reminded of—to be submissive to rulers and authorities when possible, to be obedient, ready for every good work. He tells them to not speak evil of anyone, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

And his reasoning is actually pretty simple—because at one time, everyone who believes in Jesus today didn’t believe in Jesus before. At one time, everyone who is a Christian wasn’t a Christian; and thus, everyone, at one time, believed the same way, acted the same way, reacted the same way, and they all (including us) needed to repent and believe in Jesus as the Christ who atoned for the sins of His people.

This week’s text continues in the same frame of mind. Paul tells Titus that there are few more things that he needs to remind the people of Crete of and it ties into the ideas of being devoted to good works and rejecting false teachings—the two biggest themes of the letter to Titus.

Let’s read Titus 3:8-11.

Titus 3:8–11 ESV

8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. 9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. 10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

As we study this passage, we’re going going to break it into two parts: (1) Devotion to Good Works (8) and (2) Avoiding Division (9-11). In the first section, Paul again reiterates this idea that Titus should exhort the people of Crete to do good works—not for themselves, but because good works are excellent and profitable for others. The second section calls back to the issue of false teaching within the church by telling Titus what to teach the people within the church concerning dealing with those who cause issues with false teaching. While it is the responsibility of the eldership within a church to stop false teachers and prevent false teachings, Paul makes it clear that the people within the congregation have a responsibility to avoid false teachings as well. The idea is that instead of being entranced by false teachers and false teachings, they ought to devote their time and effort to good works.

This sermon will encourage us to do the same—to continuously reject false teachings while also devoting ourselves to doing good works.

Prayer for Illumination

Devotion to Good Works (8)

Our text starts by saying that “the saying is trustworthy” and the saying that he’s referring to is at the end of the verse “These things are excellent and profitable for people.”

What things is he talking about? What is he calling excellent and profitable?

I’d argue that part of the answer is this idea of the people of Crete devoting themselves to good works.

I’d also argue that everything that he had exhorted Titus to remind the people in Crete about in vv. 1-7 are tied into this.

So, the ideas that they are to be submissive to rulers and authorities whenever possible, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work.

The ideas that they are not to speak evil of anyone, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

Paul says that all these things are excellent and profitable because it shifts their focus from the opposite of these issues to focusing on good works, which is profitable for not just them but the people around them—that’s what Paul calls excellent and profitable.

Now, you note that in neither last week’s text nor this week’s text does Paul ever attempt to define what he means by good works, which implies that the people in Crete either already know what he means or that Paul is sure that they’re smart enough to determine what he means by good works—nevertheless, let me offer an answer for that. What does Paul mean by good works?

I think Paul does answer this in the way that he speaks in vv. 1-7, and we could sum that up by saying that good works is the natural fruit of someone who genuinely loves God and loves other people.

However, if you’re looking for something more concrete, I would argue that we do good works when we obey Jesus’ commands. Thus, let’s just think of a few of those commands:

Jesus, in Matthew 28 tells all His disciples to make more disciples of every nation and to teach them everything that He has taught us—so, the proclamation of the Gospel itself, is a good work. Teaching people what Jesus had taught us is a good work.

When James in James 1 speaks about the necessity of good works, within the same context, he points to being quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger—doing these things are good works. He speaks about putting away filthiness and doing the Word of God—these are good works. Controlling how you speak, according to James is a good work. Visiting orphans and widows in their affliction are good works. Keeping yourself unstained from the world is a good work.

You notice that all these things are things that Christians are to be doing as a result of their faith? There’s nothing special about them beyond the fact that we do them because Jesus has saved us. Otherwise, they’re just the outflowing of us loving God and loving people.

Paul says that these sort of things, which we call good works are things that we ought to do—he insists—because they’re beneficial for everyone. And there are a number of ways that we can talk about how they benefit other people, but I’d like to suggest two specific benefits: first, there is a simple temporal benefit when you do good works for someone that the good work simply helps them. Second, there is a benefit concerning the Gospel when you do good works toward someone. Let me explain both of those benefits:

When you do good works, people benefit temporally in various ways—for instance, if someone is hungry and you feed them, that’s a good work in which the person experiences a temporal benefit. Or, for example, if someone is dealing with physical concerns (they can’t walk, or they’re temporarily unable to do something) and you come to mow their lawn or help them in some way, that’s a good work in which the person experiences a temporal benefit. I could give more examples, but I think you already know what I mean when I talk about good works that benefit people on this side of eternity—it’s profitable for people.

Likewise, there is a Gospel benefit when you do good works toward someone—for instance, if you only ever bother to speak to someone to present the Gospel, but you never bother to be there for them any other time, why would they listen to you presenting the Gospel? But if they already know you as someone who loves them and cares for them and they see you regularly doing good works not just to help them, but for other people as well, don’t you think that that alone will cause curiosity about the Gospel? Conversely, if you never bother to do any good works for the benefit of others, they’ll never want to listen to you tell them about Jesus.

It makes sense, then that Paul would insist that Titus emphasizes that the people devote themselves to good works because good works have both temporal benefit and eternal benefit.

On the flip side of things, Paul points out the issue of false teaching again. Whereas being devoted to good works as a result of our salvation has benefit for all people, false teaching doesn’t. False teaching only ever benefits the false teacher, and so, he spends the next three verses dealing again, with the issue of false teaching and false teachers. Let’s look at those verses again.

Avoiding Division (9-11)

Titus 3:9–11 ESV

9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. 10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

Paul tells Titus that there are certain things that the people in the church on Crete should avoid—we can rightly categorize them as false teachings, however, he gives specific ideas that need to be dealt with. He talks about foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law. Let me explain what he means by those ideas:

Foolish Controversies—let me clarify that these aren’t referring to disagreements about theology or anything like that—that’s not in mind when discussing foolish controversies.

Rather, these are issues that are inconsequential—for instance, it is well-known that the medieval church spent significant amounts of time arguing about how many angels could fit on the tip of a needle.

Regardless of who was right, you see how there isn’t any actual consequence to the argument—if one or more or none could fit on the tip of the needle is absolutely meaningless.

I would argue that most of the controversies in this category fit in the tertiary category of Christian life.

What I mean is that there are some things that we absolutely ought to die for—the fundamentals of the faith (things like the virgin birth, the resurrection, salvation by grace alone through faith alone)—these are primary concerns.

There are some things that fighting for are worth it (things like believers’ baptism, the structure of the local church, and so on, what we sing as a church (as in, what words are being sung)—these are secondary concerns.

And then there are things that aren’t really worth us fighting about or even arguing about (like the style of music we have in the church—whether we’re led by a keyboard or a banjo is inconsequential, what color carpet we have, or whether or not we should have a potluck meal or a catered meal)—these are tertiary categories of Christian life and that’s where there’s foolish controversies are—they’re things that don’t really matter and have no eternal impact.

Paul encourages Titus to steer the people of Crete away from these issues because they lead to false teachings and contentiousness and disunity.

Genealogies—now, let me clarify that there’s more to this than just genealogies and Paul isn’t necessarily saying that genealogical research is wrong.

Remember, that a large portion of his audience is Jewish and the Jewish people had an unhealthy obsession with genealogical research because of what their ancestry meant.

So those who were in the lineage of Judah would treat others differently than those out of the lineage of Levi or Benjamin or whatever other tribe they were part of.

They took significant pride in what lineage they were a part of to the extent that they would argue about it and bicker about it within the church.

Again, Paul encourages Titus to steer the people of Crete away from these issues because they lead to false teachings and contentiousness and disunity.

Speaking of contentiousness, that’s precisely what Paul means by the term dissensions, which is the next issue at hand; and it might sound unusual that he would say to avoid this because it sounds like something that’s more of an issue that occurs within an argument, but I think when I explain it, you’ll get what I mean.

There are certain people who when I mention their name, you automatically think of their contentiousness—they like the argue and they like to fight.

There are certain people who bring up controversial things just to cause fighting and arguing and bickering.

Now, the issue of contentious people will be dealt with in a fuller statement in a few verses, but there is an exhortation or an encouragement to steer people away from this way of thinking.

Titus is to steer the people of Crete away from arguing for the sake of arguing.

Quarrels about the law—note that this isn’t the law in general—meaning, they’re not talking about the laws given by the governing authorities over us.

Remember, that Paul already told the people in Crete to submit to the governing authorities as much as possible—as long as they’re not forcing people to sin, we should submit.

This is talking about the Jewish Law, which we find in the Torah—the first bit of the Old Testament.

And the way that they would argue and quarrel about the law had to do with nuancing all the words, they’re not arguing about the meaning of the text, they’re arguing about word definition, minute details, about issues that really don’t matter.

And instead of being gracious toward each other concerning these inconsequential details, they’re fighting over them.

Titus is to steer the people of Crete away from arguing about the law just to argue about the law.

There is a Jewish characteristic to these false teachings—meaning, they’re false teachings that are particular to Jewish people who later became Christians.

They’re allowing their Jewish heritage to cause infighting within the church—and it’s done nothing but stir up controversy, fighting, arguing, disjunction, and disunity within the local church.

Rather being a church unified on the Gospel, unified on the truth, they’re fighting and they’re disjointed, and they don’t have the unity that’s commanded of those who do agree on the Gospel.

Now there are two final verses here, which concern dealing with someone who happens to be contentious and refuses to repent from their sinful contentiousness and strive for unity within the church. vv. 10-11 tells Titus that if there is a person who stirs up division, “after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.”

You’ll notice that this ideology to warn once, then twice, and then remove them follows the pattern of church discipline, which comes from Matthew 18.

The idea being that there ought to be warnings given before taking further action because the whole goal is to confront the sin with the intent of the person repenting and coming back into right relationship with both the church, but most importantly, with God.

The goal of church discipline is always restoration, but what Paul points out in v. 10, is that some folks aren’t going to be willing to repent of their sinful behavior including the sin of being contentious and stirring up strife within the body of Christ.

In those cases, Paul is abundantly clear, that if someone refuses to repent of their sin, you remove them and you stop fellowshipping with him,.

Because that person is “warped and sinful” and self-condemned. Or, in other words, what Paul is pointing out is that if someone is in sin (particularly that of stirring up division within the body of Christ) and they refuse to repent despite being warned several times by the church’s leadership and the church itself, the right thing is to treat them as an unbeliever because they’re acting like an unbeliever.

If someone is stirring up strife and refuses to repent, the right thing is to treat them as an unbeliever because they’re acting like an unbeliever.

Keeping this all in mind, let’s move into our application for this morning.

Application

As we think about application in the context of Titus 3:8-11, we must remember the overarching ideas in this passage concerning false teaching and good works. Paul’s firm on two issues and it’s not the only time that he is firm on these issues; and we know that when Scripture repeats itself several times it emphasizes the importance of the truths being repeated. And, in this case, the truths being repeated over and over in Titus include (1) the importance of avoiding false teaching and (2) the importance of good works. And that’s where our application is for this morning.

First, the avoidance of False Teaching is Paramount as a Believer

Foolish Controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law were particular to the Jewish people, but people today get caught up in similar issues:

For instance, people today will get caught up in arguing about little, inconsequential issues such as the color of carpet, the type of seats in the auditorium, the name of the building or whatever else.

They’ll argue about church history, act contentiously, and fight about nuances in the Word of God rather than the actual meaning of the Word of God.

Part of the reason people get caught up in these issues include a sinful desire for controversy and arguments—some people just like to bicker and fight and argue, and let me be clear, that these people are sinning when they’re bickering and fighting and arguing about these inconsequential issues.

The other part of the reason people get caught up in these issues include an inability to discern between primary issues and secondary (and even tertiary) issues—not everything is worth fighting about and not everything is worth dividing over, not everything is worth bickering, and arguing, and fighting.

Secondary and tertiary issues—such as the mode of baptism, issues of musical style, or whatever else aren’t worth separating and dividing over.

But, primary issues such as the Gospel itself are worth dying for.

Paul’s teaching here is that when it comes to issues of secondary and tertiary concerns, don’t bother getting caught up in the argument—it’s simply not worth it.

However, as we know from this passage and several others—if the issue concerns primary concerns, we must fight for what is right—we must fight for right teaching and reject false teachings.

And we should remove people from within who either teach completely false things and refuse to repent or intentionally stirs up division within the local body of Christ.

Now, I know the typical arguments against being absolutely firm about false teachings within the body of Christ—they typically deal with issues concerning love for a person, familiarity, or emotional reasons. Some might argue that we should allow those who teach false things to remain with us because we ought to love them or because we’ve known them for so long or we have an emotional connection to them, but “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.”

Or, you might hear the argument that a person might be wrong about some things, but some of what he says is good, but again, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump” and if the person who teachings things that amount to false teaching or even heresy, it isn’t right to allow that person to remain.

This is repeated over and over in Scripture because false teaching is so detrimental to the Christian life—if the teaching is wrong, the foundation is shaky and the structure that’s being built up won’t last.

If the teaching is false, the Gospel isn’t proclaimed, the whole counsel of God is rejected, and really the local church isn’t a true church.

If the teaching is wrong, the church runs the risk of leading people to hell because they aren’t hearing the truth.

There are reasons why Josh and I are so selective on who can preach and teach here because false teaching creeps in when nobody notices and like cancer, it wreaks havoc on the church itself.

There are reasons why our church is so clear on what is truly from God’s Word and what isn’t from God’s Word—there are reasons why I keep asking the question, “what does the text actually say?”

Paul states that you must firmly reject false teaching because false teaching is more dangerous than you think it is.

Second, devotion to good works is vital because it shows your heart.

Again, good works do not save you, they can’t because the only thing that can actually save you is Jesus substitutionary work on the cross for your sins.

At no point would I ever want you to walk away from a sermon or a class or a Bible study here and think that you could earn your salvation—it doesn’t work that way.

Good works are always the fruit of your salvation, not the other way around.

You start to exhibit good work as you continue to follow Jesus.

Those good works can be anything from ministry to just doing daily things:

It includes the proclamation of the Gospel through your daily life, things like preaching and teaching.

It also includes caring for you neighbor who isn’t able who isn’t able to care for himself—cutting his grass or picking up some groceries.

It includes just being kind and generous to those around you—it includes doing good deeds, being a good samaritan, or any number of other good works.

But again, works are the fruits of salvation; not what earns your salvation.

It should cause you to realize, however, that if you aren’t doing good works whatsoever, you might want to check your heart—because you might not be saved or you might be holding onto sin that’s causing you not to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit or the fruits of good work.

As a Christian, you should be producing good works that encourage those around you to seek truth in Jesus Christ.

You must devote yourself to good works because your good works are fruits of your faith.

Ultimately, what’s learned in a passage like Titus 3:8-11 is the importance of removing false teachers and teachings within the local body of Christ and the need for good works as a fruit of your salvation. As a Christian, you need to be careful with what you’re taking in concerning teaching, preaching, and really anything—you need to be sure that you’re only taking in what accords with sound doctrine—and part of that is by removing false teaching and false teachers from your life.

In addition, as a Christian, your faith should result in good works. Thus, if you aren’t participating in good works—proclaiming the Gospel, teaching the truth, feeding the hungry, caring for the poor, and so on, you have to ask yourself if your belief in Jesus Christ is true belief—after all James 1:27 “27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

Be firm against false teaching and false teachers while devoting yourself to good works.

Pastoral Prayer