Convincing Legalist Brethren Of Their Present Purity: Merry Christmas!
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Titus 1:9-16
Titus 1:9-16
9 Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. 10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: 11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. 12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. 13 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, (two words are combined) that they may be sound in the faith;
Elegcho/elengkho Translated: Expose, Rebuke, Convict, Punish
In the greek the word was used in all of those ways. We are left to the convictions of the translator as he translates the word.
In verse 9 the tranlator went with “convince”, I would perhaps suggest “expose”.
In verse 13 the word can be rebuke as it is tied together with a word that means to cut off in a hurry. So rebuke seems fitting. Perhaps one could go further and use the word convict and that would fit as well.
These two words in 9 and 13 set up our understanding for interpreting who the “they” are in verse 13. The question being, are the “they” in verse 13 of the body of Christ or not. All of the other “they’s” that we will see in this passage are clearly speaking of those who are not of the body of Christ, but verse 13 remains in question.
If the “they” is speaking of those outside the body of Christ, then it would seem to be saying that there is a way that those who are outside of the body can become members of the family and become healthy. I don’t think that is the proper meaning that the Holy Spirit is expecting us to get out of this verse.
In every fellowship there are those who to some degree appose the truth. By appose the truth I mean appose what the Bible says, that is sound doctrine - sound doctrine defined as the teachings of God established in His Word alone.
In both Bible Translation and in Preaching, it is no secret that what is translated or declared is influenced by preconception. It is a daily struggle to find out what the Holy Spirit is saying.
I believe strongly in the soverignty of God, and that belief influences how I come to every verse of scripture.
I believe strongly that there is a family of God and a family of Satan. That God our Father knows each and everyone that are His as well as all who are not.
That influence my approach to verses of scripture.
Holding those understandings, I suggest unto you that in the 13th verse, the Holy Spirit is saying that in the congregation unto which Titus is to labor, is a congregation which has people in it that meet the description put in place by one of their own as liars and such, and they should be cut off quickly, exposed, convicted and reproved, in order that “they”…they who? The members of the church may be sound in the faith.
That is my understanding of the 13th verse. I don’t see the 13th verse as saying that sound doctrine is going to convert one who is not a member of the household of God. That won’t work, and it will shift the whole of your understanding of the rest of Titus.
Apologetics, sound doctrine won’t argue anybody into Heaven. The reason for sound doctrine, and the proclomation of truth, is that the members of the family of the household of God may be healthy, sound in the faith.
14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men,
Love has to be the conditioner for the way and the reason that the Household of God lives for the Lord. If you need Jewish fables, and commandments of men to be a cause or evidence of a life of godliness, then it is not understanding godliness. Love is our constraint.
These fables and commandments of men, spoken of here are the terms of the law spoken of by the scribes and Pharisees.
It is the same that is spoken of in Colossians:
20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not; 22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?
These are ordinances and commandments that condition the walk and the life of the Christian, that is what verse 14 is speaking of. The do this, don’t touch that, taste this, don’t taste that ordinances in the Gentile church stem from Jewish fables, they have their root in the way that the scribes and Pharisees and the lawyers handled the Word of God in the OT.
that turn from the truth.
Now I wan’t you to think about how verse 14 ends. So often when ordinances come up, one hears the argument: but isn’t it better than not doing it in case you are supposed to - or does it really harm you to do it - perhaps it’s kinda like extra credit as long as you understand it as not necessary…and so on…
But verse 14 in dealing with such things gives the result of those things: they are the things that turn from the truth.
That truth is the truth, the full truth of who you are in Christ Jesus. It is the truth of the fullness of His Work.
15 Unto the pure all things are pure:
There is alot in commentary that tries to explain this verse away as not meant to be taken at face value. Verse 15 is often explained as trying to say that the one who does the commandments of men believes that they are pure. In otherwords, rather than seeing the opening of verse 15 at face value, it is often viewed in irony or describing those who think that they are pure but they are really not.
It seems to me however that verse 15 is declaring that there are God’s people who are free from the law, no longer being under law, but are under grace. A people whose motivation is one of love rather than law. They love the Savior Christ Jesus our Lord. They love what He has done for us and who He is. They love His promises, they love His ways. In verse 15, those are the pure that are mentioned.
Why is that controversial?
Well some would say, if that is true then the first part of verse 15 leads to license. If all things to the pure are pure, then I can do anything that I want. What happens is that at this point man sees himself as really smart and says that it is inconcievable, it is not right that scripture could make such a proclamation of liscence. If scripture makes such a proclomation, they think, then Christians will go out and do anything that they want to do.
But wait a minute church. Don’t except such false arguments that use false assumptions.
What I do, is what I don’t want to do. What do I mean? I don’t want to sin. My problem isn’t that I can’t sin enough, but that I sin more than I want. I don’t want to sin at all. This is the truth that the Holy Spirit makes known about the children of God in Romans 7
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
So verse 15 isn’t that all things are pure so then, I can now go out and do whatever I want to do…so Im going to go sin more…I am already sinning more than I want to sin. The granting of the right to sin all that I want to does not help me one single bit. And I find that true of everyone of God’s children whom the spirit of God has laid ahold of their lives.
So, I believe by the grace of God that verse 15 is meant to be taken at face value, that it means just what it says.
How did you become pure?
Did your obedience to the commandments of men or your giving heed to Jewish fables make you pure? Not in the least.
We have been made pure, because for us a tremendous price was paid. We are the redeemed. We have been bought back.
Oh that word redeemed! Espessially this time of year when you think of why Christ came. Redeemed: the very word implies to be bought back - to be ransomed…it implies that we belonged unto God for you don’t ransom what isn’t yours. You don’t redeem what you don’t own.
You see I belong to God and I always belonged to God. You beloved, belong to God and you always belonged to God. And in redemption, in the price that was paid, God to whom you belong made you righteous.
By the disobedience of the one the many were made sinners, even so by the obedience of the one shall the same group be made righteous.
I don’t think that the human mind can fully grasp this concept. The spirit must reveal it unto His own.
Is it concievable that with all of my faults and failures, I could be righteous? Yes beloved, and you are.
How? Is it by how you live? By that standard we are doomed.
Is it by giving heed to commandments, ordinances, Jewish fables to better correct how we live? Absolutley not, by such we are only decieved and burdened on top of doomed.
We have been made righteous, pure, by the obedience of THE ONE, I was made righteous.
Listen to the words…it is one thing to be declared righteous, but it is another thing to be made righteous.
Speaking of law, I remind you here of what God says about law: it is not permissable in the law of God to declare something to be something that isn’t. That means in order to declare someone as righteous, they must be presently righteous. They cannot be, becoming righteous, but must be righteous prior to its declaration.
So God declares us to be righteous, because God first made us righteous. And so the Spirit can rightly say here: to the pure all things are pure. Get your fables and your commandments and your ordinances out of the fellowship of the beloved and heed the teachings of Christ Alone.
Purity and impurity is not the subject of the believer. The subject of the believer is love. Christ came in love, Christ gave Himself in love, and now we live in love.
Is that not the joyful message of Christmas? To pay such a price He came in love. He did not come to judge us by the law, but to fufill the law, that we might be redeemed, that His beloved in Him might be made righteous, not by their works, but by His work, the work of Christ, the work of HIS LOVE!
That same love which now we abide in and it abides in us.
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-18:58 1:13-16
but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. 16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
