Titus 3.11-The Basis for Titus and the Cretan Christian Community Rejecting a Divisive Christian After a First and Second Warning
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday September 21, 2014
Titus: Titus 3:11-The Basis for Titus and Cretan Christian Community Rejecting a Divisive Christian After a First and Second Warning
Lesson # 38
Please turn in your Bibles to Titus 3:10.
Titus 3:10 Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, 11 knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned. (NASB95)
“Knowing” is the verb oida (οἶδα), which means “to know for certain, to know without a doubt” since it pertains to having knowledge of something to the extent of having no doubt about the matter.
It speaks of having a conviction that is based upon the truth of the Word of God.
The participle form of the verb is a causal participle meaning it presents the basis or the reason for the command in Titus 3:10 for Titus to continue making it his habit of rejecting a divisive Christian after a first and second warning.
“Is perverted” is the verb ekstrephomai (ἐκστρέφομαι), which describes a divisive unrepentant Christian as having received the action of being corrupted or perverted by the legalistic teaching of the Judaizers and the apostate pastors who adhered to their teaching.
The English word “pervert” means in this context “to cause someone to turn aside or away from what is good or true or morally acceptable.”
Thus, the verb ekstrephomai describes an unrepentant divisive Christian as having deviated or departed from proper Christian behavior which the Holy Spirit prescribed in the apostolic teaching because of obeying the false teaching of the Judaizers and those apostate pastors who adhered to this teaching.
“And is sinning” presents the result of a divisive unrepentant Christian being perverted by false doctrine, namely they are sinning.
“Is sinning” is the verb hamartanō (ἁμαρτάνω), which refers to any mental, verbal or overt act of sin that is contrary to the will and law of God.
The sin is identified by the verb ekstrephomai which is used of a divisive unrepentant Christian deviating from the Spirit inspired apostolic teaching as a result of obeying the false doctrine of the Judaizers and apostate pastors on the island of Crete who adhered to the Judaizers’ teaching.
Therefore, these divisive unrepentant Christians are sinning because they have been turned away from the Spirit inspired apostolic teaching as a result of adhering to the false doctrine taught by the Judaizers and those apostate pastors who adhered to their teaching.
“Being self-condemned” is composed of the verb eimi (εἰμί), “being” and the adjective autokatakritos (αὐτοκατάκριτος), “self-condemned.”
The verb eimi indicates that these unrepentant divisive Christians “exist in the state or condition” of being self-condemned because of being unrepentant.
The participle form of this verb eimi is a result participle which is used to indicate that a divisive Christian who does not respond in repentance to church discipline is perverted so that they are sinning “so that” or “with the result that” they are existing in a state of being self-condemned.
The adjective autokatakritos is used to describe a divisive unrepentant Christian who has failed to respond in repentance to church discipline and thus have been removed from the fellowship of the church until such time they do repent.
It describes these Christians as self-condemned in the sense that their actions condemn them.
Specifically, by failing to respond to church discipline, they are demonstrating by their actions that they are wrong or guilty in the eyes of God since the church is used by God to administer discipline to believers.
Thus to reject the discipline of the church and not repent and continuing to obey false doctrine and reject the Spirit inspired apostolic teaching, they are demonstrating that they are guilty in the judgment of God.
Titus 3:10 For your own benefit, continue making it your habit of rejecting a divisive person after a first and second warning 11 because you know without a doubt that such a person is perverted so that they are, as an eternal spiritual truth sinning. Consequently, they are, as an eternal spiritual truth, self-condemned. (My translation)
The apostle Paul presents the basis for his command in Titus 3:10 that Titus must for his own benefit continue making it his habit of rejecting a divisive Christian after a first and second warning.
In other words, he presents the reason why Titus must not permit this divisive Christian from entering into the fellowship of the church.
He was to obey Paul’s command because a divisive Christian who does not respond to church discipline by repenting is perverted in the sense that they have rejected the Spirit inspired apostolic teaching and are continuing to obey the false doctrine of the Judaizers and those apostate pastors who adhered to this.
That the teaching of the Judaizers and these apostate pastors is leading this divisive Christian away from obeying sound doctrine is indicated by Paul’s statement in Titus 3:9.
In this verse, Paul instructs Titus to continue to make it his habit of avoiding foolish pointless debates, genealogies, dissensions as well as quarrels about the Law because they are, as an eternal spiritual truth characterized as being unprofitable, yes, useless.
Therefore, here in Titus 3:11, these divisive unrepentant Christians have deviated or departed from proper Christian behavior which the Holy Spirit prescribed in the apostolic teaching as a result of obeying the false teaching of the Judaizers and those apostate pastors who adhered to this teaching of the Judaizers.
Paul teaches that the result of this is that this Christian is sinning in the sense that they are not conforming to God’s holy standards which govern the conduct of His people and are reflected through the apostolic teaching.
Then he teaches that as a result of sinning, these individuals are self-condemned.
By failing to respond to church discipline, they are demonstrating by their actions that they are guilty since the church is used by God to administer discipline to believers.
Furthermore, by failing to obey the apostolic teaching they are demonstrating that they are guilty before God since the Spirit inspired this teaching.
Thus to reject the discipline of the church and not repent and continuing to obey false doctrine and reject the Spirit inspired apostolic teaching, they are demonstrating that they are guilty in the judgment of God.
The Spirit who indwells this divisive unrepentant Christian is convicting them of their sin of rejecting church discipline and the apostolic teaching which He has inspired.
The apostle Paul says that Titus knows for certain or without a doubt that if a Christian does not respond in obedience to church discipline they are perverted and thus sinning with the result that they are self-condemned.
Titus possessed the conviction that this is the case with such a Christian because to be removed from the fellowship of the church as a result of being unrepentant for the sin of divisiveness, one would have to be perverted and sinning and would have to be self-condemned.
This would be the case because these individuals are in effect rejecting the Spirit inspired teaching of the Word of God who directed the church to discipline them for their divisiveness.
Therefore, Titus knew for certain that such a Christian is perverted and thus sinning so that they are self-condemned because the Holy Spirit wants them to obey the apostolic teaching which He has inspired.
Such a Christian is opposing God by rejecting His discipline through the church and they are rejecting Him by failing to obey the Spirit inspired teaching of the apostles.
So here in Titus 3:10-11, the apostle Paul is instructing Titus and the Cretan Christian community to deal with apostate Christians.
By “apostate” I mean a Christian who is unrepentant in their habitual disobedience to the Word of God and which disobedience is reflected in their ungodly lifestyle.
It describes a Christian who is continually out of fellowship with God and this is reflected in their ungodly lifestyle.
These Christians do not lose their salvation but rather they are disciplined by God and should not be permitted to enter the fellowship of the church if they have failed to obey church discipline after its been administered to them.
In Matthew 18:15-17, the Lord teaches that church discipline begins with a private confrontation.
The believer who is habitually sinning or possesses a sinful lifestyle must first be confronted privately as taught by the Lord in Matthew 18:15.
The second stage would involve confronting the disobedient Christian with two or three witnesses which is taught by the Lord in Matthew 18:16.
The third stage of church discipline as taught by the Lord in Matthew 18:17 would require that the entire church rebuke the Christian and if they failed to repent after the third stage, there was to be no further warnings.
Instead they were to be removed from the fellowship of the church by the entire church until they repented.
2 Thessalonians 3:14 and 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 along with Matthew 18:17 indicate that the church is to exercise group disapproval by way of social ostracism (refusal to have intimate fellowship).
The Lord is exercising this discipline through the church’s actions.
This rejection of an unrepentant Christian after a second and third warning is for the benefit of the entire Christian community.
Therefore, an “apostate” Christian is someone who is still unrepentant after all these stages of church discipline have been administered to them.