Sermon Tone Analysis

Titus 3:9-15.

"Relationships".

Safe Haven Community Church.

Sunday November 21st, 2021.

Titus 3:9-15.

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.

12 When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.

13 Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing.

14 And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.

15 All who are with me send greetings to you.

Greet those who love us in the faith.

Grace be with you all.

(ESV)

After recent unprecedented flooding in British Columbia, critical shortages have set in due largely to a wave of panic-buying across the province.

Greg Wilson, a B.C. representative of the Retail Council of Canada, stated that this week's shortages were due almost entirely to hoarding, rather than the highway washouts.

The exact same thing happened due to the wave of panic-buying that defined the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commentators on the situation noted that we'd like to think we would display restraint instead of panic in the aftermath of a disaster, and that we wouldn't race out to stock up on everything from bread to fruit to toilet paper for fear they soon run out.

But don't kid yourself, it's a hard impulse to resist, and it's one that's adding more pain in B.C. right now.

(https://nationalpost.com/news/panic-buying-not-highway-washouts-causing-empty-shelves-and-shortages-in-b-c)

How we treat others is a great concern to God.

As we loving care for our co-ministers, look out for our fellow servants, deal with difficult people and protect against those who seek to undermine the Christian faith, how we deal with these people speaks volumes.

It not only is a barometer to Church health but has very practical implications in how we reach the lost.

The most effective and God designed program for reaching the lost is not a rally, public event, book or video program.

It is calling believers to live in such a way that shows that our God saves sinners from sin.

Such testimony is built on sanctified relationships.

Chapter 1 of the book of Titus has dealt with the relationship of believers in the church with the Lord of the church, as exemplified by its leadership.

Chapter 2 introduced believers' relationships with each other, and the first half of chapter 3 deals with the relationship of believers with the unregenerate society in which they live.

In Titus 3:9-15, the end of the letter, Paul gives what might be called "The last word on relationships," in which he concludes by distinguishing true relationships between Christians with false ones.

When a person has an important conversation or correspondence with a friend or counselor, the most personal, and sometimes the most urgent, concerns are mentioned last.

That seems to be true in this epistle.

In his closing words, Paul mentions four distinct and important categories of personal relationships within the church that are of special importance: 1) Relationships with false teachers (Titus 3:9), 2) With factious people (Titus 3:10-11), 3) With fellow servants (Titus 3:12-13), and 4) With faithful friends (Titus 3:14-15).

In order to have an effective witness, Christians must distinguish true relationships against those with:

1) False Teachers (Titus 3:9)

Titus 3:9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

(ESV)

Believers on the island of Crete had been overexposed to a large number of men who claimed to represent the Lord, to be His servants, and to teach His Word.

In reality, however, they were spiritually corrupt and were enemies of the Lord, His Word, and His church.

Those men had generated so much confusion that Paul had admonished Titus to "set in order what remains, and appoint elders in every city ... [who would hold] fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, that [they] may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict," namely, the "many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach, for the sake of sordid gain" (1:5, 9-11).

Therefore, Titus' first instruction here was to "avoid foolish controversies".

"Avoid/Shun" translates a form of the verb periistēmi, which in the mid middle voice, as here, means "to turn oneself around, to purposely turn away from something or someone."

This is a PRESENT MIDDLE IMPERATIVE, meaning "to continue to keep aloof from or avoid" (Utley, R. J. (2000).

Paul's Fourth Missionary Journey: I Timothy, Titus, II Timothy (Vol.

Volume 9, p. 128).

Marshall, Texas: Bible Lessons International.).

Titus, the other elders, and the congregations on Crete were to turn the other way from morally and spiritually destructive false teachers, who not only corrupted the churches but, by their sinful and sordid lifestyles, were a great hindrance to the credibility of the gospel.

The effect of false teaching is explained in several New Testament passages.

It unsettles the soul (Acts 15:24), shipwrecks faith (1 Tim.

1:19), leads to blasphemy (v.

20) to the ruin of the hearers (2 Tim.

2:14), produces ungodliness (v.

16), and spreads "like gangrene" (v.

17).

The basic reason given for such avoidance is the essential unprofitableness and uselessness of the false teaching

In this single verse Paul mentions four specific categories of errors these false teachers were espousing: foolish controversies and genealogies, dissensions/strife and quarrels/disputes about the Law.

Foolish is from mōros, from which in English is the word moron, and controversies is from zētēsis, which has the basic sense of searching or investigating but came to be used for discussion or debate, especially that which was contentious.

In Paul's letters controversies (zētēsis) always has a negative connotation and issued in warnings-similar to the one given here-about Christians becoming involved in futile arguments about matters of philosophy, or even theology, that are based on human reason and imagination rather than God's Word.

(Guthrie, D. (1990).

Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol.

14, p. 230).

Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.).

Please turn to 1 Timothy 1

One wonders how many hours and years and lifetimes of Christians have been lost to genuine teaching of God's Word and to effective evangelism and discipling because of time wasted with foolish controversies.

Although false doctrines themselves certainly are foolish, Paul's point here is that wasting time discussing them is a seriously foolish behavior for God's people to be involved in.

At the beginning of his first letter, the apostle admonishes that other young elder:

1 Timothy 1:3-7 3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.

5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

6 Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

(ESV) ( cf. 1 Tim.

6:3-5; 2 Tim.

2:23)

* False teachers in the church invariably distort and contradict Scripture, replacing it with novel insights, ideas, and notions that confuse and mislead God's people and undercut their trust in God's revealed truth.

The danger of false doctrine is made all the worse because, appealing to natural wisdom and desires, it finds ready acceptance among unbelievers and even among worldly, self-centered Christians who are poorly grounded in the Word.

Once a false teacher is exposed, they are to be rejected by the church and given no platform to spread their spiritually cancerous and destructive falsehoods.

They are not to be debated but denounced and expelled (cf. 2 Cor.

6:14-18).

Equally worthless for believers is becoming involved second, in interpretations of genealogies.

Paul was not, of course, belittling the many genealogies that are found in both the New and Old Testaments.

Those genealogies were critical for determining the God-given lineage of the priesthood, the kings of Judah and Israel, and even the Messiah (Matt.

1:1; cf.

2-17).

Paul's warning to Titus concerned rather the many fanciful and allegorical interpretations of such genealogies that had fascinated many Jews for centuries.

The fourth-century church historian Eusebius reported that when the apostles died, a conspiracy of godless error arose through deceptive false teachers, who arrogantly propagated their insidious lies in opposition to God's Word.

It is obvious from Paul's counsel to Timothy and Titus that those godless errors were a serious threat to the church even before all of the apostles were gone.

A third kind of error that Christians on Crete faced is simply referred to as dissensions/strife a general term that carries the ideas of all kinds of self-centered rivalry and contentiousness about the truth.

Because the early church included so many converted Jews, a fourth common error involved quarrels/disputes about the Mosaic Law.

Paul refers to that problem in his letter to the Galatian churches.

"Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised," he warned, "simply that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.

For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh" (Gal.

6:12-13; cf. 1 Tim.

1:6-7).

This issue was clarified and settled at the Council of Jerusalem recorded in Acts 15.

The People in Crete wasted their time running down theological "rabbit trails," becoming lost in futile discussions and ideas, contending with one another and destroying the community of believers.

As they argued and quarreled with one another, a climate of anger and bitterness developed, and the church was derailed from its mission.

Speculative arguments take valuable time away from teaching the truth of Scripture and spreading the gospel.

Pointless controversy does not help advance the truth (Barton, B. B., Veerman, D., & Wilson, N. S. (1993). 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus (p.

291).

Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.).

* The modern church falls prey to the same mentality, arguing and dividing itself over opinions, political views, parenting styles, worship styles, secondary theological issues, vaccines, and a vast assortment of opinions and personal preferences that we elevate to spiritual law.

Where this occurs, the result is the same today as in the first century.

The church is distracted from its mission to bring salvation, love, and hope to a dying world.

Rather than attracting the unbeliever to something new and good-a community of faith and the grace of God-the church repels the outside world because of (unnecessary infighting).

( Larson, K. (2000).

I & II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus, Philemon (Vol.

9, pp.

385-386).

Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)