Titus 3:8-11

A Response to the False Teachers

The false teachers would have had one believe salvation was through works of the law of Moses. However, Paul has just shown it is by God's mercy which man finds through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Spirit. On the basis of this truth, Paul instructed Titus to teach it with confidence. False teachers are not timid, so the man of God cannot be either. Instead, Titus was to instruct the Cretan Christians to be careful to do good works (Ephesians 5:15-17). Such would be profitable because it is the means by which one maintains contact with the cleansing blood of Christ (Titus 3:8; 1 John 1:7).

Paul urged Titus to stand aloof from, or avoid, useless arguments. Such would likely involve questions man does not have an answer to which do not effect one's eternal welfare. The Jews, and apparently the Judaizing teachers, spent long hours trying to determine their relationship to Abraham. Further, they would wrangle over things in the law of Moses. Such discussions were like trying to catch the wind in a box (Titus 3:9).

Some would likely persist in dragging men's minds away from good works to those useless matters. When they pressed their opinions to the point of dividing the church, he should be warned and urged to change. Even those involved in such a public sin were to be given the second warning before they were finally rejected (Matthew 18:15-17). How sad to have to treat one who had once been called a brother as a heathen! Yet, he is so corrupted and sinful as to obviously no longer be living the Christian life. Christians must avoid them lest the leaven of their sin spread through the whole church (Titus 3:10-11; 1 Corinthians 5:4-8; 1 Corinthians 5:11).