Titus 1:12–14

The Cretans had a bad name as a people, as one of their own showed when he called them always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. The words come from Epimenides, a poet of the sixth century B.C. People quoted his sayings as oracles, which may explain the title "prophet." They needed a sharp rebuke, so that they might be sound in the faith.

Paul had sent Titus to Crete to appoint elders in every city. In Titus 1:12 we find that the Cretans, though they were not believers, had what passed for a prophet of their own. He got stirred up about something and turned blunt. He told the Cretan people a thing or two about themselves… They could not stick to the truth. They rampaged about and injured one another like wild animals. They did not want to work, but they wanted to eat a lot.

The apostle here quotes a moral poet, Epimenides of Crete, to press home the known dangers of those concerned. We are not to suppose that he endorses this Gentile author as a prophet of God. So he had to add, "This testimony is true." But it does show how grace stoops to use whatever is true, though the source may be impure. In the same spirit the apostle quoted a famous comic writer to convict the Corinthians more sharply: "Evil communications corrupt good manners."

Conditions in Crete differed from those at Ephesus. Both places faced similar dangers from rebellious people, empty talkers and deceivers. But the natural character of the Cretan people was unusually bad. It was so bad that one of their own prophets, a pagan seer, felt driven to denounce them in strong terms as "always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." That was the old nature of the Cretans who had believed, and it stayed in them after they believed. Sadly, it was showing itself.

"What bad material!" a person would say — and it is all too true. The law could do nothing with it. That is one of the main reasons why the apostle speaks so severely in this letter about those who were pushing people back under the law of Moses. But grace has done what the law could not do. The material was utterly bad, yet grace has set the flesh aside for ever.

A believer today may try to excuse an outburst of temper or some display of the flesh. He says, "Oh well, that's my make-up; that's the kind of person I am." "No doubt it is," we may well reply, "but have you not been washed and so saved from such things?" Godliness is to mark us. That means displaying the divine nature and not our own deformities.

Where watchfulness fails, a fall follows. So the evil nature is a constant danger. When we truly lean on Christ and look to Him, the Holy Spirit gives complete superiority over evil. Here the question is about people who are walking after the flesh. So the apostle applies this humbling testimony with full force. Titus did well to keep it in mind. And no Cretan could easily complain that the apostle was harsh, when a well-known man of their own nation had long ago admitted what their people were like.

Crete and Ephesus both faced similar dangers from rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers. But the natural character of the Cretans was especially bad. It was so bad that one of their own prophets, himself a pagan, was stirred to denounce them in strong terms as "always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." That was the old nature of the Cretans who believed, and it stayed in them after they believed. Sadly it was showing itself, so in verse 13 Titus is told to rebuke them sharply.

But it matters greatly to the enemy. He works skilfully on the old nature when we leave it unjudged, and that dishonours the Lord. Where there is no watchfulness, a fall follows. So the evil nature is a constant danger. When we truly lean on Christ and look to Him, the Holy Spirit gives complete victory over evil. Here Paul is dealing with people who are living by the old nature, so he applies the humbling testimony with all its force. Titus did well to keep it in mind. And no Cretan could easily complain that the apostle was too severe, when a well-known countryman of theirs had admitted their national character long ago.

Because of teachings that undermined the faith, and of corrupt influences, Titus was to press the truth home to believers, so that they might be found sound in the faith. True believers today need the good — the positive Truth of God! Being done with the bad — the unsound — is necessary, but it is not enough. Yes, "refuse the evil," but feed on "that which is good."

Wrong conduct constantly flows from something unsound creeping into the spirit. To be unsound in the faith is the high road to unholy ways. Here too we find the twisted nature of Jewish fables. It had appeared even then, and no doubt long before. Religious imagination has done untold harm ever since to those who bear the Lord's name. But there is more than fable to watch against. There are also the "commands of people who turn away from the truth." Never trust the practical advice or the moral ways of those who once professed the truth and then turned aside from it. God's word will never mix with man's commandments. Where people try it, in the long run the human element wins, and the divine becomes a powerless form.

So what is left for us to do? We must watch against the particular tendency and habit of our own mind. We must rebuke our nature sharply, so that we may be sound, or morally healthy, in the faith. We should not excuse it because it is our nature. We should suspect it all the more for that very reason, and put it to death for the sake of Him who has given us another nature.

This witness, says the apostle, is true. Therefore Titus was to rebuke them sharply. What sin and folly it is to brand care for their souls as a lack of love or a love of domination! Let us remember the whole case for our own profit and guidance.

The decisiveness and steadiness of true love are mistaken for harshness and unwillingness to forgive. It is love alone which will not tolerate evil in the one it loves.

These Cretan Jews claimed to have accepted Christianity, yet they worked evil in the assembly. The apostle demands that these men be silenced, because they were ruining whole households. They taught what they ought not to teach, and they did it for shameful gain... These teachers who pressed the Jewish law lived by strict self-denial. They banned certain things and made rules for outward behaviour. Their own orders and commands forbade certain things. Yet although they fasted and kept themselves in check, they had never been born again, so inside they were defiled and unbelieving.

The Greek word means literally 'a word, a speech.' The English word 'fable' is not used in the New Testament the way we often use it now, for a made-up incident that teaches a moral lesson. It carries instead the sense of myths, false stories — as later Greek writers used the word. One passage calls them "irreverent, silly myths."

The law does more than breed habits of tradition and slavish obedience to human rules in the things of God. Those habits soon tend to rise up and destroy practical faith. Along with them goes something you might not suspect at first — imagination; Jewish fables, as he says. It is remarkable how the famous storehouse of Rabbinic teaching still carries this double character today. On one side is the most slavish clinging to the letter, with no insight at all into the spirit of Holy Scripture. On the other side are the wildest fictions, made to feed the fancies of women and children.

There is more to watch against than "fable" — even the "commandments of men turning away as they do from the truth." Never trust the practical advice or the moral ways of people who once professed the truth and then turned aside from it. There is usually no greater evil in the Christian world. It has the character of a falling away from the faith. God's word will never mix with man's commandments. Where anyone tries it, in the long run the human element wins, and the divine becomes a form without power.

Law was their theme, but law sank into human commandments. They bound law on other people, and a fine stroke of irony brands them as the unruly ones. The genuine law had once appeared, but now it is the grace of God that has appeared.

One writer of admirable judgment gathers, from the way the phrase is built, that because they have already turned aside to fables, they turn their ear away from the truth.

Faced with teaching that undermined people, and with corrupt influences, Titus was to press the Truth home on believers so that they would be found SOUND IN THE FAITH. True believers today need the good — the positive Truth of God! Being done with the bad, the unsound, is necessary, but it is not enough. Certainly "refuse the evil," but feed upon "that which is good."