Scripture Reading: Titus 3:9-15
Before we consider 3:9-15, we need a further word on verses 4 through 7. In verse 7 Paul says, “That, having been justified by the grace of that One, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Becoming heirs of God is the goal of His eternal salvation with His eternal life given to us by grace in Christ. In verses 4 through 6 we see some crucial matters needed to reach God’s goal. In verses 4 and 5 we read of certain divine attributes: kindness, love, and mercy. When these attributes are put together, we have grace. God has exercised His love, mercy, kindness, and grace in order to save us. Whenever we are about to do something of great importance, we exercise our whole being. Our mind, will, emotion, heart, and even our disposition are exercised. In like manner, God exercised His being in order to save us. He exercised His love, kindness, mercy, and grace. By means of these divine attributes God has saved us. These attributes, however, are the source; they are not the activity or the process.
In 3:5 and 6 we have activity, an action, constituting the process through which God saved us: “He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, Whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” God’s salvation is based upon the exercise of His attributes and through the process of the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. The goal is that we become God’s heirs.
Paul certainly was an excellent writer. Knowing that in verses 4 through 6 he had not written anything concerning justification, he inserts the words “having been justified by the grace of that One.” Although justification is somewhat implied by the matters of salvation and washing, Paul mentions it explicitly in verse 7. We have been saved, washed, and justified. The grace by which we are justified is the totality of God’s kindness, love, and mercy. These attributes are of God. But when they become a totality in our experience, that is grace. Kindness, love, and mercy are of the Father, whereas grace is of Christ, of “that One.” For this reason, in 2 Corinthians 13:14 Paul speaks of the grace of Christ and of the love of God the Father.
In 3:7 Paul says that we become heirs according to the hope of eternal life, whereas in 1:1 and 2 he says that he became an apostle in the hope of eternal life. This eternal life meant a great deal to Paul. It also means a great deal to us as believers. Paul became an apostle in the hope of eternal life, and we become heirs of God according to the hope of eternal life. Why does Paul use the word “in” when speaking of himself and the word “according to” when speaking of us? The fact that he used the word “in” with respect to himself indicates that he was already experiencing the hope of eternal life. But because we have not yet entered into this experience to a very great extent, he says that we are heirs according to the hope of eternal life. As a very matured believer, Paul was experiencing the hope already. He was in it. But, for the most part, this experience lies ahead of us. Therefore, we are heirs according to this hope.
In 3:9 Paul goes on to say, “But avoid foolish questionings and genealogies and strifes and contentions about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain.” The questionings here are those aroused by genealogies (1 Tim. 1:4), and the strifes issue out of the questionings and genealogies. Contentions refer to fightings, which are due to different opinions issuing from the deviant and mythological studies of the law. The law in this verse is the law of the Jews used for Gnostic Judaism, which stood in opposition to the simplicity of the gospel. These questionings, genealogies, strifes, and contentions are all vain; that is, they are aimless, without any positive result.
The positive things stressed in verses 4 through 8 should be affirmed strongly and consistently, positive things including our Savior God, Jesus Christ our Savior, the Holy Spirit, God’s kindness, love, mercy, grace, and eternal life, with His acts of justifying, saving, washing, regenerating, and renewing. These are the Triune God with His attributes and virtues, plus His divine actions in His eternal salvation: they are things of life, which belong to the tree of life (Gen. 2:9) and produce heirs to inherit all that He is for them. The negative things dealt with in verses 9 through 11 should be avoided. These things include foolish questionings, genealogies, strifes, contentions about the law, and factious, opinionated men. These matters are of the knowledge that is deadening, matters that belong to the tree of knowledge and kill their victims.
Paul’s word about avoiding foolish questionings, genealogies, strifes, and contentions corresponds to what he says about teaching differently in 1 Timothy 1. Differing teachings had begun to creep into the church, and Paul charges Titus to avoid them.
The Lord’s ministry is not the teaching of any individual. The ministry is the teaching of God’s New Testament economy. This means that the Lord’s ministry is the healthy teaching which conveys to us the New Testament economy. Unfortunately, most of today’s Christian teachers have missed the mark of God’s economy. God’s economy may be likened to a kernel or a grain. Most Christian teachers pay attention not to the kernel, but to the stem, the leaves, and even to the husks. They may argue and debate over husks and neglect the kernel.
In Colossians 1:25 Paul says, “I became a minister according to the stewardship of God, which was given to me for you, to complete the word of God.” To complete the word of God means to complete the divine revelation. This completion of the word of God is the mystery of Christ. This expression refers both to Christ and to His mystery. The mystery of Christ is the church. The content of the teaching of the New Testament economy is the all-inclusive Christ and the church as the Body of Christ.
Any teaching which deviates from this central focus should be regarded as a differing teaching. For example, suppose a certain Christian teacher insists that we baptize people in the name of Jesus Christ, not in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and not even in the name of Christ Jesus. Although such a teaching may be presented in a way which sounds fundamental and scriptural, it is actually a differing teaching because it emphasizes something other than the focus of God’s economy and distracts the saints from the proper church life. Yes, the Bible commands us to be baptized. But we should not be influenced by differing teachings related to the name in which the believers are baptized. To pay too much attention to such matters will cause us to be distracted from God’s economy.
It is not the goal of the Lord’s recovery to recover doctrinal truths. The goal of the recovery is to bring us back to God’s New Testament economy, which is Christ and the church. What the Lord desires of us, and what we ourselves need, is to have our entire being focused on God’s economy. In the Lord’s recovery we must pay our full attention to Christ and the church.
As we direct our attention to God’s economy concerning Christ and the church, we must avoid differing teachings. These teachings may be scriptural, and certain preachers may speak of them in an eloquent, attractive manner. However, we must discern whether or not such speaking is focused on Christ and the church, whether or not it strengthens the believers to live Christ and practice the church life. A person may deliver an excellent message on love from 1 Corinthians 13. However, if he has not seen the vision of the New Testament economy concerning Christ and the church, even his inspiring message on love may be a distraction. The more he expounds 1 Corinthians 13, the more those who listen to him are distracted from Christ and from the church life. Instead, they pay their attention to love.
Many seeking Christians have been distracted not by heresies, but by good teachings on certain favorite portions of the Bible. Many Christians are impressed by 1 Corinthians 13, and they appreciate messages on this chapter. But although they may talk a great deal about love and about the need to love one another, they neglect the church life.
Christians today appreciate the book of Psalms. For many, Psalms is their favorite book in the Bible. Paying our full attention to the Psalms, however, may distract us from living Christ and may encourage and strengthen us to be merely believers who emphasize the devotional life. Furthermore, some may be distracted from the church life and even completely neglect it. They may even criticize certain ones in the church for not emphasizing the devotional time the way they do.
How are we to discern which messages to receive and which to avoid? Although we must oppose heresy, we should not oppose teachings which are not heretical. But we should not pay attention to teachings that are not focused on God’s economy, even though they are sound. We need to avoid differing teachings and concentrate on God’s economy concerning Christ and the church.
Titus 3:10 and 11 say, “A factious man after a first and second admonition refuse, knowing that such a one has been perverted and sins, being self-condemned.” A factious man is a heretical, sectarian man who causes divisions by forming parties in the church according to his own opinions. The Gnostic Judaism referred to in the preceding verse must be related to this. The divisiveness is based on differing teachings. This is the reason that verse 10 comes after verse 9. Certain believers may have insisted on the teaching of the law and in so doing became divisive.
In verse 10 Paul charges Titus to refuse a factious man after a first and second admonition. In order to maintain good order in the church, a factious, divisive person, after a first and second admonition, should be refused, rejected. Because such divisiveness is contagious, this rejection is for the church’s profit that contact with the divisive one be stopped.
In verse 11 Paul speaks a severe word, saying that a factious man has been perverted, that he sins, and that he is self-condemned. Literally, the Greek words rendered “has been perverted” mean turned out of the way. It is more than being turned away from the right path (Titus 1:14). One who has been perverted in this way is spoiled, damaged, destroyed, with respect to God’s New Testament economy.
Paul tells us that factious persons are self-condemned. When a factious person is alone, deep within he may become conscious of a feeling of condemnation. He knows that he does not have genuine peace. With his tongue he may say that he is not condemned, but deep in his heart he has questions and a sense of uneasiness. Some of those who left the Lord’s recovery argued strongly about various things. But deep within they did not have true peace. Instead, they were self-condemned. If they did not have a feeling of condemnation within, they would not struggle to vindicate themselves and to convince others they are right. Their efforts at self-vindication are a sign of their self-condemnation.
In verses 12 and 13 Paul says, “When I send Artemas to you or Tychicus, be diligent to come to me to Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. Zenas the lawyer and Apollos send forward diligently that nothing may be lacking to them.” Nicopolis was a city in the southwestern corner of Macedonia, where this Epistle was written. Artemas and Tychicus were intimate fellow-workers of Paul; Zenas and Apollos worked independently of him. Yet Paul still charged Titus to care for them, showing there was no jealousy between the two groups of co-workers.
Paul’s word in verse 14 is related to what he says in verse 13: “And let those also who are ours learn to maintain good works for necessary needs, that they may not be unfruitful.” They were to take care of the needs of the Lord’s servants and to help them on their way.
In verse 15 Paul concludes, “All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in faith. Grace be with you all.” The faith here is subjective and denotes our believing act which brings us into organic union with the Lord (John 3:15; Gal. 3:26) and operates through love (Gal. 5:6). It is in the element and operation of this faith that the saints who were one with the Lord in His concern loved the suffering and faithful apostle.
