The character of the adversaries at Crete.
They were within the communion of the Christian Church. It was, therefore, all the more necessary that the ministers should be holy, laborious, and uncorrupt.
I. THE MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THESE ADVERSARIES. "For there are many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision."
1. They were refractory. Though standing in Church relationships, they refused all obedience, and pursued purely factious and divisive courses, that led to the subversion of discipline and the distraction of families. Such persons mar the prosperity of many a Church.
2. They were vain talkers. Corruption quickly makes its way from the heart to the lips, and flows forth in glib and empty babbling.
3. They were deceivers. They deceived others by their good words and fair speeches, their vain speculations and their dexterous arguments, and thus became very dangerous persons.
4. They were of "the circumcision" party in the Church.
II. THE EFFECT OF THEIR SEDUCTION. "Subverting whole houses." They pursued a process of sapping and mining, subverting the faith (2 Timothy 2:18), and bringing whole families to disorder and ruin. It was not a case of mischief done to a few isolated individuals. Thus they undermined the peace and stability of the Church itself.
III. THE MOTIVE OF THEIR TEACHING. "Teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake." The real root of the evil is laid bare by the apostle. It was a sordid love of gain. Therefore the teaching was such as would accommodate itself to the prejudices of men. These men had no regard for God's honor, for the interest of Christ, or for the welfare of souls; they only sought to increase their worldly substance by gaining popular applause.
1. Money in itself is no evil, for it has no moral character. It is only a blessing or a curse according to the use that is made of it.
2. "The love of money is the root of all evil? It leads men to dishonor God, to ignore the claims of truth, to sacrifice the peace of the Church. The Pharisees in our Lord's time devoured widows' houses. How many people still sacrifice religion so far as they imagine it to conflict with their worldly advancement!"
3. The motive of these Cretan adversaries was baser than if it had been mere fanaticism or the love of proselytism. (Matthew 23:15.)
IV. THE JUSTIFICATION OF THE APOSTLE'S STRONG LANGUAGE CONCERNING THEM. "One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons." This testimony is true. These words refer not to "those of the circumcision," but to the inhabitants of Crete, who had generally welcomed the injurious teaching referred to.
1. The apostle's quotation of a heathen poet, Epimenides, shows that it is not improper for Christians to study the literature of heathen nations. Classical studies were once, on moral grounds, discouraged by the Church. Calvin says that nothing learned ought to be rejected, even though it should proceed from "the godless."
2. The quotation is the unbiased judgment of a Cretan poet, held in high honor for so-called prophetical gifts. It represents the character of the Cretans in the darkest light, as if to justify a heathen proverb, "The three worst C's in the world are Cappadocia, Crete, and Cilicia."
3. The apostle endorses this heathen testimony, showing that the Cretans had not changed their national character in six hundred years.
V. THE TRUE METHOD OF DEALING WITH THE CRETAN ADVERSARIES. "Whose mouths must be stopped."
1. This does not warrant civil persecution.
2. It warrants the use of cogent arguments to silence gainsayers, such as those by which our Lord silenced the Sadducees and the Pharisees, as well as the use of faithful and stringent discipline to repress ecclesiastical and moral disorders. The adversaries were to be opposed by reason, faithfulness, and love, above all, by the faithful preaching of the gospel in its positive as well as its negative aspects.—T.C.
The necessity of godly rebuke.
At this point the apostle drops the reference to bishops, and lays upon Titus himself the duty of applying the proper remedy.
I. THE UTILITY OF REBUKE. "Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith." The nature of the people demanded sharp treatment. "Sharpness and severity are but the other side of love itself, when the wounds can only be healed by cutting." Ministers are sent to give rebuke (Jeremiah 44:4; Micah 3:8).
1. They may give it privately.
2. Or publicly (1 Timothy 5:20).
3. Fearlessly (Ezekiel 2:3-7).
4. With all authority (Titus 2:15).
5. With long-suffering (2 Timothy 4:2).
6. If sharply, yet with Christian love (2 Thessalonians 3:15).
7. The good receive rebuke
II. THE DESIGN OF THE REBUKE. "That they may be sound in the faith." It was:
1. That they might be recovered from their errors, and receive sound doctrine, and use sound speech that cannot be condemned.
2. That they may be sound in the grace of faith, and manifest it by departing from their evil works. This soundness of faith is described negatively by their "not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth."
(a) They stand in antithesis to the commandments of God (Matthew 15:9; Colossians 2:22).
(b) They evidently were of a ceremonial character, and involved ascetic peculiarities, touching the question of abstinence from meats, and from other things created by God for man's enjoyment.
(c) Their origin was evil, for they sprang from men turning away from the truth. It was not merely Mosaical prohibitions with regard to food that they enforced, but ascetic additions and exaggerations in the spirit of the later Gnosticism. The course of these men was downward. They were departing fast from the gospel.—T.C.