THE CONFLICT BETWEEN WHAT WE SAY AND WHAT WE DO

Titus 1:16

Morning Meditation 2/18/16

This text has always impressed itself on me. Paul tells Titus: “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” God help me not to deny Him by my works.

First, Paul is talking about the false teachers whose mouth must be stopped (v 11). He is talking about people he describes in verse 12: “One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.” That is not a very nice description. I would not want to be a Cretian in the congregation where this epistle was first read.

I do not mean to compare us to them. However, the principle of professing one thing and practicing another is the same for us as it was for them. It is like the man who says He believes the Bible is the inspired inerrant Word of the living God, but it has very little influence in his life to change him. I have seen preachers shake the KJV in the pulpit and say this is the inspired Word of God and at the same moment condemn anyone else who disagrees with them. Their KJV has had very little effect on their love for others and the gentleness with which a minister is instructed to operate: "In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;” (2Tim 2:25). I do not mean to condemn, I just simply say that we do not need to profess what we are unwilling to practice. We can deny Him by our actions.

The words of our text say, “They profess that they know God.” The words “They profess” (homologeo) mean “to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent.” These false teachers were in agreement in what they declared they believed. It is a present active indicative verb. In other words when Paul was writing this letter, he knew how these false teachers were thinking and professing at the time he was writing. He is addressing a real condition. He is not shooting at a straw man. The words “that they know God” translate a verb (eido) which means “to see, i.e., have an interview with, to visit.” Most false teachers have to claim a special revelation in an attempt to authenticate their message. The verb is a perfect active infinitive. The perfect tense is completed action in the past with the result that it remains true in the present. They claimed to know God by what is expressed as visual perception in the past and they are at present proclaiming a message received at that time. That message that they were preaching conflicted with the message that Paul was giving which was and is the inspired Word of God. God’s messages to one do not conflict with God’s messages given to others. We can take that to the bank! There are those who still claim to be receiving “a word from God” and what they are receiving does not harmonize with the Written Word. It is false every time it conflicts with God’s written revelation.

The words “But in their works they deny him” tell us that there is a difference between their walk and their talk. That is a good way to discover false teachers. There are preachers on Television today that preach sacrifice and have as many as two or three million dollar homes scattered out across the country.

The word “deny” (arneomai) means “not to accept, to reject, to refuse something.” It is a present passive indicative verb. It means they do not accept the teaching they profess to believe and teach to others. They do not let it work in their own lives. The passive voice means they choose to be unaffected by what they profess. The truth of God’s word will have a profound effect on us if we believe it and it will change the way we live.

The words “being abominable, and disobedient” describe the characteristics of these of whom Paul speaks. The words “being abominable” (bdeluktos) means “to be detestable.” It is a present participle. Paul says that this is a continual condition in their lives. Paul is saying this in the context of divine revelation. How did Paul conclude that these men were detestable? Was it an opinion based on what was commonly accepted in that culture and condition? Absolutely not. It was based on what God had revealed concerning what was right or wrong. These men were not even coming close to what was right. It was detestable to Paul. The word “disobedient” (apeithes) means “im persuasible, not compliant.” This noun takes the same present participle as as the word abominable. It is a continuing condition. Now if they were “im persuasible” it has to mean that they had been dealt with concerning their error. I have a good friend that has dealt at length with his brethren concerning the masonic lodge. He has clearly and definitely exposed that abominable error and has suffered awesome rejection by those he has exposed and those who are in sympathy with those whom he has exposed and it is only because they are “un persuasible.” We are not just talking about something that happened back in Paul’s day. God identifies this attitude with the words “abominiable, and disobedient.” But one would think that Paul is the bad character here because he had the boldness and love for the Word of God to expose those who were putting leaven in the holy lump (1Cor 5:6) of the church.

The words “and to every good work reprobate” is a severe charge. How did Paul know that they did nothing right? Could it be that there are some errors that you can embrace that will make you wrong even in the right? Before you judge this statement, let me give you a verse. Prov 21:4 says “An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.” I can just see some folks (not anyone who receives this meditation) scrambling for their concordances or their Hebrew text to try to make this verse mean something else. Let me save you some time. It means what it says. The word “reprobate” (adokimos) means “not standing the test, not approved.” This is the same word that Paul uses in 1Cor 9:27: “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” The word “castaway” is adokimos. In first Corinthians Paul feared that he himself would be a castaway. In Titus the works of the false teachers are adokimos. Could this be an example of what happens to the works of a man who is himself rejected (adokimos) by the Lord? There is nothing he can do that is right!

May God bless these words to our hearts. Lets not deny Him by our works.

In Christ

Earl White