Continuing the topic of virtues, Paul says that an overseer instead of having the above said vices, he must rather have the opposites. Some of them are:
- Hospitable: One who accommodates others even at the expense of pain and inconvenience.
- One who loves what is good: Paul tells Philippians that “Finally brothers, what is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things” (Phil.4:8).
- Self controlled: Controlling our behaviour.
- Upright: Not indulging in un-ethical acts.
- Holy: Living a holy and blameless life.
- Disciplined: “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (12 tim.1:7)
- Trustworthy to pass on the Gospel: (1:9): One who faithfully preaches the true Gospel. He must bring the Word with confidence and authority, not mixed with theological speculation and academic doubts. He must focus on fads and programs for the church, but stick to the Word.
- Encourage the people for right doctrines: Encourage those who rightly understand the Word of God and practice in their own lives.
- Refute the false teachers: Oppose the people who bring in false doctrines and do not indulge with them.
Beware of false teachers: (1:10-16):
Paul warned Titus to be on the look out for the false teachers who bring wrong doctrines and divide the church. Paul gives the same advice as he had given to Timothy in his letter to Timothy (1 Tim. 1:3-11, 2 Tim.2:14-18). In Crete, there were more Jews and so Titus faced Jewish element which is more tougher. Unbelieving Judaizers are causing more trouble in the churches.
Paul advices Titus to silence such people. It was easy to make the Gentile believers to submit than the Jews. For the pagan or Gentiles who become Christians they had to reject everything of their prior understanding about their gods. But for Jews and for that matter, the carnal and nominal Christians of present day, they come with some background of Judaism or Christianity. Titus had to face more difficulty to make the Jews to submit fully to God. It is same today in our churches too for carnal Christians.
Paul gives 3-types of false teachers (1:10-11), namely:
- Rebellious people: These people do not want to submit to God’s authority. There is God’s authority at home, in the church, in the work place and in the community. God wants us to submit to His authority. The rebellious people speak misguided opinions. They do not base any of their opinions in the light of the Bible. Today such people of misguided opinion are present in every church. As we see how Titus tackled such people, we must learn from the advice of Paul to see that our churches are making a constant effort to glorify God.
- Mere talkers: They are mere talkers, talk glibly but all their talk was ineffective in bringing anyone to Christ. They too speak misguided opinions, teaching what they ought not to teach. They are ruining the families with their gossip and too much of talking. “Too much talk leads to sin” (Pr.10:19 NLT). “A gossip betrays confidence” (Pr.20:19).
- Deceivers: They are evil people, with evil motives. They pretend to be believers only because they can get some money or some dishonest gain. They would like to be sort of leaders in the church only to keep their ego. They are selfish and always focus on themselves instead of on Christ. Such people are very common today in the churches and the congregation and the overseer must be careful not to give place to such people.
Paul based his statement on one such Cretan former prophets Epimenides who was also a poet, philosopher who lived in Crete 600 years earlier, that “Cretans are liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” (1:12) Cretans had the reputation and were know for lying. The Cretans were so notorious that Greeks actually formed a verb ‘kretizein, to cretize which means to lie and to cheat. Paul was not blaming of their reputation but asking Titus to go out and change them with the power of Jesus and His glory. Further he said this because Titus had to be really tough while dealing with such false teachers.