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This section has two verses
Titus 1:10-11
10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and
deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:
11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole
houses, teaching things which they ought not, for
filthy lucre's sake.
We will begin with the Barclay.
THE FALSE TEACHERS OF CRETE
Titus 1:10–11
[the verses paraphrased]:
For there are many who are undisciplined,
empty talkers, deceivers. Those of the circumcision
are especially so. They must be muzzled. They are
the kind of people who upset whole households, by
teaching things which should not be taught in order
to acquire a shameful gain.
HERE we have a picture of the false teachers who
were troubling Crete. The worst offenders were
apparently Jews. They tried to persuade the Cretan
converts of two things. They tried to persuade them
that the simple story of Jesus and the cross [stake]
was not sufficient, but that, to be really wise,
they needed all the subtle stories and the long
genealogies and the elaborate allegories of the
Rabbis. Further, they tried to teach them that grace
was not enough, but that, to be really good, they
needed to take upon themselves all the rules and
regulations about foods and washings which were so
characteristic of Judaism. The false teachers were
seeking to persuade people that they needed more
than Christ and more than grace in order to be
saved. They were intellectuals for whom the truth of
God was too simple and too good to be true.
One by one, the characteristics of these false
teachers are described.
They were undisciplined; they were like disloyal
soldiers who refused to obey the word of command.
They refused to accept the creed or the control of
the Church. It is perfectly true that the Church
does not seek to impose a flat uniformity of belief
on people; but there are certain things which
everyone must believe in order to be Christians, the
greatest of which is the all-sufficiency of Christ.
Even in the Church today, discipline has its place.
Note: Discipline has its place in every
aspect of our lives. See the sermon on discipline:
Zucht
Now back to the commentary and these undisciplined
false teachers being described.
They were empty talkers; the word is mataiologoi,
and the
adjective mataios, meaning vain, empty, profitless,
was the
adjective applied to the ancient worship of Greece
and Rome.
The main idea was of a worship which produced no
goodness of life. These people in Crete could talk
glibly [thoughtlessly, superficially, insincerely],
but all their talk was ineffective in bringing
anyone a single step nearer to goodness. The Cynics
used to say that all knowledge which is not
profitable for virtue is pointless. The teacher who
simply provides pupils with a forum for pleasant
intellectual and speculative discussion teaches in
vain.
They were deceivers. Instead of leading people to
the truth, they led them away from it.
Their teaching upset whole households. There are two
things to notice there. First, their teaching was
fundamentally upsetting. It is true that truth must
often make people rethink their ideas and that
Christianity does not run away from doubts and
questions but faces them fairly and squarely. But it
is also true that teaching which ends in nothing but
doubts and questionings is bad teaching. In true
teaching, the challenging questioning that so often
disturbs should in the end lead to a new and greater
certainty. Second, they upset households. That is to
say, they had a bad effect on family life. Any
teaching which tends to disrupt the family is false,
for the Christian Church is built on the basis of
the Christian family.
Their teaching was designed for gain. They were more
concerned with what they could get out of the people
when they were teaching than with what they could
put into them. In his commentary, [R. John Parry]
has said that this is indeed the greatest temptation
for professional teachers. When they look on their
teaching simply as a career designed for personal
advancement and profit, they are in a perilous
state. These false teachers are to be muzzled. That
does not imply that they are to be silenced by
violence or by persecution. The Greek (epistomizein)
does mean to muzzle, but it became the normal word
for to silence a person by reason. The way to combat
false teaching is to offer true teaching, and the
only truly unanswerable teaching is the teaching of
a Christian life. ~Barclay Commentary
Now to the other commentaries. We will begin
with the general and move to the specific.
Let us begin with the Matthew Henry Main. We are
breaking into a long commentary that covers verses
6-16. I am including the commentary just on verse
10.
II. The apostle's directory shows whom he should
reject or avoid - men of another character, the
mention of whom is brought in as a reason of the
care he had recommended about the qualifications of
ministers, why they should be such, and only such,
as he had described. The reasons he takes both from
bad teachers and hearers among them, Titus 1:10, to
the end.
1. From bad teachers.
(1.) Those false teachers are described. They were
unruly, headstrong and ambitious of power,
refractory [stubborn, disobedient, resisting] and
untractable (as some render it) [not easily managed
or controlled], and such as would not bear nor
submit themselves to the discipline and necessary
order in the church, impatient of good government
and of sound doctrine. And vain talkers and
deceivers, conceiting themselves to be wise, but
really foolish, and thence great talkers, falling
into errors and mistakes, and fond of them, and
studious and industrious to draw others into the
same. Many such there were, especially those of the
circumcision, converts as they pretended, at least,
from the Jews, who yet were for mingling Judaism and
Christianity together, and so making a corrupt
medley. These were the false teachers. ~Matthew
Henry
Now to the Matthew Henry Concise which we have read
since verse 10 as it covers verses 10-16.
False teachers are described. Faithful ministers
must oppose such in good time, that their folly
being made manifest, they may go no further They had
a base end in what they did; serving a worldly
interest under pretence of religion: for the love of
money is the root of all evil. Such should be
resisted, and put to shame, by sound doctrine from
the Scriptures. Shameful actions, the reproach of
heathens, should be far from Christians; falsehood
and lying, envious craft and cruelty, brutal and
sensual practices, and idleness and sloth, are sins
condemned even by the light of nature. But Christian
meekness is as far from cowardly passing over sin
and error, as from anger and impatience. And though
there may be national differences of character, yet
the heart of man in every age and place is deceitful
and desperately wicked. But the sharpest reproofs
must aim at the good of the reproved; and soundness
in the faith is most desirable and necessary. To
those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is
pure; they abuse, and turn things lawful and good
into sin. Many profess to know God, yet in their
lives deny and reject him. See the miserable state
of hypocrites, such as have a form of godliness, but
are without the power; yet let us not be so ready to
fix this charge on others, as careful that it does
not apply to ourselves. ~Matthew Henry Concise
Now to the Biblical Illustrator for some pieces
there.
Hindrances to religion
I. The chief hindrances to religion are often in the
church itself. The persons alluded to were members
and professed teachers.
1. Words without sincerity are “vain.”
2. Great attention may be paid to the letter of the
law, while its spirit is violated—“they of the
circumcision.”
3. The distinction between good and bad
preachers—the former live to preach, while the
latter preach to live.
II. Hindrances in the church must be removed. “Whose
mouths must be stopped.”
1. Discipline must be exercised in love.
2. The prosperity of the Church of God must be
considered before that of individuals.
3. Every age has its own obstructions to the
truth—intemperance, covetousness, selfishness, the
chief hindrances of the present.
III. Communities are affected by the conduct of
individuals. The characters of men are transferred
to their country; here the Cretians became a byword.
So, drunken Englishmen abroad, compromise the
character of their fellow countrymen. Four vices
1. Untruthfulness.
2. Passion—“evil beasts.”
3. Sensuality.
4. Slothfulness. ~Biblical Illustrator
Here is another one.
The characteristics of false
teachers
I. In that the first thing taxed in these false
teachers by the apostle is disobedience, we learn
that disobedience commonly is the ground of false
doctrine. For
1. It is just with God to give up those to errors
and delusion that receive not the truth in the love
of it, for wheresoever it is received in love
obedience cannot but be yielded unto it.
2. The nature of sin is ever to be excusing itself,
and is loath to be crossed, although never so
justly, but studieth how to defend itself as long as
it can, even by wresting the Scriptures, and by
taking up one error for the maintenance of another.
II. Preachers who themselves are disobedient unto
the word, for most part become in their ministry no
better than vain talkers.
1. In regard of themselves, being vain glorious
persons, affect applause rather than Godly edifying,
which is a most vain thing.
2. In respect of their labour, which is all in vain,
never attaining the end and right scope of the
preaching of the gospel unto salvation; for he that
soweth vanity what else can he look to reap?
3. In regard of the hearers, who also spend their
pains in vain: they hear a great noise and pomp of
words, and a glorious show of human wisdom, which
may wrap the simple into admiration, but they are
left without reformation; their ear is perhaps a
little tickled, but their hearts remain untouched;
neither are their souls soundly instructed nor fed
with knowledge, but they go away as wise as they
came.
These Paul calleth vain talkers and vain janglers (1
Timothy 1:6), and again, profane and vain babblers,
and that justly.
Quoted verse:
1 Timothy 1:6 ...one of our key verses of 1
Timothy [see
Lesson]
From which some having swerved have turned aside
unto vain jangling;
1. Because their puffed discourses proceed from the
profanity of their hearts.
2. They are as strange fire from the Lord’s altar,
opposed to that which the Lord hath sanctified to
the salvation of His people.
3. They are so far from the edifying of the Church
that they cause men to increase unto more
ungodliness and profaneness.
III. How did these false teachers deceive men’s
minds?
1. By suppressing the truth; for by their vain
jangling and speaking, liker poets, philosophers,
historians, than prophets, apostles, or any
successors of theirs, they made a cleanly conveyance
of the light from the people, and, withholding the
truth and light, they led them from Christ, from the
right knowledge of the Scriptures, from sound
godliness and religion in judgment and practice, and
so they remained as dark in their understanding, as
erroneous in their judgments, as froward in their
affections, and as wicked in their lives as ever
before.
2. By flattery; for they would not deal directly
against the sins of the age, as godly ministers do,
but deceitfully, that they might not displease;
herein imitating Satan himself, who was wont of old
to answer in riddles, as he answered Cresus, that if
he would transport himself over the river Halys he
should overthrow a most mighty kingdom, namely, his
own. But Micaiah will not deceive nor flatter with
Ahab, although it stand upon his life.
3. By letting men see their estate in false glasses,
so as they never see the truth of it, for people
taught by fables and novelties think, and are borne
in hand, that they are in [The Kingdom's]
highway; their souls are brought on sleep, and
coming from such frothy [empty] discourses,
they sit down and please themselves in that they
have done their task required, especially if they
can bring home a jest or some witty sentence, when
perhaps they scarce heard a word of Christ, of their
justification, of their mortification, or of their
glory.
4. By placing religion in bodily exercises, not in
matters of spirit and truth (Colossians 2:20); thus
did the Pharisees in their times, the Papists in
these, and whosoever urge the decrees of men more
than the commandments of God.
Quoted verse:
Colossians 2:20
Wherefore if ye be dead with
Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as
though living in the world, are ye subject to
ordinances,
IV. But whose minds are deceived.
1. First their own and then others, for they are
blind leaders of the blind, deceiving, and being
deceived, and although our apostle expresseth not
here who they be that are deceived, yet elsewhere he
doth, as Romans 16:18, “they deceive the hearts of
the simple,” and 2 Timothy 3:6, “they lead captive
simple women,” and 2 Peter 2:14, “they beguile [fool,
mislead, delude] unstable souls,” whence we see
that ignorant, inconstant, and unsettled souls,
which hand over head receive any doctrine without
examination or trial, whose simplicity disableth
them to judge between truth and falsehood, and whose
levity makes them like shaken reeds, these are the
carouses [engage in drunken revel] on which
such vultures do seize. ~Biblical Illustrator
Quoted verses:
Romans 16:18
For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus
Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and
fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
2 Timothy 3:6 [see
Lesson]
For of this sort are they which creep into houses,
and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led
away with divers lusts,
2 Peter 2:14
Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease
from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they
have exercised with covetous practices; cursed
children:
Now to the specific commentaries. The verse,
as I and some commentaries see it is in two parts,
though some will break out single words and phrases.
1] For there are many unruly and vain talkers and
deceivers.
2] Specially they of the circumcision.
1] For there are many unruly and
vain talkers and deceivers.
For there are many unruly and vain talkers and
deceivers - There are many persons who are
indisposed to submit to authority (see the word
unruly in Titus1:6); many who are vain talkers - who
are more given to talk than to the duties of
practical religion; and many who live to deceive
others under the mask of religion. They make great
pretensions to piety; they are fluent in argument,
and they urge their views in a plausible manner [see
Ministers Notebook piece, "The
Era of Slick Arguments"]. ~Barnes
Notes
Quoted verse:
Titus 1:6 [see
Lesson]
If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having
faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.
There are many unruly - Persons who will not receive
the sound doctrine, nor come under wholesome
discipline. ~Adam Clarke
Vain talkers - Empty boasters of knowledge, rights,
and particular privileges; all noise, empty parade,
and no work. ~Adam Clarke
Deceivers - Of the souls of men by their specious
pretensions. ~Adam Clarke
For there are many unruly - Persons who are not
subject to the law of God, or Gospel of Christ;
whose spirits are not subject to the prophets; and
who will not submit themselves to them that have the
rule over them, nor attend to the admonitions of the
church, nor be brought into any regularity and
order; and there were many of this sort, who were
not sent forth by Christ, or his churches, but went
forth of themselves, and were corrupters of the
word; and therefore Christ's ministers ought to hold
fast the faithful word, and convince such opposers
by sound doctrine; ~John Gill
And vain talkers - who deliver out in their
discourses empty, trifling, superficial, and
frivolous things; which have no solidity and
substance in them, nor do they tend to edification;
only great swelling words of vanity, vain jangling
and babbling about things to no profit. ~John
Gill
And deceivers - both of themselves and others; who
lie in wait to deceive, and are deceitful workers;
and by their good words, and fair speeches, deceive
the hearts of the simple; and so are dangerous
persons, and of pernicious consequence: ~John
Gill
2] Specially they of the
circumcision.
Specially they of the circumcision - Jews, spoken of
here as “of the circumcision” particularly, because
they urged the necessity of circumcision in order
that men might be saved. This proves that there were
not a few Jews in the island of Crete. ~Barnes
Notes
They of the circumcision - The Judaizing teachers,
who maintained the necessity of circumcision, and of
observing the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic
law, in order to the perfecting of the Gospel.
~Adam Clarke
Especially they of the circumcision - or "of the
Jews", as the Ethiopic version renders it; that is,
not the unbelieving Jews, but such as professed
Christianity, judaizing Christians, who joined Moses
and Christ and blended the law and Gospel together;
who taught that circumcision, and the observance of
other ceremonies of the law, were necessary to
justification and salvation; and hereby did a great
deal of mischief among the churches. ~John Gill
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