Titus 1:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He had to keep the Cretans in the truth they had received, especially under the activity of false teachers.

Saint John Chrysostom says: "One must not treat everyone in the same way, but differently and variously, according to the persons. If they are inclined to lying, then they need the most rebuking word. Such a man cannot be moved by meekness." "Therefore rebuke them sharply." And this, "rebuke sharply," does not contradict the saying, "correcting opponents with meekness," writes blessed Theodoret. "Those who have not yet believed must be taught the divine doctrine with meekness. But those who have promised to believe and attempt to act contrary to it must be healed with severe measures."

Concerning stopping mouths, Bishop Theophan says: "This can be done either by the force of pastoral authority or by the force of rebuke and confirmation of the truth. This is for the first instance. If they remain in their stubbornness afterward, they should be cut off completely, as the Apostle also legislated below (3:10). But rebuke is more applicable. When such vain talkers are encountered, whoever they may be, the falsehood of their teaching must be exposed so strongly that they have nothing to say in its defense. And if such men cannot be met, but it becomes known that some go from house to house secretly and vainly speak this and that, then one must disclose before the faithful the falsehood that has become known and rebuke it. The truth of God, opposed to the lie, must be set forth more fully and confirmed more strongly. This will be a stopping, if not of the mouths of the vain talkers, then of the entrance of their lie into the souls of the hearers. The Apostle commanded that the mouths of harmful alien vain talkers be stopped, but he commands that his own be rebuked sharply. This is not so that one may satisfy his displeasure against them, but so that they may be sound in the faith. That is, they must not accept false views inconsistent with the faith. The body becomes unhealthy when it receives elements alien to it. So also faith becomes unhealthy when it receives thoughts that destroy its structure, either wholly or in part. So that the Cretans may not fall into such sickness, the Apostle commands that they be rebuked sharply when it is noticed that they heedlessly open their ear to vain talkers."

For, the Apostle adds to explain his instruction to Titus, these commandments are insignificant. To those pure in conscience all things are pure. But to those impure in conscience, who have evil thoughts and convictions, all things are impure. Every object produces impure desires in their soul. Such, precisely, are the Cretan false teachers in the Apostle's eyes. They know God in words, but by deed they utterly deny Him.

In making this circuit, he would inevitably encounter persons of this sort. The Apostle tells him what to do in such a case: stop their mouths. By stopping their mouths and beginning resistance against evil teachings, Saint Titus also gave the newly appointed bishops an example of how to act toward them. Upon these bishops the task of rebuking opponents was also to rest.

Furthermore, since such opponents were already active, there were naturally people carried away by them. Saint Titus could meet such people also. For this case Saint Paul writes to him: rebuke them mercilessly. In this too there is a model of action for the newly appointed bishops.

Thus this section, verses 10-16, gives instruction both to Saint Titus and to those chosen for the episcopate. Therefore, he says, such teachable persons must especially be chosen, because in Crete there are many vain talkers. It is dangerous to leave them without rebuke and without stopping their mouths.

And in order to do this successfully, one must be capable and skilled in it. This is why I write to you: seek especially such men for bishops.

Saint Paul defines by these traits the very persons against whom Saint Titus is armed here, and in his person the future bishops also. They are disobedient, anypotaktoi, those who do not walk according to order. They refuse to recognize any order, are self-appointed, and follow their own will.

In planting the faith, the planters of the faith at once established every order according to the Spirit of this faith. It was laid down how to judge and think about everything, how to live and act, and above all, how to approach God through prayers and sacred rites.

The disobedient considered none of this binding for themselves. Whatever occurred to them, and whatever seemed fitting and possible to them, so they judged, so they acted, and so they suggested to others that they think and act.

These are people who do not wish to hold to what is common, but separate themselves and isolate others. “Do you see how the Apostle indicates where such people come from? From the desire not to obey, but to rule. This is what he points out” (Saint Chrysostom).

“He pointed to the root of all evils, insubordination. The insubordinate man, since he does not wish to be under authority, but rushes forward to rule others, has clearly learned nothing sound and right. For he did not wish to endure instruction. Therefore he is also a vain talker” (Blessed Theophylact).

Vain talkers, mataiologoi, are empty speakers. They talk to the wind, only to show that they too are intelligent people. They suppose they understand the essence of the matter no worse than others, and even better than the teachers themselves.

They know how to form their own views, and by them to illuminate, broaden, and deepen the common beliefs. Yet they do not care where such views may lead, or whether they shake and undermine the common faith handed down to all.

There are many such people in every age. They know the matter of faith only superficially. For their weakness hinders them from studying it deeply: they forge their own views. Since these views are born before the knowledge of truth, they obscure the truth for them.

Thus in their speeches these self-born and mostly immature views always go first. There are many words, but the essence of the matter is empty. Empty speech comes out, vain talk.

“If one who teaches has not himself learned as he should, because he was insubordinate to instruction, he naturally becomes a vain talker. Not only a vain talker, but also deceived in mind” (Oecumenius).

Deceived in mind, phrenapatai, means deluded in mind, “deceiving both themselves and others” (Blessed Theophylact). Let us add: by their cleverness. Being carried away by their own views, they become captive to them as if they were true.

They eagerly share them with others as though they were lofty and deep truths, foundations of all truth. They imagine that without them all knowledge would fall apart.

Such self-born views, even when they agree with the truth, add nothing to it in clarity or firmness. But by occupying attention instead of the truth itself, they turn the mind away from right contemplation, which by the nature of faith should reign in the intellect.

Time is wasted, and the taste for firm truth is spoiled. But when these views are far from the truth, there is direct delusion leading to destruction. The one carried away is the same as one who receives another gospel.

Even without a public judgment, the Apostle’s dread sentence still falls upon him: let him be anathema (Gal 1:8).

In setting forth all these traits, the Apostle does not indicate what those who proved insubordinate were babbling about, or by what they were deceived and deceived others. For Saint Titus and all the faithful in Crete, this was definitely known. We can only conjecture about it.

But instead of conjecture, is it not better to confine ourselves to this conclusion? The Apostle was speaking of definite persons of that time, though we cannot define them conveniently. Yet he gave us a definite lesson in advance.

We must avoid, and turn others away from, the seductive impulse to build our own views on matters of faith. We must not do this in a spirit of domination over the rules of faith, as though they were beneath us and beneath our mind.

The Apostle warns us against this sickness of the mind.

The words “especially those of the circumcision” give some indication of what the disobedient were vainly talking about, but very indecisively. For “especially” shows that they were not exclusively Jews. There were such people also from the Gentiles.

Therefore one cannot firmly assert that these vain talkings were the usual Judaizing speculations about the absolute necessity for believers to fulfill both the Law of Moses and the ordinances of their elders.

Further, we have no basis to suppose that those of the circumcision spoke vainly about one thing, and those of the uncircumcision about another. If this were so, the Apostle would not have placed them on one level.

It must therefore be acknowledged that both groups held to some speculation which cannot be called exclusively Jewish or exclusively pagan. It was a mixture of both. What precisely it consisted in is not evident.

But it was of such a kind that its propositions could be discussed among Christians without at once repelling them. This gave the speculators entrance into the houses of believers.

Consequently, besides what was Jewish and pagan, there was also something Christian in it. Covering themselves with the side that seemed Christian, they entered houses. Then they filled the ears and heads of their hearers with what was Jewish and pagan in them.

The poison of falsehood acted destructively, and the Apostle cuts off an evil which had probably already been experienced by many.