TEXT [Commentary]

  C.   Charge: Insist, Avoid, Reject! (3:8b-11)

8b and I want you to insist on these teachings so that all who trust in God will devote themselves to doing good. These teachings are good and beneficial for everyone.

9 Do not get involved in foolish discussions about spiritual pedigrees[*] or in quarrels and fights about obedience to Jewish laws. These things are useless and a waste of time. 10 If people are causing divisions among you, give a first and second warning. After that, have nothing more to do with them. 11 For people like that have turned away from the truth, and their own sins condemn them.

NOTES

3:8 insist. Paul’s only other use of the verb translated as “insist” (diabebaioomai [TG1226, ZG1331]; “to state something with confidence and certainty” [L&N §33.322]) is 1 Tim 1:7, where it describes the misplaced self-confidence of the false teachers in Ephesus. This may easily be just another use of the same verb, but it could be that Paul was opposing, in kind, the foolish insistence of Crete’s false teachers. Either way, this verb is underscoring the same responsibility mentioned in 1:11, 13-14; 2:1, 15; 3:1.

all who trust in God will devote themselves to doing good. For the theme of good works in the letters to Titus and Timothy, see 1:16; 2:14. The idea of “faith in God” (e.g., Rom 4:3, 5, 24; Gal 3:6) as opposed to “faith in Christ” (e.g., Gal 2:16; Eph 1:13) is common enough.

are good and beneficial for everyone. This might be meant in a very general sense (cf. 1 Tim 4:8), but in keeping with 3:1-2, there would seem to be a special interest in the salvation of those outside the church. The latter, missiological interest, is how the “good deeds” are “good and beneficial.”

3:9 Do not get involved in. The verb (periïstamai [TG4026A, ZG4325]) means “to go around so as to avoid” (BDAG 801; cf. 2 Tim 2:16).

These things are useless and a waste of time. This contrasts directly with the end of 3:8. The word for “useless” (anōphelēs [TG512, ZG543]) is an antonym for “beneficial” (ōphelimos [TG5624, ZG6068]). The word for “waste of time” (mataios [TG3152, ZG3469]) is related to the word translated “useless talk” in 1:10 and “meaningless discussions” in 1 Tim 1:6 (mataiologos [TG3151, ZG3468]).

3:11 For. The Greek links the thought of 3:11 to 3:10 with a participle, eidōs hoti [TG1492/3754, ZG3857/4022] (knowing that). Titus’s action will be motivated (or justified) by his knowledge of what follows.

have turned away from the truth. This is a translation of one word, ekstrephō [TG1612, ZG1750]. In the active voice it has the meaning, “to cause to turn aside from what is considered true or morally proper”; here it is in the passive voice with the sense “is perverted, has gone the wrong way” (BDAG 309).

COMMENTARY [Text]

The division drawn in this commentary breaks the NLT mid-paragraph and even mid-sentence. But according to the pattern of the letter as a whole (see 2:15), 3:8b-11 constitutes the third part of 3:1-11 and the final charge of the letter. In large measure this section is a repetition and underscoring of things said earlier. This section’s two primary contributions are the missionary accent it places on all of 3:1-8a and the finality with which it addresses the problem of the troublemakers.

As this section begins, Paul tells Titus “to insist on these teachings” (3:8b, see note). The goal of this insistence is that “all who trust in God will devote themselves to doing good” (3:8). This phrasing fits into a general tendency in Titus to feature God (the Father) as the primary actor in salvation (see 3:5). It is possible that the emphasis on law-keeping in the false teaching (3:9) may be calling forth a response from the Pauline mission along the lines of of Galatians and Romans, though we get only a hint of it here. Presumably the point would involve the status of the Cretan believers as rightful children of Abraham and heirs of the promise (3:7; cf. Rom 4:16-17). In the present sentence this is the assumed idea, taken for granted on the way to stressing the ethical entailments of this faith. The emphasis of the sentence is the same as the emphasis of the entire letter: the importance of bringing to expression in day-to-day life the historic intention of this divine salvation.

The need of insistence assumes the presence of an opposing force; Paul resolutely faced that issue as he brought the letter to its close (3:9-11). It may indeed be that these problems were merely an additional concern formally tacked on to 3:8 (Titus was to encourage good behavior [3:8] and deal with the bad [3:9-11]), but it is more likely that their teaching was directly hampering the progress of the church in the areas outlined in 3:1-2, 8 (cf. 1 Tim 2:1-7). Within the general category of the false teaching, were the specific issues of genealogies and legal matters in some way leading to civically disruptive behaviors—hence, their mention in the particular context of 3:1-2? Or were these issues simply further elaborations of the false teaching that are behind the general set of problems addressed by the letter as a whole? The latter seems more likely, given 1:14 and the fact that this passage brings the entire letter to a close.

In general, Paul told Titus to sidestep these sorts of arguments. It is not hard to imagine parallel situations in the present world and to realize that what Paul was commanding can be harder to do than it might seem. Pride leads us to think we can win the argument, good will prompts us to try, and naivete induces us to miss seeing the trap until we are tangled in its net. At the same time, in saying what he does here, Paul was not forbidding debate with the opponents. The immediate concern is to construct a contrast with 3:8 (cf. commentary following on 3:10-11).

That which Titus was to steer around is, firstly, “foolish discussions about spiritual pedigrees” (3:9). The Greek of the present verse actually lists four items: foolish disputes, genealogies (perhaps, the tracing of genealogies), strife, and quarrels pertaining to law. The NLT has grouped these into two broad issues: “foolish discussions about spiritual pedigrees” and “quarrels and fights about obedience to Jewish laws.” It seems that the warning centers on the more descriptive terms, genealogies and quarrels pertaining to law.

The terminology translated as “foolish discussions” (zētēsis [TG2214, ZG2428]) about “spiritual pedigrees” (genealogia [TG1076, ZG1157]) is rhetoric very similar to 1 Timothy 1:4 and 2 Timothy 2:23 (see commentary there). There are two possible reasons for this similar terminology: overlap in the false teachings of Crete and Ephesus or a singular rhetorical style of Paul’s at this point in his career despite different false teachings. Of these two, the latter seems the better option.

The term for “fights” (machē [TG3163, ZG3480]) occurs also in 2 Timothy 2:23 (see note there) and the cognate verb in 2 Timothy 2:24. The expression used here is more literally, “fights about law, legal quarrels.” There is no explicit specification that they are Jewish, but it is most likely that the Jewish law is what is in mind, especially in the light of 1:10 and 14.

While verse 9 concerns Titus’s avoiding entanglement in the nonsense of the false teaching, verse 10 concerns his activity in relation to the false teachers themselves. These people were causing divisions among the Cretan believers. The reference is to a hairetikon anthrōpon [TG444, ZG476] (cf. “person”), meaning “a factious person, a person causing divisions.” Marshall (1999:337) comments that the hairetikos [TG141, ZG148] “is a person who holds sectarian opinions and promotes them in the church, thereby causing dissension in the congregation. The reference is to the kind of person described in Rom 16:17.” These people are to be given “a first and second warning.” The warning concerns counsel about cessation of an improper course of conduct (BDAG 679). The pattern of attempts at correction is a mandate of love, and the warnings are certainly not pro forma in this case. The emphasis of this sentence falls on what to do with someone who may be regarded as factious, precisely by virtue of having refused the warnings. (For the idea of “first and second,” see Deut 17:6; 19:15; Matt 18:16; 2 Cor 13:1; 1 Tim 5:19; Heb 10:28.)

Paul’s statement here may well stem from Jesus’ teaching (cf. Matt 18). Admittedly, the present verse, narrowly considered, does not amount to church discipline. It assumes the attempt to correct this person’s ways and, failing that, what Titus is to do in his capacity as Paul’s delegate (the command, “have nothing more to do with,” is singular in form). It is hard to imagine, however, that the procedure in view here would leave this hairetikos person in good standing within the larger church community (cf. 1 Tim 1:20).

In the absence of the hoped-for response, Titus was told to “have nothing more to do with them.” What exactly this meant was presumably known to Titus but is a bit vague for us. BDAG (764) gives the meaning of the verb as “reject, refuse someone,” but suggests that in this verse the meaning may be “discharge, dismiss, drive out.” This may be something less than excommunication, perhaps merely “keeping one’s distance from the offender” (Marshall 1999:338). But the sentence, not least by virtue of its position in the letter, has a strong note of finality to it. At some point a person crosses over from involvement in quarrels to becoming merely quarrelsome and nothing more. Here Titus was dealing with an incorrigibly divisive person, a person who would have a greater effect on Titus than the other way around. We may nevertheless assume that the unspoken sentiment is the type of hope expressed in 1 Corinthians 5:5 and 1 Timothy 1:20.

That hope notwithstanding, more immediately Titus’s action will be motivated (or justified) by an understanding of their condition: “For people like that have turned away from the truth” (3:11, see note). This is the lead issue in the depiction of 3:11. The remainder elaborates: “Their own sins condemn them.” Such people can no longer be regarded as merely mistaken or misguided. They’ve been clearly and repeatedly warned and, it must be assumed, understand what they are doing. In whatever sense it was true that they were sinning before, their sin can now be regarded only as deliberate. Accordingly, responsibility lies with them. Titus was therefore to act decisively and resolutely, however much he may grieve over these people. These words close the body of the epistle. Besides recalling 1:12, there may be an intended irony in letting these quarrelsome troublemakers have the last word: They condemn themselves!