The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.

Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.

Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK) with commentary by Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.

Titus 1:10-16

¹⁰ For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. ¹¹ They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. ¹² One of the Cretans,^[a] a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”^{[b] 13} This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, ¹⁴ not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. ¹⁵ To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. ¹⁶ They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

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Last week’s posts — parts 1 and 2 — discussed the characteristics of what Titus was to look for in appointing elders in Crete and the bad traits he was to reject.

Those verses, Titus 1:5-9, lead directly to Paul’s condemnation of False Teachers.

Paul begins verse 10 with ‘For’ and says there are many — not a few — who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially among the Judaizers.

John MacArthur sums up Paul’s message to Titus with regard to elders (emphases mine):

So, Paul says to Titus … “Look, Titus, you’ve got to pick men who are godly, you’ve got to pick men who can handle the Word, and then you’ve got to use those men to come alongside the church and silence the men who need to be silenced.”

Now, I want to divide these verses into three simple components: the description of these men, the reaction to these men, and the evaluation of these men. These three things will show us why they need to be silenced.

We see clergy with bad traits in the Church today in many denominations. Matthew Henry’s commentary says:

Those False teachers are described. They were unruly, headstrong and ambitious of power, refractory and untractable (as some render it), 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.

MacArthur points out:

First point under the description is their proliferation: verse 10, “For there are many” – stop right there. That just hit me. I wish it had said, “They’ll show up now and then,” or “There are a few,” or “Watch out, you might get one.”  But it doesn’t.  It says “there are many.” And the “for” there connects it into verse 9. The reason you have to be able “to refute those who contradict” and do it ably and capably is because there are so many of them. And it seems as though every false teacher has got his own twist and his own nuance.  And you’ve got to deal with him on his own level.  The standard of verse 9 is necessary because of the abundance of false teachers. The “for” there doesn’t limit the need for qualified leaders just to situations where there are false teachers, but it certainly ties in very well. There are many numbers of them to be muzzled. They are a force all over the island of Crete, he’s saying.  They’re all over the place.  The church obviously needed help. I mean, they didn’t even have spiritual leadership yet and there were a lot of things that were out of joint and out of sync and needed to be put in order. But one thing had already happened in that young church and that was the proliferation of false teachers.  They’re just everywhere.

MacArthur understands the problem:

… as always, there’s an abundant supply of these liars with an abundant supply of lies. And I can just tell you, folks, I spend hours and hours and days and months and years of my life sorting through error. It’s just endless. You just get one issue dealt with and you’ve got to deal with another one. And that means studying and examining, comparing with Scripture. They’re everyplace. And they associate with the church. They get close to the church; they get in the church.

MacArthur discusses the personality traits of false teachers as enumerated in verse 10:

Look at the second aspect of this description, their behavior. They are described as “rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers.” “Rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers” – that describes really their behavior. Their behavior, first of all, is “rebellious.” That is to say they are unruly and they are out of control. The church can’t control them. They don’t respond to spiritual authority. They don’t respond to the control of the elders. They don’t even respond to the control of the Scripture or the Holy Spirit, God Himself. Here they are, professing Christians, somehow identified with the church, associating with Christianity, refusing to submit to the authority of the church, to the authority of the Scripture, to the authority of leaders, spiritual leaders. False teachers want to associate with the church, but they never want to come under its authority.

You’ve watched, haven’t you? When some of these false teachers get caught in their sin and the church tries to act authoritatively toward them, they bolt that authority. They don’t want anything to do with that. They don’t want to submit to that. They don’t want to acquiesce to that. They function in independence from God, from the Word of God, and from the church of God and its spiritual authority. They want to be independent. They want to be on their own. They don’t want to answer to anybody for what they teach. So, inevitably, they have an independent church or an independent ministry – usually with their own name associated with it. They just simply call it whoever they are, and that’s the authority. Very often the only board they have is made up of their family, or some cronies in their association, and it would never be representative of historic, biblical theology because they wouldn’t want to be accountable to that …

Secondly, he says they are “empty talkers.” Shakespeare said it this way: “They’re full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” They are smooth and they are fluent and they are persuasive. And listen, if they’re not, you never heard of them. They are smooth and persuasive and fluent, and they have nothing to say, absolutely nothing. It’s like sucking in flavored air to listen to them. Their talk accomplishes nothing, they are empty-headed and their talk is nonsense. It is unbiblical fantasy. It is the musings of their own warped imaginations and not the truth of God. The sad part of it is Christian bookstores are full of that stuff.

The third thing he says about them is they’re “deceivers,” literally “mind deceivers.” They deceive the mind. They make the mind that people think this is truth when it isn’t. They are seducers of people’s minds. And there are always going to be people who want to have their ears tickled, 2 Timothy 4, and they’re going to want teachers like that who tickle their ears and tell them fancy, imaginative things; tell them fantasies and wonderful, mystical things, and things that make them feel good. So that’s their behavior. They are rebels who have nothing to say, and yet they use their nonsense to deceive people.

We had similar verses in 1 Timothy:

1 Timothy 4:1-5 – some depart from the faith, deceitful spirits, teachings of demons, liars with seared consciences, God’s creation good

And at the conclusion of Romans:

Romans 16:17-20 – warning against false prophets and teachers, defeating Satan, benediction, grace

2 Peter 2 also has a section on false teachers:

2 Peter 2:1-9 – beware of false teachers, Noah, Lot, sin, wicked angels

‘Circumcision party’ in verse 10 refers to Judaizers. They travelled where there was a new Christian congregation. They said that one could be a true Christian only by adopting Jewish religious customs and traditions, especially male circumcision.

MacArthur says:

At the end of verse 10 he says, “especially those of the circumcision.” That term “the circumcision” tells us these were Jews. The word “especially” can have the sense of “in other words,” or “most specifically, what I’m talking about is the circumcision.” And what that tells us was there were some Jews there who were the primary articulators of this heresy. In fact, “the circumcision,” quote/unquote, could just be a synonym for Jews. But probably, in the light of Galatians chapter 2, verses 7 through 12, it has reference to what Paul there called the “circumcision party,” which would be a sect that sort of got its way into Christianity and said, “Yes, we’re Christians and we believe Jesus is the Messiah, but you can’t know God unless you have been circumcised and you have maintained the Mosaic, ceremonial Law.” That’s the circumcision party. These Jews were teaching the rebellious, nonsensical, deceptive stuff that we associate with Judaizers, who say, “Well yes, it’s fine to believe in Christ, but we’ve got this other stuff that you have to follow, and we don’t care what the church says – we reject that.” There’s that rebelliousness again: “We have this inside information, this stuff about keeping all the Mosaic laws and being physically circumcised as a requirement for salvation.” And with that nonsense they were deceiving people in Crete. They needed to be silenced.

The reason why they were such a danger was because they peddled a type of Gnosticism, what they claimed as a special, secret knowledge:

They thought they had ascended to another sort of Gnostic, Judaistic level, and they knew God in a higher way than anybody else because they had been circumcised and they had the secret interpretations of the Old Testament and they had concocted all these commandments and rules and they were abiding by them and keeping all the ceremonial laws. And they were saying to Christians, “You only believe in Christ; you’re on a very low level; you don’t know God until you ascend to the level we’re on” – our esoteric, mystical level, which also involved very physical things like circumcision and ritual.

MacArthur explains why he has accountability, even though he has an independent church, Grace Community Church:

I am accountable every day of my life to the authority of the elders of this church, a group of thirty-plus men who understand that Scripture. I’m accountable to a seminary faculty who sit here and listen to me preach, who read my books before they’re ever published, who interact with me on issues; a faculty at the Master’s College, much the same, close friends. Beyond that I was ordained by a group called the Independent Fundamental Churches of America, the IFCA. They have hundreds of churches across America. There is a council of people. I have to sign a doctrinal statement. I have to ascribe to that doctrinal statement. When I was ordained – I’ll never forget it – I had to go through so many hoops I couldn’t believe it. It was a long, drawn-out process. It was very good, and that’s why it’s much like the process we now use here in our church. I’m still a member of the IFCA and glad to be, because I want accountability to that great group and to their very, very, very comprehensive doctrinal statement. But when I went in to the IFCA they grilled me. We had private sessions and it all came to a culmination after many private sessions and a public meeting with about 300 to 350 pastors, and they were given the privilege of asking me anything they wanted to ask me.

And, you know, they’ve all got their own pet little deal, and I don’t remember all about it. I remember it was a grueling experience that went on for hours. I do remember one guy stood up and asked me please to name all of the pre-exilic, exilic, and postexilic prophets and give their dates. And I knew – somebody told me he was going to ask it, so I knew it – but if you ask it tonight, I’m not answering you.

Paul tells Titus that the false teachers must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain — filthy lucre — what they ought not to teach (verse 11).

Henry’s commentary tells us:

(2.) … In case of obstinacy indeed, breaking the peace of the church, and corrupting other churches, censures are to have place, the last means for recovering the faulty and preventing the hurt of many. Observe, Faithful ministers must oppose seducers in good time, that, their folly being made manifest, they may proceed no further. (3.) The reasons are given for this. [1.] From the pernicious effects of their errors: They subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not (namely, the necessity of circumcision, and of keeping the law of Moses, etc.), so subverting the gospel and the souls of men; not some few only, but whole families. It was unjustly charged on the apostles that they turned the world upside down; but justly on these false teachers that they drew many from the true faith to their ruin: the mouths of such should be stopped, especially considering, [2.] Their base end in what they do: For filthy lucre’s sake, serving a worldly interest under pretence of religion. Love of money is the root of all evil. Most fit it is that such should be resisted, confuted, and put to shame, by sound doctrine, and reasons from the scriptures.

MacArthur says that such people like to work in private:

No doubt they had gained access to the pulpits …

But it wasn’t so much in the pulpits that they were doing their damage as it was in the private place. Look at verse 11 and move to their effect. We see their proliferation, their behavior, their effect, verse 11, “who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families.”

Why do false teachers go after you in isolation? Because they want to pull you apart from the church. They want to isolate you. If a false teacher comes into your Sunday school class and gives his stuff, immediately after the class somebody is going to come, if you’re confused, and help you to see the truth. If a false teacher comes into your school, the other professors – say in your seminary, who know the Word of God – are going to point out where he made his errors. But if they can get you in your house where there’s nobody else to help you, that’s, you see, why the cults even want to come in and do a private Bible study with you. They want to cut you off and isolate you from the source of your strength, the body of Christ. They pick on families.

In 2 Timothy 3, look at verse 6, it says false teachers “enter into households” – and literally, “creep into households” – “and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, and led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” They take advantage of women. They take advantage of women who have guilt, who have problems they can’t solve, they can’t resolve; and they come into the household to do that. They attack at the point of vulnerability.

You can read more about 2 Timothy 3:6-9 here. This dangerous deception still happens today, especially to women.

MacArthur points out that this can also occur through media:

… radio, television, books, magazines, pamphlets that get you in an isolated environment. There are people who sit in front of the television and suck up error without any ability to discern or any help.

… It’s so common today. In my book on charismatic chaos I have large sections confronting those today – some of those today – who misrepresent God’s Word, who misrepresent God and Christ as to His nature and work. By doing all of this they have the effect of producing confusion, doubt, chaos, upsetting whole families, turning them topsy-turvy in chaos and confusion.

MacArthur then discusses the false teacher’s third motive — money:

… their motive, end of verse 11, “for the sake of sordid gain” … Elders are not to be fond of sordid gain; false teachers are.

They’re the opposite of God’s chosen leaders.  They’re in it for the money.  False teachers are all in it for the money, except for a few fanatical, deranged lunatics. False teachers will quit doing what they do when the money runs out. That’s what they’re in it for.  If there’s no money, there’s no point in doing it.  It’s all designed to pander their own appetites, to feed them money.

In 1 Timothy that’s why Paul, in giving the qualifications there to Timothy of one who serves in the church in a leadership role, says, “You’re … to be free from the love of money, and godliness is a means of great gain” – chapter 6, verse 6 – “when accompanied by contentment.”  First Peter 5:2 says, “We don’t do what we do for filthy lucre.”  False teachers do. They’re in it for the money.  That’s the whole purpose of it.

You can read more about 1 Timothy 6:6-10 here.

MacArthur laments that our society is too willing to listen to false teachers. They do not deserve a hearing. They must be silenced:

How’re we going to do that? Let me suggest three ways. Number one, we silence them by revoking their right to teach or speak. We can silence them by revoking their right to speak. That is to say, we give them no platform. We give them no opportunity. We take away the privilege of teaching. Scripture always shows us how God protects His people from the teaching of error. He never desires that they be exposed to it in the name of “equal time,” or in the name of “open mindedness,” or in the name of “academia and scholarship.” We can silence them by giving them no place to speak …

We can silence them by taking away their platform.  We don’t do that in our day.  We put them on radio.  We put them on TV.  We publish their books.  We let them have rallies in our churches.  We propagate their tapes.

I was sitting at lunch with a publisher and I said to him, “I want to ask you a question. Why in the world would you publish Benny Hinn’s book Good Morning, Holy Spirit?  A book that in its original edition, before it was fixed, had nine members of the Trinity and assorted other strange fantasies.  Why would you publish that?” And his answer – and I quote – was very straightforward. He said, “Oh, we publish everything.”

That was it.

There is an obligation on the part of Christianity to give voice to some men and to silence others.  And we silence them by taking away their platform.

Secondly, we silence them by overpowering them with truth.  We silence them with the truth.  Jesus did that, and He did it over and over again with the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadduccees.  They spewed out their human philosophy and their quasi-religious musings, and He cut them to shreds with divine truth.  In Matthew 22:34 it says, “Jesus silenced the Sadduccees.”  He shut their mouths because they became overpowered with truth.

In other words, when we speak the truth so clear and precise, so apparent and so powerful, those who have been teaching error run to hide in the embarrassment of their ineptitude. That’s one way.  It’s wonderful to see some false teacher get a platform and then to see someone just present overpowering truth and watch that false teacher retreat.

People always ask me why I write controversial books.  Well, this is one reason.  I can’t cut the tongue out of false teachers.  I can’t physically silence them.  I can’t take away their platform.  I don’t have any means to do that.  But what I can try to do is to overpower their influence by teaching truth so that people who read what they say and read what the Bible says are going to clearly see the error.  You can knock the props out from under them by overpowering them with truth and then hopefully watch them retreat.  That’s a very important thing to do …

There’s a third way that I think we silence men who must be silenced, and that is we silence their speaking by means of holy living, by means of holy living.  Divine truth, the truth of God, produces holy living.  Peter, 1 Peter 2:15 says, “You silence the foolishness of ignorant men by your holy conduct.”  You see, if you look closely at a false teacher, you’re going to find the lack of virtue there.  You’re going to find that no matter what he says about knowing God and all of that kind of thing, when you get behind the surface that his life is in disarray and filled with sin because error doesn’t produce virtue.  And if those who teach truth live holy lives, then they silence false teachers.

Listen carefully.  If those who teach truth live unholy lives, they contribute to the chaos.  Because the question is going to come, “If you’re so right, why are you so messed up?  If this is the Word of God, why are you the way you are?”  If I’m preaching the power of God and I’m caught with prostitutes, you’re going to have to ask how powerful God is, right?  No, I think we silence them by – one, taking away their platform – two, overpowering their error with truth, and – three, by means of holy living. And people should be able to look and see false teachers and their followers and by their fruit know that there’s no righteousness there, and therefore there’s no truth there. And they should look and see the virtue and holiness and godliness of the church of Jesus Christ that is committed to the truth and say, “It’s obvious that they have the truth of God; look at their lives.”

Paul goes on to say that a Cretan, probably Epimenides of Crete, said that his countrymen are ‘always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons‘ (verse 12).

Oh, dear. What an indictment.

Before giving our commentators’ views on this verse, I would like to say that I spent a week’s holiday in Crete over 30 years ago. The Cretans were great. Somewhere along the line, they must have changed their ways.

Henry’s commentary explains the condemnation and tells us about the man giving it:

1. Here is the witness (v. 12): One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, that is, one of the Cretans, not of the Jews, Epimenides a Greek poet, likely to know and unlikely to slander them. A prophet of their own; so their poets were accounted, writers of divine oracles; these often witnessed against the vices of the people: Aratus, Epimenides, and others among the Greeks; Horace, Juvenal, and Persius, among the Latins: much smartness did they use against divers vices.

2. Here is the matter of his testimony: Kretes aei pseustai, kaka theria, gasteres argai—The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. Even to a proverb, they were infamous for falsehood and lying; kretizein, to play the Cretan, or to lie, is the same; and they were compared to evil beasts for their sly hurtfulness and savage nature, and called slow bellies for their laziness and sensuality, more inclined to eat than to work and live by some honest employment. Observe, Such scandalous vices as were the reproach of heathens should be far from Christians: falsehood and lying, invidious craft and cruelty, all beastly and sensual practices, with idleness and sloth, are sins condemned by the light of nature. For these were the Cretans taxed by their own poets.

MacArthur says that Paul was careful in writing this verse because he wanted the Cretans to see and hear the entire letter that he was writing to Titus:

“One of themselves,” – that is a Cretan – “a prophet of their own,” – who, by the way, was named Epimenides; we know where this quote comes from – “said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’” I don’t think that showed up in the chamber of commerce brochure or in the “take your vacation in Crete” brochure, either, for that matter. But the Cretans had developed a bad reputation. For Paul to have acknowledged how bad they were might not have been acceptable to them, so he quotes one of their own. He quotes one of their own prophets, a man by the name of Epimenides.

Epimenides was a very revered Cretan. One of the most famous Cretans of all history. He was a poet. He was a teacher. He was a writer. He was obviously a pagan. He was in the sixth century [BC] and born in the city of Knossos on the island of Crete. He was ranked as one of the seven wise men of Greece – a profound intellect; apparently, a very gifted orator and poet. He was a hero. And the poet originally characterized his people in a familiar hexameter. It’s a form of poetry and it goes like this: “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” “The Cretans,” he said, “are basically chronic liars.” They had given testimony to the world about their ability to lie in a lot of ways. One of the most famous ones was that they prided themselves on having on the island of Crete the tomb of Zeus.

You say, “What’s wrong with that?” Well, Zeus was a deity who couldn’t die. So it would be a little difficult to have the tomb.

They also claimed that Zeus was in it. Of course, the greatest of gods, according to their mythology, couldn’t die, and so he couldn’t be buried in a tomb. So it was a classic example of the brashness of their lying.

They lived up to their bad reputation. They became notorious liars, cheaters, gluttons, and traitors. And the false teachers, he’s saying, really are not too surprising because that’s kind of how it is in Crete. And they are perfect examples of the worst of Cretans. Cretans are always liars, was his statement …

In fact, they were such liars that there’s a Greek verb, there’s a verb in the Greek language that means “to lie.”  There’s a verb that means “to lie.”  You know what it is?  It’s the verb kretizo.  They were so associated with lying that the verb is the name of Crete.  It’s very much like the verb, the verb that we associate with the city of Corinth.  You remember Corinth was engaged in all kinds of prostitution. And “to Corinthianize” was “to go to bed with a prostitute.”  To kretize was “to lie.”  They were liars. So we’re not surprised that they’re propagating false teaching.  This is kind of characteristic of the people there. This is not characteristic, of course, of everybody there; but this is typical of the worst of the Cretans.  So we’re not shocked.  I mean, even their own, their own pagan philosopher says they’re always liars; they are literally chronic liars.  So we shouldn’t be surprised that they’re lying about what God says.

Secondly, if that’s not enough, he adds – does their own prophet – they are “evil beasts.”  They are base animals.  They function on the sensual level.  They are ruled by passion and instinct. They are savage, vicious, rapacious, malicious.  And if that’s not enough, to top it off, they’re “lazy gluttons.”  Literally in the Greek, two words, “slow bellies.”  They’re big bellies that go slow.  It pictures somebody who has overindulged, oversatiated, fat, doesn’t work, uncontrolled lust, uncontrolled greed, self-indulgence.  Nice characterization.  Fat-bellied, lazy gluttons who function on sensual passions and are chronic liars.  So you shouldn’t be surprised that some of them are hanging around the church propagating lies from their own minds.

You know, the Bible is never very nice when it identifies false teachers.  Have you noticed that?  It doesn’t say, “Oh, we certainly want to accept them. They do have another view, but we want to be…”  It doesn’t accept them that way.

Paul says that the testimony against the Cretans is true, therefore, Titus must rebuke them sharply so that they might be sound in the Christian faith (verse 13).

We might ask why would Paul advocate a sharp rebuke when he told Timothy to be gentle when reproving someone in error.

Henry’s commentary explains:

When Paul wrote to Timothy he bade him instruct with meekness; but now, when he writes to Titus, he bids him rebuke them sharply. The reason of the difference may be taken from the different temper of Timothy and Titus; the former might have more keenness in his disposition, and be apt to be warm in reproving, whom therefore he bids to rebuke with meekness; and the latter might be one of more mildness, therefore he quickens him, and bids him rebuke sharply. Or rather it was from the difference of the case and people: Timothy had a more polite people to deal with, and therefore he must rebuke them with meekness; and Titus had to do with those who were more rough and uncultivated, and therefore he must rebuke them sharply; their corruptions were many and gross, and committed without shame or modesty, and therefore should be dealt with accordingly. There must in reproving be a distinguishing between sins and sins; some are more gross and heinous in their nature, or in the manner of their commission, with openness and boldness, to the greater dishonour of God and danger and hurt to men: and between sinners and sinners; some are of a more tender and tractable temper, apter to be wrought on by gentleness, and to be sunk and discouraged by too much roughness and severity; others are more hardy and stubborn, and need more cutting language to beget in them remorse and shame. Wisdom therefore is requisite to temper and manage reproofs aright, as may be most likely to do good. Jude 22, 23, Of some have compassion, making a difference; and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. The Cretans’ sins and corruptions were many, great, and habitual; therefore they must be rebuked sharply.

MacArthur says that the rebuke should be remedial, a positive one, for the faith:

So we’ve seen the description. Let’s move to the second point, the reaction. What is the reaction to the men who must be silenced? There’s two things stated: one in verse 13, one in verse 14. Verse 13, the first reaction is to reprove them. He says, “For this cause reprove them.” For what cause? “Severely reprove them for the reason that they may be sound in the faith.” It’s remedial. You’re not just reproving them to damn them; you’re reproving them, which means to confront them and rebuke them for their error, showing them the truth in order “that they may be sound in the faith.” There’s a remedial issue here. You want to go after them, not for the sake of just damning them, but for the sake of rescuing them. Try, first of all, to lead them out of their error. Take them on. Don’t ignore them. “Keep on reproving them,” is the Greek text. Keep on. Remember what Paul said to Timothy, the same thing. He said, “there are going to be times” – right back one page there, 2 Timothy 4 – “when people aren’t going to endure sound doctrine.” They’re not going to listen to sound doctrine. Well, what do you do? Do you just damn them? No, back in verse 2 you “preach the word,” you do it “in season and out of season,” you reprove and you rebuke, and you keep doing with “patience and instruction” – whether they want to hear it, that’s “in season”; or they don’t want to hear it, that’s “out of season.” Whether it’s popular or unpopular, tolerated or not tolerated, you keep doing it. You keep reproving; you keep rebuking, and use the Word to do it.

Notice the word “severely” in verse 13.  “Rebuke them severely.”  Boy, that’s a strong word, apotomōs.  It comes from two words: temnō, “to cut,” you know, “with a knife or an axe”; apo, “off, cut off.”  “Cut them off severely.”  It’s used for one who cuts off the branch of a tree with one blow of an axe, just severs it.  “Cut off their opportunity; silence them.”  Very strong language.  Obviously you want to do it with patience; you want to do it with kindness.  You want to do it with instruction, as 2 Timothy 4:2, I just read.  As Paul said in the same epistle, chapter 2, so that God “may grant them repentance” and lead them away from the error into which they’ve been made captive by Satan.  You want to cut them off.  You want to stop them and rebuke them and halt them.  And you do that by taking away their platform.  You do that by confronting them with truth and demonstrating to them godly virtue, because godliness is always associated with truth.  And they’ll recognize that they don’t have that.  You cut them off, and it’s remedial.  The true surgeon of the soul, says one writer, only cuts to achieve a cure.  And you cut them off that there may be a change, and that they may be sound in the faith.  They may be healthy; they may have healthy doctrine.

What does it mean? What’s healthy doctrine? Healthy doctrine produces wholeness, righteousness, growth – not disease and death.

I will stop here for now and continue with verses 14 through 16 tomorrow.