Unruly Vain Talkers and Deceivers Titus 1:9 - Equipped for Battle

We have been learning from Paul the apostle the instructions that he gave to Titus who was the pastor of the island of Crete. With all the qualifications he has enumerated thus far, we might wonder why he has gone to such lengths to share these with Titus. The tendency of people is to stray away from the teachings of the Bible, so it was imperative that the elder be a man who would hold fast to the faithful word so he could by sound doctrine exhort and convince gainsayers. Paul continues his instruction to Titus in chapter one and verse nine where he wrote:

For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:

Paul knew there was opposition to the word of God, but he is particularly directing Titus' attention to “many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers.” Let's first notice the word, “many”. There are “many” who are involved in these practices. Jesus said in the gospel of Matthew in chapter seven and verse thirteen:

Enter in at the strait gate: for wide [is] the gate, and broad [is] the way, that leads to destruction, and many there are which go in thereat:

There will always be “nay-sayers” to the word of God while on the earth, and they will always challenge it. Paul indites these as being “unruly” which means they will not be subjugated or under rule of any. They are also “vain talkers” or an idle talker, one who utters empty senseless things. They speak of empty things all the time, and the worth of their conversations is nil. Paul also calls them “deceivers” which means “mind deceivers” or “seducers”. These are people who speak of grandiose ideas that have little to do with profiting the ones to whom they speak and a lot to do with the ones who are speaking. The idea is that there were people around who would take advantage of the Christians in Crete, and Paul is making sure that Titus knows and watches out for it.

Finally Paul speaks of a specific group who have the above mentioned traits. He says, “specially they of the circumcision.” which refers to unbelieving Jews who were mingled with the Christians. Some of them were like Paul was before he was converted, (See Acts chapter 9), and they were against Christianity. These were part of the unruly, vain talking deceivers to whom Paul was referring. Titus was to watch specifically for them.

So what about us? Are we unruly and unwilling to be subjugated by authorities? Are we vain talkers that lead others to beliefs that are contrary to the Bible and sound doctrine? Do we deceive others intentionally or unintentionally? Perhaps today's verse will challenge all of us to do some soul searching and to once again identify whether the characteristics which were to be in elders are in us, and if not, maybe we should go to our loving Heavenly Father above and ask Him to help us have these godly traits.

Next time we will discover more in depth just what these unruly, vain talking deceivers were doing, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow...there is more...

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