Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / ‘Cretans Are Always Liars’ — Really Titus 1:10–14, Part 2

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‘Cretans Are Always Liars’ — Really Titus 1:10–14, Part 2 · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is part two of Titus one ten to fourteen.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: For there are many who are insubordinates, who had just
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: spoken of the need for elders who are able to
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: hold fast the word exhort and rebuke with the truth
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: and correct error. Because there are many who are insubordinate,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: empty talkers, deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party, the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Jewish professing Christians in the Church, who are causing trouble
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: because they probably weren't converted yet home. It is necessary
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to silence since they are ruining whole households by teaching
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  Speaker 1: for shameful gain. So they're theologically messing them up with
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  Speaker 1: their empty talk, and they're milking them of funds by
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  Speaker 1: using their teaching to get money from these households, and
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  Speaker 1: Paul is very concerned that that stop. One of the
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  Speaker 1: Cretans is the part we deal with now. We didn't
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  Speaker 1: talk about this last time. One of the Cretans, a
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: prophet of their very own. I put the word vary
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: in here. It's not in the ESV because in the
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Greek the structure, the doubling up of the word out
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  Speaker 1: tone really puts the emphasis on hey listen up. This
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  Speaker 1: prophet here is not from Syria, not from Athens. He's
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  Speaker 1: really really one of their very own. And that's probably
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: significant because he's going to say something really negative about
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  Speaker 1: his own people. One of the Cretans, the profit of
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: their very own said, Cretans are always liars, always liars,
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  Speaker 1: evil beasts, lazy gluttons. What does that mean, liars that
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  Speaker 1: they're not lovers of the truth. They're like these folks, insubordinate,
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  Speaker 1: rejecting authority, truth, reality. They're liars. They are giving themselves
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  Speaker 1: up to animal passions, especially appetite for food. So that's
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: his statement about his own people. Cretans are always that way.
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  Speaker 1: This testimony is true, Paul says, I'll come back to
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: that in just a second. Therefore, rebuke the now. The
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: them here has not, of course, a reference to every
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  Speaker 1: single Cretan on the island of Crete, to which Paul
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: has no excess. He means that these insubordinate empty talkers
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  Speaker 1: and deceivers, who were both Jewish and Cretan, they need
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: to be silenced, they need to be corrected and rebuked.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: So Paul takes this generalization or sweeping statement about all
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the Cretans and he says that's true of these people,
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  Speaker 1: that I'm dealing with, and the inference that I draw
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  Speaker 1: is rebuke them, Titus. Now he just told the elders
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: that they need to rebuke, and now he's saying, Titus,
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  Speaker 1: you're the leader, lead those elders in appropriate rebuke, rebuke
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  Speaker 1: them sharply, and then here's an amazing thing, that they
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  Speaker 1: may be sound in the faith. That's an amazingly hopeful statement.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't say, rebuke them and send them on their
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  Speaker 1: way packing like unbelievers. He said, rebuke them sharply with
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  Speaker 1: the full hope and expectation that your rebuke will be
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  Speaker 1: successful and they will be sound or literally healthy in faith.
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  Speaker 1: They will fall in line with the healthy teaching, the
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  Speaker 1: healthy doctrine to which you and the elders are holding fast,
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  Speaker 1: and they'll stop devoting themselves to these myths that are
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  Speaker 1: part of the circumcision party. We don't know anything about this.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, we I think think Paul had ministered
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: with Titus. He says as much in the very first
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  Speaker 1: verses where he says, I left you there, meaning I
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  Speaker 1: left and things weren't finished. So I served with you, Titus.
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  Speaker 1: And we know I and you know what we're talking about.
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  Speaker 1: But we don't know the details about these Jewish myths,
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  Speaker 1: so they won't devote themselves to the myths anymore and
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  Speaker 1: to commands of people who turn away from the truth. So, Father,
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  Speaker 1: as we spend a few more minutes on this, grant
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  Speaker 1: us to understand, especially what Paul was doing when he said,
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  Speaker 1: this testimony is true. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So,
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  Speaker 1: probably the most troubling thing that modern readers have, at
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  Speaker 1: least modern Western readers, is Paul's statement, this is true true,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: because this statement here is a sweeping, totalizing indictment of
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  Speaker 1: all the Cretans on the island, and Paul says it's true.
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  Speaker 1: What did he mean by that? Did Paul mean literally
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  Speaker 1: every single Cretan always is a liar, an evil beast?
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  Speaker 1: What did he mean when he said this testimony is true?
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  Speaker 1: A few thoughts. The first thing he meant was is
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  Speaker 1: the way I understand language to work, and the way
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  Speaker 1: Paul used language. He meant the intention of this prophet
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  Speaker 1: was true, meaning in statements is according to an author's intention.
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  Speaker 1: And this prophet did not mean every single a Cretan
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  Speaker 1: was liar, evil beasts and gutten because he himself was
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  Speaker 1: a Cretan. This is sometimes called the paradox of liars.
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  Speaker 1: If liars say that they're lying, what do you do.
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  Speaker 1: The prophet didn't want his words, didn't intend for his
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  Speaker 1: words to be taken as absolute in the sense of
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  Speaker 1: every single Cretan. At every single moment. He was generalizing.
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  Speaker 1: And this is a you call it a hyperbole. I
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  Speaker 1: suppose an overstatement, which is we do all the time.
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  Speaker 1: We use overstatements all the time. Hey, he scared me
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  Speaker 1: to death yesterday. Nobody says, oh, you're a liar, because
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  Speaker 1: you're alive, You're a liar, liar, liar. We don't everybody
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  Speaker 1: knows what scared me to death means. We talk this
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: way all the time. We want people to judge our
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  Speaker 1: statements by what we intend, not by picking at the words,
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  Speaker 1: which in the context should be clear. So that's my
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  Speaker 1: first observation is that when Paul said this is true,
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  Speaker 1: he meant what that prophet meant by the generalizing statement
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  Speaker 1: he has found to be true on this island. Second
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  Speaker 1: observation we've already seen is that Paul doesn't jump in
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  Speaker 1: and say yeah, always everyone. He says, I'm talking about
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  Speaker 1: this group right here, and that's true of them. That's
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  Speaker 1: what Paul draws out of this generalized statement. He wants
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  Speaker 1: them to be rebuked because they're destroying households with false
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  Speaker 1: doctrine and shameful gain, and he believes in the possibility
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  Speaker 1: of their change. He doesn't say that always means they
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: can never change immediately. He says, rebuke them because I
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  Speaker 1: want them to be sound in the faith. They are
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  Speaker 1: no more unsavable or untransformable than anybody else. They're going
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  Speaker 1: to be sound in the faith. God willing, perhaps one
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: or two other things. When we get our backup about
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  Speaker 1: Paul's statement here this testimony is true, we may be
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  Speaker 1: overlooking that. In that strange, early, very different setting than
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  Speaker 1: our own, these Cretans may have loved this prophet and
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: bragged about his statement. Think of it that way. Yeah, right,
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  Speaker 1: that's who we are. We're always liars and evil bees
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  Speaker 1: and lazy. It isn't necessary to put our modern sensibilities
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  Speaker 1: back into the Cretans in their primitive life, who, if
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  Speaker 1: this was generally true, would laugh over their meals and
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  Speaker 1: their booze and their beastlike behavior and says bring it
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  Speaker 1: on profit. Yeah, tell us who we are? We we
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  Speaker 1: don't know, and so we should be very slow to
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  Speaker 1: condemn Paul if he's saying, even the Cretans love their
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  Speaker 1: prophet's characterization of their culture this way, that's what they're like.
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  Speaker 1: And the last thing I would say is, and this
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  Speaker 1: is totally speculation, but just cautions us about being judgmental
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  Speaker 1: towards the apostle Paul, who's inspired by God. We don't
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  Speaker 1: even know whether Titus was a Cretan or not. We
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: know he was gentile because of the reference in Galatians,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: but we don't know whether he was a Cretan. And
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: therefore we don't know whether there was a twinkle in
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  Speaker 1: Paul's eye because he and Titus had talked often about
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  Speaker 1: this proverb while they were together on the island, and
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  Speaker 1: as he writes this, it's kind of an inside witticism
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  Speaker 1: between Paul and Antitus. No, I'm not saying that's what
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  Speaker 1: it is. I'm just saying, we don't know. We just
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  Speaker 1: don't know enough to be condemnatory of the apostle Paul. Here.
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  Speaker 1: We better be careful. We have many other scriptures to
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  Speaker 1: guide us in how we should talk about other people,
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  Speaker 1: and there may be circumstances in this case that would
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  Speaker 1: warrant this entirely. The point is Paul wanted these people
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  Speaker 1: who were insubordinate, empty talkers, deceivers, ruining whole households with
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  Speaker 1: false teaching and love of money, should be rebuked sharply
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  Speaker 1: so that they would be saved and be sound in
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  Speaker 1: the faith, and they would stop ruining these households