Chapter 1

2 Corinthians 7:13 — “Therefore” is literally “Because of this.” “We were comforted” is a perfect passive indicative of parakalew which means to comfort and exhort. The context determines which of these antithetical words is to be used. Paul was comforted at the point of the coming of Titus with the result that he kept on being comforted, and also at the same time began to enjoy his inner happiness. The passive voice indicates that Paul received comfort by talking to Titus. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that you can find comfort in fellowship with other believers by being with them.

“in your comfort” — the preposition is e)pi which means “on the basis of.” The Corinthians rebounded, started to respond to the Word and they were comforted by so doing. When they were comforted Titus was comforted. When Titus was comforted and came home to Paul and told Paul, Paul was comforted. This is more or less the chain of events which is recorded here by the phrase “on the basis of your comfort.”

“yea, and exceedingly the more joy we joyed for the joy of Titus” — old English. It is literally, “more abundantly we had in a point of time inner happiness on the basis of the inner happiness of Titus.” Titus walked in happy. Immediately Paul snapped out of it. Titus was happy because in Corinth believers responded to doctrine. Titus is happy, he had an ECS, he was a person who lived on doctrine and had a strong right lobe. Titus had great moral courage.

“because his spirit was refreshed” — this means that the things that Titus taught came out of his e)pignwsij. This is the perfect passive indicative of a)napauw [pauw = refreshed; ana = above or again]. He was refreshed from above, he was dealing with doctrine. He was refreshed again because he had learned these things and was now exhaling them in Bible teaching. When you exhale Bible doctrine it is a source of refreshment.

“by you all” is literally, “from the ultimate source of you all” — a)po, the preposition of ultimate source. Verse 14 — “For if I have boasted anything to him [on behalf of] of you.” Even though they were saying all these nasty things about him Paul actually praised them. The perfect tense indicates that he had boasted in the past and now he can stick with it.

“I am not ashamed” — he is not ashamed of the fact that he bragged about the Corinthians: kauxaomai.

“but as we spake [communicate] all these things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which before is found [become = ginomai] a truth.” Paul boasted to Titus that the Corinthians would respond to doctrine. Their response came and the boasting stands.

Verse 15 — “And his inward affection is more abundant toward you.” This doesn’t mean that Titus had a real sweet relationship with everyone but it means that as they responded to doctrine he developed a great loyalty to them. The word for “inward affection” is splagnon. It originally meant bowels or entrails, and it finally came to mean emotional rapport and loyalty. They listened to the Word, they responded, and he became very loyal to them. “More abundant” means a depth of feeling that comes from a loyalty to the congregation who responded.

“whilst he remembered the obedience of you” — the word for remembering is a)namimnhskw. You remember it again and again. He would never forget it. The present tense is linear aktionsart. The principle: You can be benefited by certain types of memory. He remembered “the obedience of you all.” The word for obedience is u(pakoh which means respect for authority. And there is something associated with that, we have meta, the preposition of association. Two things are mentioned, the first is foboj which is generally translated “fear,” but also has the concept of occupation or concentration — “with concentration.” The word “trembling” doesn’t mean trembling, it means agitation of mind. They concentrated on what he had to say — foboj — and they were agitated in their minds. Notice that he developed a loyalty toward them at the beginning of verse 15 which increased day by day and he remembered them again and again. The thing that he remembered the most was their obedience, a respect for his authority which was associated with concentration and with agitation of mind. It didn’t come easy, they were often upset with him.

“ye received him” — dexomai which means to embrace [mentally]. They received his ministry.

Verse 16 — “I rejoice therefore.” Paul had inner happiness. This is present active indicative, linear aktionsart; “and I have confidence in you in all.” The word for confidence is qarrew which means to have a special confidence toward someone even though in the past there has been no reason for it. It means to have confidence in them with regard to a principle: not to have confidence in them that they will always be stabilised but to have confidence in them that they will stick with the principle which is the response to doctrinal teaching.

Titus: Introduction

Since the day of Pentecost there had been believers on the island of Crete — Acts 2:11. These believers had never been organised into local churches. They had no leadership such as a pastor-teacher or a pastor-bishop. Paul became aware of this situation so he stopped at Crete on his way to Rome — Acts 27:7-13. He wasn’t there long enough to do anything but get some idea of the situation. On Paul’s release from his first Roman imprisonment he took a fourth missionary journey. Toward the end of it he went to Crete, accompanied by Titus — Titus 1:5. Since Titus was a trouble-shooter Paul left him there.

Titus

1. Titus was one of Paul’s theological students — Titus 1:4.

2. He was sent by Paul to straighten out Corinth after Timothy’s failure — 2 Corinthians 2:13. 3. He straightened out and then joined Paul in Macedonia to turn Paul’s depression into happiness — 2 Corinthians 7:5-7, 13-15.

4. Between the first and second Roman imprisonment Paul and Titus visited Crete — Titus 1:5.

5. Then Titus is sent to Dalmatia — 2 Timothy 4:10.

6. Prior to all of this Titus had been a test case in Jerusalem — Galatians 2:1-13. He was a Gentile.

7. Speculation: There is some possibility that Titus is the brother of Luke. This might explain why Titus is not mentioned in Acts which was written by Luke.

8. Historical tradition indicates that Titus later on returned to Crete and lived there as its bishop until he died of a ripe old age.

Background of the epistle

It was written somewhere between 66 and 67 AD from Nacopalis where Paul was taken prisoner the second time before Paul was arrested. The occasion of the epistle is further instructions to Titus regarding the organising of the churches in Crete, and also to advise Titus that he is sending him some help — Zenas and Apollos. It was also to warn Titus that there were a lot of itinerant false teachers crossing over to Crete.

The outline of chapter one: “Christian leadership.”

Verse 1-4, the salutation to the epistle.

Verse 5-9, the appointment of leadership.

Verse 10-16, the necessity for that leadership.

Verse 1 — “Paul.” Pauloj is a Roman surname name, it is never used as a praenomen. It was the name which became his at the point of Roman citizenship. His father before him was a Roman citizen. But because he was a Jew by race and because he appeared to be a fighter right from the start, he was also given the name Saul. Saul always was a fighting name among the Jews. The word Pauloj actually means “little.” It indicates something that is going to happen to this man. He is going to be little and therefore used of God in a marvellous way. Little indicates the importance of grace.

“a servant” — douloj means “slave.” He calls himself Pauloj douloj and being a free Roman citizen it means he is laughing at himself. It is a pun and it is loaded with humour. No Roman citizen ever deliberately called himself a slave unless he had some good reason for it. The reason is because he is in the Church Age. He is in union with Christ and he is indwelt by Christ, just as we are. He is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and so are we. What makes a douloj? Positional sanctification. He is an ambassador personally representing Jesus Christ, he was in full time Christian service, and so are we. So we are all servants — douloj. We are all in full time Christian service and the only difference between us is one of spiritual gifts.

“of God” — genitive of source from qeoj. Who made him a slave? God had a plan for him from eternity past.

“an apostle” — a)postoloj, [stoloj is from stellw = to send, to send out. But that isn’t what this means at all]. An a)postoloj was an admiral of the fleet in the Athenian navy. It is an Attic Greek word. It is a gift which means dictatorship, absolute authority.

The characteristics of an apostle

1. They were elected by God in His plan — Romans 1:1.

2. They were appointed by the Holy Spirit — 1 Corinthians 12:11.

3. No apostle to the Church was appointed until after the ascension — 1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11.

4. An apostle had to be an eyewitness to the resurrection of Christ ( Paul qualified on the Damascus road) — 1 Corinthians 9:1; 15:8,9.

5. An apostle had special gifts — the gift of miracles, as in Acts 5:15; 16:16-18; 28:8,9; he could turn any believer over to Satan for the sin unto death, as in 1 Corinthians 5.

The doctrine of inspiration

God so directed the writers of scripture that without waiving their human intelligence, their individuality, their vocabulary and literary style, their personal feelings or any other factor, God’s complete and coherent message and plan was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages.

“according to” — kata, “according to the norm or standard”; “of faith” — the third function of GAP.

This is the standard whereby you understand Bible doctrine in the left lobe as gnwsij.

“of God’s elect” brings up the issue of the plan of God from the standpoint of the doctrine of election. The Greek word is e)klektoj and it means chosen as the recipient of special privilege. Every believer, regardless of who he is, is the recipient of special privilege. Every believer being in the plan of God has this privilege.

The doctrine of election

1. All members of the human race are potentially elected to the plan of God because of the doctrine of unlimited atonement — 2 Timothy 2:10.

2. While the human race is potentially elected in time Christ was elected in eternity past — Isaiah 42:1; 1 Peter 2:4,6.

3. The election took place as a part of the eternal life conference (the doctrine of divine decrees) — John 15:16; Ephesians 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2.

4. Every believer in the Church Age shares the election of Christ through positional sanctification — 1 Corinthians 1:2,30; Ephesians 1:4; Romans 8:28-32.

5. Election is the present as well as the future possession of every believer — Colossians 3:12; John 15:16.

6. Election takes place at the moment of salvation — 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13.

7. Election is the foundation of the Church — 1 Thessalonians 1:4.

8. Orientation to election comes through doctrine in the human spirit — Titus 1:1.

9. The regenerate Jews of the previous dispensation also had an election as a part of the plan of God — Romans 11:1-7 cf. Deuteronomy 32:8.

“and the acknowledging of the truth” — the word “acknowledging” is an accusative singular noun, e)pignwsij. This refers to doctrine in the human spirit, the result of the third stage of GAP; “of the truth” is a genitive of source, a)lhqeia refers to Bible doctrine categorically. Once you get e)pignwsij in the human spirit it goes into categorical areas from which it can be utilised.

“which is after godliness” — “after” is kata, or “according to the norms and standards”; the word “godliness” is e)usebeia. It started out as being a Homeric word and then it came into the Attic Greek where it was used for piety in the fulfilment of human relationships. It was used for piety with regard to fulfilling the responsibility to the pantheon of whatever Greek city you found yourself in. The Attic Greek always referred to outer piety, giving overt obeisance to the gods of the pantheon. But as it came into the Koine Greek it meant spirituality, a duty which the believer owes to God. So actually, e)usebeia is the principle of the filling of the Spirit.

In verse one we have all the ingredients of the function of GAP

1. We have the communicator or stage one of GAP — “Paul … an apostle.”

2. “According to the standard of faith” is the transfer of doctrine from the staging area or the perceptive lobe to the human spirit.

3. The divine provision for GAP is the word “elect.”

4. The principle of spiritual IQ — “acknowledging” is literally e)pignwsij.

5. The source of Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine is located in the scripture in an exegetical form but the categories are there.

6. The basis for the functioning of GAP — godliness or the filling of the Spirit.

Verse 2 — God’s plan must have stability. Once you enter God’s plan you must understand that no matter how badly you fail or how much you succeed you are still in God’s plan. We have here the stability of God’s plan in the doctrine of eternal security.

“In hope of eternal life” — the trouble with “hope” is that the modern word means like “I hope so.” The word e)lpij means the utmost of confidence. We have a preposition in front of it, e)pi, which means “on the basis of.” So we begin this verse, “On the basis of confidence in eternal life.” We have eternal life right now. What is the basis of our eternal life? God’s Word.

“which God” — literally, “which the God,” God the Father who is the author of the plan.

“that cannot lie” — there is no verb here at all. The word is an adjective, a)yeudhj which means “the non-lying God.” When someone tells you the truth all the time you believe what they tell you — because they are non-lying. You can always have confidence in someone who levels with you and tells you the truth. This is a part of God’s character, His essence — veracity. The non-lying God says we have eternal life. Since Cretans are “always liars” they have to be hit with the truth. This is a contrast.

“promised” — aorist middle indicative of e)paggellw [a)ggellw = to announce or promise; e)p — to undertake], which means to promise to undertake something, to promise to underwrite something.

“before the world began” — the non-lying God promised to underwrite us before creation. He promised to underwrite believers assembled in local churches.

Verse 3 — the communication of this plan in the Church Age. Preaching is committed to a few men with the spiritual gift. Titus has to comb the island to find those who have the gift of pastor-teacher.

“But hath is due times manifested” — in the old English they liked to split the verb: “hath manifested” is an aorist active indicative of fanerow which means to make known something through teaching, repetitive, authoritative teaching. Sometimes fanerow is used for the written Word and sometimes for the communication of doctrine verbally. Here we know that is has to do with verbal form. Manifestation here is the function of GAP. What was wrong with the believers on the island of Crete? No doctrine; “due times” is made up of the word kairoj which refers to dispensations. Along with it we have the word i)dioj which is a possessive noun — “his own.” So it should be translated, “he has manifested by means of his own dispensations [times].” Divine revelation, then, is based upon dispensational truth — the universal priesthood of the believer, positional, sanctification, the indwelling of Christ, all of the things which are unique to the Church Age were never revealed before but they are manifested now.

“his word” — Bible doctrine; “through preaching” — prepositional phrase, e)n plus the instrumental of khrugma. E)n plus the instrumental means public teaching and inculcation. Khrugma includes six principles:

a) There must be a textbook. Khrugma implies a written text which is the standard for the communication. Our textbook is the canon of scripture.

b) The noun also connotes communication in an authoritative manner. This is the provision of the gift of pastor-teacher, a communication gift.

c) It connotes reception. The recipients is the priesthood of believers. Khrugma indicates public reception, one person in authority speaking to a number of people and the privacy of the priesthood under GAP.

d) The importance of public assembly with authority vested in the communicator.

e) The principle of monologue in communication of Bible teaching.

f) Khrugma protects the individual believer from bullying and personality dynamics. He can take it or reject it, he can live it as unto the Lord or not.

“through [by means of] preaching which is committed” — aorist passive indicative of pisteuw, it means “entrusted” here. In a point of time a person who has the gift of pastor-teacher is entrusted.

“according to the commandment” — the word “commandment” is a very unusual word, e)pitagh, and it has great importance to the pastor-teacher. It means that the pastor-teacher is strictly under responsibility to God. It means strict authority and responsibility to that authority, and it means that the pastor-teacher is under divine authority and has a responsibility as a shepherd. It also means that no one can communicate Bible doctrine without authority from God.

“God our Saviour” reminds us once again of the basis of our stability. It is Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, absent from the earth and represented in this area by the pastor-teacher.

Verse 4 — the true recipient of this epistle. “To Titus, mine own son after the common faith.” Many people thought that Titus was a genuine son of Paul. Then they took two theories. One, that he was a legitimate son of Paul in wedlock, and two, he was not a legitimate son of Paul in wedlock — in other words, a bastard. This was debated quite heavily in theological classes. No one happened to think about the fact that Titus was a Gentile, and is so stated to be a Gentile in Galatians 2:3. He had a Gentile mother and father. That is why he was circumcised in Jerusalem, according to Galatians 2:3. Paul is a Jew. The word that caused all the trouble here is gnhsioj, a word which means genuine, lawful, legitimate, born in wedlock. But it also with teknon means “most reliable.” In this verse it means “most reliable.” Translation: “To Titus, most reliable son.” In other words, Titus was a son in the faith and was the most reliable member of the Pauline team. That is why he is a trouble-shooter. It means that Titus has an ECS and has been the greatest beneficiary of Paul’s ministry. It means that he has a strong right lobe and a phenomenal divine viewpoint. Here is a maximum responder to doctrine who becomes a maximum leader. Note: No one becomes a great leader in any field until first of all he is a good follower.

“after the common faith” is literally, “according to the standard of the common faith.” The common faith is Bible doctrine. Titus is the most reliable. Titus responded under GAP and then he became a leader. Reliability does not come from being a leader, reliability becomes from being a responder and a follower. You only become reliable in God’s sight through GAP.

“Grace,” xarij, is the whole concept of the plan of God; the word “mercy” is not found in the original; “peace” refers to reconciliation or what God had to do to provide grace; “from” is the preposition a)po which indicates ultimate source; “God the Father” is the author of the divine plan, grace; “the Lord Jesus Christ” is the executor of grace and entrance into the plan, and therefore He is called “our Saviour.”

The doctrine of grace

1. Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the cross. Therefore grace is the work of God on behalf of man. Grace is the subject and the title of God’s plan for mankind. The word itself actually excludes all human ability, all human good.

2. The concept of grace. Grace depends on who and what God is. It never depends on who and what man is. In other words, grace depends upon the essence of God, the character of God. Grace is a word which is backed by divine essence.

3. The issue of grace. Grace is opposed by an antithetical principle called legalism. Legalism is the sum total of human viewpoint, human good, human works, human merit, and human ability.

4. Grace also is related to sanctification. The greatest thing that God can do for the saved person is to make him like His Son. This is accomplished in three stages of sanctification which are all related to the angelic conflict. For example, phase one sanctification is union with Christ. At the point of salvation we enter into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer by virtue of union with Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father is positionally superior to angels. Phase two sanctification has to do with the edification complex of the soul [ECS]. The soul of the believer with an ECS actually has that which is superior to the inner structure of the angels. Phase three: The believer receives a resurrection body which is superior to the angelic body, as indicated by the Lord Jesus Christ passing through all of the hostile angels on His way to heaven without being deterred in any way.

5. The entrance factor as far as the plan of God is concerned. At the moment the believer personally received Christ as saviour, at that moment he tasted grace — 1 Peter 2:3. Every believer has passed the point of propitiation — 1 John 2:2. So the believer’s eternal salvation is based upon grace.

6. The occupational hazard of grace. Disorientation to grace is the believer’s greatest occupational hazard in time — Hebrews 12:15 where disorientation to grace comes through mental attitude sins, and Galatians 5:4 where disorientation to grace comes through legalistic modus operandi.

7. The divine attitude in grace: God is constantly waiting to pour out His grace to every believer — Isaiah 30:18,19.

8. Grace in phase one: Psalm 103:8-12; Ephesians 2:8,9; Romans 3:23,24; 4:4; 5:20.

9. Grace in phase two: a) Prayer — Hebrews 4:16; b) Suffering — 2 Corinthians 12:9,10; c) Growth — 2 Peter 3:18; d) Stability — 1 Peter 5:12; e) Modus vivendi — Hebrews 12:28; 2 Corinthians 1:12; f) The production of divine good — 1 Corinthians 15:10.

10. Grace is the only answer to the intensified stage of the angelic conflict — 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

11. Seven implications of grace: a) God is perfect, His plan is perfect; b) A perfect plan can only originate from a perfect God; c) If a man could do anything meritorious in the plan of God it is no longer perfect; d) A plan is no stronger than its weakest link, therefore grace must exclude all weak links; e) Human ability, human good, legalism, is the enemy of grace, the neutraliser of grace; f) There is therefore no place in the plan of God for human good. Grace excludes all human good; g) Inevitably human good leads to mental attitude sins. For example, it is always associated with the mental attitude sin of pride.

12. Four areas where the pride cluster rejects grace. a) The pride of the believer who rejects eternal security. His pride is involved in the fact that he thinks that his sins are greater than the plan of God. b) The pride of the believer who succumbs to the pressures of adversity. He thinks that his sufferings are greater than the provision of God. c) The pride of pseudo-spirituality. He thinks his works, his morality, his self-righteousness, his taboos, or the changes in his personality are greater than the plan of God. In other words, pseudo-spirituality always has a gimmick, a gimmick whereby you have the intrusion of human ability of some sort — works, morality, self-righteousness, taboos, personality changes, unusual experiences. d) The pride of the emotional believer. He thinks his feelings are more important than Bible doctrine. He finds reality not in the Word but in how he feels.

13. The sufficiency of grace is found in the ECS — 2 Corinthians 12:9,10. The power of God rests upon us because of the sufficiency of grace. The strength of the Lord is imparted to the believer in the ECS, in the frame of reference.

In verses 5-9 we now take up the task of appointing leaders in Crete.

Verse 5 — “For this cause” is Toutou xarin. Xarin is the accusative of xarij which is grace. It should be “Because of this grace.”

“I left you” — aorist active indicative of a)poleipw which means to leave behind. The active voice: Paul made a decision of grace which was contrary to his own personal desires because he had the most fantastic respect and rapport with Titus. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that all of a sudden Titus is left by himself.

“in Crete” — e)n plus the locative of sphere which means “this is the sphere of your service.”

Crete

1. Crete is the most famous island of the ancient world because it was the seat of Manoan civilisation.

2. Cretans were present at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost — Acts 2:11. Paul stopped at Crete on his famous voyage to Rome — Acts 27:7ff.

3. Although Crete is a famous island nothing was known about it until the last century. Sir Arthur Evans was one of those eccentrics who lived in England in the last century. He was considered to be eccentric because he was very wealthy, a millionaire, who though he had to work. He took a job at Oxford and became very interested in archaeology. He took a vocation (in 1889) and sailed on his yacht to Crete. The reason was that he had heard that they had some very interesting signet rings from Egypt. He landed at a town called Anossis and began digging. The first day he started digging he hit a bronze-age palace. He bought the site and went back to begin working on his second day. He came up with the most famous palace of the bronze age, the palace of Minos. He discovered this area where about 80,000 people lived. He began to dig up later on a lot of copper tablets with script known as Linear A. It was very difficult and no one seemed to be able to do much with it. But they finally worked out where Linear A had its source, and island 70 miles north of Crete called Thera. In about 1400 BC Thera erupted. The whole island blew up. Tidal waves hit Crete 160 feet high. Volcanic ash destroyed the Manoan civilisation and it was Sir Arthur Evans who dug it all up again.

There is a relationship between that and some other cataclysmic events. God was preparing the way for the Jews to go into the land. In 1440 BC they left Egypt. They came into the land forty years later in 1400 BC. Somewhere between 1440 and 1400 the island of Thera blew up in the Agean Sea. There is a reason for it. The Manoan civilisation would have been hindering here. Crete had been used as a stepping stone for Greeks, and one group of Greeks which are now called the Philistines had already landed in Egypt given a hard time and driven up into the area to the north. Then some other things began to happen in God’s preparation for the Jews. The Hittite civilisation was suddenly destroyed, but it had some very strong remnants as indicated when Moses came to Kadesh Barnea. So who should go into the land of Palestine but Thutmose III who destroyed some of the greatest Hittite armies. All of these mysterious things began to happen. All of these things are related, God was preparing the way for the Jews.

Later on, at the end of the Manoan civilisation, they discovered on the island of Thera, and then also when Sir Arthur Evans was walking one day he happened to come across a mound and he ordered some digging there. He came up with a brand new type of writing. This shocked him because Linear A was a pictographic type of writing but Linear B was entirely different. He finally cracked Linear A but he was never able to crack Linear B. He didn’t know what to do with it so he decided to go back to England, and when he was 84 years old in 1936 he began to lecture in London. There was a young boy, 14 years old name Michael Ventris, who began to listen to Sir Arthur Evans who was now an old man and admitted that he was never able to figure out Linear B. This 14-year-old boy decided he was going to come up with the answer. He asked permission of Sir Arthur Evans to go to Crete and look at the tablets. By the time he was 33 he had gone through three thousand of those clay tablets and their writing, and he cracked Linear B. He discovered that it was not what Sir Arthur Evans had suggested, it turned out to be a Greek language almost as old as Chinese. It was pre-Homeric Greek. They were finally able to establish that this language was 3,300 years old. When he was able to rack this language he was also able to crack the language used by the invaders from the north, the Doreans. The Doreans settled in three areas of the world — on the Greek mainland where the dominant Doreans became the Spartans who later fought the Athenians; they also settled on the island of Crete, and they invaded Egypt but they had a very small army and eventually they were driven up into five cities and called themselves the Philistines. The Doreans survived better on Crete than anywhere else, except for one thing: they loved to fight. So they built castles on different parts of the land on Crete until they literally fortified the whole island. Out of this came cities and they fought each other all the time. So every time we talk about the Cretans now in Titus we are talking about that wild, unruly Doreans.

So Titus is now standing on the docks with this great island behind him populated with the wildest bunch of people who for the last 600 years had been doing nothing but fight each other.

“that” — i(na introduces a purpose clause; “thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting.” We have an interesting word, e)pidiorqow. It means to correct: e)pi = to get on top of, to do it with authority. What is he to correct? — “the things that are wanting [deficient].” The aorist tense means that the answer to this is going to be to have Bible class every night in Crete. The aorist tense gathers up into a point of time the whole ministry of Titus on the island of Crete. They need divine norms and standards, they have not had them. The middle voice means you are going to have to do it and they are going to have to benefit. The subjunctive mood means that some of them will never benefit because some of them will never recognise the authority of the Word of God or the one who communicates it. Translation thus far: “I have deserted [left you flat] you in Crete for the purpose that you might correct with authority the things that keep on being deficient.”

“and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee.” “Ordain” means to appoint according to a norm or standard — the verb kaqisthmi. The word for elders is presbuteroj which means “old man” from the standpoint of rank and authority rather than age. Presbuteroj is one of the words in the Bible for the pastor-teacher.

The doctrine of the ministry

1. The use of the word “ministry.” The word is a translation of the word diakonoj which is used three ways in the Bible. It has the political use for the leader of a state — Romans 13:4; it has a general use for all believers in full time Christian service — 2 Corinthians 3:6; 4:1; 5:18; 6:3. It also is used in certain passages in a specialised sense for the pastor of a local church, as in 1 Corinthians 3:5; Ephesians 3:7; Colossians 1:23; 4:7; 1 Thessalonians 3:2; 1 Timothy 1:12.

2. Three Greek words are used to identify the pastor: presbuteroj which emphasises the person and the rank of the pastor. He is the highest authority in the local church; “bishop” is the Greek word e)piskopoj, it means “overseer, manager.” This emphasises work and function; “pastor” or “pastor-teacher” is poimhnoj which really means shepherd. Pastor-teacher is a hyphenated word and it also has the word didaskaloj — poimhnoj-didaskaloj, Two functions under the same principle. The shepherd keeps the sheep from straying and then the feeding is taken up under didaskaloj.

3. These words are interchangeable — Acts 20:17,28. In verse 17 pastors of Ephesus are called “elders” which is presbuteroj. In verse 28 the pastors of Ephesus are called “bishops — e)piskopoj — and are commanded by the aorist active imperative of poimainw to shepherd the sheep. All three words are used in verses 17 and 28 to indicate that elders, bishops and pastors are all the same person.

4. The three words all carry the connotation of authority , therefore the pastor is the ruler of the local church — 1 Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:7,17. Note Hebrews 13:7 — “Remember them who have the rule over you,” present linear aktionsart. How do you know those who have the rule over you? “ … Who have spoken unto you the Word of God.”

5. The pastor is the total product of grace — 1 Timothy 1:12-16; 1 Corinthians 15:10. He is responsible to God.

6. Some general passages which are pertinent to the pastor: Colossians 1:23-29; 1 Timothy 1:12-14; 2:24-26; 3:1-9; 2 Timothy 2; Titus 1:6-9.

“in every city” — kata means norm or standard; poluj — city. It should be “according to the standard of every city.” There are many cities in Crete, every city has a certain number of churches. Hence, every city needs a certain quota of pastors. Titus has to find among the believers of the native population those who have the spiritual gift. He has to provide the instruction and the training and then assign them. Paul recognises that there exists on the island of Crete X number of male believers with the gift of pastor-teacher. He does not seek to import pastors.

“as I had appointed” is the aorist middle indicative of diatassw which means that before setting sail Paul had given orders in detail as to how this project will be carried out. The plan for organising Crete was therefore planned by Paul and is now being executed by Titus.

Verse 6 — we now have some personal standards for the appointment of pastors in Crete. The word “if” introduces a first class condition. This is the protasis and “if any” is literally “anyone.” This is a specific reference to males who possibly might have the gift pastor-teacher.

“be” — present active indicative of e)imi, the absolute status quo verb: “If anyone keep on being.”

“blameless” — a)negklhtoj [a = negative; egkelew = to charge, to accuse, or to institute judicial proceedings], which means irreproachable. “If anyone keeps on being irreproachable.” When the status of the Cretans is considered it is obviously that this is going to be quite a task.

“the husband of one wife” — there is no word for wife in the Koine Greek, it is just gunh which means “woman.” The construction in the Greek here says, “a one-woman man.” The word for man here is a)nhr which means nobleman — which means right man, right woman. What is a one-woman man? It means two things: a) he should not be polygamous. But polygamy is not the basic idea because even in Crete they didn’t go in for polygamy; b) the basic interpretation here is that a pastor should marry the right woman.

Principle

1. A pastor should have right man, right woman relationship under the principle of a one-woman man.

2. Reason: The pressures are so great in the ministry that lack of domestic tranquillity can be the proverbial straw.

3. Of all people, the believer who has the gift of pastor-teacher has to be very careful he marries the right woman or not get married at all.

4. In the ministry especially, marriage to the wrong woman can be very difficult.

5. The pastor requires both self-discipline and concentration. Obviously there are a lot of things that would distract from that and one of them could be the wrong woman.

6. An unhappy marriage can become a source of pressure and this particular passage is designed to eliminate that pressure.

7. This passage does not eliminate a pastor because he is divorced.

“having faithful children” — the children must be believers. It doesn’t say having faithful children at all, it is “having children who are believers.”

“not accused of riot” — a)swtia means hell-raising or dissipation.

“or unruly” — a)nupotaktoj which means that no pastor should be involved in being a traitor to his country, no pastor should be in anything that defies authority. He should never be opposed to law and order, to the police force, encourage anyone to dodge the draft. He should never under any circumstances violate biblical principles and encourage members of his congregation to be cowards or conscientious objectors. In other words, a pastor should be strong in encouraging any type of authority which is authorised by the Word — the authority of the priesthood: every believer should have the privacy to live his own life as unto the Lord; the authority in the home: of the parents; the authority of law, of enforcement agencies; the authority within military. The pastor must never do anything that would destroy the principles of authority which line up with the Word of God.

Translation: “If anyone keep on being irreproachable, a one-woman man, having children who are believers, not in the sphere of accusation of riot, or insubordination principles.”

Verse 7 — “For a bishop.” Here is the word e)piskopoj which means overseer. It is a word of authority, a synonym for the pastor. This noun emphasises the function of leadership, the authority of a pastor. Literally, this verse starts out, “For it is necessary for a bishop to be blameless [irreproachable], as the steward. ” The word for steward is o)ikonomoj which means an administrator with authority; “of God” is a genitive showing possession, and it should be translated with e)piskopoj “as God’s administrative manager.” The connection here between o)ikonomoj and e)piskopoj establishes a principle:

Principle

1. Linking e)piskopoj with o)ikonomoj definitely subordinates the board of deacons or any other administrative board to the pastor of a church.

2. While the deacons function in administration and have administrative authority it is neither independent of nor is it higher than that of the pastor.

3. The concept of divided authority in different fields (within a local church) is destroyed by this phrase.

4. The idea that the pastor is a ruler in spiritual matters and the deacons in temporal matters is a house divided. 5. The pastor is the final authority in both spiritual and temporal matters of the local church — Hebrews 13:7.

6. This means that the deacons, or whatever administrative organisation exists within a church, are to help the pastor, not use the office to fight or destroy the pastor’s authority.

7. This does not imply a rubber stamp but a team concept of the local church. Remember that in Acts chapter 6 the deacons performed administrative functions to release the pastor’s time for more important functions for the pastor, things that only the pastor could do.

8. Therefore to fulfil 1 Corinthians 14:40 there must be one final authority in a local church. That authority is vested in the pastor by the Word of God — 1 Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:7,17.

Now the five negatives:

“not self-willed” — a)uqadhj means not to allow stubbornness and antagonism toward people to move a person to the place of where he is unfair. In other words, grace orientation, the first floor of the ECS. There has to be objectivity on the part of the congregation and there has to be objectivity on the part of the pastor. Under the principle of grace orientation the pastor must be fair. No prejudice must ever destroy his fairness.

“not soon angry” — this is the third floor of the ECS, relaxed mental attitude. Anger is a mental attitude sin. The word is o)rgiloj which is not quite correctly translated. It means not prone to jump to conclusions that lead to anger.

“not given to wine” — paroinoj means not prone to drunkenness, or not addicted to it. This doesn’t really forbid drinking but it prohibits drunkenness. This has to do with not using alcohol as a form of sublimation. The Christian leadership demands inner happiness as a function rather than dependence upon overt stimulation.

“no striker” — plhkthj means not a brawler. A pastor bishop, instead of slugging people, should love them. “not given to filthy lucre” — literally, “not eager for dishonourable profit,” a)isxrokerdhj.

These are five adjectives with negatives and each one is comparable to one of the floors in the ECS.

Verse 8 — six positives of spiritual leadership. Five of these are comparable to one of the floors of the ECS.

“But a lover of hospitality” — this is grace orientation, filocenoj which actually means a love of strangers, to do something for someone who doesn’t earn it or deserve it. Cenoj originally meant a stranger, but it doesn’t have to be a stranger as far as your knowledge of a person or a person in the periphery of your social life, it means someone from whom you are estranged also. It means to have a grace attitude toward people who have not earned it or deserved it. It means grace orientation, treating people in grace.

“lover of good men” — filagaqoj means a lover of divine good., not men [filoj is the noun = strong or maximum love; a)gaqoj = good of intrinsic value, used for divine good].

“sober” — swfron means stability of mind. This is the relaxed mental attitude, freedom from mental attitude sins. Any mental attitude sin causes instability in the right lobe.

“just” — dikaioj really means fair or equitable.

“holy” — o(sioj means a separation to and occupation with, or a pleasing of someone. This is capacity for life. Here it would be capacity for loving God, occupation with Christ.

“temperate” — e)gkrathj means self-controlled. It has to do with mastery of the details of life.

Verse 9 — there are some operational standards for appointment. “Holding fast” — a)ntexomai means to cling to someone. What we cling to here is sound doctrine. The present tense means that this is a continuous function, therefore GAP. The middle voice is reflexive which means you have to make constant decisions with regard to Bible doctrine. The participle indicates a divine law for the believer to cling to doctrine. The pastor-bishop is required to have a love affair with doctrine so that he can communicate doctrine so that every believer can fulfil his priesthood.

“faithful” here is the genitive singular adjective and means trustworthy, dependable, inspiring faith; “word” refers to the canon of scripture and that part of the content which is doctrine.

“as he hath been taught” is not correct — kata, the preposition of norm or standard, so it should be translated, “according to the norm or standard”; the object of the preposition in the accusative is the noun didaxh which means categorical teaching, public categorical teaching. Simply: “according to the standard of doctrine.” “Constantly clinging to the dependable word according to the standard of doctrine.”

“that” — purpose clause: “he may be able.” Two words here: e)imi plus the noun dunatoj which means “that he might be capable.” There is a purpose here.

“by means of sound doctrine” — e)n plus the instrumental case. That means we have to translate the preposition “by means of.” The word for “sound” is u(giainw which originally had a medical connotation finally came to mean in he Koine Greek “pure, uncorrupted.” Then we have the instrumental of the word didaskalia which means Bible doctrine categorically in the human spirit as a result of GAP.

“both to exhort” — parakalew, present active infinitive, which means to exhort, to encourage, to stimulate, to push; “and to convince” which means to reprove, the present active infinitive of e)legxw which means to chew out. Titus is going to have to be hard-nosed with some of these people.

“the gainsayers” — believers in opposition. A)ntilegw is a present active participle.

Translation: “Constantly cling to the dependable word according to the standard of doctrine, that he might be capable by means of pure doctrinal teaching to exhort and to refute those in opposition.”

In other words, the pastor-bishop must be able to assert his authority over a congregation, and especially those who oppose sound doctrine. Therefore he must have, as it were, a super knowledge of doctrine and the gift gives him the ability to apply it at all times under all types of circumstances. This means that before it ever comes to you it goes into his left lobe, down into his human spirit, cycles into his right lobe. He has had long exhale toward God, toward man, he has an ECS and as he takes the scripture which is in front of the congregation and begins to use it, he pulls from different categories information and uses a vocabulary which he has in common with the congregation. This is the operational standard which Titus is to use in the appointment of pastor-bishops in Crete. Titus is not to be the pastor in Crete, he is to get things cranked up on the indigenous basis.

Verse 10 — at the time that Titus landed there was a spiritual revolution. God does not approve of revolution in any form. There are certain principles of doctrine that belong to the establishment — the divine institutions, the concept of grace. These things are under attack, according to verse 10. This is an unruly population. The island of Crete is filled with many thousands of believers. They are unruly and in the midst of a spiritual revolution and these believers as such are sheep without a human shepherd and they cannot function under the plan of God as such. Titus as a trouble-shooter has the fantastic responsibility of bringing order out of chaos.

“For” is the word gar, and whenever you start with the world gar in the Greek that means there is always trouble. Gar is a particle which introduces problems, a particle which introduces the necessity for getting order and authority.

“there are” — present active indicative of e)imi which means this condition has been going on for some time and so far it is still out of control.

“many” refers to a large number of believers living in a state of spiritual anarchy. These believers are insubordinate to any type of authority, including that of the pastor-teacher. Rejection of such authority reveals negative volition toward doctrine and three characteristics of this revolt are described in this verse.

This passage is not without some application to us today. During any phase of the Church Age when believers begin to reject Bible doctrine they become floaters, they have no roots, and they hop from one church to another, they go from one place to another looking for entertainment, for something to stimulate, for some human viewpoint psychological thing that will somehow give them a few moments peace, a few moments of happiness.

Three things here which characterised spiritual revolt:

“unruly” — a)nupotaktoj. This word means insubordinate, undisciplined, rebellious. The noun connotes rejection of authority, the authority of communicators, the authority of doctrine itself. Therefore God’s plan is not only rejected on the island of Crete but people who are believers are in open revolt against it. Insubordination means that these people have rejected Bible doctrine, rejected the concept of reality in doctrine. The second meaning of the word is undisciplined. It means that they do not have that self-discipline necessary to submit themselves to the teaching of the Word of God daily. The third meaning of the word, rebellious, means that they are in rebellion against the plan of God even though they are members of the family of God.

“vain talkers” is the second characteristic of the spiritual revolt — mataiologoj. This is composed of two words; mataiothj indicates the vacuum which we have in the soul when scar tissue exists. Then the word logoj comes from legw which means to speak. These are people who express viewpoint from scar tissue, the same thing we find in our day when believers become liberals and when believers go for socialism, and believers because of some kind of a guilt complex start breast beating and blaming themselves for terrible conditions when nothing could be further from the truth. This means to be in rebellion to doctrine, to be in rebellion to the communicators of doctrine, and to speak in opposition to doctrine.

“and deceivers” — the third characteristic of spiritual revolt. The noun is frenapathj and should be translated “mind deceivers.” This is legalism, disorientation to the grace of God, their communication of false doctrine in opposition to true doctrine, every person is an island to himself, what he thinks is correct. This means that they are mind deceivers. They deceive their own minds and they speak to others and deceive them.

“they of the circumcision” — a small but very effective Jewish population on the island, most of whom were believers. They were involved in two types of false doctrine, Judaism and Gnosticism. So obviously at this point there was a case for strong Christian leadership in the form of pastors all up and down the island who can deal with this rebellion by teaching the truth.

This one verse establishes the problem — spiritual revolt. Believers in opposition to Bible doctrine.

Verse 11 — “Whose mouths must be stopped.” People think that you can toy around with insubordination, rejection of authority, rejection of establishment, and somehow get away with it. But it always works the other way, there is always death, and blood has to be shed before order can be restored. That isn’t true in the spiritual revolt. Instead, the mouths have to be stopped. There are several ways to stop a mouth.

The word “whose” is “whom,” referring to those in revolt. This is an accusative plural of a relative pronoun’ must” — “Whom it is necessary”; “to be stopped” is e)pistomizw, a term used in the cavalry which means to put a curb bit into action. A horse has a very tender mouth. A horse that is halfway sensible and will respond to authority can spend his whole life being happy because all he ever has is a snaffle bit which doesn’t hurt the horse’s mouth. But then there are these wild, unruly types, and sometimes you have to use a curb and a snaffle. A curb bit gives all the leverage in the world, it comes right back on the horse’s mouth. This is what the word originally meant. Eventually it came to muzzle or to gag, and so we translate it, “Whom it is necessary to silence.” One of the first jobs of a pastor-teacher walking into a rebellion is to silence the rebellion. A pastor has to get hard-nosed with the sheep. How do you stop the mouth of a sheep? You kick him in the tail! You can’t teach doctrine to people who are negative, they aren’t going to listen. But what are they going to do? They are going to take other members of the congregation and get them all dissatisfied. When you get enough dissatisfied sheep and they all say they are going in one direction when the pastor says go the other way (on the basis of doctrine) then the shepherd feeding the little lambs is replaced by the shepherd you never see but in reality he is always there — going around with a stick looking for that dumb sheep.

The word “mouth” isn’t found in the original, except in the verb here. Stoma is the Greek word for mouth but here we have stomizw, and e)pistomizw means you have to close their mouths. This takes courage in Christian leadership because it isn’t pleasant, it isn’t fun; but when you have spiritual rebellion it must occur.

What happens when you do not, silence these people? — “who subvert whole houses.” The word “subvert” is a)natrepw [a)na = again and again; trepw = to throw], it means to overthrow and eventually it came to mean to corrupt. It is a present active indicative, “they keep on corrupting.”

“whole [entire] houses” — the churches of the ancient world began to meet in homes — Philemon 2; Acts 12:12; Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15. The word “house” here refers to a church. “They corrupt entire churches.”

Principle

1. False teaching destroys the local church when unchecked. It doesn’t even have to be false teaching like “I don’t believe in the virgin birth” type of thing, it can simply be human viewpoint. If a church is blessed of God it is grace all the way.

2. Legalism and false teaching is the leaven that leavens the whole lump.

3. There must be a strong doctrinal emphasis from the pulpit to protect the congregation.

“teaching” — present active participle of didaskw which means public teaching, teaching to a group things they ought not to teach but they do it for the sake of dishonourable profit.

“for filthy lucre’s sake.” Filthy lucre here is literally “dishonourable profit.” It means they take money for false teaching.

Now the real basis of this study is found in the next two verses. What can Bible doctrine do? The Cretians going to be described by a line of hexameter verse. One of the great Greek poets at the time of Solon wrote a line which Paul now quotes to Titus for a reason. It is necessary to have strong doctrinal teaching for this reason: it corrects racial and national weaknesses. Every nation has its strengths and it has its weaknesses. Why in the midst of all of this dissertation does Paul suddenly quote one line of verse. What is behind it? What is the reason for it? This is to show that Bible doctrine taught from a pulpit of a local church is the basis for changing the weaknesses of a national entity, the racial weaknesses of individual groups here and there. These weaknesses can be changed by doctrine. When a race has a weakness, when a nation has a weakness, all of the legislation in the world, all of the reform systems in the world, all of the schemes of socialism, all of the economic panaceas will not change the weaknesses of a race. Here we have a line of poetry to show that Bible doctrine taught from churches in pulpits has a way of taking the weaknesses or a race or a nation and turning them into strength.

Verse 12 — “one of themselves [a Cretian], a prophet of their own.” The word “prophet” is also used for poet — “one of their own poets.” Epimanaiades was his name, he was quoted by many of the writers of the ancient world. He was accepted as a prophet as well as a poet by the Cretians. He was also accepted by Cicero as a prophet as well as a poet. Paul is now going to quote him.

“said, The Cretians always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies” — “always” — a)ei means forever. The Cretians in the 5th century BC, 600 years before this was quoted, always did the same thing: they lied whenever possible. The word for liar here is not the ordinary word for liar. The ordinary word would be yeudh, but this is yeusthj. The reason is the yeusthj means a lie that comes from mental attitude sins — a compulsive liar, lies built upon mental attitude sins. You can already begin to see a racial weakness as far as the Cretians are concerned. The Cretians were so famous for their lying during the past 600 years that the Attic Greek had a verb, krhtizw, which means to speak like a Cretian, which means to lie from mental attitude sins. The Attic Greeks also had a noun, krhtismoj, which meant to behave like a Cretian — to be full of mental attitude sins and to lie about someone or something. So we have a system of lies developed from mental attitude sins. The same word is also used for a system of lies developed from approbation lust, trying to lie your way to fame, in other words. Another system of lies for which this noun is used was a system of lies based on pseudo love. Of course, it was also used as it is brought into the Koine Greek for lies which include false doctrine.

The second characteristic in this line — “evil beasts.” The word for beast here is used for either a wild animal or a brutish man, qhrion. This is a person who has lost the function of the right lobe. He can be an unbeliever or a believer. There are several reasons why this occurs — mental attitude sins, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, fornication are some of the things that destroy the right lobe and lead to national weakness when you have enough people involved. So the Cretians have lost their right lobe and this has become a national weakness. This is in part why they reject any kind of authority.

The third characteristic — “slow bellies.” Literally, this is “idle gluttons.” This is a person who is minus self-discipline. All of these characteristics go together and they produce a strong tendency to become unstable, fluttering from one thing to another thing.

Verse 13 — “This witness is true.” All the genius in the world can define the weakness but never the solution. These people for 600 years had had mental attitude sins that had destroyed the right lobe. They have been liars, animals, and have lacked self-discipline. The word for “is” is e)imi, absolute status quo verb, and it keeps on being true and there never will be a time when it isn’t true. The word for “true” here is a)lhqhj which means the observation at the time was true and with e)imi it is still true. So now what?

“wherefore” is not wherefore at all — dia plus the accusative means “because of this,” because it took all of the genius of one famous Greek poet who was a Cretian himself to describe the problem, and 600 years later it is still there. All of Greek thought could not solve the problem. Genius does not correct weakness; genius does not correct problems. Genius does not change things, Bible doctrine does. “The Word of God is alive and powerful.” Bible doctrine is the deliverance of Western civilisation which has so many weaknesses and these weaknesses have never been corrected and cannot be corrected, they are only correctable through Bible doctrine. Yet, today the whole liberal tendency is to make the weaknesses weaker. Weakness whether in theology or any other form always makes weakness weaker. Only Bible doctrine can change the picture.

“rebuke them” — e)legxw, present active imperative. E)legxw means to discipline, to brace, to discipline and refute, to chew out. Who? Believers. Why? Because they are in the position to take in the doctrine and to change the picture for their nation. Crete can be delivered, become a great nation. The Cretians have a chance but their only hope is through believers. And if the believers are unruly and insubordinate and rejecting doctrine they will never make it.

Verse 15 — “Unto the pure” is a dative plural of the noun kaqaroj, a word that can actually refer to a literally pure person in the behaviour pattern but it is more frequently used in a technical sense for ceremonial purification, and even more technical in the concept of a believer in fellowship.

“all things” refers to various activities in life toward which you could have mental attitude, in fact about almost anything. Then we have a repetition of the word “pure” but this time we find it in the nominative singular instead of the dative plural. Therefore we have the readjust these words into the English language. This should read literally, “All things are pure to those who are pure.” As it stands this could read almost anything if you approached the scripture with a little bit of cynicism. The word “pure” can mean someone who is simply naive.

Four points of interpretation

1. The believer can have the capacity for the details of life without sinning. This is possible through GAP and an ECS because through GAP and an ECS he is free from mental attitude sins which make him impure. Kaqaroj here means mental attitude sins gone. It has the same connotation as the noun a)gaph which merely indicates the state of the mentality, here we have the state of the entire apparatus of GAP when there is freedom from mental attitude sins. As we begin this particular verse it says in effect that we can enjoy the details of life. The details of life are not sinful unless the Bible specifically declares them to be sinful. Therefore the details of life are to be enjoyed. It is mental attitude sins that take things that are pure and make them impure.

2. The principle, then, from this phrase: Mental attitude sins destroy innocuous things in life, they destroy the capacity for love, they destroy the capacity to enjoy things in life. The pure are those who are free from mental attitude sins and therefore have the capacity to love and have the capacity to enjoy the things of this life.

3. GAP is the only way to have capacity for love or to enjoy the details of life without becoming involved in mental attitude sins.

4. Mental attitude sins are the corrupters of good things. If you want to destroy or neutralise something that is innocuous, something that is not sin and is fun, mental attitude sins will do it.

“but to them that are defiled” — we have a contrast. We have the conjunction of contrast followed by the perfect passive participle of the verb miainw.

Etymology of the verb miainw

1. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written.

2. In the time of writing of Titus sewage or excrement was collected in chamber pots and dumped from the balcony to the street. This often resulted in clothes being stained or polluted. This is where we get the word miainw.

3. Miainw means to be walking down the street and the contents of the chamber pot are dumped on you.

4. Mental attitude sins are the sewage or excrement of the mind which pollute the mind and destroy capacity to enjoy good things in life. The reason a lot of believers are not happy is because they are full of mental attitude sins.

5. The same verb and the same concepts are found in Hebrews 12:15 — “ … Lest any root of bitterness defile [miainw].”

6. The verb is in the perfect tense. Mental attitude sins occur at some point but they have continual and perpetual repercussions. The passive voice: mental attitude sins cause the soul to be stained or polluted. You receive this. All you have to do is come up with a mental attitude sin and the soul receives pollution or staining. The participle introduces a principle: Mental attitude sins corrupt the soul and this is a perpetual law in the operation of the human race.

7. While the defilement represents the influence and the pollution of the soul through mental attitude sins the next noun refers to the malfunction of GAP and its results are the destruction of the norm and standard lobe.

“and unbelieving” — a)pistoj refers to a person who is not an unbeliever but is not believing [a = negative; pistoj = faith]. This is negative on faith, not at salvation but in the function of GAP. Mental attitude sins not only stop the cycling of doctrine but they destroy the function of the right lobe.

“but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” We have in this phrase mind and conscience, the frontal lobes of the human mind. The mentality of the soul has three parts: the conscious mind and the subconscious mind, but the conscious mind is divided into two lobes. The first of these is described here by the word “mind.” That is the left lobe and the Greek word is nouj. This is the perceptive lobe, the area into which information is received. The next word is “conscience” — suneidhsij, and that is the right lobe. The right lobe performs many functions. It is not only the frame of reference but it is also your norms and standards, the basis for divine viewpoint in life and everything that is important to you as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The doctrine of conscience

1. The conscience is located in the right lobe or the norm and standard lobe of the mind in contrast to the left lobe or the perceptive part of the mind — Titus 1:15.

2. The conscience convicts of evil or wrongdoing — John 8:9.

3. The conscience establishes norms for both human and divine relationship — Acts 24:16. The believer who has a loaded up right lobe [norms and standards] will have correct norms, permanent norms for relationships in life.

4. The conscience functions on human thinking — Romans 2:15. In other words, the conscience has a great deal of influence on your thinking. But the conscience of the believer functions on divine thinking as it relates to GAP — Romans 9:1. Romans 2:15 tells us how the unbeliever has a conscience and how he uses it; Romans 9:1 tells us how the believer has a conscience and how he uses it.

5. Conscience is the basis for patriotism — Romans 13:5.

6. False norms or standards in the conscience produce legalism — 1 Corinthians 8:7.

7. The law of liberty and superseding laws are related to the conscience — 1 Corinthians 10:24-29.

8. There is a happiness based on compliance with the conscience — 2 Corinthians 1:12.

9. Doctrine must be communicated on the basis of conscience — 2 Corinthians 4:2 — otherwise intellectual dishonesty results.

10. GAP builds up the divine viewpoint in the conscience — 1 Timothy 1:5,19; 3:9.

11. The conscience can be destroyed with false doctrine or scar tissue — 1 Timothy 4:1,2.

12. Conscience establishes norms for serving God — 2 Timothy 1:3; Hebrews 9:14.

13. Conscience is the basis for enduring maltreatment and misunderstanding without defending self — 1 Peter 2:19; 3:16.

“but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” This is the perfect passive indicative of miainw and it has the same concept, mental attitude sins pollute the soul. This means that Christian leadership, the function of the pastor-bishop in communicating doctrine under GAP, is necessary for this to be eliminated. Only Bible doctrine in the human spirit cycled into the mind as divine norms and standards, plus the erection of the ECS, can handle the pollution problem in the soul. Mental attitude sins cause the pollution problem; GAP eliminates the pollution problem of the soul.

Verse 16 — there is a necessity for the production of divine good instead of human good. The word for “profess” is a present active indicative of o(mologew and it is not really correctly translated here. The word means to confess, to cite, to specify. Probably specify is the best here. These people actually say they know God and they do. The word for “know” here is a perfect active infinitive from o)ida and this infinitive actually means that they know that they do have a relationship with God. So we are talking about believers.

“but in works they deny him” — the word for “works” is the locative plural of e)rgon which means production. In their divine good production they deny Him because they simply do not produce divine good. Once you are born again you are designed to produce divine good. So, “but in production they deny or renounce or contradict him.” “Him” is not found in the original, they simply contradict their own profession. They are not contradicting or denying God, the word a)rneomai is the verb here and this means to contradict. They contradict their own profession. They do know God, they are saved, but they have no production. This means simply that the contradiction will exist at any time when the believer is not functioning under GAP, when he does not have doctrine in his left lobe and is not making that daily transfer so that there is e)pignwsij, when he does not have norms and standards and a frame of reference, no exhale toward God, and no exhale toward man. There is no divine good, no ECS. Their production contradicts their acknowledgement of God. Instead their production is said …

“being abominable” — bdeluktoj is an adjective which means “detestable” from the standpoint of God’s plan and God’s grace. This is what mental attitude sins do to the believer. It means also “loathsome.” Mental attitude ins indicate that no matter what you do you destroy the purity of your production of good. Bdeluktoj recognises the principle of mental attitude sins interdicting and destroying, turning divine good into human good.

“disobedient” is a reference to negative volition toward Bible doctrine; “unto every good work” — proj plus the accusative means “face to face with” or “face to face with the prospect.” There is the prospect of performing divine good but they are disobedient to that prospect because of negative volition toward doctrine.

“reprobate” — the noun a)dokimoj should not be translated “reprobate.” The word means “disapproved.” So they acknowledge that they know God, and they do, but in production they contradict this statement. With regard to the prospect of the production of divine good they are disapproved or worthless. In other words, there will be no trophies of grace as far as their future reward is concerned.