10 For many are rebellious and full of empty talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision, 11 who must be silenced. For the sake of dishonorable gain, they undermine entire households and teach things they should not. 12 As one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”

13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sternly, so that they will be sound in the faith 14 and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of men who have rejected the truth.

15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.

REFLECTIONS

Written by Susan Everett

How do you respond when someone tells you that you’re wrong?

A few years ago, I co-led an event at my church with my old pastor. During the evening, I said something up front which wasn’t quite right biblically. My pastor then corrected me in front of everyone.

I have no memory of what I said. But I do remember how I felt – a bit embarrassed, but also annoyed and defensive. After all, was what I said really that bad? Why did he need to correct me in front of everyone?

We heard yesterday in Titus 1:5-9 Paul’s encouragement to Titus to appoint faithful leaders for the church.  Our passage today shows us why that’s so important – there were many false teachers in Crete – “rebellious” people, “full of empty talk” (v10). And it seems their teaching was making it into Christian households (v11). Paul says that faithful Christian leaders needed to rebuke this false teaching (v13).

That’s actually what my pastor had done a few years ago. He wanted me, and our church, to be ‘sound in the faith’ (v13), so he corrected me. It was the loving, faithful thing to do. Today, there is still lots of false teaching around – and it’s possible that we ourselves might need to be graciously rebuked and corrected. So, how do you want to respond if your Bible study leader corrects you? Or if your pastor rebukes you? Are you prepared to see it as gracious act of love?

Why not spend some time praying for the humility to accept correction, and for God to help our Christian leaders protect us from false teaching.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susan is one of our Student Ministers.