Titus 3:10 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Titus 3:10

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‘A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject.’ The subject hasn't changed in a way. This is still the person in verse 2, an evil speaker, an abusive person. He is contentious, unyielding, without humility. He is the same person who pursues foolish questions, but he is a heretic, because the Greek word means a party former, someone who makes a party or clique around himself or herself also. I have seen that in past years in pastoral experience: a strong personality in a woman who makes virtually her own church around her within the church, and it is something pastors complain about, because it is very easily done now with WhatsApp groups and all this sort of thing. It is very easy for a strong-minded person to be the centre of attraction of a little group, and before you know it they are running their own minor church within a church. The person becomes the queen or the king and runs it. Heretic in the English language came to mean a person who teaches false doctrine. That may be at the bottom of it too, but that is not the actual meaning of the word here. It is somebody who creates a clique or a party, so they split the people of God. ‘I have this knowledge. I am right. I have more understanding than others. Yes, the church doesn't agree with me, but I with my great mind and superior judgement am doing this, and I have persuaded others to stand with me and admire me and listen to me.’ That is a heretic in the sense that the word is used here. So in this 10th verse the apostle is preserving the fellowship of the church. The people of God are in union with each other, and love each other. They have many different opinions; they are not exactly peas in a pod as people, but in doctrine they are one, and in aim and focus they are one. But here is somebody who is fracturing that precious love and unity within the church. But look at the way he is dealt with. ‘After the first and second admonition reject.’ So he has a first; he has a second. There is an opportunity given to this man or woman to see the error of his ways. The word ‘admonition’ is a very wide term. It stretches from encouragement, through exhortation, through warning, to reproof. There is a spectrum. It has a gentle end and a very firm end. So there are two admonitions, possibly more, to start with: ‘Look brother, this shouldn't be.’ Then there is a more appealing tone, then a cautionary tone, then a solemn warning. You can see here, reflected in this language, a pastoral concern. The person may be winnable. He may really be a brother who has let his pride get the better of him. It's an unconquered element, and that's an easy trick for the devil to play.

Application

You think of some World War II generals. There are some you read about who had various flaws in their approach, and their staff officers and their subordinates couldn't contain them and persuade them, and this one flaw they had would lead to many thousands of losses and casualties on their own side. When the books are written, the history is written, that particular general, who had quite a reputation, fails with hindsight, and it is really reckoned up: the trouble he caused, as well as the success he had. His flaw brought him down. He wouldn't listen. He was an expensive general.

Or you could illustrate it with an athlete. He is brilliant, but he has got a knee injury, so he is not going to do well. He is still the same person; he has the same powers and abilities, but one part of him is out of kilter, out of function, and that ruins everything. That is the part that pride can play. If you do have strong intellectual equipment, be careful. The devil may have you marked out as a candidate. ‘I can use that man; I can use that woman, so that I can fan back to life his pre-conversion dominating pride, and make him a ruin to himself, to others, and he may be a thorn in the side of the church all his life.’ Very sad! One failing ruins everything. So that's what you have here: ‘a man that is an heretic [a divider, a party former], after the first and second admonition, reject [shun]’, because the fellowship is all-important. The Lord wants the church walking in fellowship, and in love and in harmony: a family of God's people, a true local church, and the person who is going to ruin everything may have to be rejected.

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Titus 3:10 Commentary and Bible Study