⏱ 5 min read

Scripture Passage: Titus 1:10-16

False Teachers

For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain. ~ Titus 1:10-11

In verses 10-14 of today’s passage, Paul warned Titus to be on the lookout for people who teach wrong doctrines and lead others into error.

• Some false teachers are simply confused (idle talkers): They speak their misguided opinions without checking them against the Bible.
• Others have evil motives (deceivers): They pretend to be Christians only because they see an opportunity to make money, get additional business, or gain a feeling of power from being a leader in the church. 

I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. ~ Acts 20:29-30

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Jesus and the apostles repeatedly warned against false teachers (Mark 13:22; Acts 20:29; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12; 2 Peter 3:3-7) because their teachings attack the foundations of truth and integrity given to us by God and upon which the Christian faith is built. We can recognize some false teachers because:

• (1) They focus more attention on themselves than on Christ
• (2) They ask you to do things that will compromise or dilute your faith
• (3) They de-emphasize the divine nature of Christ or the authority of the Bible
• (4) They urge believers to make decisions based more on human judgment than on prayer and biblical guidelines.

We are tasked to silence people who speak this way and rebuke them sharply (Titus 1:11-14) so that they will be sound in the faith. May the Lord save us from all false teachers and false doctrines.

Conscience

To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. ~ Titus 1:15-16

• Whenever believers become indifferent to the promptings of God, it is a dangerous sign.
• Many Christians can lie, and their consciences will not prick them anymore.
• Some of them can even invent false stories without batting an eyelid. (Lord have mercy on us!)

When sin comes in, there is a gradual process of hardening. You become harder and harder as you become used to sin. If you have a very sensitive conscience, the sins that you can commit will be “small” ones (please follow me closely here).

• However, as our conscience becomes more hardened and more worn-out, our ability to commit “wilder” sins grows.
• Once, a pastor said to a certain rich man, “You must be prepared to meet your God at any time.”
• The man replied that he was not prepared and that he really didn’t care about eternity (Mercy!).

When you get to the stage where you don’t care whether you go to Heaven or Hell, then you are in danger. Perhaps by then, you are so hardened and your conscience is seared or dead.

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 
Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. ~ Eph 4:17-19.

This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, ~ 1 Timothy 18-19

• Every Christian needs to have a sensitive conscience. This is one of the signs that we are alive in Christ!
• Do not get used to sin nor the weights that pull us back. Do not reject God’s promptings. Do not get to the stage where you do not care anymore.
• Be sensitive to the little prompting of the inner voice, so you don’t backslide! May the Lord keep us strong in the faith and preserve us until that glorious day!

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Disclaimer: this post contains portions of messages and text originally shared by Bishop Dag Heward-Mills (who is one of my mentors in the faith).