"How Gospel-Centered Churches Handle
False Teaching And False Teachers"
(Titus 1:10-16)
By: Matthew Harmon
Note: This post is adapted from a message preached by Pastor Matthew Harmon in the Graduate Chapel of the Grace Theological Seminary.
All one has to do is to walk into most Christian bookstores or tune into a "so-called" Christian Radio/TV station to realize that false teaching is alive and well! So how should a Gospel-Centered Church respond?
Titus 1:10-16 shows us how. But before noting what that particular passage of scripture tells us, it is important to note that Titus 1:5-9 provides us with qualifications for the Elders. Within the context of Titius, then, the necessity of biblically qualified Elders in part rooted in the need to deal with false teaching.
Having established that, in Titus 1:10-16 The Apostle Paul identifies three different ways that the Gospel-Centered Churches handle fasle teaching.
1. Gospel-Centered Churches Recognize False Teaching/Teachers (Titus 1:10-13a)
When doctors are in medical school, part of thier training involves diagnosing illesses by the symptoms that present themselves. In the same way, the Apostle Paul provides us with some diagonostic tools to recognize false teaching. He instructs us to "observe their character" (insubordinate, empty talkers, deceivers, etc...), thier "tactics" (upsetting whole families, playing to the culture), and thier "motivation" (shameful gain).
2. Gospel-Centered Churches Rebuke False Teaching/Teachers (Titus 1:13b-14)
When The Apostle Paul says "Rebuke them sharply!" he uses a play on words with the false teachers' promotion of circumcision. In effect The Apostle Paul says something like, "Use the sharp knife of correction with those who wield the dull blade of circumcision." But false teaching is so dangerous that it requires corrective action. The goal of that corrective action is "So that they may be sound in faith." (Titus 1:13). The word translated "sound" can also mean "healthy." True spiritual health comes from The Gospel, not false teaching."
3. Gospel-Centered Churches Resist False Teaching/Teachers (Titus 1:15-16)
Knowledge of what The Gospel teaches about various subjects is the preventative vaccine that enables the believer to resist false teaching. Truly embracing this vaccine produces not merely "head knowledge of the gospel" but, "good works that overflow out geniune saving faith!"
Regardless of whether you are an Elder or not, every believer is responsible for being so familiar with the true gospel that false teaching is immediately obvious. "The Teaching and Preaching of The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way that we can be made pure because, it points us to The Only One Who is "Truly-Pure" Who Is Jesus Christ!"
"Everyone who has their hope set on Him (Jesus Christ) purifies himself in anticipation of His return!"
(I John 3:1-3).
Submitted by,
Bishop M. R. Taylor
