In contrast to the description of the strong character of elders, Paul turns to the rebellious, the false teachers, and instructs Titus on how best to counter them.

Take a look for yourself in Titus 1:10-11:

Paul quickly shifts from describing the qualities of the men that Titus needs to install in positions of church leadership to those who form the opposite character. These rebellious individuals were a primary reason that solid spiritual leaders were needed. Someone needs to silence these men with solid doctrine.

These people are rebellious. This is the same word used in verse 6, translated as “disobedient.” The idea conveyed here is insubordination and an attitude that rebels against God’s Word and its authority. They reject the truth. Their teaching has no value, it is simply meaningless talk, leading nowhere. In fact, these false teachers are doing nothing more than leading people stray and deceiving them. There is no useful purpose to their teachings.

Unlike the two letters to Timothy, where Paul is somewhat vague about just who these false teachers are, even though he names a couple of them, in this letter, he plainly states that these false teachers are members of the “circumcision group.” That means they are of Jewish background. This does not necessarily imply that they were members of the church, or even believers. They may not have been at all. Early historians have placed a sizable Jewish population on the island of Crete.

Paul’s letter to Titus begins right away with a description of what a godly church leader looks like. His letter is a brief one, so he wastes no time getting right to the heart of the matter. As mentioned last week, the letter to Titus can be broken into three sections: Godliness when it comes to church leaders, godliness when it comes to church life, and godliness in the life of the individual believer.

You can see the continuing description of the elder in Titus 1:7-9:

At first glance, it seems like Paul is repeating himself here; he tells Titus that an elder must be blameless twice within the span of two sentences. Paul’s writing is usually very intentional. Why would he carelessly repeat what he just stated in the previous sentence?

The answer is that it was not a careless repetition. Here is a rule to live by when reading Paul’s letters, or any of the rest of the New Testament: When something is repeated, that means it is being emphasized. We need to pay closer attention. If Paul feels it bears stating twice, then we need to hear it. In this case, he is going to describe what being blameless looks like for the elder.

It’s worth noting that Paul switches words here from elder (presbuteros) in verse 5 to overseer (episkopos) in verse 7, however, the meaning behind both is the same. These words are both used to describe the same office in the church.