![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/conflict.jpg\")
<\/a>This is true of Paul’s words to Titus himself in Titus 2:7-8. Paul is aware that when Titus travels to Crete, he’s going to run into all sorts of opponents of the gospel. If these people can discredit Titus’ preaching through criticism of the preacher, that’s exactly what they’ll do.<\/p>\nAs a result, Paul counsels Titus on how to deprive these critics of the personal attacks they love. Today, all Christians need to listen to his advice because there are plenty of people who want to attack us for the same reason. According to Paul, if we want to put these opponents to shame, we must excel in these four areas:<\/p>\n
Good Deeds<\/h2>\n
Christ-haters rejoice whenever they find religious hypocrites. If they can prove that we don’t obey the truth we proclaim, they don’t have to obey it either. We defeat this attack by living godly, blameless lives. When everybody knows that we practice what we preach, charges of hypocrisy have no force. What’s more, our example often proves to be as powerfully influential as our words.<\/p>\n
Purity of Doctrine<\/h2>\n
It’s easy to dismiss somebody who doesn’t know why he believes what he believes. Christians claim to be the people of the Book; if five minutes of religious conversation with us reveals that the Bible is unknown territory to us, that makes us another kind of religious hypocrite. If we clearly don’t study the Scriptures, why should anyone else? By contrast, when the time we have spent with the Bible is evident in the way we talk about it, we show that we deserve to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n
Dignity<\/h2>\n
Sad to say, dignity is out of fashion these days. Politicians, celebrities, and talking heads behave deplorably far too often, and far too many Christians take their cue from them, especially on social media. They gleefully share demeaning memes, sneer at anyone who disagrees with them, and engage in endless slanging matches with their opponents. Anyone with a good and honest heart will be repelled by such behavior. On the other hand, when we refuse to engage in it, we will stand out, and God-seekers will be drawn to us.<\/p>\n
Soundness of Speech<\/h2>\n
This is the opposite of the unwholesome speech of Ephesians 4:29: speech that undermines, speech that tears down, speech that leaves its hearers worse off than they were. When we see a patron dress down a fast-food worker for getting their order wrong, that’s unwholesome speech on display. We, however, should use our words to make days brighter, lives better, and lead others toward Christ. Just like we would only use sound timbers to build a house, we should only use sound words to build God’s temple.<\/p>\n
Obviously, conduct like this guarantees nothing. If people could reject Jesus despite His sinless perfection, we cannot expect to overcome a hard heart no matter how we behave. However, when our behavior leaves others with nothing to object to, we make it as likely as possible that they will listen to us.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Matthew W. Bassford The book of James has the reputation of being the most practical book of the New Testament, but Paul’s epistle to Titus surely must be considered in the same light. Titus is only three chapters long, but all three chapters are light on abstraction and heavy on concrete application. Especially in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[849,1382,1241,77,867,1383,835],"class_list":["post-39138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-conflict","tag-deeds","tag-dignity","tag-doctrine","tag-purity","tag-soundness","tag-titus"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":68758,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/pauls-letters-to-preachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":39138,"position":0},"title":"Paul’s Letters to Preachers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Keith Sharp In denominational commentaries, the apostle Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus are grouped together as \"The Pastoral Epistles.\" The term \"pastor\" is found only once in the New Testament, in Ephesians 4:11 (KJV, NKJV, ASV, NASV). The word is translated as \"shepherds\" in the ESV. It is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44363,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-titus-desert-paul\/","url_meta":{"origin":39138,"position":1},"title":"Did Titus desert Paul?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I hope this finds you doing well. I just wanted to let you know that I love your site. It helps me a lot in my studies of God's Word. I heard a radio minister say that Titus deserted Paul. He used II Timothy 4:9-11 as his proof\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6914,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-paul-say-he-left-titus-in-crete\/","url_meta":{"origin":39138,"position":2},"title":"Why did Paul say he left Titus in Crete?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I just discovered your website after searching the Internet for \u201cPaul\u2019s letter to the Laodiceans\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Your explanation\u00a0is very interesting and has merit.\u00a0 Thank you for providing answers to so many questions that arise from time to time. Now that I think about it, I have a question:\u00a0 How do you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63239,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/pauls-imprisonment\/","url_meta":{"origin":39138,"position":3},"title":"Paul’s Imprisonment","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 10, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Philippians 2:17-30 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We all have a tendency to make assumptions about what does not appear \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Those assumptions help us to organize what we do know \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We do this whether we are trying to determine why someone walked by without saying \u201cHi!\u201d or when we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25115,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-the-titus-in-the-bible-the-same-as-titus-vespasianus\/","url_meta":{"origin":39138,"position":4},"title":"Was the Titus in the Bible the same as Titus Vespasianus?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is Titus Vespasian, who was involved with Bernice, the same as the Titus who traveled with Paul? Answer: Then as now, just because a person has the same name, it doesn't mean they are the same person. There is only one Titus mentioned by name in the Bible and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22072,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/thank-you-for-the-information-on-when-paul-left-titus-in-crete\/","url_meta":{"origin":39138,"position":5},"title":"Thank you for the information on when Paul left Titus in Crete","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 4, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a member of the Lord's church and I am studying the letter to Titus. I was looking at references in the New Testament, trying to figure out when Paul would've left Titus in Crete. I Googled for help and got your explanation. It was very helpful! I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}