Titus 1:11

“whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.” – Titus 1:11

In the previous verse, Paul tells Titus that there are three things taking place in the church; “insubordinate”, “idle talkers”, and “deceivers”. These three things are the context of this verse.

“whose mouths must be stopped“ – interesting that all three issues “insubordinate”, “idle talkers”, and “deceivers” are referred to as needing to have there “mouths” stopped. They are using words to be insubordinate, they are using idle words, they are using words to deceive.

Jesus said in Matthew 12:34 – “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks”. Therefore as a Bishop of God, we need to ‘monitor’ what is coming out of people’s mouths, as this reveals what is in their hearts, and reveals, “insubordinate”, “idle talkers”, and “deceivers”. This aligns with what Jesus said, when He said, “You shall know them by their fruit.”

“must be stopped” – Paul is telling Titus, that these kinds of people need to be “stopped”, but how, what did he have in mind?

1 Corinthians 5:9-11 –  “I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.”

2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 – “And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”

“who subvert whole households” – This is the reason why the must be stopped because they are infecting others.

“teaching things which they ought not” – So this is why their mouths need to be stopped because they are actually teaching other households.  

“for the sake of dishonest gain” – Why are they “insubordinate”, “idle talkers”, and “deceivers”? for dishonest gain? Was Paul only referring to money, or position and power?

An application:

As an “overseer”, not only am I to watch and listen to the “words” to tell if we have “insubordinate”, “idle talkers”, or “deceivers”, but there must be action – “Their mouths must be stopped”. Lord, give me courage, to act if this situation arises, and wisdom to decern the fruit, and not to create an enemy. Amen.