When Paul left the island of Crete, he left Titus behind to “ordain elders in every city” (Tit. 1:5).  As we read on, Paul explains why the churches in those cities needed spiritual leaders urgently:

“For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision” (Titus 1:10).

Crete’s churches needed leaders to deal with some “unruly” men.  The word unruly means someone who refuses to be ruled.  Of course, the only thing you should allow to rule your life spiritually is the Bible.  That’s why Hebrews 13:7 describes spiritual leaders as “them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God.”

But that means that the “unruly” men in Crete must have been men who didn’t want to be ruled by God’s Word.  And since they were “specially…of the circumcision” (Tit. 1:10), they probably didn’t want to be ruled by what Titus taught them from God’s Word, that “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision” (Gal. 6:15), and so refused to “walk according to this rule” (v. 16).  Unruly Jews in those days preferred to be ruled by the Law of Moses instead.  They were proud of being “Moses’ disciples” (John 9:28), and wouldn’t want to hear that “we are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:15).

Perhaps you are thinking, “Hold on, Pastor!  The Law was part of the Word of God, and you just said that those unruly men didn’t want to be ruled by the Word!”  They didn’t!—that is, they didn’t want to be ruled by the Word of God for today.  They wanted to be ruled by the Law, the Word of God from the previous dispensation.  But if you’re not allowing your spiritual life to be ruled by God’s Word for today, you’re not being ruled by God’s Word.

To make matters worse, we know that these unruly Jews were teaching others that they were under the Law, for Paul called them “unruly and vain talkers…whose mouths must be stopped” (Tit. 1:10,11).  And we know that Timothy had the same problem in Ephesus where he was stationed (I Tim. 1:3), for Paul told him,

“…some…have turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to be teachers of the law…” (I Tim. 1:6,7).

As you can see, there were also unruly talkers in Ephesus who wanted to teach the Law to others.  And did you notice Paul called their words “vain jangling?”  That matches Paul’s description of the “unruly and vain talkers” in Crete (Tit. 1:10).  And that confirms that the trouble in Crete was being caused by this same desire to be teachers of the Law.

By the way, that word “vain” means empty.  The Law was full of God’s blessing for the Jews to whom He gave it, but it is empty of God’s blessing for those of us who are not under the Law, but under grace.

So if you don’t want to be an unruly Christian, just do what Paul tells us to do in Philippians 3:16,17:

…let us walk by the same rule… be followers together of me.”

The only way to avoid being an unruly Christian is to follow Paul’s teachings of grace!  The Law of Moses was fine for “the house of Israel” (Acts 2:36), but not for “the house of God, which is the church” (I Tim. 3:15).  If you’re not walking by Paul’s rules of grace, you’re walking by the wrong house rules!

“Is there Scripture that bans earrings and other body piercings for Christians?”

Earrings for women are often seen in a favorable light in Scripture (Gen. 24:22; Ex. 35:22; Num. 31:50; Pr. 25:12; Ezek. 16:12). The men in Israel also wore them (Ex. 32:2; 35:22), although that may or may not have been because earrings were associated with slavery (Ex. 21:6), and they had just escaped from slavery in Egypt. Either way, they are certainly not associated with slavery today.

Judges 8:24 talks about some men who “had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites,” and so we see that such ornaments on men were at one time associated with people other than God’s people in Israel, just as they were once associated with pirates in more modern times. This suggests that male earrings might have an associative significance that changes with the times, and this is something that should be taken into consideration for any man contemplating them in our own day.

The Bible doesn’t mention other piercings, other than when God was displeased with the people of Israel and vowed to “take away…their… nose jewels” (Isa. 3:18-21). But this was because He wanted them to mourn and not rejoice. If we say that He vowed to take away their nose jewels because they are wrong in and of themselves, we’d have to argue that “bracelets” and “bonnets” and “headbands” and “rings” are also wrong, for God vowed to strip them of these ornaments as well in that passage.

So the question of body piercings under grace seems to come down to a matter of personal conviction, and in such cases the apostle of grace advises us to be gracious, not judgmental (Rom. 14:3).

“Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone.

“And sent Timotheus…to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith.

“…when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain” (1 Thes. 3:1,2,5).

According to the Acts record, the Apostle Paul had only recently spent three weeks in Thessalonica, establishing the church there. Why then was he so eager to check back with them? Twice we read that he “could no longer forbear,” and so sent Timothy to encourage and establish them, and to let him know how they were doing. Yet, as far as the record is concerned, no messenger had come to him with alarming news about the Thessalonian church. What had happened to make him so concerned about the state of their faith?

The answer is found in Acts 17:5-10. Paul had just been run out of town—their town! And he was concerned lest this humiliating treatment at the hands of the Thessalonian Jews might have shaken their faith. It is, after all, no small thing when your spiritual leader is thrown out of town!

Not that this had bothered Paul personally. He was accustomed to such violence and was not disturbed by it, as evidenced by the fact that he immediately focused his total attention on the ministry of the gospel at Berea (v. 10-12). Indeed, we have his own testimony in 1 Thessalonians 2:2 about the similar event which had brought him to Thessalonica:

“…even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention.”

Yes, Paul fully realized “how great things he must suffer” for the Savior he represented (Acts 9:16),but his beloved Thessalonians could not fully realize this. His ignominious expulsion from their city had doubtless left them shaken, especially with “all the city on an uproar,” and the house of Jason assaulted merely on suspicion of harboring the fugitive apostle and his companions (Acts 17:5-9).

But there was yet another reason for his concern. These same Jews of Thessalonica, when they knew that “the Word of God was preached of Paul at Berea…came thither also, and stirred up the people” (v. 13). Paul was now safely out of their reach in Athens, but he knew they had returned to their own city, and would now doubtless redouble their persecution of the young Thessalonian church.

Little wonder the apostle lost no time in dispatching Timothy, his trusted co-worker, to their side, to assure them that

“…no man should be moved by these afflictions; for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.

“For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know” (1 Thes. 3:3,4).

How well, indeed, they had come to know this! And how they must have welcomed Timothy to their assembly, and rejoiced over the subsequent epistle from their father in the faith, who evidently cared for them so much!

Finally, Paul wanted them to understand that their afflictions came as a result of living in the dispensation of grace, and not as a result of persecution in the Tribulation, which some were affirming. It is true, says the apostle, that we are appointed to afflictions, but

“…God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:9).

It is evident from the context that the “wrath” they were not appointed to is the wrath of the Tribulation. Consider: God has not appointed us to wrath, but God has appointed us to “obtain salvation” by our Lord Jesus Christ. Since the Thessalonians were already saved, this can only refer to the completion, the fulfillment of their salvation, i.e., at the rapture of the church. Paul confirms this view by a similar statement in Romans 13:11:

“…for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”

Furthermore, verse 8 of 1 Thessalonians 5 describes the finishing touch to our armour as “the hope of salvation.” What else could this phrase refer to but “that blessed hope” (Titus 2:13), the completion of our salvation? When we trusted Christ, we were immediately saved from the penalty of sin, and we are today being saved from the power of sin. But some day, at the rapture, we shall be saved from the very presence of sin—and it may be soon!

“If it was Paul who revealed that Christ gave Himself a ransom ‘for all’ (1 Tim. 2:6) as opposed to the “many” in Israel (Matt. 20:28), how do we explain John 1:29?”

“…John seeth Jesus…and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

John was a prophet (Luke 7:28), and the prophets didn’t always understand their own prophecies (1 Pet. 1:11), especially when it came to “the sufferings of Christ.” God knew that this would probably trouble the prophets, so He comforted them by explaining that “not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things” that they prophesied (v. 12).

We know that no one who heard John make his statement understood that Christ would die for the sins of the world, for some of the 12 heard it, but didn’t understand it (Luke 18:31-34). Not even Satan understood it (1 Cor. 2:7,8), or else he wouldn’t have instigated Judas to betray the Lord (Luke 22:3,4).

So the ransom Christ made for all men might have been prophesied in John 1:29, but it wasn’t “testified” until the “due time” came for Paul to be “ordained a preacher and an apostle” (1 Tim. 2:6,7).

“I hear that Muslims are getting saved after being visited by Christ in a dream. Does the Lord reveal Himself in dreams today?”

God spoke to men in dreams in past dispensations, but now that the Bible is complete, He speaks only through His Word.

If these stories were true, it would give unsaved men an excuse when they are sentenced to the lake of fire for their sins (Rev. 20:12-15). They could rightly argue, “It’s not fair. The Lord never visited me in a dream. If He had, I would have believed too.”

But we know that unsaved men will have no excuse in that day, for it is still true that “the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handywork” (Psa. 19:1). The testimony of God’s creation reaches all men (v. 2-6) and is enough to leave men “without excuse” to not “seek the Lord” and “feel after him, and find Him” (Acts 17:27; Rom. 1:20).

Here at Berean Bible Society, we are often asked about our unique position on water baptism. We always respond as graciously as we can, and provide such inquirers with articles and videos that they can use to study our position more thoroughly.

Sometimes we can tell from the way the question is worded that the inquirer believes that water baptism is a part of God’s program for today, and they are just writing us to indignantly object to our position. We received one such email recently, which read:

“You say you don’t believe in water baptism, but to obey the gospel in its entirety means to believe on the gospel of Jesus and be fully immersed in water for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38). It is clearly stated, in black and white, what a person has to do for remittance of sins!…Why would water baptism not be required when it is plainly in the Scriptures that it is the method of entering into Christ? Even Jesus was water baptized!”

I responded to this dear brother with the same grace with which we reply to more sincere inquiries, although admittedly with less anticipation of a favorable reply. But the very next day, we received this email in response to the information I had sent him:

“Now I realize the error of water baptism! Wow! I’ve been dunked five times, not knowing that it is not for this dispensation! Thank you dear fellow Christian pastor! I was trusting in water baptism for my salvation, a bit more than in Jesus alone. I repent humbly, and wholeheartedly…I am a youthful 62-year-old who has been through the ringer, searching for the truth…I have believed false preachers on TV, false teachings on the internet, etc., so I decided to look at your Berean website. Someone in years past told me to only trust Bereans. Something inside of me wasn’t sitting well with water baptism for salvation. I had to explore your explained teachings—to my delight, to say the least!”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a dramatic turnaround from someone who gave the appearance that he would not be open to the truth. We share it with you to encourage you to keep sharing Paul’s gospel with anyone and everyone. People like this brother are rare, but they are out there, along with many others who might take a little longer to grasp the truth. You just have to find them. And the only way to find them is to be faithful “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4:1,2).

“Why does Paul beseech the Corinthians to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20) if they were already justified ‘saints’ (1 Cor. 1:2; 6:11)?”

“…be ye reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20).

In this verse, Paul is not telling the Corinthians to be reconciled to God, he is telling them what to tell unbelievers.

If we back up to verse 18, we see Paul tell the believers in Corinth that God “hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” He then goes on to define the ministry of reconciliation when he begins the very next verse with the words “to wit.” Those words mean “namely” or “that is to say.” So Paul is telling believers what to say to unsaved people when they go forth with the ministry of reconciliation. We might paraphrase him to say:

“God has given us the ministry of reconciliation, so go out and tell the lost, ‘God was in Christ as He hung on the cross, imputing your trespasses to Him and not to you. He then committed this message of reconciliation to us believers, and now we are His ambassadors. If He were here, He’d be begging you to be reconciled to Him, but He’s not, we’re here in His stead.’”

The Corinthians were already righteous (1 Cor. 1:30), so we know Paul was telling them to tell unsaved people that they “might” be made righteous (2 Cor. 5:20) by believing the gospel.

“If someone does despite to the Spirit of grace, will they lose their salvation (Heb. 10:29)?”

“He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy…of how much sorer punishment… shall he be thought worthy, who hath…done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:28,29).

The only other time the phrase spirit of grace is used in the Bible is in Zechariah 12:10:

“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications…”

After unsaved Jews in Jerusalem crucified the Lord, God poured His Spirit of grace “upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (cf. Acts 2:17,18). So when Hebrews 10:29 asks about the fate of any who “hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace,” it is asking about the fate of the unbelievers in Israel who blasphemed the Spirit by stoning a Spirit-filled man (Acts 6:5; 7:51). As the Lord predicted, this was an unpardonable sin (Matt. 12:31,32).

However, none of this has anything to do with members of the Body of Christ, living in the dispensation of grace. Blaspheming the Spirit today is not an unpardonable sin.

“Is the remission of sins the same thing as the forgiveness of sins?”

Bible words can often be defined by the way New Testament writers quote the Old Testament. For instance, we know that the words deliverance and salvation are the same, for when Paul quotes Joel, he changes the word “deliverance” to “saved” (Joel 2:32; Rom. 10:13). In the same way, we know that remission and forgiveness are the same, for in quoting Jeremiah, the writer of Hebrews changes the word “forgive” to “remission” (Jer. 31:34; Heb. 10:17,18).

In addition, we know that God set Christ forth “to be a propitiation… to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past” (Rom. 3:25). That’s not talking about the sins that are past in your life, that’s talking about the remission of the sins of Old Testament saints like Abraham and David. So when we read that Abraham was also “justified” (Rom. 4:1-3), and David was “forgiven” (Rom. 4:7), we have to conclude that the remission of sins is tantamount to justification as well as forgiveness.

Finally, if you look up the word “remit” in a good dictionary, one of the words used to define it is “forgive,” and vice versa.

“In hope of eternal life, which God…promised before the world began” (Titus 1:2).

In the Law of Moses, God promised the people of Israel that they could “live” (Lev. 18:5)—live eternally—if they kept His commandments.  We know that’s what Leviticus 18:5 meant because the Lord Jesus quoted that verse to a Jewish man seeking eternal life (Lu. 10:25-28).

But God promised us Gentiles eternal life before the Law, even “before the world began.”  But unlike the promise of life He made to the Jews in the Law, He didn’t reveal His promise to us Gentiles for thousands of years!  Speaking of that promise (Tit. 1:2), Paul added,

“But hath in due times manifested His word through preaching, which is committed unto me…” (Titus 1:3).

When God finally decided to reveal His promise to give the Gentiles eternal life, He “manifested” it through Paul.

If you’re not sure what that word “manifested” means, it is well defined in something the Lord said about things that had not yet been revealed about God’s prophetic program for Israel:

“…nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest, neither any thing hid, that shall not be known…” (Luke 8:17).

So to make something manifest means to make known something that was secret or hidden.  That means when Paul says that God “manifested His word through preaching, which is committed unto me,” he meant that he preached a secret that had been hid but now was made known.  Doesn’t that sound like what he wrote in Colossians 1:25,26?

“…I am made a minister, according to…the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest.”

But now, here’s the thing about the hidden, secret mystery that Paul made manifest.  It involved more than just the fact that God promised eternal life to the Gentiles before the world began.  It involved what Paul talked about in Ephesians 3:8,9,

“…unto me…is this grace given, that I should…make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God.”

Paul wasn’t just called on to reveal the mystery that God promised eternal life to Gentiles before the world began.  He was called on to reveal the fellowship of the mystery, something he explained a few verses earlier in that passage when he said,

“…God…made known unto me the mystery…that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs and of the same body…” (Ephesians 3:2-6).

The fellowship of the mystery is that Gentiles could not only have eternal life, they could be fellow or equal* members of “the same body,” the Body of Christ, with Jewish believers.  And Paul was raised up to make this equality manifest.

In the 19^th century, many Americans believed that it was the “manifest destiny” of the United States that our nation would expand across North America.  But in the 1^st century, the Apostle Paul made it manifest that even Gentiles like us are destined to live eternally as equal heirs with Jewish believers in the Body of Christ for all eternity.  Glory!

* We know the word “fellow” means equal because in speaking of Christ, God the Father called Him “the man who is My fellow” (Zech. 13:7), and Christ was God’s “equal” (Phil. 2:6). 

“In hope of eternal life, which God…promised before the world began” (Titus 1:2).

In the Law of Moses, God promised the people of Israel that they could “live” (Lev. 18:5)—live eternally—if they kept His commandments.  We know that’s what Leviticus 18:5 meant because the Lord quoted that verse to a man seeking eternal life (Lu. 10:25-28).

But God promised us Gentiles eternal life before the Law, even “before the world began.”  But unlike the promise of life He made to the Jews in the Law, He didn’t reveal His promise to us Gentiles for thousands of years!  Speaking of that promise (Tit. 1:2), Paul added,

“But hath in due times manifested His word through preaching, which is committed unto me…” (Titus 1:3).

When God finally decided to reveal His promise to give the Gentiles eternal life, He chose Paul to break the news.  The due time had finally come to disclose His promise!

But what does that phrase due time mean?  Well, that exact phrase is used when some unbelieving Jews were persecuting some believers in Israel, and the believers were wondering how long God would allow this to go on!  God answered them,

“To Me belongeth vengeance… their foot shall slide in due time… the LORD shall judge His people, and repent Himself for His servants, when He seeth that their power is gone” (Deuteronomy 32:35,36).

God told those persecuted believers, as it were, “I’ll judge the unbelievers among My people in due time, and the due time will come when I see that My servants (you believers) have no power to save yourselves from their persecution.”  So the phrase due time refers to a time when God looks at men and sees “that their power is gone.”  This helps us understand the next time the phrase appears:

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).

The Jews had vowed they could keep the Law (Ex. 24:7), but over the next 1500 years they showed that they had no power to keep it.  And when they showed that they were “without strength” to keep it, Christ died for the ungodly.  But as far as anyone knew, He only died for ungodly Jews, Isaiah’s people (Isa.53:8).  He only died “to give His life a ransom for many” (Mt. 20:28), the “many” in Israel, for that was all that God had revealed up until that time.

It isn’t until you come to Paul’s writings that you read that “Christ…gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (I Tim. 2:5,6).  And the thing that made it the due time for Paul to testify this was that that’s when it became obvious that the Gentiles were without strength to save themselves too!

If you’re not sure what I mean by that, consider that if a Gentile wanted to be saved in time past, he had to become a Jew—a true Jew, a believing Jew—by believing on the God of the Jews.  For Gentiles, salvation was found “in the remnant” in Jerusalem (Joel 2:32).  That’s why the Lord sent the remnant of the 12 apostles to the Gentiles in “all nations” (Lu. 24:47).

But the 12 were told to take the gospel to all nations “beginning at Jerusalem” (Lu. 24:47).  When the Jews in Jerusalem stoned Stephen instead of sending forth “the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isa. 2:3), it looked like the Gentiles were going to remain without strength to get saved.

That’s when God raised up Paul to testify that the Gentiles didn’t have to become Jews to get the eternal life that God promised Israel in the Law, for He had promised them eternal life before the world began!

Isn’t it about time you received “the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus” (II Tim. 1:1 by believing that He died for your sins and rose again (I Cor. 15:1-4)?