“Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth” (Titus 1:13,14).

The “vain talkers…of the circumcision” in Crete (Tit. 1:10) were telling “Jewish fables” that were turning men from the truth, so Paul told Titus to tell people to put them on the pay-no-mind list.  But what were these fables about?

Whatever they were, they probably had to do with “the commandments of men” that Paul says they were also using to turn others from the truth.  And since these fables were being told by unsaved Jews of the circumcision, it seems reasonable to believe that they were about the commandments of men Paul mentions in Colossians 2:21,22:

“Touch not; taste not; handle not… the commandments… of men.”

The commandments of men here were the commandments of the law of Moses.  The law was filled with commands concerning things that couldn’t be touched, tasted or handled!

You say, “But the law contained the commandments of God, not the commandments of men!”  And you’d be right—if we were under the law.  But our apostle says “we are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:15).  And when you put men under commandments found in past dispensations, those commandments of God become the commandments of men.  What a testimony to the importance of “rightly dividing the word of truth” (II Tim. 2:15).

But now that we know which commandments of men Paul is warning Titus about, it helps us determine the nature of those fables.  He was telling him to beware of men who teach the law, and then tell stories about the law.  A fable is a story that is told to teach a lesson, and the fables these unsaved Jews were telling were designed to teach the lesson that we are still under the law.

What kind of stories?  The same kind men tell about the law today.  How many times have you heard this verse from the law quoted:

“…serve… God, and He shall… take sickness away from the midst of thee” (Ex. 23:25).

That’s a promise God made to the people of Israel under the law.  But when you tell people who quote that verse that we’re not under the law, and so we can’t expect God to honor that prom-ise, what do you hear?  Stories!  “But Brother Jim serves the Lord, and God took away his terminal cancer!”  That’s a fable, a story designed to teach the lesson that we are still under the law.

The law also said, “the LORD thy God… is He that giveth thee power to get wealth” (Deut. 8:18).  That’s another promise God gave the people of Israel under the law.  If they would “hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD” (Deut.28:1), God promised to multiply their crops and livestock (v. 4,11,12).  But when you remind people today that we’re not under the law where this promise is found, what do you hear?  More fables!  “But Brother Smith always hearkened to God, and now he’s so rich he can afford to pay Bill Gates to cut his grass!”  More stories designed to teach the lesson we are still under the law.  Paul says to pay no attention to fables like that!

But as I’m sure you know, most Christians put a lot of stock in those kinds of success stories.  But that shouldn’t surprise you, for the Apostle Paul predicted it, saying,

“…the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but… they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (II Timothy 4:3,4).

Sadly, this prophecy has come true.  Most Christians would rather believe a fable than the Word of God, rightly divided.

Don’t you be one of them!  Table the fables, turn back to the truth of grace taught by Paul, and never look back!

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

“The Cretians are… slow bellies” (Titus 1:12)

“Slow bellies” is a figure of speech that is generally taken to mean lazy gluttons, and that could be.  But the Greek word for “belly” is usually translated “womb” by our KJV translators, and the word for “slow” is usually translated barren.  And the Bible says that “the barren womb” is “never satisfied” (Pr. 30:15).  Women who long to have children and don’t have them are often never satisfied with any substitutes.

So in calling the Cretians “slow bellies,” it is possible that the Bible is saying they were never satisfied, that they were people who always desired more, who always wanted what they couldn’t have.  The Bible calls that covetousness, and the law of Moses forbad it:

“Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour’s wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour’s house, his field… or any thing that is thy neighbour’s” (Deuteronomy 5:21).

This was probably the verse that the “vain talkers… of the circumcision” were quoting to Titus (Tit. 1:10), the men who were like those who had “turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to be teachers of the law” (I Tim. 1:6,7).  Men who teach the law believe that the only way to help God’s people overcome covetousness is to put them under the law that prohibited covetousness.

But Paul says “we are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:15).  The law cursed all who could not keep it perfectly (Gal. 3:10; James 2:10,11), and we can’t do that any better now than we could before we were saved!

But you don’t need the law to help someone who is struggling with covetousness, for grace forbids this sin just as surely (Eph. 5:3).  That’s why Paul agreed that the Cretians were slow bellies, but prescribed a different remedy for their covetousness:

“This witness is true.  Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith” (Titus 1:13).

Rather than tell Titus to remind the Cretians that the law says “thou shalt not covet” (Ex. 20:17), Paul told him to rebuke them to “be sound in the faith.”  And he defined what it means to be sound in the faith when he told Timothy,

“Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me…” (II Timothy 1:13).

Being sound in the faith means to hold fast the form of sound words that we’ve heard from Paul.  He’s the apostle to whom the Lord gave “the dispensation of the grace of God” to give to us (Eph. 3:1,2).  So in the dispensation of grace, being sound in the faith means being Pauline!  Being unsound in the faith means anything “that is contrary to sound doctrine; according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God” which Paul says was “committed to my trust” (I Tim. 1:10,11).

That means if you’re not Pauline in your theology, you’re not being Biblical!  As the editor of the Scofield Reference Bible wrote about Paul, “in his writings alone we find the doctrine, position, walk, and destiny of the church” (Page 1252).

So if you’re a covetous slow belly, don’t look to the law for help, look to Paul’s epistles!  He’s the one who went on to tell Titus,

“…the grace of God… hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11,112).

The way to deal with ungodliness like covetousness is to learn more about God’s grace, not beat yourself up with the law!

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.