You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.
Titus 3:11
In 1972, Proctor and Gamble brought a new antiperspirant to the market. That alone isn’t very interesting at all. But what was very interesting was its name. Sure. That one word said it all. If you used Sure, you could be sure that you’d never have that awful underarm smell. That you’d never “pit out.”
When we’re sure, we know something. We know it to be true. It starts with our eyes, ears, and hands. We receive some information from the outside. It starts out there somewhere and then comes into us. Whatever we saw with our eyes comes in and we now see it inside of our head. We see it with our minds eye.
Once we can see it inside our brains, it’s now part of us. It’s inside and it’s not going anywhere. It’s locked away in our memory. No one else might be able to see it, but we can. And once inside, there’s really no way to unknow something.
And while becoming sure sometimes happens in a flash, it usually takes time. It needs to be repeated. We have to see it over and over again to be sure of it. And then we need to replay it inside of us to burn it into our memory.
Paul’s telling Titus and us that once we’re sure of something, that it’s still true today. These are the people that Paul warned him about. It’s these same people that Titus would have warned multiple times.
Titus taught them the truth two times and they heard it both times. There was no pussyfooting around the truth that Titus taught them. He was clear about the truth of God and that Jesus’ one-time death paid for all sins on the cross. And there was no doubt that they had not only heard it, but they clearly rejected it.
So, why would they reject it? They’d heard it before but now they were turning against God and his truth. Against his salvation. Against the person of God and his saving solution for our greatest problem. Paul gives three reasons they reject the truth.
Warped. These people are twisted in their thinking and beliefs. It’s like they’ve dislocated a finger but don’t want to put it back into place. They’d rather let it cause pain. They’ve turned away from the right path on purpose and want to stay there. They have no desire to go back to what’s right.
Sinful. In their lives, they are continually and actively missing the mark. God’s painted a target for us to aim for and they are intentionally missing it. It’s not that they can’t see the target, they just don’t care any longer that they are missing it. It’s not important to them any longer.
Self-condemned. It’s been so long that these people have been purposefully turning against the person and love of God that they think of themselves as guilty. In their own hearts they’ve put themselves on trial and decided that they’re guilty. And with that self-guilt, they’ve come to the point that they don’t care about it any longer. They are numb to their guilt.
If you watch that great movie, The Fugitive, Tommy Lee Jones starts out assuming that Harrison Ford is guilty. When Harrison first says that he’s innocent, Tommy Lee Jones says, “I don’t care[1].” But, as the story unfolds, Tommy begins to doubt. Piece by piece, the real story is revealed. Scene after scene shows that Harrison’s character, Dr. Richard Kimbel, is actually innocent.
At the end, the real murderer is shown for who he is. After Harrison takes the murder down, he turns to Tommy and says that they killed his wife. Tommy stares into Harrison’s face and says, “I know it, Richard. I know it.[2]”
It took a while for Tommy Lee Jones to see that he was wrong. That his assumptions were not true. Step by step, he had to be willing to look beyond the ideas that he’s had in his head for so long. And finally, he realized the truth and was willing to act on it, no matter what anyone else thought.
That change in Tommy Lee Jones character is a really good example of what repentance is. Changing from one set of beliefs and turning towards the truth. Repentance is when we turn away from our own ideas and beliefs and towards who God is and what he’s done for us in Jesus.
For some of us, that turn was really fast. For others, it was a long, slow with lots of twists and turns. For others, there isn’t a time that we didn’t believe. But the fact is that we all need to make that turn.
Since we’re all broken and wrong[3], everybody needs to turn. And we need to be sure what we’re turning towards. Or rather, who we’re turning towards. It’s Jesus who’s standing at the door, knocking to come in. Asking us to turn towards him. He’s the only one we can be sure of when it comes to complete forgiveness and making us new from within.
Noodling Questions.
Why do we struggle with unknowing something?
Which of Paul’s three reasons for rejecting the truth hits home the most? Why?
How can we become people that turn more quickly towards Jesus?
[3] Romans 3:23
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