Does Titus 1:16 Refute The Eternal Security Of A Believer?
A person was trying to convince me that sin after Salvation will mean going to hell. He was convinced that our bad works can disqualify our Salvation and one of the verses of Scripture that he was using to back up his belief was Titus 1:16.
“They profess that they know God; but IN WORKS they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” (Titus 1:16 KJV)
Immediately I knew, he was not using proper context. He is a legit, sincere person seeking God, like countless who have listened to a preacher in a pulpit; though a preacher teaching falsely. This person was sincere in his belief but simply does not know the Gospel as taught by Paul. Easily swayed in belief by lack of knowledge of the Word of God and the importance of using proper context. I knew this because the letter to Titus is all about God’s Grace, not works, when read with context. It is a letter from Apostle Paul to Titus and all about how Titus should go about setting up churches in Crete, a most unruly Island community.
Even not knowing this, he ignored the verse right before verse 16, verse 15, and it is clear that Paul is not even talking about believers!
“15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled AND UNBELIEVING is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. 16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” (Titus 1:15-16 KJV)
Paul is talking about unbelievers and not a generalized bunch of unbelievers either. Apostle Paul is writing to Titus about a specific group of Judiazers in Crete. In fact, in Titus 1, Paul is informing Titus how to deal with the false teachers, much like the Judiazers in the Galatian church. These false teachers taught about Jesus and said they were Christians, yet they believed that following the Law was required for Salvation. They were teaching the false Salvation equation of GRACE+WORKS=SALVATION. Something that Apostle Paul fought so hard against in Galatians, Ephesians, Romans etc.
If Paul was teaching works as a requirement for salvation in Titus 1, then why would he state the opposite in his writings in Galatians 3, Galatians 5:4 and Ephesians 2:8-9? Paul is not contradicting himself nor the Gospel of Grace Jesus gave him to preach to the Gentiles. So believing works are a requirement of Salvation would go against proper context.
This is just another example of just how important using proper context is! DO NOT BELIEVE ANY BIBLE TEACHER, PULPIT, WRITER (including myself!) without verifying what the Word of God shows – IN PROPER CONTEXT!
ONLY God’s Word is the truth and there are many teaching falsely about the foundational truths of the Gospel of Grace Through Jesus Christ.