For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth.

--Parallel verses:
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭16‬:‭13‬
Kings take pleasure in honest lips; they value the one who speaks what is right.‭‭

Luke‬ ‭16‬:‭9‬-‭12‬
[Jesus speaking]
I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

Honesty is so very important in life. Many deceive and lie to gain a short-term advantage, but it ends up hurting them in the end. Here we have Cretans who are trying to confuse new believers in Jesus, by telling them they need to observe Jewish purity and ritual laws, like circumcision, in order to follow Jesus. This is not true. Gentiles are not required to observe Jewish purity and ritual laws in following Jesus. They are only required to obey his Word.

These people tend to worm their way into the church and spread false teachings. In a different, but related example, I had one that did so in a previous church. He said that he was a “faith healer” and told people if they had enough faith they would be healed when he prayed. The problem with this statement is it is not totally true. Healings in the Bible vary, and sometimes Jesus told people after the fact that their faith made them well. But he never used a lack of faith to blame them for not getting well.

In fact, the Jewish leaders used this logic to ostracize those who had diseases or were disabled. And Jesus called this out. He said in one case that neither this man nor his parents sinned, but his disability was intentional to show God’s power to heal.

The point here is that deception and dishonesty, along with false teachings, must be confronted directly and with a strong stand. They cannot be allowed to persist in the body of Christ. And those proposed leaders do great evil in confusing the faith of new and weaker converts.

My takeaways is to always be honest and do so even if it means shining a light on my sin. Then I never have to worry about being caught in a lie or worry about someone looking over my shoulder. As well, I must stand up to false doctrine and call it out!

Lord, thank you for your truth which shines a light on the darkness where lies and deception dwell. Teach me to continually check my motives so I can hold my head up high!