Be Still And Know

Titus 1:15 These words may well feel familiar. They closely echo the words of Jesus when he said: “A good person produces the good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart” (Luke 6:45). Paul’s particular challenge in Crete came from those who were insisting that all Christian men should be circumcised. This teaching was proving extremely destructive and was driving whole families away from the Church. Paul was convinced that the only reason they were teaching this was to make money. In response, he quoted a Cretan prophet, who said: “The people of Crete are all liars, cruel animals and lazy gluttons” (Titus 1:12). This sounds incredibly harsh, but Paul was desperate to protect the young church from those who were bent on its destruction. Paul was convinced that what mattered more than anything was the purity of a person’s heart. If their heart was right, everything that flowed