Titus 1:12-13

I was recently reading Titus 1:12-13. There it says:

Titus 1:12-13
“One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretans
are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true.
Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; ”

Paul uses a saying of the time to describe the Cretans 1, but this
description does not include things they would take pride of: “always
liars, evil beasts, slow bellies”. Paul does not, like somebody would
expect, rebuke such a saying. In fact he did the opposite. He said that
this saying is true and instructed Titus to rebuke the Cretans sharply
that they may be sound in the faith. From this I extract that this
description of the Cretans applied also to those from Crete that God had
called. These people were not some noble, sincere, nice speaking people
with great values. He called people that were liars, evil beasts and slow
belies. These are the people that God went to, revealed His Son, and
they accepted Him!
God’s love is really amazing. It is not because of the things that
we did or we are that we are saved and members of the family of God,
but it is because of His amazing grace and love! For either we are like
the Cretans or we think we are a little bit “better”, for God there is no
difference:

Romans 3:21-26
“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested….even
the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all
and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all

1
Cretans are those from Crete, an island in south Greece
have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,
to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,
through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his
righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him
who believes in Jesus.

“There is no difference”, says the Word. “All [including you and

me] have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. Yet God made a
way out in Jesus Christ. Now whoever “BELIEVES in Jesus2” is justified!
See also Romans 5:8-10:

Romans 5:8-10
“But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we
were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been
justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the
death of his Son, much more, having being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life. ”

God demonstrates His love towards us by giving His Son for us

WHEN WE WERE STILL SINNERS. We were ENEMIES to Him, but
He reconciled us to Himself by the death of his Son.
Don’t look with amazement to the filthiness of the Cretans. You
can also look at me and yourself without Christ. Without Him we are
nothing. HE made the difference! His sacrifice made the way. The only
thing that is needed from us is to believe in Him. To believe in the Lord
Jesus and in His resurrection. If you are reading this and you don’t yet
believe in Christ and you think that you are OK because you may
2
Obviously this means whoever believes whatever God says about Jesus in His Word, because
many believe various unscriptural things about Jesus.
consider yourself a little bit (or a lot) better than those Cretans.. in God’s
eyes you are NOT better. The Cretans wouldn’t be reconciled to God and
they wouldn’t be justified, by becoming more honest, more sincere, but
by believing in Christ and in His resurrection. He is the only solution.
See what God says in His Word:

Romans 10:9
“That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and
believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.”

Romans 10:11
“Whoever believes on him will not be ashamed. ”

I John 5:1
“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God”

It is believing that is required for salvation, not doing! It is

believing, not understanding! Believing comes first and with it comes
the whole gift package, including: salvation, justification, reconciliation
with God, holy spirit, becoming son and daughter of God i.e. member of
God’s family and others that “God has prepared for those that love Him”
(I Corinthians 2:9). It is not works that are needed to achieve these.
Christ did the work. What is needed now is believing in Him, in the Lord
Jesus Christ and in His resurrection from the dead. This is what those
Cretans did and I hope that you have already done or you will also do
the same.

Tassos Kioulachoglou