Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Titus · About this commentary
Denying God by Deeds
Titus 1:15-16
15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. · WEB
Purity is not a property of things but a condition of persons — and a life can contradict a confession outright.
To the pure, all things are pure. The saying answers the food-and-ritual scruples of verse 14, and it agrees with what the Lord settled about defilement: nothing entering a man from outside can defile him, since what defiles comes out of the heart Mark 7:15. Purity is not distributed among objects. It is a condition of the person handling them.
The second half is the sharper one: to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, and both their mind and their conscience are defiled. The instrument of judgment is the thing that has gone wrong, so a scrupulous man with a corrupted conscience finds impurity everywhere and is not thereby detecting it. Verse 16 lands the block. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him. Denial is not confined to speech; the life makes a statement of its own, and where the two disagree the deeds are believed.
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