Titus 1:15 15To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who have been defiled and are unbelieving, nothing is pure; but they have been defiled in both the mind and the conscience.
Paul uses strong language in the form of a proverbial statement to give a strong warning to Titus and the church in Crete. The word pure (kathara) is repeated three times. Purity ought to be our goal as part of being God’s holy people. What is pure should be recognizable to those whose hearts have been purified by the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit. But those who have been deceived by self and the world cannot recognize or live out what is pure. The verb defiled is repeated twice in this verse, both times using the perfect tense. The defilement of the impure people came in the past and remains in the present because they did not do anything to resolve it.
Paul may be adopting the religious language of the opponents as he points out the existential human problem in verse 16. The root problem is a defiled mind (nous) and conscience (syneidēsis). The believers in Crete should not fear ritual contamination from food but rather be concerned with inward purity. The opponents, however, claimed purity but lacked pure minds. The mind is the part of our being where we make decisions. The conscience is part of the mind and guides moral decisions. The Holy Spirit speaks to our conscience. If we listen and following this leading, our minds will be transformed into the mind of Christ and our thinking will align with God’s will for us. The opponents in Crete rejected the light of Christ by getting caught up in trivial matters of ritual purity. They focused on outwards acts and neglected the more important personal knowledge of God.
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