Charles Ellicott Commentary Titus 1:11

"whose mouths must be stopped; men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre`s sake." — Titus 1:11 (ASV)

Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses.—The translation should read here, seeing they subvert, and so on. There was, indeed, serious cause why these men should be silenced; the harm they were doing in Crete to the Christian cause was incalculable. It was no longer individuals that their poisonous teaching affected, but they were undermining the faith of whole families. For an example of how Titus and his presbyters were to stop the mouths of these teachers of what was false, compare Matthew 22:34-46, where the Lord, by His wise, powerful, yet gentle words, first silenced the Sadducees, and then so answered the Pharisees that neither dared any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions.

Teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.—Here St. Paul goes to the root of the evil, when he shows what was the purpose and goal of these “teachers’” life. It was a low and shameful ambition, after all—merely dishonest profit. When this is the main object of a religious teacher’s life, his teaching naturally accommodates itself to people’s tastes. He forgets the Divine Giver of his commission, and in his thirst for the popularity which brings with it gold, his true work, as the faithful watchman of the house of Israel, is forgotten and ignored.