Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Titus 1:16

"They profess that they know God; but by their works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." — Titus 1:16 (ASV)

The false teachers also stand condemned by the test of conduct. They publicly confess that they are fully informed about God and stand in intimate relations with him (because of either their Jewish religious privilege or their Gnostic claim to an esoteric knowledge of God). But their vaunted claim is belied by their evil conduct. Moral quality of life is the determinative test of religious profession and by it true character is exposed. Three terms describe the corrupt and unbelieving. They are (1) “detestable” (GK 1008) lor loathsome, causing horror and disgust because of their hypocrisy; (2) “disobedient” (GK 579), insubordinate to God’s truth because of their willful adherence to their man-made rules and regulations; (3) “unfit for doing anything good,” disqualified by their impurity from performing any morally good deed. They are like coins found, upon testing, to be spurious, utterly to be rejected as worthless.