Titus
Chapter 11
Personal Application
January 2026
How does this apply to an ordinary Christian?
Bottom of Form
What follows is pastoral theology in its proper sense: not abstraction, but discernment of souls, according to my request from ChatGPT.
- Pastoral counseling scenarios (how Paul’s framework actually functions in lived cases)
- Scrupulosity vs. hardness of heart (how conscience can malfunction in opposite directions, and how it is healed)
Throughout, we will keep the Pauline–patristic balance we have been tracing:
- grace without presumption,
- obedience without despair.
You will see why ChatGPT, theology books, pastors, and teachers can’t be trusted absolutely. Most have adopted a consensus view of Christian doctrine, which can’t be trusted either. Trust only in the Word of God that you have genuinely studied, understood, and applied.
I. Pastoral Counseling Scenarios
(Applying assurance, conscience, and purity to real cases)
Scenario 1: The Tender but Anxious Believer says, “I’m constantly afraid I’m not saved.”
But why would a tender but anxious believer live in constant fear? Might it be that they have not yet fully repented of their sins? Could it be that they are waiting on the grace of God to do something for them that God requires them to do for themselves?
Symptoms, this tender but anxious believer may have a:
- Strong desire to obey God
ChatGPT and many evangelical Christians imply that a strong desire to obey God indicates the believer is genuine and merely needs more help to do so. God has already provided all the grace, power, and truth each of us needs. The problem is that we let our emotions convince us that if we have a strong desire to obey God, that must mean we really love God. That is not true.
In this example, the believer is constantly afraid that they are not saved. Why is that? Because they have let their strong desire to obey God deceive them into believing that God will be satisfied with their strong desire rather than their actual obedience. A strong desire to obey God is not virtuous; only obedience in love is pure before God.
- Deep grief over sin
Are we talking about past sins or present sins? If this is really a genuine believer who has actually repented of their sin, why would there still be deep grief over past sin that the blood of Jesus has washed away? Do they not believe the promise of God?
If this so-called believer is living in present sin, then they may not actually be born again. That would be no surprise because evangelicals have so watered down the gospel that most new Christians have not gone through the gate of genuine repentance and are not on the narrow path of righteousness. Born-again Christians do not live in sin but walk in righteousness. And if they sin as a genuine Christian, they repent right away.
Is it any wonder why so few Christians have the assurance of salvation when they live in sin? In the kindness of God, He will not let them have the joy and assurance of salvation while they walk in darkness.
- Hyper-vigilant conscience
- Repeated self-examination
- Difficulty resting in grace
But why would this person have difficulty resting in grace? Because they know, despite what their pastors tell them, that living in constant sin can’t ever be acceptable to God. They know that God’s grace doesn’t cover or excuse unrepentant sin despite the lies they are told from the pulpit.
Pauline Diagnosis
This is not Titus 1:15 (“defiled conscience”) but rather Romans 7 + Romans 8 tension
ChatGPT, at times, and most evangelicals want you to believe that Romans 7 and 8 are in tension, but they are not, especially when considering Romans 6 as well. Romans 7 is not the picture of a genuinely born-again Christian, but instead of a person under conviction who remains lost.See my two articles on Romans 7 on my website and refer back to Chapter 2 in this series of articles.
Paul’s keywords according to ChatGPT:
“The good that I would I do not… O wretched man that I am!”
This is from Romans 7 and does not depict a genuinely born-again Christian. See my articles on this passage.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”
This statement refers to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 6 and 8), not to the person depicted in Romans 7.
Pastoral Correction of this so-called fearful believer
- Assurance is not measured by emotional certainty
- A sensitive conscience is often a sign of spiritual life, not death
- The Spirit convicts specifically, not vaguely
All three bullet points are good, but fall short. And until the points I have made are addressed, there is no possibility that this person will have the joy of salvation and assurance.
What guidance might be found in the early church fathers?
John Chrysostom:
“It is better to fear with hope than to sleep in false peace.” If only the evangelical church would embrace this great wisdom.
Counsel
- Shift focus from self-examination to Christ-examination
ChatGPT sounds precisely like what I would expect from carnal Christianity. Pious-sounding but empty rhetoric. What does it really mean?
- Practice confession, not rumination.
Why is repentance missing from ChatGPT’s section on Counsel? This brings out precisely what is wrong with the evangelical gospel, which revolves around confession and not repentance. And that explains why the churches are filled with unsaved ‘Christians’ who act and behave just like the unsaved.
Let us remember that those who confess and forsake their sins will find mercy. Confession is only one side of the coin. Confession without repentance is delusion. Without both, no person will find the mercy of God.
- Anchor assurance in God’s promises, not inner states
Yet neither ChatGPT nor the typical evangelical addresses the conditions of salvation. Only in satisfying the conditions of salvation can we find the assurance of salvation. However, most evangelicals seek assurance of salvation without meeting the conditions.
Scenario 2: The Confident but Careless Believer who says, “I know I’m saved; sin doesn’t really trouble me.”
No born-again Christian can honestly say that sin doesn’t bother them. Sin in themselves, sin in others, and in our culture should all trouble them. If it doesn’t, then I would certainly question their salvation.
Symptoms of this careless and carnal believer
- Little grief over sin
- Dismisses correction
- Appeals to grace quickly
- Uses verses like Titus 1:15 defensively
- Claims “peace” without repentance
Pauline Diagnosis
This is exactly Titus 1:15-16. “Unto the defiled… nothing is pure… They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him.” Here, the conscience is not sensitive but numb.
Pastoral Correction
- Assurance without transformation is presumption (Amen to that!)
- Peace without repentance is self-deception (Another amen.)
- Grace never silences conscience; it heals it by bringing about genuine repentance
Augustine: “Security without charity is the sleep of death.”
Counsel
- Reintroduce the moral seriousness of the gospel
- Call for repentance, not reassurance, and not confession only
- Emphasize fruit/deeds/works, not feelings
A quiet conscience is not always a clean conscience. It can be denied and silenced. It can be seared as if with a hot iron. Taken as a whole, this is sound teaching from ChatGPT and refutes its comments in scenario 1, which we just reviewed. Both the careless and the anxious believer should receive this advice.
Scenario 3: The Believer in a Morally Ambiguous Situation
“I don’t see anything wrong with this, but others do.” (Examples: alcohol use, entertainment, vocational choices)
Pauline Framework Applied. From Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8-10:
Questions the pastor asks:
- Is the act intrinsically sinful?
- Is it done in faith?
- Does it wound another’s conscience?
- Can it be offered to God in thanksgiving?
How about this question? Is it faithful to the word and laws of God?
Counsel
- Liberty is real
Liberty and grace are not a get-out-of-jail-free card for your ongoing sin. Liberty is the release from the slavery of sin, not the freedom to sin without eternal consequences.
- Liberty is never isolating
- Liberty as opposed to the slavery of sin
- Love, as defined by God, governs freedom
Purity is not self-authorization; it is love-shaped discernment and obedience to the truth.
Scenario 4: The Believer in Sexual Sin Who Appeals to Motive
“My intentions are good; my heart is sincere.”
Only God knows how many times so-called Christians have deceived themselves and others by such wicked thinking. Saying “my intentions are good; my heart is sincere” doesn’t make violating the laws of God acceptable. Many today say ‘love is love,’ and by that they mean all love or affection is good, but that is not true, and God will not condone what He has already condemned. Anyone who knowingly disobeys the law of God doesn’t have good intentions toward God or anyone else. It is their way to attempt to justify and rationalize their sin.
See my article titled, “Truth, Love, and Vile Affection.
Pauline Diagnosis
This is where an impure motive cannot rescue the act.
“Flee fornication… ye are not your own.” (1 Cor 6)
Sexual sin is treated as:
- Objectively disordered
- Spiritually damaging
- Not morally neutral
Pastoral Response
- Do not argue about intention or sincerity
- Call the act what Scripture calls it
- Hold out repentance, not despair
God forgives sexual sin — he does not redefine it or excuse it.
This is solid counsel. I recommend it.
II. Scrupulosity vs. Hardness of Heart
(Two opposite diseases of conscience)
Paul and the Fathers are keenly aware that conscience can err in two directions.
A. Scrupulosity (Overactive Conscience)
Characteristics
- Sees sin where none exists
- Confuses temptation with guilt and sin
- Treats moral uncertainty as condemnation
- Lives in constant self-surveillance
Have you noticed how true this is in many evangelical Christian churches, especially those with Calvinistic leanings? To them, being born a human being means that we sin from the moment of birth in everything. Therefore, every thought, desire, idea, feeling, emotion, temptation, and action is sinful. But none of this is immoral in itself as part of our nature. Our unlawful use of these things is sinful. But we must all know that this can’t possibly be true. God has no problem with the nature He gave us, and only when we misuse that nature in a prohibited fashion is there sin.
Why do they do this?
To eliminate any idea that we might have about participating in our own salvation and living a holy life pleasing to God. That they do not want. To them, claiming that you are not sinning is sinful. How blinded and lost are they who think such things.
Spiritual Danger
- Despair disguised as humility
- Trust in introspection rather than Christ
- Paralysis of joy and obedience
- Loss of the soul
Augustine: “The soul that cannot rest in mercy does not yet trust God.”
Pastoral Healing
- Teach objective moral boundaries
- Emphasize God’s character over self-analysis
- Encourage obedience without emotional certainty
Paul’s medicine:
“He that doubteth is damned if he eat” — but only where doubt concerns real sin (Rom 14), not imagined sin.
B. Hardness of Heart (Underactive Conscience)
Characteristics
- Sin rationalized
- Correction resisted
- Scripture selectively quoted
- Peace claimed without repentance.
This is precisely what the prophet Jeremiah said to the Jews whose false prophets proclaimed peace when there was no peace. Their refusal to repent of their many sins was bringing judgment on them, their temple, and their great City. This very thing is happening today. The false prophets are telling the people that they are safe in their unrepentant sins. Christians are told that God loves them unconditionally and that God would never send them to hell for unrepentant sin. Their message has not changed. They proclaim peace when there is no peace. And the people love it so.
Spiritual Danger
- Self-deception
- Seared conscience (1 Tim 4:2)
- Eventual moral blindness
- Hell
Chrysostom:
“Nothing is more terrible than a conscience that no longer wounds.”
Pastoral Healing
- Reawaken fear of God (see my article on fear)
- Restore moral clarity
- Delay reassurance until repentance appears
Paul’s warning:
“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.” (2 Corinthians 13:5).
Good biblically based advice. If only Christians would believe it.
“Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.” (Acts 24:16)
Final Advice
Scrupulosity forgets grace. Hardness forgets holiness. The gospel heals both.
Paul’s pastoral genius is this:
- He disturbs the comfortable
- He comforts the disturbed
- He never does the opposite
And Titus 1:15 fits precisely here: Purity is not what the conscience excuses — it is what a conscience healed by truth and grace can rightly discern and affirm.Top of Form
Closing comments on Chapter 11
“Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” Titus 1:15, KJV
Jesus said it this way, “A good tree can’t bring forth bad fruit and a bad tree can’t bring forth good fruit. A tree is known by its fruit.” Jesus also said, “Make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad”. (Matthew 7:16-20, Luke 6:43, Matthew 12:33) We decide. Are we going to be a good or bad tree? Not surprising that this is rarely ever preached in evangelical churches that have been taught and brainwashed into believing Christ did it all for us. Jesus rebukes their lies.Bottom of Form
A pure motive will always bring forth good fruit, but a sinister motive or intention will always yield bad fruit. A pure motive is the single eye, inner orientation, treasure of your heart, referred to in scripture, Matthew 6:19-24.
“For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore thine the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.” Matthew 6:21-23.
If your motive (eye) is to please and glorify God in all that you do, you are a good tree, and you will bring forth good fruit (righteousness and godliness and not sinfulness). Good trees can’t bring forth evil fruit. And bad trees can’t bring forth good fruit. How many evangelicals believe a word of this? They consistently teach and believe that good trees (Christians) bear evil fruit (never stop sinning). They don’t think this verse applies to them and the darkness they teach and embrace: “If the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness.”
A single eye is a heart with undivided devotion, focused on pleasing God. And the evil eye is a heart that is divided, covetous, and selfish.
Your treasure is what you value the most. It is what motivates you at your core. If your heart (life purpose) remains fully devoted to God, you will not sin against Him. In 1 John 3:6-9, we read,
“Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Emphasis added.
1 John says that those born of God cannot sin. He means that as long as your motive, intention, purpose, treasure remains pure, it is impossible to sin or to bring forth evil fruit. We all understand that we can change our motives/heart and start bearing evil fruit, but then we are no longer a good tree. Salvation is conditional.
Notice what else John declares by the Holy Ghost. John says that “he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil.” Yet most evangelical Christians claim that they are imputed righteous, even though they continue to sin in direct contradiction to this word from God.Those who are genuinely born again do act in righteousness personally, and they are righteous personally and not by a fictional imputation. The number of Christians who actually believe this is literally true is exceedingly small. The overwhelming majority of evangelicals appear to think that Christians sin daily, in thought, word, and deed, even though John wrote, “He that committeth sin is of the devil.” The light in them is darkness, and how great is that darkness.
How do you know that your mind and conscience are defiled? Bad fruit (sin) follows you, and it is that which offends God and is a crime against Him and His laws. These are the things that defile both mind and conscience. When Christians teach doctrines that support bad fruit in Christians, you know that things are terribly amiss. Today, many leaders claim that Christians can produce both good and bad fruit at the same time. That we can be holy while we are actually unholy. We can live in sin and holiness simultaneously. We can claim the title of Christian and act like the devil, and we are still going to heaven.
Who are you going to believe?
