Titus 1 - Being pure

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To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure - Titus 1:15 (ESV)

Often we see good and evil in defined actions: you help an elderly person across the street (good), you trip them as they walk away (evil). Certainly our actions demonstrate evil, even if our lips say something different. But looking only at the surface of things does not see the inner attitude; the rationale for why we act a certain way is still obscured.

Tim Keller says this regarding idolatry:

The Bible does not consider idolatry to be one sin among many (and a rare sin found only among primitive people). Rather, all our failures to trust God wholly or to live rightly are at root idolatry—something we make more important than God. There is always a reason for a sin. Under our sins are idolatrous desires.

This means that every Boy or Girl Scout needs Christ. Our actions don’t recommend us to God. Here Paul is talking to Titus about people that are leading others astray. Their impure intentions taint the obedience they are trying to solicit. They may help the elderly get through a busy intersection, but yet they do for themselves, not to glorify God.