The point is not that Paul had a prejudice against Cretans. Rather, he wants Titus to be aware of the characteristic sins of his culture and to reprove most sharply these well-documented tendencies. Walter Liefeld notes that there are “particular belief systems that have generated different worldviews.” Instead of avoiding the sin of greed when preaching on Wall Street, or of hedonism in Hollywood, or of quiet self-centered materialism in suburban America, faithful preachers will apply their teaching most pointedly to correcting the prevalent sins directly before them.

問題不在於保羅對革哩底島人有偏見。相反，他希望提多意識到他的文化的典型罪惡，並最嚴厲地譴責這些有據可查的傾向。沃爾特·利菲爾德指出，“特定的信仰體系產生了不同的世界觀”。忠實的傳教士不會在華爾街傳教時避免犯貪婪的罪，也不會在好萊塢講道時避免享樂主義，也不會在美國郊區避免安靜的自我中心的唯物主義，而是會最有針對性地運用他們的教義來糾正他們面前盛行的罪。