a. They restrain contradictions. The last part of this qualification is that the overseer must rebuke those who contradict the word. The word rebuke means to chasten or to check or to restrain. In some instances, it means to silence. In our culture, the idea of rebuking is very popular. What people call it today is “holding people accountable”. It’s what some people have labeled as “cancel culture”. So our culture understands what it means to rebuke. But there is a huge difference between the Biblical rebuke and a worldly rebuke. It really comes down to authority. By whose authority do you silence someone and see to correct them. For the world their authority is themselves. “If I don’t like something or I feel offended then I will rebuke you.” This is not how an overseer is to rebuke people. They don’t rebuke based on their own authority but the authority of the trustworthy word. They can only silence and correct those who go against the word of God. They don’t have the authority to rebuke those who are just annoying or have a different opinion than they do. No, they must go back to scripture and use that to show that the people are wrong and are contradicting the word of God. b. They fight every lofty opinion. Now, who do the overseers rebuke? It says plainly those who contradict the word. That could mean either those that are Christians who are living in a way or speaking in a way that goes against the word or it could be unbelievers who are speaking things or doing things that go against it. Someone might say that we are only to rebuke those that are in the church. We assume that unbelievers will speak against the word of God. So it’s pointless for us to rebuke them. But we must consider the context of the sentence. In verses 10 through 16 Paul talks about those who are presumably in the church but are unbelievers. He says “to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God but deny them by their works. They are detestable disobedient unfit for any good work.” And these are some of the people that Titus needs to rebuke. But is it just those that profess to be in the church that overseers are to rebuke? As Paul says in 2nd Corinthians we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. The preaching of the Gospel is a rebuke to the world. That is why it is so offensive to people. They know that if the Gospel is preached their mouths must be silent. They have no rebuttal and their sin is laid exposed for all to see.