Titus 3:3

Titus 3:3 For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another

Spurgeon once put it...
No man here has any idea of how bad he really is. You do not know how good the grace of God can make you, nor how bad you are by nature, nor how bad you might become if that nature were left to itself.

W E Vine comments that
"the remembrance of the fact that we once manifested some of these characteristics of our unregenerate nature, should in itself be an incentive to us to fulfill the exhortations just given. We ourselves stood in need of kindness, gentleness, meekness, on the part of others, and were so treated by God in His long-suffering. How then can we refuse kindness to those who stand in need of it?" Vine goes on to write that "Foolishness is evidence of a blunted mind; disobedience is evidence of a hardened heart; deception is evidence of a perverted will; bondage to lusts and pleasures is evidence of a carnal mind; malice and envy and hate are proofs of selfishness, pride and grasping ambition. And all are the effects of sin."

Paul has a similar commentary on humanity's state outside of Christ writing that...

We also once "were (spiritually) dead in (our) trespasses and sins, in which (we) formerly walked according to the course of this world (under the sway of the tendency of this present evil age), according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience (unwilling to be persuaded, obstinate, rebellious, unbelieving, striving continually against the purposes of God) Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh (our behavior governed by our corrupt and sensual nature), indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children (born with a sinful nature inherited from Adam) of wrath (objects of God's holy hatred of sin representing His attribute of necessary antagonism to everything evil), even as the rest." (Eph 2:1-3)

Disobedient, deceived, enslaved - Spurgeon comments...
That is what we were once; and if the grace of God has made a change in us, we must not boast, we must not censure others, we must not set up as self-righteous judges of others. Oh, no! our action must be the very reverse of all this.

DISOBEDIENT: apeitheis: (Mt 21:29; Acts 9:1-6; 26:19,20; Eph 2:2; 1Pet 1:14)
Disobedient (545) apeithes from a = without + peítho = persuade, literally describes one who refuses to be persuaded (unpersuadable), thus picturing one who willfully disregards authority. Impersuasible, incompliant, contumacious.

In studying apeithes it is important to understand that the stem peith- (pith-, poith-) has the basic meaning of trust (cf. Latin = fido, fides; English = fidelity). Trust can refer to a statement, so that it has the meaning to put faith in, to let oneself be convinced, or to a demand, so that it gets the meaning of obey, be persuaded. The active meaning of the verb stem peith- then is to convince and persuade and is especially characteristic of Greek thought. In secular Greek it interesting to note that "Peitho" (art of persuading) was even regarded as a goddess!

Apeithes pictures a stubborn, stiff-necked attitude and speaks of disbelief manifesting itself in disobedience. Apeithes is opposed to pistis or belief (trust).

TDNT says apeithes...
means “unworthy of belief,” then “disobedient.”

Marvin Vincent in discussing apeitheo in John 3:36 writes that..
Disbelief is regarded in its active manifestation, disobedience. The verb peitho means to persuade, to cause belief, to induce one to do something by persuading, and so runs into the meaning of to obey, properly as the result of persuasion...Obedience, however, includes faith.

From these comments, it should not surprise you to discover that in the New Testament the Greek words translated disobey, disobedience, disobedient (apeitheo apeitheia; apeithes) do not stand in contrast with obedience but in contrast with faith!

In the present context apeithes describes the person who refuses obedience to God, resisting His Word and remains steadfastly rebellious against God's natural laws and those which human society requires.
Paul describes a progression is from an unwillingness to use one's mental faculties (foolish) in order to understand the truth about God and His glorious gospel, in turn and inevitably leading to an unwillingness to be persuaded by the truth. Men do not avoid the gospel of Christ because of insufficient facts but because of proud and unrepentant hearts. Such is the natural character of the human heart, Jeremiah recording that the
heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. (Jer 17:9)

Solomon wrote that
the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives (Eccl 9:3).

Apeithes is found 6 times in the NT...
Luke 1:17 "And it is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous; so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

Acts 26:19 "Consequently, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision,
Romans 1:30 (note) slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
2 Timothy 3:2 (note) For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
Titus 1:16 (note) They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being (continually = their "lifestyle") detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed.
Titus 3:3 (note) For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.

Apeithes is used 5 times in the Septuagint (LXX) ...
Numbers 20:10 and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, "Listen now, you rebels (Hebrew = marah [04784] = be contentious or rebellious; Lxx = apeithes) ; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?"
Deuteronomy 21:18 "If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them,
Isaiah 30:9 For this is a rebellious (Lxx = apeithes) people, false sons, Sons who refuse to listen To the instruction of the LORD;
Jeremiah 5:23 'But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; They have turned aside and departed.
Zechariah 7:12 "And they made their hearts like flint (Lxx = apeithes = disobedient! Flint is a good metaphor for such a hard heart!) so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.

Jesus taught that from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. (see note Matthew 7:21; 7:22)

This is who we once were outside of Christ. Paul is saying that this truth should motivate believers to treat others the way God in His grace treated us when we were involved in ungodly activities

"for while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly", God demonstrating "His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Isa 44:20; Ob 1:3; Luke 21:8; Gal 6:3; Js 1:26; Rev 12:9; 13:14)

DECEIVED (4105) (planao from plane which describes "a wandering" and gives us our English word "planet") means literally made to wander and so to be led astray or made to err from the right way, the highway of truth and holiness.

Matthew Henry adds that
"Man in this his degenerate state is of a straying nature, thence compared to a lost sheep; this must be sought and brought back, and guided in the right way, Ps 119:176. (See Spurgeon's Note) He is weak, and ready to be imposed upon by the wiles and subtleties of Satan, and of men lying in wait to seduce and mislead."

Clarke writes that deceived is
"erring - wandering from the right way in consequence of our ignorance, not knowing the right way; and, in consequence of our unbelief and obstinacy, not choosing to know it."

Basically deception refers to a deliberate misrepresentation of the truth, especially in moral and spiritual matters, in order to purposely mislead another person. In this sense, the truth can be misrepresented first of all by our own sinful heart (which is the control center of our character and our moral and spiritual life) (Jer 17:9, Hebrews 3:10 [note], Js 5:19, 1Jn 1:8), by false prophets (Jer 29:8, Mt 24:4-5, Revelation 13:14 [note]), by false teachers (Eph 5:6, 2 Peter 2:14 [note], 1Jn 2:26, 1Jn 3:7, 2Jn 1:7, Jezebel Revelation 2:20 [note]) and of course especially by the ultimate "Deceiver", our old Adversary, the consummate Liar (Jn 8:44), Satan himself (see notes Revelation 12:9, Revelation 20:3, 20:8, 20:10). Satan’s objective is to deceive sinners into ever greater sin and ungodliness.
Note that the verb planao is in the passive voice which indicates an outside force or influence (e.g., the unregenerate heart in unbelievers, the power of sin rendered ineffective but unfortunately still latent in believers, false prophets, false teachers, the Devil) is causing the deception that leads one down the wrong path. The present tense indicates the sad truth that unsaved men and women are continually being led astray from God, even to the point that they refuse to believe that in the end they will be judged by Him (cf notes Revelation 20:11; 20:12; 20:13; 20:14; 20:15).

Expositor's Bible Commentary writes that...
Those who deceive others impair, in so doing, their sense of the distinction between truth and falsehood, and thus weaken their power of resistance to self-deceit and to imposition by others. Peter writes that prior to salvation we "were continually straying (planao - being led astray) like sheep, but now (we) have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of (our) souls." (see note 1 Peter 2:25)

This miraculous transition from walking in darkness to walking in the light, should motivate every believer to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel (submit to and obey the government, do good deeds, don't malign, don't quarrel, be gentle and show meekness to all men, including the foolish, deceived, disobedient, etc!)

Clarke adds that
It is a true saying, “There are none so blind as those who will not see.” Such persons are proof against conviction, they will not be convinced either by God or man.

Although deceived in context describes who we once were (unbelievers), do not be deceived for believers can still fall prey to the wiles of deception! So beware!

James writes
Do not be deceived (literally stop being deceived - indicating that deception was already a fact), my beloved brethren. (James 1:16)
Paul warns the Galatians that when dealing with one caught in any trespass, they must be careful for if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. (Gal 6:3).

James writes that
If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. (Ja 1:26)

Clearly, the tragic truth is that the one who is deceived does not even know he or she is deceived! Given the "deceptive nature" of deception, it is not surprising that the writer of Hebrews exhorts us to encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (see note Hebrews 3:13)
Sin will deceive you. You are not getting away with that "little sin"...in fact your heart is being gradually hardened by it (and you don't even realize it!) Kill sin or it will kill you.

Paul goes on to warn the Corinthians of the danger of deception writing
Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God (the spiritual sphere of salvation where God rules as King over all who belong to Him by faith)? Do not be deceived (stop being deceived) neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (1Cor 6:9-10)

This list convicts us all...who among us does not covet from time to time? Occasional sins is not what Paul is referring to. Don't be deceived. If an individual habitually and as manner of their lifestyle commits these sins, Paul says they are not saved.

Ryrie agrees writing that
People whose lifestyles exhibit wickedness, not fruit, show they are unsaved and will, therefore, not inherit the kingdom of God.

In a similar warning to the Galatians Paul writes
Do not be deceived (stop this) God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Gal 6:7-8)