Transcript

Many people today—including pastors and church leaders—seem to think the church’s role is to make people feel good about themselves, to reassure them that they are okay just the way they are. Sermons are more cheerleading than life-changing.  

Well, that is far removed from what the Bible teaches, as we are going to see as we set sail for the island of Crete. This island was originally settled by pirates, and you can imagine how challenging it might be to pastor churches among the descendants of pirates.

Paul is writing another pastoral letter—this time to Titus, a ministry colleague. While the book of Titus follows 1 and 2 Timothy in your Bible, it was actually written between 1 and 2 Timothy. Paul is still free to travel, but he will soon be back in prison when he writes 2 Timothy.

Paul’s greeting in chapter 1 of Titus is a little longer than in many of his letters:

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior. (verses 1-3)

Paul effectively reveals in these opening verses four passions in his life. I think these should be the passions of every pastor and every church today.  

First, Paul reveals a passion for the faith. The definite article “the” preceding “faith” indicates Paul is referring to the entire body of doctrinal truth.  

Second, Paul is passionate about the elect, God’s people, the church. He has given his life to the well-being of the church.

Third, he is passionate about the truth—understanding it, applying it, conforming our lives to the truth of God’s Word.

Finally, Paul is passionate about the assignment God has given him as a church leader—namely, to preach the gospel of Christ.

Paul then personally addresses his letter to Titus. Titus is a coworker who has traveled with Paul in the past. But now Paul is giving Titus a job to do, and it is not going to be an easy job at all.

In verse 5 Paul writes, “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.” Evidently, sometime during Paul’s brief release from imprisonment in Rome, he and Titus had traveled to this island in the Mediterranean. Paul left Titus there to continue the work of organizing the churches—and specifically to appoint qualified elders to lead these new churches.

Just imagine showing up at an established church and, after spending some time with them, deciding who was qualified to lead. That would mean promoting some men and perhaps demoting others who were already leading in the church. It is going to take some pretty thick skin on Titus’s part to put the right men in place.

To help him make the right decision, Paul gives Titus a checklist of qualifications for these church leaders, whom Paul refers to in verse 5 as elders. Other New Testament terms for this office are overseer and pastor. All three terms refer to the same office, while highlighting different aspects of this office of elder/pastor-teacher.

In today’s church there are all kinds of hierarchies and levels of authority and political structures—the church often looks more like a business than a body. But in the New Testament, there was one office of leadership, and it was to be occupied only by qualified men. So, what are the qualifications?

Paul gives us the list in verses 6-9. We covered the list of qualifications back in 1 Timothy 3, but Titus has a few unique qualifications in his list. The first one appears in verse 6, where Paul writes, “his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.”

This qualification has created quite a debate today. Does this mean that an elder’s children will come to faith in Christ or that they have to become Christians? And at what age would this have to happen?

The answer lies in the adjective (pista), which can be translated actively as “believing” or passively as “faithful.”[1] In other words, it can be translated to refer to believers or to those who are behaving. It is used both ways in Paul’s letters.

So, which is it? Is Paul saying that an elder’s children have to be Christians or that they have to be under control?

The only way to determine the meaning of this adjective here is the context. And the context is not about believing but behaving.

Beloved, every qualification in this list is the elder’s responsibility to achieve. But the salvation of his children is not under his power. Even though all godly parents pray for the salvation of their children, only God gets the credit for their salvation.

So, the issue as it relates to an elder’s qualification is not the belief of his children but their behavior. The issue is not the children’s salvation but their submission to the authority of their father—and, I would add, their mother as well. This corresponds perfectly with the list in 1 Timothy 3, where verse 4 says the elder is to “manage his own household well . . . keeping his children submissive.” You might do as I have done and write in the margin of your Bible, next to “his children are believers” in Titus 1:6, the words “his children are behaving.”

Does that mean, then, that little Johnny is a perfect angel? Not at all. Paul indicates here in verse 6 what misbehaving looks like, when he writes that an elder’s children must not be “open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.”

“Debauchery” was a word used of drunkenness at idolatrous parties or festivals. The word for “insubordination” refers to breaking the law without any regret.

This is not a three-year-old or a thirteen-year-old misbehaving. This is an older child who is still living in the elder’s home, and he is being allowed to live a wicked life. That effectively disqualifies the father from becoming an elder.

We find another qualification that is unique to Titus in verse 7: “For an overseer . . . must not be . . . quick-tempered.” This refers to someone who lashes out in anger. An elder is going to deal with difficult situations and difficult people. Does he respond in anger? Is he a bully? Does he push people around verbally or emotionally? If so, he should not be an elder.

In verse 8 there are three more qualifications found only in Titus: “a lover of good . . . upright, holy.” He is a good man with an honest life who wants to walk with God.  

A final qualification is that the elder must “hold firm to the trustworthy word” (verse 9). Simply put, he must love the Bible, read it, study it, believe it, and obey it.

And that is because he is going to have to confront false teachers. Paul describes these false teachers on the island of Crete as “insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers” (verse 10). He adds this in verse 16:

They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Those are strong words.

Beloved, being an elder is not a game. This is not like picking up golf and playing whenever the weather is nice. This is front-line duty—guarding and guiding and feeding and correcting and leading the flock of God. It will never be easy. Congregations and the surrounding culture can still act at times as if they descended from pirates.