BIG IDEA:
APPOINT QUALIFIED ELDERS WHO CAN TEACH AND DEFEND SOUND DOCTRINE
INTRODUCTION:
Paul Zehr: Paul immediately states the purpose for writing to Titus. Unlike the other Pauline epistles (except for Galatians), there is no thanksgiving at the beginning of this epistle. Instead, Paul states the reason Titus was left behind in Crete: to finish the missionary task of organizing these new congregations by appointing church leaders in every town. Titus must appoint elders so that those are not teaching healthy doctrine cannot gain a foothold in these new congregations (1:10-16). Titus’s task is not so much rooting out error as it is putting leaders in place whose teaching will prevent error from creeping into the church.
David Platt: Leadership is crucial to the success of any organization. The church is no exception. Everything rises or falls on leadership, and no corporation, no organization, no body of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will rise above its leadership.
Leadership is influence. If no one is following you, then you are not leading. Today, as always, there is a tremendous need for good, godly leadership in the church. We need men who, by their integrity of life, maturity in Christ, competency in theology, and authenticity in ministry, gain the allegiance of a congregation that knows the love and soul of their shepherd. They trust him (a trust that must be earned not demanded) to provide and protect, feed and lead, teach and tend to their spiritual needs.
John MacArthur: God’s standards for leadership in the church are high, a basic and extremely crucial truth that many evangelical churches today either deny or ignore. New Testament standards for pastors are often lowered, selectively applied, or simply disregarded. Some congregations and denominations pick and choose pastoral qualifications that seem most relevant and appropriate for the times, that satisfy personal preferences, and that do not conflict too sharply with contemporary social standards and practices. Some take the liberty to waive biblical standards when they like a pastor and the application of those standards might result in his dismissal. Nothing is more needed in the church than the careful application of the biblical principles of leadership. Yet sound, qualified spiritual leaders are alarmingly scarce in contemporary churches.
I. (:5) NEED FOR ELDERS
A. Sometimes The Way to Get Ahead is to be Left Behind
“For this reason I left you in Crete“
Thomas Lea: Crete, although relatively small, is one of the larger islands in the Mediterranean Sea. By the second century B.C., Crete had a substantial Jewish population, powerful enough to obtain the protection of Rome. Acts 2:11 reports that Cretan Jews were among those visiting Jerusalem who witnessed the unique moving of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. The large and influential Jewish population on Crete, as well as the initial exposure of Cretan Jews to the gospel at Pentecost, suggests that Crete was a fertile location for missionary work. . .
Most scholars who maintain the Pauline authorship of Titus accept the theory that Paul experienced two Roman imprisonments and that his work with Titus on Crete was done after his first Roman imprisonment, the account of which concludes Acts.
B. Orderliness is Next to Godliness
“that you might set in order what remains“
C. Plurality of Elders is the Norm for the Local Church
“and appoint elders in every city“
Thomas Long: here Paul sets out as the number one priority the appointment of local leaders for the house churches of Crete. Why leaders? Putting good leadership into place on Crete is crucial, not merely because the church needs to be put “in order” and demands, therefore, some solid organization, but rather because the people of Crete desperately need the church to be a place of trust. They need to trust the church, which means that the leadership should be “blameless” (1:6) and the word they speak and teach must be “trustworthy” (1:9).
D. The Form of Church Government is Not Optional
“as I directed you“
Thomas Lea: Assuming that some form of organization is necessary, the basic biblical pattern for New Testament church organization appears to be that the leadership was
(1) to come from within the church (i.e., local in nature),
(2) to meet certain standards of behavior (i.e., qualified), and
(3) to be plural in composition (i.e., not a leadership dominated by one personality).
These elements, excluding the behavioral qualifications for leadership, are demonstrated by Paul’s action in Acts 14:23.
II. (:6-9A) QUALIFICATIONS FOR ELDERS
A. Gender Requirement — “if any man”
B. General Requirement — “be above reproach” (:6)
“for the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward” (:7)
John MacArthur: Paul is not speaking of sinless perfection but is declaring that leaders of Christ’s church must have no sinful defect in their lives that could justly call their virtue, their righteousness, or their godliness into question and indict them. There must be nothing in their lives to disqualify them as models of moral and spiritual character for believers under their care to emulate. They not only must teach and preach rightly but also must live rightly. Paul charged Timothy that “in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity” he was to show himself as “an example of those who believe” (1 Tim. 4:12).
C. Family Requirements
- With respect to His Wife
“the husband of one wife“
Robert Yarbrough: What is the quality of their character when it comes to marital loyalty, including sexual purity? For most if not all human males, this is a litmus test of their character in every other domain of their lives, at least as far as God is concerned, who sees the heart. Jesus set forth a high standard for his would-be followers when he said that to look on a woman lustfully is tantamount to a liaison with her (Matt 5:28). This is not a swipe at sexual activity but a confirmation of its sanctity in lawful matrimony, a given in Old Testament teaching and subsequent Jewish tradition. Paul endorses marriage in 1 Cor 7, 1 Tim 4:3–4, and elsewhere. The precise sentiment of “faithful to his wife” is set forth powerfully in Scripture (Prov 5:15–20).
David Platt: That an elder is not a polygamist is a given. Most likely Paul is not disqualifying the widower or those never married. What of the divorced? Here the issue becomes somewhat murky.
Personally I do not disconnect “blameless” and “one-woman man.” Hence any man guilty of adultery is disqualified for life from leadership. My understanding of this verse is that any divorcee should not pastor. However, I exercise Christian grace and give room for Christian conscience at this point.
Bottom line: this is a man who is in love with, committed to, and devoted to only one woman, and that woman is his wife. John McArthur says, “An elder must have an unsullied, lifelong reputation for devotion to his spouse and to sexual purity” (MacArthur, Titus, 28). A lustful man who flirts with women other than his wife also would disqualify himself for leadership in God’s church. Addiction to pornography tragically would disqualify him as well.
- With respect to His children
a. Positive — “having children who believe“
b. Negative — “not accused of dissipation or rebellion“
David Pratt: While under our watch care, however long that is, our children cannot be characterized by “wildness or rebellion.” A godly leader, a godly dad, will do whatever is necessary in terms of time and attention to nurture his children in the training and instruction of the Lord (Deut 6:4-9; Eph 6:4).
D. Character Requirements
- “not self-willed“
Homer Kent: This adjective is derived from hedomai, enjoy oneself, take pleasure, and autos, self. Thus comes the meaning of self-pleasing, self-willed, arrogant. Here is the head-strong, stubborn man who demands his own way without regard for others.
William Barclay: Elders must not be obstinately self-willed. The Greek is authadēs, which literally means pleasing himself. The person who is authadēs has been described as someone ‘who is so pleased with himself that nothing else pleases him and he is not interested in pleasing anybody’. R. C. Trench, the Archbishop of Dublin, said of such a man that ‘he obstinately maintains his own opinion, or asserts his own rights, while he is reckless of the rights, opinions and interests of others’.
The Greek ethical writers had much to say about this fault of authadeia. Aristotle set on the one extreme the man who pleases everybody (areskos), and on the other extreme the man who pleases nobody (authadēs), and between them the man who had in his life a proper dignity (semnos). He said of the authadēs that he was the man who would not converse or associate with anyone. Eudemus said that the authadēs was the man who ‘regulates his life with no respect to others, but who is contemptuous’. Euripides said of him that he was ‘harsh to his fellow citizens through want of culture’. Philodemus said that his character was made up in equal parts of conceit, arrogance and contemptuousness. His conceit made him think too highly of himself; his contemptuousness made him think too meanly of others; and his arrogance made him act on his estimate of himself and others.
Clearly, the person who is authadēs is an unpleasant character. People like that are intolerant, condemning everything that they cannot understand and thinking that there is no way of doing anything except their way. Such a quality, as W. Lock said in his commentary, ‘is fatal to the rule of free men’. No one who shows contemptuous and arrogant intolerance is fit to be an office-bearer of the Church.
- “not quick-tempered“
Robert Yarbrough: Second, they must not be “quick-tempered.” This word appears only here in the New Testament; in the LXX it is found four times and is translated (NETS) “irascible” (Ps 17:49 [48]), “irritable” (Prov 21:19), “passionate” (Prov 22:24), and “quick-tempered” (Prov 29:22). Like many of the qualifications (or disqualifications) Paul mentions, this one is rooted primarily in common sense, as a hothead is unlikely to prosper in the Christian care of souls. “It is to one’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel” (Prov 20:3). The evil of unbridled impulse is a prominent feature in Old Testament narrative (e.g., Moses striking the rock; the insane fury of King Saul toward his son Jonathan and David) and wisdom literature (e.g., Prov 29:8, 11; 30:33), teaching the lesson that “human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires” (Jas 1:20). Rage is likewise condemned in Hellenistic moralism, which in Stoic form prized freedom from all affect whatsoever. Pastors need not become Stoics, but of all people they should not readily or frequently lose their temper.
- “not addicted to wine“
- “not pugnacious“
William Barclay: The Greeks themselves widened the meaning of this word to include not only violence in action but also violence in speech. The word came to mean one who browbeats others, and it may well be that it should be translated in this way here. Anyone who abandons love and resorts to violence of action or of speech is not fit to be an office-bearer of the Christian Church.
- “not fond of sordid gain“
- “hospitable“
- “loving what is good“
William Barclay: An elder must also be philagathos, a word which means either someone who loves good things or who loves good people, and which Aristotle uses in the sense of unselfish; that is, someone who loves good actions. We do not have to choose between these three meanings; they are all included. The Christian elder must be someone whose heart answers to the good in whatever person, wherever and in whatever circumstances it is found.
- “sensible“
John MacArthur: The sensible person is in command of his mind. He has control of the things he thinks about and does. He does not allow circumstances or the immorality or foolishness of others to distract him and gain his attention and interest. He not only does not become involved in things that are outright immoral and unspiritual but also avoids things that are trivial, foolish, and unproductive. He knows his priorities and is devoted to them.
- “just“
Homer Kent: This term and the one following are similar, but have a different emphasis. ‘Righteous‘ or ‘just‘ refers to conduct which meets the approval of God. The term is a legal one, and here refers to the verdict as pronounced by the divine Judge.
- “devout“
Paul Zehr: the bishop is devout; his inward piety finds outward expression in worship of God. He is pure and holy in his devoutness so that his outward expression of piety is an honest expression of the inward self.
- “self-controlled“
John MacArthur: The self-controlled pastor walks with God in the integrity of his heart. He has the continuing grace of God working in his life to the degree that he is spiritually mature and morally pure. He should be able to say with Paul, “Our proud confidence is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you” (2 Cor. 1:12).
E. Doctrinal Requirement
“holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching“
David Platt: Being devoted to the truth, “holding fast the faithful word” (NASB), means respecting the Bible as the inspired and inerrant Word of God. It means affirming the Bible’s priority, authority, and sufficiency for what we believe and how we will live. It means the minister of God places himself gladly and willingly, and in full submission, under the Word. He is a Word man, a Word minister, a Word-constrained and captivated slave. He will preach this Word and only this Word. He would never think of standing before a congregation and doing anything less than proclaiming the Word of God. He will honor what God has said, and he will honor how God has said it. Bottom line: he will be an expositor of Holy Scripture.
John Stott: Expository preaching is a most exacting discipline. Perhaps that is why it is so rare. Only those will undertake it who are prepared to follow the example of the apostles and say, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables. … We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word” (Acts 6:2, 4). The systematic preaching of the Word is impossible without the systematic study of it. It will not be enough to skim through a few verses in daily Bible reading, nor to study a passage only when we have to preach from it. No. We must daily soak ourselves in the Scriptures. We must not just study, as through a microscope, the linguistic minutiae of a few verses, but take our telescope and scan the wide expanses of God’s Word, assimilating its grand theme of divine sovereignty in the redemption of mankind. “It is blessed,” wrote C. H. Spurgeon, “to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in Scriptural language, and your spirit is flavoured with the words of the Lord, so that your blood is Bibline and the very essence of the Bible flows from you.” (The Preacher’s Portrait [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1961], pp. 30-31)
III. (:9B) FUNCTION OF ELDERS (WITH RESPECT TO SOUND DOCTRINE)
(Not a comprehensive list of their functions; just an emphasis on those functions that relate to remaining faithful to sound doctrine)
A. Teach Sound Doctrine
“that he may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine“
B. Defend Sound Doctrine
“and to refute those who contradict“
William Barclay: They must be able to convict the opponents of the faith. The Greek is elegchein and is a most meaningful word. It means to rebuke people in such a way that they are compelled to admit the error of their ways. Trench says that it means ‘to rebuke another, with such an effectual wielding of the victorious arms of the truth, as to bring him, if not always to a confession, yet at least to a conviction of his sin’. The Athenian orator Demosthenes said that it describes the situation in which a man unanswerably demonstrates the truth of the things that he has said. Aristotle said that it means to prove that things cannot be otherwise than as we have stated them. Christian rebuke means far more than flinging angry and condemning words at people. It means speaking in such a way that they see the error of their ways and accept the truth.
Robert Yarbrough: Calvin’s observation is apt: “A pastor needs two voices, one for gathering the sheep and the other for driving away wolves and thieves.”