Today we start a new series on Titus. I'm going for the record here, in how little I say about the book before we jump in. Verse 1:
(1) Paul, a slave of God.
Now, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
in accordance with the faith(fulness?) of God's chosen ones,
and the knowledge of the truth-- the one in accordance with godliness,
Paul starts his letter to Titus, by describing himself. How does Paul view himself?
He is, first of all, God's slave. This is a really interesting way to talk about yourself, and I'm not sure how to unpack it. You could say, Paul is God's possession. Or, Paul is not in charge of his own life; God is. I was reading Smith Wigglesworth this past week, and one of the things he talks about, is how to reach a place where you can be filled with the Spirit, and with power, and stay filled. He answers this, in terms of abiding. You have to abide in Christ, and with Christ. And the path to abiding, and staying with Christ, has four main things. Maybe. I'm still trying to figure this out:
The first, is repentance. All the sins you tolerate in your life, and tell yourself aren't a big deal, and that God doesn't mind, He minds. You have to turn from them, give them up, and come back to God.
The second, is surrender. There are maybe areas in your life where you don't want to give up control. Those things mean a lot to you. In my experience, it's really easy to figure out what those things are, if you truly want to know. Just start a prayer to God: "God, I surrender my..." And the things that pop in your head, that you don't want to surrender, are the things keeping you from abiding with Christ at a deeper, higher level. For myself, apparently, it's wealth, and my job. So yesterday, thinking about these things, I prayed this to God: "God, I enjoy my job, most days. I value it. And I don't want to give it up, or the wealth it has given me. But I surrender these things, and everything else, to you."
The third, is yielding. You give control to God. You yield, and yield, and yield, until there's nothing left of you, and you are truly God's slave, and you are entirely committed to him.
The fourth, is to ask. Ask God to give you his Spirit, knowing that your Father gives good gifts (Luke 11:13). Ask God to come and abide in you, and with you, in a deeper way.
Now, I'm not sure that Paul means exactly all of this when he calls himself God's slave. I wanted to get this on paper, and teach it, so that hopefully I don't forget it. But what Paul means, is certainly close to this. Paul has reached the point in his life, where he voluntarily lives as God's slave. He has died to himself, and there is nothing left of Paul. He will do nothing for himself, but he instead, lives only for Christ.
Later in this letter, Paul is going to ask slaves for something tough. Even though in Christ, they are equals with free people, and raised up, and exalted, Paul is going to ask them to voluntarily surrender, and live in submission, and subjection, to their masters. When Paul does this, we are supposed to find ourselves thinking about Titus 1:1. Paul doesn't ask anything, or command anything, to others, that he doesn't do himself.
He is God's slave.
Paul then goes on to describe himself as Jesus' apostle. Outside of the Bible, "apostle" means something like "envoy," or "representative." Inside the Bible, what the word "apostle" means is actually really complicated. The 12 were apostles. And so was Paul. But there are others in the church beyond them given this title. Off the top of my head, I can think of Barnabas (Acts 14:14), and Junia-- a woman (Acts 16:7). But I'm going to let that go, for now, and keep moving.
Let's reread verse 1:
(1) Paul, a slave of God.
Now, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
in accordance with the faith(fulness?) of God's chosen ones,
and the knowledge of the truth-- the one in accordance with godliness,
It's quite often the case that when you are talking with other Christians, they want to know what kind of Christian you are. It's like Christianity is a filing cabinet, and they want to put you in the right folder, carefully sequenced, so that they understand who you are. They want to know your denomination. If you're a Calvinist or Arminian. If you're a Free Will Baptist, or a Reformed Baptist. If you're an ELCA Lutheran, or Lutheran Brethren, or Missouri Synod Lutheran. If you think that God still heals through people, or if those days are done.
Now, some of us, at different points in our life, have found ourselves in churches where there's an uncomfortable fit. We are quite a bit different, in some pretty big areas, from other Christians in the church. We feel a little like an oversized folder, that has to be shoved into the filing cabinet to make it fit.
What Paul is doing here, is saying something about himself, and the filing cabinet. Paul fits comfortably inside of God's church. His ministry, and teaching, are a clean fit. They are in conformity with (another suggested gloss for "kata" in the lexicons) what the church believes, and teaches, and promotes. Paul is sometimes viewed as a lone ranger, or as at odds with the church as a whole. But Paul certainly doesn't view himself that way. He slots in quite nicely.
Now, why does Paul start his letter to Titus by talking about his fit inside the larger church?
As we read, we are going to see that this letter is written against a backdrop of controversy. In Crete, where Titus is ministering, there is a group of Christians-- people inside the church-- who are pushing some bad teaching. And this group is pushing back against Titus, and against Paul.
So what Paul is doing here, really, is reminding Titus about whose teaching is in line with the universal church. Paul says to Titus, "My apostleship is in conformity with the faith of God's chosen people. And, secondly, my teaching results in knowledge of the truth, and godliness."
One of the marks of authentic, orthodox teaching, is that it leads to increased godliness. A great teacher will call you to view life from God's perspective, and to live from a higher place. Destructive teaching-- teaching that doesn't lead to godliness-- will reassure you that you're doing okay, and living okay, even if you're not. Classically, this is called antinomianism. More recently, it's called "free grace" theology. But one way or another, destructive teaching encourages people that a life of compromise, and slavery to Sin, won't separate you from Christ's love, or change how God feels about you. It will tell you that God loves you, in an unchanging way.
So Paul began by describing his slavery to God, and his apostleship. And now, in verse 2, he describes the goal of his work. Paul has a purpose-driven ministry:
(2) toward the goal of the hope of eternal life,
which The Non-Lying God promised before eternal ages.
(3) Now, He revealed, in its particular (Runge: "proper") times, his message in the proclamation/preaching,
with which I was entrusted in accordance with the command of our Savior God.
It's a little unclear how exactly verse 2 fits in with verse 1 (so also Ben Witherington, who was helpful here). But I think the idea is something like this: When Paul teaches, he teaches truth. And this truth, when received by his audience, leads to godliness. And godliness has, as its goal, eternal life. You live rightly toward God and people, with one eye set on the hope of eternal life.
Verse 3 is also a little tricky. But I think the idea is that the good news about Jesus Christ, and what Jesus accomplished through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, is a good news that was promised centuries before, in the OT (see Isaiah 61?, and the way Jesus announces himself as its fulfillment in Luke 4:18-19?). There are scattered bits of hope, found throughout the OT, of a time when God would give his people new hearts-- soft hearts-- and would give them his Holy Spirit, so that his people could live faithfully toward God, and each other. God's people wouldn't always be broken, and violent, and selfish. Someday, we would become a new type of creation.
That day, is here. That day, is proclaimed through Paul, as he was commanded by his Savior God.
So this is an exciting time to live. And it's a critical time-- we have something important, that needs to be shared
with the world.
At this point, let's press on, and read verses 4-9:
(4) To Titus, my true child in accordance with the common faith(fulness):
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
(5) For this reason I left you in Crete:
in order that the things remaining/lacking, you would set in order,
and that you would appoint in every city, elders,
as I to you gave detailed instructions--
(6) if anyone is irreproachable, a one-woman man/husband, faithful children having, not being accused of wasteful/wanton/reckless living, or undisciplined/rebellious.
(7) For the overseer must be above reproach, as managers/administrators of God's household,
not arrogant, not irritable/quick-tempered, not one who drinks too much, not violent, not eager for ill-gotten gains (Brill),
(8) but stranger-loving (h/t Witherington)/hospitable, loving the good, sensible/wise, righteous, pious/holy/devout, having one's emotions/impulses/desires under control (BDAG), (9) holding fast to the message in conformity to faithful teaching,
in order that he would able both to exhort/encourage in the sound instruction,
and the ones opposing, he would be able to expose/convict/reprove.
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On verse 6, "faithful children."
Often translated as "believing children," but the parallel in 1 Timothy 3:4 suggests, "children who live faithfully toward their parents" (so also NET Bible). A good example then, though debated, of what "faith" means. So also Titus 2:10, where slaves should show good "faith/faithfulness/loyalty" to their master. So the idea isn't that your children have to be Christians; it's that they should live faithfully toward their parents, honoring them and being "good/faithful" kids toward them.
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Paul starts the letter proper here by reminding Titus about his job-- his ministry.
When Paul left Crete, he left the job half-done. There were things remaining that needed to get put in order. The churches there were not yet mature, and able to function by themselves. What exactly those remaining things are, Paul doesn't say. Both Paul and Titus know what needs to be done, to have things ordered. So that's one of the things Paul reminds Titus about-- the to-do list.
The other thing that needs to happen, is that elders need to be appointed in every city. And Paul here gives a lot of advice, in how to pick a good elder. There's a kind of massive list of qualities to look for, and qualities to avoid. It's quite the list. All the things are important. But let me just focus on three of them:
The first thing Paul mentions, is that an elder candidate should be "irreproachable." This is a word that has to do with reputation. An elder needs to be someone respected within the broader community. There is a pastor in town who, for many years, worked bi-vocationally at Cavendish Farms. And my father-in-law, who also used to work there, one time said, "I never heard anyone say anything bad about him at work."
That's the idea here. Elders should have a good reputation-- they should live an honorable, respected life.
The second quality I want to grab, is the first one in verse 9: "stranger-loving."
The idea here, is that an elder needs to be a warm, welcoming person to new people. One of the hardest things you can do in life, is show up at a new church-- especially if you're single. It's hard joining a group of people who all apparently know each other, and love each other, and serve and worship God together. It can be really hard to break into that, and feel like you belong.
Ideally, we would all be stranger-loving. We may genuinely enjoy spending time with each other, and catching up. Some of us, when you put us in a room together, can comfortably talk for hours about all kinds of stuff. But when there' s a new face, ideally, it's like those of us who are good friends don't even know each other. What we see, is the new face. Who we talk to, is the new person, or new family.
But if that's not you-- if you are content with your existing friendships, and with who is here already-- then you can't be an elder. And just notice, this gets pride of place in verse 9. This is just as important-- maybe more important-- than being a sound teacher, or living a godly life. This household-- this family-- needs to open to new family members. This family needs to be warm, and inviting, and welcoming. And even if individual members among us struggle with that, the elders have to get it right. They have to model a better way, and sometimes they need to tell me, "Stop talking to [name], and go talk to that new person."
The third quality I want to talk about is teaching [I think the reason Paul delays this one until the end, if you look at how it's diagramed, is so that he can spend more time unpacking it without losing the flow of his letter]. An elder, or overseer, needs to be sound in the faith, in two specific ways. First, the elder needs to be able to exhort/encourage in sound instruction. This doesn't mean that elders need to know Greek or Hebrew, or that they need to go to seminary. What they need, is to be able to encourage this family to live the right way. They need to be able to steer you away from the dark paths of sin, and toward the path of righteousness.
The second thing, in teaching, that an elder needs to be able to do, is refute this false teaching going on at Crete.
Up to this point in the letter, we've had no real hints about what this looks like. But any elder in Crete, in any of the churches, needs to be able to tear this false teaching apart, and explain why it's dangerous.
In verse 10, Paul goes on to strengthen this point. Here, we get some clues about the false teachers (using a "for" statement):
(10) For there are many-- even rebellious/independent-- talking idly (BDAG)/nonsensically (Brill), and deceivers-- that is, the ones from the circumcision,
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"malista" is often translated as "especially." I have, instead, "that is." It can also serve as a clarifying remark. Witherington has a helpful discussion here, that's based on some scholar's journal article on it who I can't remember.
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(11) who must be silenced/reigned in,
who, whole families they are destroying/jeopardizing, [whole families=focused],
teaching what shouldn't be taught for the sake of dishonest gain.
(12) Someone from among them said-- one of their own prophets--
"Cretans [are] always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons."
(13) This testimony is true.
For this reason expose/convict/reprove them severely,
in order that they would be sound/whole in the faith,
(14) not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of people,
turning away from the truth.
Notice two things here. First, the group of false teachers is connected with "the circumcision group." It has something to do with "Jewish myths" and "human commands."
And second, notice that these false teachers are Christians. The goal here, in verse 13, is that they would become sound or healthy in faith. We are talking about open arguments between Christians. Paul and Titus are on one side, and some from the circumcision group are on the other.
In verse 15, Paul gives a brief summary of what Titus should teach. In broad overview, this is the correct position on all of this, that Titus needs to pass on:
(15) All things [are] clean/pure to the clean/pure.
Now, to the ones who are defiled and unfaithful, nothing is clean/pure,
but both their mind and conscience have been defiled.
Probably, Paul is talking about Jewish food laws here. If you are clean/pure, all foods are clean/pure. You can eat bacon, or bat soup, or shark. It's not the foods that go into your stomach that make you unclean.
On the other hand, if you are defiled and unfaithful, nothing is clean/pure. Everything you put in your mouth is defiled, as soon as it touches your lips, because you are defiled.
What causes a person to be clean or unclean, isn't what they eat.
If it's not food, what is it?
Jesus said, that it's what comes out of a person that makes them unclean. And that's true.
Here, I think we see another source of defilement. If you misunderstand our Gentile relationship to Jewish food laws, and think that bacon is off-limits, and then you teach others that they are wrong, you are defiled.
There are godly Christians who won't eat foods called unclean in the OT. And that's fine-- maybe you're a Jew. Maybe you grew up in Seventh Day Adventism, and those foods feel unclean, and bother your conscience, when you eat them. That's fine. If it feels like sin to eat them, Paul says in Romans, don't eat them (Romans 14:14).
But what you can't do, is teach others that those foods are sinful. That, defiles you.
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Verse 15 by itself could be used in ways Paul never intends. It's the kind of thing that the Corinthian church would've turned into a misinterpreted slogan. "I can live however I want, see whatever, do whatever, because I'm clean in Christ." But I'm maybe just going to assume no one will misread Paul here.
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Verse 16:
(16) God, they confess to know. ["God" is focused]
Now, by their works they reject/deny [him],
being disgusting/repugnant and disobedient, and for every good work unqualified/worthless.
This is a tough word. When people from the circumcision group tell others that they need to follow Jewish food laws, they are rejecting, and denying, God. They are disgusting, and disobedient. And they become useless for ministry.
Again, Paul is describing people who are Christians. But they are Christians who are making a total mess of things, and actively harming the church.
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For an application today, I really want to focus on Paul's word about loving strangers, and being hospitable. If I could pick one thing for us to change, and be serious about, it would be that. Be open to newcomers. When there's a new face, ignore each other, and make sure the new person is warmly welcomed.
But I'm going to control myself, I think, (and redo my original application), and focus on Paul's main point-- on what to look for in elders.
When it comes to leadership, you can describe the Bible's perspective on it as ambiguous, or mixed. On the one hand, negatively, leaders are something that shouldn't be necessary. In the Garden of Eden, no human is over, or under, any other human. All humans, together, are on an equal footing, ruling over creation together. But the problem, is human sin. Humans, by nature and by default, do really terrible things to each other. We lie, cheat, steal. We insist on our rights, and getting what we want.
And when enough people live this way, at the same time, doing what is right in their own eyes, society falls apart. The book of Judges describes exactly this. If you read through Judges all at once, what you'll see is that Israel slowly falls apart. The judges-- who are the rulers over Israel, and not just like Judge Judys-- become less and less effective. They don't really free Israel from her enemies. They don't create lasting peace. But Judges has this little note of hope. It says, "In those days, there was no king in the land. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6; 21:25).
There's this guarded hope, and optimism, that having a king in charge will help.
Does it?
When we read Samuel-Kings, the answer is, "Sometimes." It depends on the king. When you give that much power and authority to one person, that one person can do an incredible amount of good or evil. That person has great potential, in either direction.
One of the problems we see, when people become leaders, is that small character flaws become magnified. Power corrupts, right? When you have a weakness for women who are off-limits to you, you become Samson, or David, or Solomon. When you become prosperous, and get a huge army, you find yourself taking a census so you can revel in your strength, instead of trusting God. If you fail to discipline your children, and raise them up in their own way, you end up with kids like David's, or Samuel's.
It's really easy for leadership to go bad. And if leaders go bad, the people as a whole suffer.
All of this, I think, is what Paul is getting at here. There are character flaws that elders can't have. An elder who doesn't love strangers, will create a church that is closed to outsiders, ineffective in evangelism, and that will stagnate and die. An arrogant elder will think that God speaks to him, and shows him the direction the church should take, and God doesn't speak to anyone else. He will hear suggestions, and gentle correction, as criticism, and as a failure to submit to his leadership.
Positively, an elder who keeps his impulses, emotions, and actions in check, will be able to handle conflict with wisdom. When churches argue, and fall apart over stupid stuff, an elder can model grace, and patience, and understanding. A humble elder can model what it looks like to be a servant, to not get your way, and to put others first. Elders are people who don't get their way. They live as the least of us (Mark 10:35-45)-- as slaves to us. They are the ones who will make sacrifices, for the sake of the church's unity. And their humility, and sacrifice, shames us, until we find ourselves copying them, and sacrificing our desires for others. This is the way of Christ, and Paul.
So Titus's job is to go through Crete, spending time in each church, and identifying people who will make good elders. It's a serious responsibility, and he has to make good choices, or he will damage all these baby churches. And Paul works hard here to make sure Titus knows what to look for. It's not about worldly success, or charisma, or influence. It's about finding humble, sacrificial people, who love new faces, and who can protect the flock against the circumcision group.
So let me conclude today, by saying three things about leaders:
(1) People are sinful, and leaders can help.
(2) Leaders can be bad, sinful leaders, and make everything worse.
(3) Pick leaders carefully.
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My original application, which I might figure out how to loop back in:
This is passage today that naturally applies, in lots of different ways. It gives us advice for what to look for in an elder. It points us to the freedom we have, in Christ, to eat bacon. It shows us that what defiles someone, isn't food. It's how they live.
If I had to pick one thing from this passage for us to apply, it would have to do with loving strangers. We need to be a warm, inclusive, inviting church. We need to make it as easy as possible for new people to become part our family.
When I was in seminary, I joined a little neighborhood church two blocks from home. I was dating Heidi at the time, but we lived far enough apart, that we went to different churches. So I walked into the church alone.
The first couple weeks there were awkward. Saying that, really understates it. It was uncomfortable, and weird. It's hard to make small talk with strangers, and get to know people. But there was one couple in church who were amazing. I can't remember his wife's name, which is terrible, but Phil and his wife invited me to their house for a couple meals, and made me feel like part of their family. They were wonderful, godly people. And they were the reason that Elm Creek Community Church became my home.
You maybe think it's awkward to talk to new people. It's easy to just sort of eyeball them, and feel sorry for them, and then talk to your friends instead.
But you need to love strangers.
And along these lines, let me offer you a caution, and an encouragement:
So here's the caution first. We, as a church, can reach the point where we decide we are big enough, and have enough friends, and don't need anyone else. Some of us naturally only really need a few friends in life. And once we reach that point, we sort of subtly close the doors of the church. We tolerate new faces, but we ignore them. Eventually what happens, after a month or two, is that newcomers realize they aren't really welcome. They find a different church. Which is great, honestly. Good for them for seeking out of a home where they loved, and cared about, and accepted. Good for them, for leaving us. They made the possible decision.
And what happens to us? Over time, some of us move away. Others, eventually, end up in a coffin. Some of us get in a fight, and leave the church. And the day comes, when we look at what's left of the church, and realize that at some point, we got stupid, and selfish, and unloving. The church dies.
And how does that whole process start? I'm sure scholars studying church growth and decline have lots of theories. But I think it starts, when we stop loving strangers.
So consider this caution an appeal to your baser nature. The day you stop welcoming strangers, is the day this church starts to die.
Now, let me give you an encouragement. When you are warm, and loving, and inviting toward new people, you aren't just obeying Jesus, and loving your neighbor as yourself. You are also setting yourself up to make great friends. Several times in life, it's been the newcomer I've welcomed that's become my best friend at church. That friendship is often a surprising one. It's unexpected. I thought I was doing them a favor (smirking), and showing kindness, and being a great guy, but really I was doing myself a favor. I accidentally set myself up for a deep, long-term friendship. It's often the new friends you make at church, who genuinely care about you (Philippians 2:20), who earnestly pray for you, who support you. They are the ones who become your trusted allies in ministry. They are the safe people, who you can tell anything to, and who you can tell anything.
So love strangers. Make new friends. Make this church, a warm, inviting family.
Translation:
(1) Paul, a slave of God.
Now, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
in accordance with the faith of God's chosen ones,
and the knowledge of the truth-- the one in accordance with godliness,
(2) toward the goal of the hope of eternal life,
which The Non-Lying God promised before eternal ages.
(3) Now, He revealed, in its particular (Runge: "proper") times, his message in the proclamation/preaching,
with which I was entrusted in accordance with the command of our Savior God.
(4) To Titus, my true child in accordance with the common faith(fulness):
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
(5) For this reason I left you in Crete:
in order that the things remaining/lacking, you would set in order,
and that you would appoint in every city, elders,
as I to you gave detailed instructions--
(6) if anyone is irreproachable, a one-woman man/husband, faithful children having, not being accused of wasteful/wanton/reckless living, or undisciplined/rebellious.
(7) For the bishop/overseer must be above reproach, as managers/administrators of God's household,
not arrogant, not irritable/quick-tempered, not one who drinks too much, not violent, not eager for ill-gotten gains (Brill),
(8) but hospitable, loving the good, sensible/wise, righteous, pious/holy/devout, having one's emotions/impulses/desires under control (BDAG), (9) holding fast to the message in conformity to faithful teaching,
in order that he would able both to exhort/encourage in the sound instruction,
and the ones opposing, he would be able to expose/convict/reprove.
(10) For there are many-- even rebellious/independent-- talking idly (BDAG)/nonsensically (Brill), and deceivers, especially the ones from the circumcision,
(11) who must be silenced/reigned in,
who, whole families they are destroying/jeopardizing, [whole families=focused],
teaching what shouldn't be taught for the sake of dishonest gain.
(12) Someone from among them said-- one of their own prophets--
"Cretans [are] always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons."
This testimony is true.
For this reason expose/convict/reprove them severely,
in order that they would be sound/whole in the faith,
not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of people,
turning away from the truth.
(15) All things [are] clean/pure to the clean/pure.
Now, to the ones who are defiled and unfaithful, nothing is clean/pure,
but both their mind and conscience have been defiled.
(16) God, they confess to know. ["God" is focused]
Now, by their works they reject/deny [him],
being disgusting/repugnant and disobedient, and for every good work unqualified/worthless.
