Titus Chapter 1

vs 1

This letter was written by Paul the verbose - who takes three verses to introduce himself before even getting to who it's written to!

It's interesting that Paul here introduces himself as an apostle of Jesus. It's such an important title, doubly so for Paul, whom can only say he saw Jesus in a vision. He says his apostleship and service to God is for the sake of our faith, and the knowledge that leads to godliness.

vs 2

As I've said before, while it is ok for people to say "Even if God didn't save me from death, he's still worth worshipping", our faith is actually built on God's promise of eternal life. And of course, we can trust God's promise, because he doesn't lie.

vs 3

Gee, you're not talking to Gentiles are you Paul? While Paul does sound a little full of himself and his preaching mission, I guess he was called specifically to be the light to the Gentiles.

vs 4

Oh, wait, this letter is to someone? Titus, obviously a close disciple of Paul's and referred to very lovingly.

vs 5

Every town! Wow, did Crete see some sort of massive revival or something? Probably not - but there was probably enough towns that they each had a small group of believers, and every group, no matter how small, needs leaders.

But does this directive suggest that Titus is to take some sort of role as a bishop over the whole island of Crete, with smaller leaders over towns? We'll wait and see for the moment.

vs 6

The NIV repeats the word elders here, but it isn't repeated in the greek. The greek word is presbuteros, by the way, which is a comparative of presbus, meaning elderly. So elder and presbyter really mean the same thing. Bishop, well, we'll see.

It's actually a little funny how this is written. Although I wouldn't suggest this is the only way of reading it, in the greek you could possibly read it "appoint elders, as I directed you - if you can actually find people who are husbands of one wife with children who are believers and not unruly" - as if these might be a hard thing to find in Crete!

Damn these rules make it hard to be an elder - doubly so if you have children!

vs 7

The word here is episkopos, that is, bishop. Are they used interchangably, or do they mean different things? To me, the reading seems fairly obvious that they overlap, and are talking about the same thing.

Any mention of sexual deviancy or adultery there? No, in fact what are the warnings that Paul gives about people who could be in leadership? They are all things that (with the exception of drunkenness) we would more or less accept in people as things which everybody does. *bzzzzzz!* Sorry! Paul says no! No overbearing leaders. No quick-tempered or violent leaders. No leaders ripping people off (either in their leadership or in their business practices methinks).

Now don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that being a homosexual or adulterer is a good thing for a leader to do, or that we should ignore those things because Paul doesn't specifically rate them. What I am saying is almost the opposite - the person we're looking for for leadership should be weighed up on a much higher scale! Adultery and so on don't even make the first cut, but if we say "Ok, he's not an adulterer and not a homosexual" we are actually selling ourselves short! They should fill all these conditions.

vs 8

A leader is meant to offer hospitality, love good, and be self controlled and disciplined. He's meant to be holy. Like I said, these are not easy rules to follow! No wonder Paul might have been saying "I'll be surprised if you can find the likes of these in Crete". I'd be surprised if we could find the likes of these in half of our churches!

I have heard many people say that all Christians should seek to live this way, because leadership is something to be looked up to and strived towards. I agree. But we've also got to pragmatically choose the people who actually act like this! They do exist, although even though we don't live in Crete I often wonder how many there are around...