The Elders of the Churches: He Must Be a Lover of Good (2)

itus 1:8 The Elders of the Churches: “He Must Be a Lover of Good” 2/25/2024 Tit 1:7-8 For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. φιλάγαθος philagathos (Phee-lah-g-athos) loving what is good From Philos (Fond/Dear) and Agathos (Good/Beneficial) Gill: a lover of good men, or "of good"; the Syriac version renders it, "of good things"; as prayer, preaching, reading, meditation, spiritual conversation, and every religious exercise: or "of good men"; for such an elder or bishop has chiefly to do and converse with; and if he is not a lover of them, their company will be disagreeable to him, and he will be of no advantage to them; and if he does not love the souls of men, he will not naturally care for their state, or be concerned for their good. Barnes: A lover of good men - Margin, “or things.” The Greek (φιλάγαθος philagathos) means, a lover of good, and may apply to any thing that is good. It may refer to good men, as included under the general term good; and there is no more essential qualification of a bishop than this. A man who sustains the office of a minister of the gospel, should love every good object, and be ever ready to promote it; and he should love every good man, no matter in what denomination or country he may be found - no matter what his complexion, and no matter what his rank in life; compare the notes at Php_4:8. M. Henry: A lover of good men, or of good things; ministers should be exemplary in both; this will evince their open piety, and likeness to God and their Master Jesus Christ: Do good to all, but especially to those of the household of faith, those who are the excellent of the earth, in whom should be all our delight. As we continue through the list of positive exhortations Paul gives to Titus regarding the elders of the Churches in Crete, we read this… He must be “a lover of Good (of good things/men).” How do we define this? He loves something. That is not new to men. All of love things, all of us have desire. What does it mean to love? It is passion rather than passivity, ambition rather than apathy, investment rather than idleness. There is a purposeful bent in his manner; he strives enthusiastically to satisfy his appetite. What is the thing to which he strives? What is the object of desire Paul commends? The man appointed as an elder must love what is Good. The very attribute of good(ness) comes from God Himself. God’s goodness is the perfection of His nature and moral excellence. To understand our duty, and to grasp what Paul is urging in the pursuit of loving Good Things, it is imperative that we know how to qualify what is good – and what is not. I. God is Good God’s goodness in seen primarily in three dimensions: 1) The goodness found in God Himself (ad intra) 2) The goodness of God manifested in His created work (ad extra) 3) The goodness of God manifested in Redemption A. God’s Goodness in Himself In the first case, God is divinely perfect. He lacks nothing in His character, and as the source of all things, He is supreme and perfect. There can be no adding to, nor diminishing of, His glory; He is the supreme and absolute Good. He does not rely on His creation to establish His perfection, nor to fulfill something which His divine character found necessary to reach its full potential. When something is – in and of itself – perfect, with flaw or blemish, it necessarily define that it is good. Since there is no chance of becoming more (or less) holy and supreme, God’s immutability, His unchanging nature, sets for us the only standard of true goodness looks like. The Lexham Theological Survey say it in this way: “A thing is good to the extent that it is all that it can and should be—namely, perfect. God alone is all that he can and should be. Thus, since God is wholly perfect, lacking nothing, he is the supreme and absolute good. Moreover, since He is already himself fully perfect according to His nature, there is no end—no good—toward which He strives. That is to say, God is immutably incapable of becoming more good or less good. To refer to God’s goodness is simply to refer to God himself. That is to say, God’s essence is identical with goodness, and goodness is an essential and necessary attribute of the divine nature. Since God is infinite, His goodness is as immeasurable as his being and nature. Moreover, as self-sufficient, God does not derive his goodness from anything else. Thus, He rests in Himself as good.”

We see, perhaps, no greater picture of God’s goodness, than the one contemplated in the perfection of the relations among the persons of the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit eternally delight, love, and rest in the goodness of each other. Each, because He is the fullness of the Godhead, lacks nothing in the perfection of his eternal relations with the other persons.

B. God’s Goodness in His Created Work Secondly we see that God’s goodness is not static and isolated within Himself, but is diffusive and overflowing as demonstrated by God’s free decision to create. As Creator, His goodness overflows in both creation and providence. Creation is good because God, who is good, is its source and cause, its ground and standard. His work was good as He created it, it did not “become good” because He declared it be so. His conversation in Genesis 1 is affirming the goodness of His own design and work. Genesis 1:31 And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Furthermore, there is nothing in Creation that compares or measures against God’s work, for all things were created by Him. Paul write in Col 1:16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. There are those however who seek to detract from God’s goodness by rejecting aspects of His created order, and of His divine provision for us, and do by limiting – or cutting off – the good gifts of the Father, and who, through the deceitfulness of demonic spirits, forbidding marriage, and labeling certain foods as sin. Paul condemns this, writing to Timothy to remember that… 1Ti 4:4-5 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. Again, from the Lexham Commentary: “While divine attributes like infinity and eternity cannot be exemplified by creatures, creatures do share in divine attributes of goodness to a lesser and greater degree. Since God is the supreme and absolute good, He is the chief end toward which creation strives, whether consciously or unconsciously. Thus, humanity’s proper end is to love and rest in God. Moreover, God cannot create evil. The origin of moral evil is the love of lesser goods as ends, instead of loving God as an end through the means of created goods.

The chief purpose for God to create, redeem, and judge is to manifest the fulness of his goodness. As the same single diamond is seen through a plurality of sides, so too the goodness of God is comprehended in a plurality of attributes. In each divine attribute—such as divine mercy, grace, love, patience, justice, and wrath—one can learn what it means for God to be good.”

God’s Goodness in Redemptive Grace God’s goodness can be known through the general revelation of creation, but it is far more evident in the work of redemption as known through special revelation. God’s goodness is portrayed in His love towards his covenant people Psa 25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD! and through blessing them with good things Neh 9:25 And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness. Furthermore, God’s goodness is preeminently seen in the face of Christ, the eternal Son, who took on flesh and was crucified for the human sin of all His elect. The life and death of Christ shows us the true nature of God as merciful, holy, just, gracious, and loving. To each of us sinners, who are undeserving of any good gift, only eternal punishment, God confers His grace. In His perfect goodness, God gives Himself in the act of forgiving, reconciling, and redeeming. Thus the Christian is sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit until, in glory, He is made perfect, finally able to love, delight, and rest in the goodness of God forever. Psalm 100:5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

Nahum 1:7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.

Psalm 107:1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!

Psalm 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Psalm 119:68 You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.

Mark 10:17-22 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Luke 18:19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Psalm 16:2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Psalm 84:11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

II. Our calling is to love and practice Goodness Psalm 37:3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

Romans 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Mark 10:17-22 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 1 Thessalonians 5:21 But test everything; hold fast what is good.

Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Galatians 5:22-25 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Proverbs 11:27 Whoever diligently seeks goodseeks favor, but evil comes to him who searches for it.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Psalm 54:6 With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.

Romans 14:16-18 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. III. Anything besides Goodness is Wickedness We must be very careful lest we fall into our own snare – believing that righteousness comes in any way from within ourselves. None of us are righteous of our own accord, and any self-righteousness at all is wickedness. Thus the mere absence of Good (failing to trust in the redemption of Christ) is by nature evil, and taking our eyes off Him will lead to our corruption and ultimate judgement. Consider these verses: Psalm 53:2-3 God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

Isaiah 64:6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Luke 14:1-35 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” Romans 2:3-5 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. If God is good, then He is the source of good. If we are to imitate God, than we should imitate Him in His goodness. If God, as the source of good, does good, then we should do likewise. Our desire should be for goodness in all things. We should not do this grudgingly, but out of a sincere and honest desire. If we portray ourselves as loving good outwardly, while secretly desiring evil, then we are deceivers, and the truth – and goodness – is not in us. If the desire for good is sincere, it is something which we must pursue wholeheartedly. Paul knew the nature of man was to seek self-righteousness; he was after all, “a Pharisee of Pharisees.” And he knew the penchant of men to be lovers of themselves, rather than lovers of God. When He exhorted Titus to appoint as Elders men who were lovers of good, he was not making a small point to be easily glossed over, assuming that all men in the church naturally fit this description. Being a lover of Good is to be a lover of God, and Paul was intent that Titus understand that Goodness in not an easy pursuit. We are called to die to our sin, not just the sins of commission, wherein we struggle with outward deeds of the flesh, but the sins of omission, whereby we fail to walk in all the goodness of Christ, trusting Him fully for our salvation. In that sense, our eyes are not “fixed upon Jesus,” but on our own righteousness. Ponder upon this as we close… Psalm 1:1-6 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

***Close in Prayer*** Communion Meditation

Who Shall Dwell on Your Holy Hill?

Psa 15:1-5 A Psalm of David. O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. This is the goodness of God at work within us. This is the one worthy to dwell in the house of the Lord. As we approach the time of communion, and ponder on our complete inability to live blamelessly, the Deceiver is there to tell us of our unworthiness of the Table. The nagging doubts we have are his way of telling us, “God really won’t receive you, you have failed to keep His laws so many times… you know that you’re a sinner!” Galatians 2:19-20 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 1Co 11:23-32 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

Benediction Php 4:4-9 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.