Titus 1:5-9

I’m going to invite you to turn to Titus 1 this morning. Because these verses were part of my doctoral work, I could be extremely academic with them. We can do some of that on Wednesday night if you would like. My aim this morning is to lean into the application of our passage. We’re going to work through four questions and one challenge at the end.

— Let’s pray together —

Titus 1:5–9 ESV

5 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— 6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 7 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. 9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

Right away in verse 5, we can draw three conclusions. First, Paul spent time in Crete with Titus. Last week, we learned they were ministry partners and frequently travelled together. Second, they planted churches in multiple towns on the island. This letter has a different focus than some of Paul’s other letters that were written to a specific church. Third, biblical leadership had not been established. We know from the rest of this letter that people were gathering as churches. We don’t know how many, but we do know some of the men were filling the churches with garbage. The rest of chapter one tells us they were empty talkers, deceivers and they were upsetting families. Their minds were defiled. Even though they knew the right things to say, their conduct suggested they did not have a relationship with God.

Titus was left in Crete to supervise a return to biblical truth and biblical action. It is significantly easier to supervise a return to biblical truth intellectually than it is to supervise a return to biblical action, especially in a place like Crete that was full of laziness.

Immediately, Paul instructed Titus how to narrow who might be eligible to serve in church leadership. If you read 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, and 1 Peter 5, you will find 29 qualifiers to measure the person who considers serving in leadership. 17 of qualifiers are found in Titus, but I want to highlight three categories; his character, his reputation and his doctrine.

The sacred stewardship of godly character

We find this category in verse 6. Every person can pretend to have godly character at church. Every person can master the skill of church life for one hour on Sunday morning. It’s not that difficult. Learn to how speak church talk. Become comfortable with giving each other a Sunday smile. Remind yourself the standard answer for “how are you today” is “good” or “not bad” even though you’re a mess inside. Decide to stop arguing before you turn into the parking lot. The measurement of a person’s character is not determined by coming to a building on Sunday morning, rather a person’s character is filtered through life at home and life at work.

Look at verse 6 - “if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.”

Paul doesn’t waste any time opening the scabs of our soul or the wounds of our family.

Question #1 - Is there known sin in a man’s life? Are there grounds for accusation in your life? Have you chosen to keep specific sins in your life? Do you live a life of repentance? Do your actions and your words show you agree with God? Do you let your mind wander aimlessly? Do you participate with inappropriate jokes at work? Does an innocent look at a woman become a gaze? Do you revisit websites that you stumbled upon? A man would have a difficult time convincing me the rest of verse 6 is true when he harbors sin in his life.

Question #2 - Does he faithfully prioritize his family above all things? We talked about this question in Hebrews 12. Do you show Ephesians 5 love to your wife? Does your love help her become more holy and blameless? Are you kind to her? Are you gentle with you? Do you serve her? Do you speak softly to her? Do you keep your mouth shut long enough to value what she has to say? Would your children agree with your answers? Is the care you provide your wife as obvious as a pimple on a 16-year olds cheek?

If you have children at home, do you continually put the cross in front of them? 1 Timothy 3 says, “he must manage his own household well.” Do you engage in soul care or are you busy managing behavior? Sometimes it is necessary to manage our children’s behavior as training them, but what if you spent 25% of your parenting on caring for their soul? Be careful that you don’t hold your children to a standard that you don’t hold yourself to. Nurture. Shepherd. Care. Pray. Take them to the cross.

The sacred stewardship of godly reputation

Our character at home is the most authentic character we have. We let our guard down and wind down for the day, but Paul gives Titus a list that indicates who we are outside the home matters just as much.

Question #3 - Does he pursue control or can his temper be easily ignited? We don’t need to ask your boss or co-workers about this question, because your wife and/or kids will tell us. Look at Verse 7. As an illustration for this verse, I have never been drunk and it is likely that I will never be drunk. But I’ve seen drunk people and stoned people. People under the influence of a substance think they are in control when they are not. The harder they work to control their surroundings, the more obvious their lack of control becomes. The carelessness of this situation causes some people laugh, or feel sorry for them, or feel in danger around them, or feel uncertainty about what happens next, and maybe avoid them on the roads.

Do you know who else thinks they are in control? Arrogant people think they are in control. Quick-tempered people try to manipulate control. Violent people use force to manufacture control. Greed deceives people into believing possessions and status increases our ability to control.

If you look back at verse six, you’ll see ‘debauchery,’ which is submitting to excessiveness in life. The idea is self-dependency. In reality, self-dependency is rebellion against God.

Some of us are guilty of debauchery because we pursue control or our temper is easily ignited. 1 Corinthians 6:12 says, “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.” There are people, maybe in this room, that have created a life of self-dependency that pursues control of every situation. There comes a day when life has twists and turns that can no longer be controlled and those people become miserable because their life no longer has the meaning it once had. They don’t know where to turn, so they become bitter and resentful people. The control they worked their entire life to have is gone, including control over their emotions.

The harder they work to control their surroundings, the more obvious their lack of control becomes. Friends, it takes a lifetime to build a godly reputation but not much time to destroy it. Men who once were dependable church leaders can lose their qualification when verse seven infects their life.

Question #4 - Is there evidence his godly reputation is being nurtured and cultivated? Look at verse 8 - He must be hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. Such attributes are evidence of humility and allegiance to Christ. Paul tells Titus to find leaders that are hospitable. You cannot put the needs of others in front of yours without humility. Paul tells Titus to look for men that love good, are self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. Many of you have been in our house and you’ve seen our piano. That piano has been in our family for over 100 years and it has moved with us a few times. When we brought it into our house, Maia held the door open and it required the other five of us to get it 10 feet from the front door. Our piano has a resolve that cannot be moved without significant effort. The church leader that is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined has the resolve of our heavy, 100-year old piano. These attributes are nurtured and cultivated through an unwavering allegiance to Jesus Christ and a never-ending decision to put the needs of others ahead of your own.

The sacred stewardship of sound doctrine

One of the reasons I preach through books of the Bible is because the text speaks for itself. Every person can read a Bible without seminary training and gain understanding and biblical wisdom. Look at verse 9 - He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught.

A few thoughts before I conclude.

First, this verse tells us that God’s Word is trustworthy as it is written on the pages in our lap or on our screen. We don’t need to add to it or subtract from it. If we agree with God on matters he has been specific about, then we trust the 66 books that we have in front of us have been ordained by the Lord for our edification.

Second, this verse tells us that we must maintain a firm grip. Let me illustration. When I was a youth pastor in Grand Haven, a couple in our church would take high school students tubing on Lake Michigan. I avoided getting on the tube as long as I could because I knew the goal was to knock me off quickly. It was almost time to head back to shore and I got bullied onto that tube and there was no way to stop what was coming. I don’t know how fast we were going, but I was in a tunnel of water on either side of me like the Red Sea had parted. Hang on like your life depends on it. Then the boat started doing figure 8’s and the Red Sea walls were crashing into each other. Hang on like your life depends on it. Everything around me screamed “let go” but I hung on like my life depended on it.

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught - like your like depends on it - so he is able to accurately teach the Bible and boldly rebuke those who disagree with God on matters he is specific about.

I ended up off the tube and in the water, but I maintained a firm grip longer than anybody in the boat thought I would.

When cultural waves are crashing into us and throwing us all over the place, maintain a firm grip on the trustworthy word as written.

Church leaders must have godly character, a godly reputation and sound doctrine. Any recipe that does not include all three will end badly. Next week, we’ll see some of those bad results in the rest of Titus 1.