12.29.24 – Titus 1

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Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. We join Alan J. Huth as he shares Bible passages and comments from over 30 years of his personal Bible reading journals.

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Today we begin the book of Titus. Titus is one of the smallest of the New Testament books. Only three chapters and only 46 verses. It was written by Paul to his co-worker Titus in about the mid-60s. Titus was not Jewish. He was a Greek taught and nurtured by Paul. Paul went to the island of Crete and established new churches, and he left Titus with those new churches. Like in many other locations where Paul founded new churches, false teaching followed. The letter back to Titus deals with the false teachers, but includes much, much more. the link between faith and practice, belief and behavior, a description of elders or leadership in the church, proper Christian living, and a portrait of a healthy church, proper leadership, proper handling of error, proper Christian living, and the gospel as a proper source of godliness. Paul covers much in only 46 verses in a curt, business-like manner. So let’s get started with Titus chapter 1. We will listen to the 16 verses as recorded in the English Standard Version by Faith Comes by Hearing.

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Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in His word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted, by the command of God our Savior. to Titus, my true child in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. 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. 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. 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. but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. 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. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.” They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure. But to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

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I will be referring to three of my personal Bible reading journals as we go through Titus. The first one is from 1995 when I was a mere 40 years old. The next one will be from 2008 when I was 53 years old. And the last one will be from 2013, five years later. I try to select journals in different decades. So here we are in the 90s, the 00s, and the 0-teens. So let’s look at Titus chapter 1. My Bible reading journal in 1995 is going to be one of these very sparse versions. So, in 1995, on Titus 1, I wrote, quoting some verses, God who cannot lie, which is verse 2, qualifications of elders, which is verses 6 through 9, to be a leader, one must hold fast the faithful word, verse 9. That’s about all I wrote in 1995, but in 2008 I was much wiser. Let’s see what I wrote in 2008. Titus 1, God cannot lie. And then I wrote, church leaders need to be above reproach. Continuing, church teaching should come from holding fast the faithful word. And then, beware of deceivers. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him. In 2013, I actually read the whole book of Titus first and then broke it down into chapters. So on this day, here’s my overview of the whole book of Titus. Read the whole book. Paul’s similar theme. There are false teachers Titus must stand against. Paul proclaims truth. Others come in and dispute it or revert it back to old practices of Judaism. Titus’ job is to stand against false teachers. We have the same today. False teaching in the church. We need pastors and others to stand for biblical truth. The next day, when I read the first chapter again, I wrote in my journal, How would I describe myself like Paul does in verse 1? Who am I? I continued, God never lies. He manifests His promises in His Word, proclaimed accurately by those called or entrusted with it. I have been humbly entrusted with awesome responsibility in Ezra and as one of the top three elected Gideons in the Gideons International. I take it very seriously. I have been elected a place of high leadership in the Gideons and meet most of the qualifications listed by Paul. The questionable one is my children being believers. I must be able to, quote, hold firm the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction. I continued, be an encouragement to others. We are to love, but Paul has some harsh words. We are to rebuke those who contradict truth and silence false teachers, rebuking them sharply. People, quote, profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.” Let’s start this review of chapter 1 of Titus with what I referred to in my last journal, and that’s how would you describe yourself to someone? As Paul describes himself in verse 1, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. How do people see you? Do they see you as a servant of God and a spokesman or an ambassador for Jesus Christ? Next, I referred to this phrase in each of my journals, God who never lies. I think mentally we affirm that, but think about what that really means. If God never lies and we believe the Bible is God’s Word, then it can’t lie. It has to be correct. It has to be true. And therefore, the whole Word of God is believable. We’ll finish chapter 1 by looking at the meat of the chapter, and that’s the qualification of elders. Titus was left in Crete, according to Paul, so that you might put what remained in order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. These verses are referred to by many churches in looking for its volunteer leadership. The first qualification is he is to be above reproach. Here I’d like to refer to my footnote in my English Standard Version Study Bible. Above reproach means there should be no legitimate accusation that could be brought against the elder that would bring disrepute on the gospel or the church. His life should be seen as worthy of imitation. The next qualification is the husband of one wife, and I believe that indicates that elders are male. For example, it does not say, or the wife of one husband. And the next qualification is, his children are believers. That qualification is a little tougher because no father can guarantee the conversion of his own children. And in 1 Timothy 3, the verse that refers to this qualification says, only that children must be well behaved, not that their conversion is a requirement for their father to be an overseer. The qualification list goes on to say he must not be arrogant, or quick-tempered, or a drunkard, or violent, or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. And verse 9 concludes the list of characteristics. 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. So an elder of a church must be a man of the word. To me that means you got to be in it, hopefully each and every day. And secondly, you need to be able to know it so well that you can teach it. And lastly, again, you need to know the word so well that you can rebuke those who contradict it. So according to Paul, those are the characteristics that Titus was to look for as he appointed elders or overseers of all these new churches in Crete. The characteristics of leadership within our churches is to be taken very seriously. The descriptions of an elder or an overseer listed by Paul here seem almost impossible to fulfill. And yet churches need people that they can look up to, people that they can model their behavior after, people who can know the Word, teach the Word, and hold people accountable to the truth of God’s Word. If you’re in a leadership position in a church or a Christian organization, I encourage you to go back sometime today and look at Titus chapter 1 and these qualifications of leadership. Pray them through. Ask God to strengthen your weaknesses and get yourself into and very close to the Word of God on a daily basis. Lord, we thank you that we serve a God who never lies, that we read a Bible that we can trust, and that you have qualifications for leaders in the church that you established. You’re the one that said the gates of hell will never prevail against the church. And we thank you that you have leaders in our churches that can be models for Christian behavior because they’re close, because they’re into, because they know and can instruct us in the word of God. We give you thanks for leaders in our churches today. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. From time to time on the broadcast, I mention Club 365. Club 365 is the Ezra Project’s vault of all audio recordings and all written daily devotions known as Day by Day Through the Bible. 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