14.1 Key themes⤒🔗

• The list of qualifications in Titus 1 is not exactly the same as the list in 1 Timothy 3, because
  - Timothy and Titus were serving different churches with different challenges;
  - Timothy and Titus already had knowledge of church leadership;
  - the qualifications are all connected.
• When we choose elders today, we must look at all the qualifications that the Holy Spirit has given us.
• An elder must be a lover of good. (This is the third qualification that is found only in Titus 1:5-9.)
• Christ’s people must be eager to do good.
  - A “good work” is something that you do in obedience to God’s commands and because you love God and your neighbour.
• The Holy Spirit uses the gospel to change us into people who love good.
• We need leaders who show by their own example how to live by the gospel and do good.

14.2 Titus 1:7-8 (ESV)←⤒🔗

^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.

© NET Bible

14.3 Titus 3:3-8←⤒🔗

^3. For we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another.

^4. But 'when the kindness of God our Saviour and his love for mankind appeared,

^5. he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,

^6. whom he poured out on us in full measure through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

^7. And so, since we have been justified by his grace, we become heirs with the confident expectation of eternal life.'

^8. This saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on such truths, so that those who have placed their faith in God may be intent on engaging in good works. These things are good and beneficial for all people.

© NET Bible

14.4 Why are the two lists different?←⤒🔗

We are busy looking at six qualifications of an elder that are found only in Titus 1:5-9. You may wonder why these qualifications are not found in 1 Timothy 3:1-7. Why did Paul give one list of qualifications to Timothy, and a different list to Titus?

Here are three reasons:

1. Timothy and Titus were serving different churches with different challenges.←↰⤒🔗

For example, in the church in Ephesus, people liked to talk and argue about all kinds of things (1 Timothy 1:3-7). Maybe this is why Paul told Timothy that elders should be “temperate” (1 Timothy 3:2). Too many people in the church were not temperate. They needed elders who could help them to focus on the gospel.

But in the church in Crete, there were people who acted like “liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons” (Titus 1:12). These people wanted leadership, power, and money (Titus 1:10-14). Maybe that is why Paul reminded Titus that a true overseer is not arrogant. There were too many arrogant people who were trying to become leaders.

2. Timothy and Titus already had knowledge of church leadership.←↰⤒🔗

Timothy and Titus were Paul’s spiritual children (1 Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4). They had travelled and worked with Paul. He would have spoken to them many times about what it means to be a leader in God’s church. So, in his letters to them, he did not need to give a complete list of qualifications. He only needed to remind them of some important things.

3. The qualifications are all connected.←↰⤒🔗

Some of the qualifications are very similar. For example: being “self-controlled” (1 Timothy 3:3) is almost the same as being “disciplined” (Titus 1:8). And if an elder is “temperate” (1 Timothy 3:3), he will not be “arrogant” (Titus 1:7). In the end all the qualifications are connected to the first qualification: that an elder must be above reproach.

Because all the qualifications are connected, Paul did not need to name all of them every time.

14.5 Both lists are important←⤒🔗

What about churches today? Should we use the list of qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 or the list in Titus 1? The answer is, Both. Both these lists come from the Holy Spirit. In these two lists, the Spirit gives us a clear picture of the kind of man that an elder must be.

This means that we cannot ignore any of the twenty qualifications. They are all important, because they all come from God.

Now it is time to look at the third qualification that is found only in Titus 1:5-9. This is, an overseer must be “a lover of good” (verse 8).

14.6 Called to do good works←⤒🔗

When Christ died, he died for a purpose. What was this purpose? Later in his letter to Titus, Paul explains, “He [Christ] gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who are eager to do good” (Titus 2:13-14).

Christ’s purpose was to have a people who belong to him–a “people who are truly his.” He died to free these people from their lawlessness. Now he is purifying them, so that they will be “eager to do good.”

To be “eager to do good” means to love doing good. That is Christ’s purpose for his people. He wants us to use our time, our money, and our strength for good works.

Three more times in the letter, Paul speaks about the importance of good works:

• In Titus 3:1 he says to Titus, “Remind [all the believers] to be…ready for every good work.”
• In Titus 3:8 he says that believers should be “intent on engaging in good works.” This means that they must always be busy doing good.
• In Titus 3:14, he says that the believers must “learn to engage in good works to meet pressing needs and so not be unfruitful.”

What is a “good work”? It is something that you do because you love God and because you love your neighbour (Matthew 22:36-40). It is something that is done in obedience to God’s commands.

• God commands us to:
• pray;
• encourage our fellow believers;
• do our work with honesty;
• show hospitality;
• take care of our elderly parents;
• teach our children about Christ;
• forgive and make peace;
• share the gospel;
• share our money with believers who need it;
• and do many more useful things.

When we fill our lives with these good things, we are fulfilling Christ’s purpose for us.

14.7 An overseer must be a lover of good←⤒🔗

You may remember these words from Titus 3:3: “For we too were once foolish, disobedient…hateful and hating one another.”

Hateful and hating one another. That is how we would still be, if Christ had not loved us. But he loved us and purchased us by his own blood. He made us “a people who are truly his” (Titus 2:14). This wonderful news is called the gospel.

The gospel is powerful. The Holy Spirit uses the gospel to change us into people who love good (Titus 3:4-7). The more we understand the gospel, the more eager we will be to do good.

Around us we see people who are “lovers of themselves,” “lovers of money,” and “loving pleasure rather than loving of God” (2 Timothy 3:2-4). Even as true Christians, we quickly forget the gospel. We quickly begin to live for ourselves again.

That is why we need leaders who love good. By their own example, overseers must show us how to live by the gospel and do good.

Sadly, many Christian leaders today do not love good. They are busy with all kinds of things, but not with good works. It was the same in Titus’ church. There were false teachers who were “unfit for any good deed” (Titus 1:16).

That is why Paul told Titus that an overseer must be a lover of good. He also told Titus, “Encourage younger men…showing yourself to be an example of good works in every way” (Titus 2:7).

As the church of Christ, let us be eager to do good. And let us choose overseers who love good!