Greeting
1 From Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I’m sent to bring about the faith of God’s chosen people and a knowledge of the truth that agrees with godliness.
2 Their faith and this knowledge are based on the hope of eternal life that God, who doesn’t lie, promised before time began. 3 God revealed his message at the appropriate time through preaching, and I was trusted with preaching this message by the command of God our savior.
4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith.
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our savior.
Appointing elders
5 The reason I left you behind in Crete was to organize whatever needs to be done and to appoint elders in each city, as I told you. 6 Elders should be without fault. They should be faithful to their spouse, and have faithful children who can’t be accused of self-indulgence or rebelliousness. 7 This is because supervisors should be without fault as God’s managers: they shouldn’t be stubborn, irritable, addicted to alcohol, a bully, or greedy. 8 Instead, they should show hospitality, love what is good, and be reasonable, ethical, godly, and self-controlled. 9 They must pay attention to the reliable message as it has been taught to them so that they can encourage people with healthy instruction and refute those who speak against it.
Reflection
This job assignment is for elder or leader of a newly planted church. Imagine you are heading into a job interview with Titus, the recipient of this letter from the apostle Paul. What would your resume say about your qualifications for the job? Paul has given Titus the seemingly impossible task of finding leaders (elders) to head up the new churches in the many cities of Crete. To make this task even more difficult, Crete had a reputation as a people who are
“always liars, wild animals, and lazy gluttons,” (Titus 1:12.) To make this job even tougher, there are groups attempting to subvert Paul’s teachings about Christ with false teachings. Sounds like a tough beginning for the elders Titus must hire to continue the work of making disciples for Jesus in Crete.
Paul explains that he is looking for elders who are “without fault.” The Greek word used is anegkletos which means “not to be called to account,” “blameless” or “beyond reproach.” Paul isn’t looking for perfect people, none of us is perfect, Paul is looking for leaders whose lives reflect Christ. Paul lists all the qualities that he is looking for in a spiritually mature Christian,
who will serve as examples of, and leaders to, new Christians. To Paul, this list is evidence of a life transformed by the love of God. It is a life that is modeled on the life of Jesus and it shows that what we believe about God is shown in our actions and words. This means we are living out what we believe, and we will come into conflict with what the world believes and how the
world acts. So we are to be grounded in God’s truth of love and grace and show it to others. We are to have faith in God’s promises of eternal life and have turned our lives over to God’s will. And by God’s grace, the Holy Spirit will transform us into followers of Jesus for the transformation of the world. This life is God’s call to a life of discipleship, of following the way of Jesus.
by Jeneene Reduker
For Pondering and Prayer
Reading this passage may seem to us like it’s an impossible task, that no one can achieve. But we don’t do this on our own, but in union with the help of the Spirit. John Wesley, founder of Methodism, believed that our lives are transformed by God’s sanctifying grace, so that we can achieve “holiness of heart and life.” This is a life long process where the Holy Spirit is at work in us at so that we can be “perfected in love.” Each of us is called to live our lives so that others can know the love of God by our words and actions. Like a resume, the transforming of the Spirit is always adding to our spiritual resumes, that grow in experience over time. Take
some time now to think about what the ‘resume,’ of your life in Christ might say.
Prayer: Holy and Loving God, our hope is in you Lord! Transform our lives by the power of your Holy Spirit to be more like Jesus and strengthen us to proclaim your truth of love and grace to the world. Amen.
