Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / A Pastor’s Family Life Should Not Sully the Church Titus 1:5–9, Part 2

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A Pastor’s Family Life Should Not Sully the Church Titus 1:5–9, Part 2 · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is our second session on Titus one five to nine.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: On account of this, I left you in Crete. I
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Paul left you Titus in Crete on that island south
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: of Athens, so that you might fully set right what
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: is lacking. So I left you there. I was there
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: doing the work, and I didn't finish getting everything in order.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: So I'm asking you to stay and get things in order.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: The first things he mentions. First thing he mentions to
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: get into order is appoint elders in every town as
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I directed you. So it's absolutely crucial that for these
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: churches from town to town to be effective in accomplishing
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: the pursuit of eternal life and knowledge that accords with
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Godliness and the faith of God's people, you need a
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: certain kind of leader. And that's what he unpacks here.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: What kind of leaders do you need? And the first
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: thing he says is, well, put elders in place if anyone,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: if any of them, is above reproach. The husband, one wife,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: and his children are faithful and not open to the
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: charge of debauchery or insubordination. For it is necessary for
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: an overseer, as God's household manager, to be above reproach.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: We'll stop there the Father. As we try to understand
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: why Paul would repeat above reproach once before, once after
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: calling attention to the kind of husband and the kind
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: of father this man is to be. Please grant us
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: insight so that we know what kind of elders to
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: put in our churches, so that our churches can be healthy, strong,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: and not bring reproach upon the Gospel through failed leadership.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. It is clear
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: that's Paul's burden, isn't it. He does not want there
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: to be elders that bring reproach upon the church. It
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: was a curse, then it's a curse now if the
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: leaders of the church become or are the kind of
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: people that the world regards as full of unworthiness. So
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the first thing he says about being above reproach is
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: that you need to be a certain kind of husband.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: We'll come back to these next time. I'm just going
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: to show the structure in this session. A certain kind
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: of husband of one wife, certain kind of father, having
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: faithful sometimes translated believing. We'll talk about that next time.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Children not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: So above reproach is not only repeated, which is unlike
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: anything else in the qualifications listed in one Timothy, and
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: here in Titus, none of the others are repeated. But
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: it's first, right, this is number one, and it is
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: also number one in verse Timothy. An overseer must be
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: above reproach. Different word, but same idea at the head
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: of the list of overseer qualifications in first Timothy. And
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: it's also listed as a qualification for the deacons. So
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: it's number one in the list. It's repeated, it's number
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: one in First Timothy. It's mentioned for the deacons. This
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: is a big deal for Paul. Leaders, elders and deacons
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: who don't bring reproach upon the church. This is what
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: there's great vigilance for in Paul's thinking. Now, here's an
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: amazing way to underline that. Here you see this, let
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: me go ahead and clear it so you can see
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: it more clearly. So you've got above reproach here, and
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: you've got above approach here, and in the middle you
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: have a kind of husband and a kind of father.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: And then you have an argument for Now, what's that supporting?
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: What is it an argument for? When he says, because
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: here it can't be that he is arguing that the
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: elders should be above reproach, because then the argument would say,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: let the elders be above reproach, because it is necessary
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: for the overseer, as God's household manager, to be above reproach.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: That's not an argument, that's just a repetition. You must
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: be above reproach because you must be above approach is
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: not what Paul would say. He doesn't talk like that.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: You don't talk like that. Reasonable people don't say things
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: like that. So what is he arguing for here? He's
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: arguing for this right. He's arguing for the fact that
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: there's got to be a certain kind of husband, and
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: there's got to be a certain kind of father. And
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: then he says, why must there be a husband of
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: one wife? Why must there be a father whose children
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: are not full of debauchery and insubordination? Because the elder
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: is a household manager and he's going to bring reproach
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: upon the house if he doesn't do this. Why is
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: that significant? It's significant because of how different that argument
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: is from One Timothy. The argument in One Timothy goes
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: like this, he must manage his own household. So this
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: the overseer and elder must manage his own household well
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For here's the argument.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: If someone does not know how to manage his own household,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: how will he care for God's church. Now that's a
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: good argument, and it's not the same as in Titus.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: This argument says we need leaders who can care for
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: God's church as a household. One very good way to
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: test if they're able to care for God's family is
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: whether they've cared for their own family. That's the argument,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: really important argument. It's just not the argument here. This
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: argument is all about being above reproach, above reproach. And
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the reason he's saying what he says about husbands and
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: the reason he's saying what he says about fathers, is
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: that he doesn't want the community as it looks upon
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: the household of God, to say, what a bunch of jerks.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Look at those husbands. They're not even faithful to their wives.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: This guy's been married five times. Look at this dad.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: He can't even keep his children out of the brothel.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Now that means we will be helped, I think in
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: interpreting next time, husband, one wife and children who are faithful.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: If We're keep in mind that what is foremost in
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Paul's mind here is not using the quality of the
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: husband and the quality of the father to determine what
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: kind of family helpers they'll be in the church, so
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: that's implicit, but rather whether they will keep outsiders from
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: heaping reproach upon the church.