Latest / Reformed Thinking / Safe to Follow: Elder Qualifications in Titus 1:8—A Lover of Good, Upright, and Holy

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Safe to Follow: Elder Qualifications in Titus 1:8—A Lover of Good, Upright, and Holy · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reform thinking. It is good to have you with us
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today. We are going to do something
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that might seem a little counterintuitive at first.
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Usually when you think about a deep dive, you imagine taking on
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a massive topic. You know, the entire history of
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the Reformation or the problem of evil, or maybe the whole book
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of Romans. We like those big sweeping
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landscapes. We do.
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We love the big picture. But today we're going to do the
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opposite. So we're going to take a
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microscope to a really, really tiny fragment of text.
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We're zooming way in. Way in.
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We're looking at just one verse, and really it's just three
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specific words inside that one verse.
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We're looking at Titus chapter one, verse 8.
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It is such a small piece of real estate in the Bible, but the the
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density of it is just incredible.
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I mean, you could build a whole ecclesiology, a whole doctrine
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of the Church rite on this one verse.
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And that's the claim we're sort of testing today.
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The source material you brought to the table, it includes a
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couple of pretty heavy hitting theological articles, some
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commentaries on the Greek text. And the argument they all seem
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to make is that we've been reading the qualifications for
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elders all wrong. We tend to read the pastoral
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epistles, you know, First Timothy, Titus, almost like a
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hiring checklist. Oh, absolutely.
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It becomes an HR rubric. Is he married?
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Check. Are his kids generally well
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behaved? Check.
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Does he drink too much? No.
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OK, he's hired. Let's put him on the board.
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Exactly, but the sources are arguing that this is such a
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surface level reading. We aren't just looking for a
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decent guy, we are looking at what they call the moral
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architecture of A steward of God.
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That. Phrase is so good that.
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Phrase really stuck with me. Moral Architecture.
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It's a strong phrase because architecture implies design,
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right? Right.
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It implies weight bearing structures.
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It implies that if you pull one piece out, the whole building
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might, might just come down. Paul isn't just throwing random
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adjectives at Titus. He's giving him a blueprint for
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a very specific kind of man who is necessary to survive a very
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specific kind of crisis. And before we even get to the
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man, we have to understand the crisis.
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We have to get the setting. Where are we were on the island
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of Crete. No, when I hear Crete, I think,
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you know, Mediterranean blue water, maybe some feta cheese,
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olive Groves, ancient ruins. It sounds like a pretty great
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place to take a vacation. It might be a nice place to
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visit now, but back in the 1st century, the reputation of Crete
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was, well, let's just say it wasn't the kind of place you'd
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want to raise your kids. The sources mentioned something
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fascinating that the culture was so notorious that the Greeks
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actually turned the name of the island into a verb.
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They did. Yeah.
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Yeah, the verb was critizo to cretinize.
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And I'm guessing that didn't mean to go to the beach.
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No, no, not at all. To cretinize meant to lie.
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It meant to play the hypocrite, to deceive for game.
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Wow. It was a cultural idiom.
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If you were ripping someone off, you were cretinizing them.
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Can you imagine living in a society where your national
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identity is literally synonymous with dishonesty?
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That was just the air they breathed.
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That is wild. It's like if the name of your
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city, say Chicago, became the dictionary definition for scam
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or something. Precisely, and Paul is
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completely aware of this. In Titus 1.12 he actually quotes
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one of their own poets, a guy in Epimenides, and he says Cretans
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are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.
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Evil beasts, that is. That's not a polite description.
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It's visceral, isn't it? I mean, think about what a beast
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does. A beast operates on pure
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instinct. It's driven by appetite, hunger,
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lust, rage. A beast doesn't use reason, it
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just uses force. And lazy gluttons implies they
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want to consume without producing anything.
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They want the food, but they don't want to work the field.
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So Paul is painting this picture of a culture that is just
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defined by raw appetite, deception and chaos.
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And here's the kicker. Paul leaves Titus, his young
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protege, right in the middle of this mess.
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He drops him off on this island of liars and beasts, and he
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gives him a mission. Put what remained into order.
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Order versus chaos. Yeah, that's the fundamental
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conflict of the whole letter. Now let's just play a game here.
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If I'm a modern business consultant or maybe a church
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growth strategist, and I look at the situation, I've got some
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ideas. I bet you do.
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You have a fledgling organization in a hostile,
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chaotic market. The brand reputation of the
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locals is terrible. So my advice would be OK, You
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need a strategy. You need a program.
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You need APR campaign to show everyone how you're different.
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You need a five year plan. That is exactly how we think
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today. We think in terms of systems and
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techniques. If there's a problem, we build a
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program to go fix it. But that is not what Paul does.
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Not at all. He doesn't give Titus a manual
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on how to rebrand the Cretin Church.
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No, Paul's solution to chaos has a program.
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It's a person, or rather, a specific type of person.
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He tells Titus to appoint elders in every town, and the logic is
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just fascinating. He believes that the only way to
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stabilize a community of believers in a culture of
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deception is to install leaders whose internal character is
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ordered, truthful and disciplined.
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And this is really the thesis of our whole deep dive today.
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Order is established through qualified men whose lives embody
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the message. Disorder is solved by character,
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not by technique. That is it.
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That's the whole thing in a nutshell.
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You can have the best bylaws in the world, the best mission
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statement, the best music, the best building, but if the men
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leading it are cretins, if they're liars or beats on the
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inside, the church will collapse.
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But if they have this moral architecture.
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If they have the architecture, the church can withstand the
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culture. It could be an outpost of order
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in a world of chaos. So let's get into it.
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Let's look at the blueprints. We are focusing on verse 8, but
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the sources point out that you can't really understand verse 8
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without just glancing at verse 7 first.
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There's a logical flow here. Right.
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Paul works in negatives before he gets to the positives.
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It's a brilliant structure. In verse 7 he lists what the
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overseer must not be. The disqualified.
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The disqualifiers He must not be arrogant, quick tempered and
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drunkard, violent or greedy for gain.
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It's like he's clearing the construction site.
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You know you've got to bulldoze all the junk and rubble before
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you can pour the foundation. That's a great image.
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And just look at the junk he's clearing out.
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Arrogance, violence, greed, These are the exact traits of
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the evil beasts. A self willed arrogant man
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treats the church like it's his personal Kingdom.
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A greedy man treats the church like it's a business
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opportunity. Paul just says stop.
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If a man has these traits, he is toxic.
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He is out. He cannot be a steward.
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Because a steward, by definition, manages someone
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else's house. If you're arrogant, you think
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it's your house. Correct.
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And the church belongs to God. The elder is just the manager O
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verse 7 puts U all the guardrails.
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Then in verse 8 we get this pivot.
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It starts with the word bud. Now we're moving to what he must
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be. And this brings us to the three
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key terms for today. The source material highlights 3
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specific Greek words in verse 8 that really form the spine of
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this moral architecture. We're going to take these apart
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1 by 1. Let's do it.
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The first pillar, the first virtue, the Greek word is
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filigathon. Filigathon sounds a little bit
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like a marathon, but it's not. Break this word down for us.
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The articles make a huge deal about the linguistic roots here.
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It's a compound word. It combines 2 Greek words
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phyllos, which means friend or having a deep affection for.
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Like Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.
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Exactly. And agathos, which is the word
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for the good. So very literally, it means a
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lover of good, a friend of the good.
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And here's a fun fact for all the word nerds listening, and I
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know you're out there, this word is a hapax legomenon.
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A. Hapax legomenon, which is a
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fancy way of saying it appears only one time in the entire New
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Testament. It's this one spot.
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Just here, Paul reaches into his vocabulary and pulls out this
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very specific, unique term just for the elder.
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So why? I mean, why use this word here
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and nowhere else? Because he is drawing the
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sharpest possible contrast with the false teachers and the
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culture of Crete. Remember, the Cretans are evil
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beasts. And elsewhere, Paul describes
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Saul's teachers as filigtoi lovers of self, or filigoroy
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lovers of money, or filidoy lovers of pleasure.
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I see the pattern. It's all about what you love,
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what your fellows is directed toward, right?
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The false teachers have affections that are curved
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inward. They love what benefits them.
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They love their own reputation, their own wallet, their own
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comfort. Paul uses Philogathon to say no.
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The elder must be fundamentally different.
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His affections have to be turned outward toward what is
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intrinsically good. The phrase used in one of the
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articles is an internal renovation of the affections
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that hits hard. It implies that this isn't just
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about behavior. It's not just about doing your
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duty. Duty is not enough.
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That's the point. You can do the right thing for
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the completely wrong reason. You can give a bunch of money to
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the poor because you want people to see you and think you're
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generous. You can preach a powerful sermon
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because you want people to come up afterward and tell you how
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smart you are. That is exactly what the
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Pharisees did. They did good actions.
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They were philotoi. They were livers of self.
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So Paul is demanding a man who actually likes the good.
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He has a friendship with it, he enjoys it.
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Yes, he derives pleasure from it.
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When he sees justice done, something inside him rejoices.
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When he sees truth proclaimed, he's happy he isn't doing it
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through gritted teeth as some kind of burdensome task.
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This connects directly to Reformed theology, doesn't it?
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I mean specifically what we believe about the condition of
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the human heart before Christ. It goes right to the heart of
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the doctrine of total depravity. We have to be really honest
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about this. The Reformed view, which we
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would argue is the biblical view, is that in our natural
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fallen state we are hostile to God.
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We do not naturally love the good.
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In fact, we kind of hate it. We actually hate it because the
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good with a capital G shines a light on our sin.
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Jesus said men love darkness rather than light because their
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deeds were evil. OK, so if that's our natural
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state, our factory setting, then becoming a polygathon is not
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something we can just decide to do one day.
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I can't just wake up and say, you know what?
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Today I will start loving the good.
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You cannot. You can change your behavior,
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sure, but you cannot change your appetite.
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Only God can change your appetite.
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So for a man to truly be a philigathon, it is absolute
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proof of a supernatural work. It's proof of regeneration.
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He has to be born again. He has to be the Holy Spirit has
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to come in, take out that heart of stone and put in a heart of
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flesh, a heart that actually beats for the things that God
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loves. So when we look for elders, we
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aren't just looking for moral competence, we're looking for
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signs of genuine spiritual life. Let's bring this into the 21st
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century, because the source material draws a pretty
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uncomfortable parallel here. It talks about the counterfeits,
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specifically the CEO, pastor and the idol of pragmatism.
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This is a massive, massive issue in the modern church.
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We live in a business driven culture.
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We value growth, numbers, efficiency, branding.
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So when churches go looking for leaders, what do they often look
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for? They look for lovers of
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efficiency who are lovers of relevance.
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We need a guy who can really draw a crowd, or we need someone
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who knows how to market our church.
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Right. We need a guy who can balance
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the budget and manage the staff. And look, those are helpful
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skills, no doubt. But if we prioritize those
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things over the love of good, we are in deep trouble.
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We tacitly assume that if the results are good, meaning you
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know the parking lot is full, then the man himself must be
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good. If it works, God must be in it.
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That's the mantra. That is the pragmatist's creed.
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But the Philagathon asks a completely different question.
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He doesn't ask, does it work? He asks, is it faithful?
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OK, let's ground this. Give me a practical scenario
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where what works is in direct conflict with what is good.
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OK, think about church discipline or even just
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preaching the hard texts of the Bible.
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From a purely pragmatic marketing standpoint, telling
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people that they are sinners is a terrible strategy.
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Bad for business. It's terrible.
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For business, it makes your customers feel bad.
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It might drive them down the street to the church that has a
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better coffee shop and a motivational speaker who tells
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them how great they are. So the lover of success softens
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the message, waters it down. He has to.
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He softens it because he loves the result, the big crowd, more
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than he loves the truth. But the lover of good, the
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Philogathon, he preaches the whole counsel of God.
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He confronts sin. He handles messy, painful
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discipline issues. And he does it because it is
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good. It's what God commands, even if
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the numbers take a hit for a few months.
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That is a tough test, a really tough test.
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It is the ultimate test when what works conflicts with what
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is faithful. The Philagathon chooses
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faithfulness every single time because his definition of good
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isn't subjective. It's not cultural.
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It's not what feels good. It is objectively rooted in
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God's own character. God is the good.
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So the elder simply loves what God loves.
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So that's the first pillar, Philagathon, the internal
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renovation of the heart. Now Paul shifts our gaze.
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We move from the internal to the external.
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The second virtue is decayon, which is usually translated as
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upright or just. Righteous or just Both are good
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translations. Now we need to pause here for a
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second because justice is a huge buzzword right now.
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When people hear the word justice, they immediately think
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of social justice, political activism, courtrooms.
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Equity, all sorts of modern baggage, comes with that word.
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Right. So is Paul getting political
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here? Is he talking about social
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reform in Crete? That is a crucial distinction to
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make, and the source material is very clear that we need to strip
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away the modern sociological definitions that we've attached
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to that word. When Paul says decayon, he is
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not talking about systemic redistribution, he's not
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engaging with critical theory or modern equity concepts.
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He is talking about biblical justice.
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OK, so define that for us. What is biblical justice in this
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specific context? It's rooted in one core concept,
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impartiality. The background here is Leviticus
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19.14. It says you shall do no
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injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the
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poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge
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your neighbor. I want to catch that nuance
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because it's so important. Not partial to the poor.
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We usually only hear don't favor the rich.
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We know that's bad, but the Bible says don't favor the poor
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either. Exactly.
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It is blind justice. It's Lady Justice wearing a
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blindfold. Biblical justice means you treat
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the wealthy donor who just paid for the new building and the
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struggling widow who has nothing by the exact same standard.
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You don't tip the scales because of someone's social status or
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their race or their influence in the community.
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And for an elder, this is the horizontal virtue, right?
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Salagathon was internal. Decayan is horizontal.
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It's how you deal with your fellow man.
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Precisely how does this man deal with other people?
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Is he straight? Does he walk a straight line in
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a crooked world? The sources call him the
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Unbribable Man. That is the title worth aspiring
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to the unbribable man. But practically speaking, are
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elders really getting bribed? I mean, are people showing up to
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elder meetings with briefcases full of cash?
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I doubt it. No, probably not cash, but the
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bribe comes in other more subtle forms.
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Think about the role of an elder.
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They are adjudicators. They have to make hard decisions
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that affect people's lives. They settled disputes between
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members. They decide who gets money from
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the benevolence fund. They have to rule on discipline
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cases. The temptation to be partial in
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those situations has to be huge. It's enormous.
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The bribe isn't money. The bribe is comfort or
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approval. Let's say a very influential
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family in the church has a son who is living in open,
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unrepentant sin. The elder knows he needs to
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address it, but he thinks if I confront this, that family might
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leave the church. They might take their rather
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large tithe with them. They might start a rumor
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campaign against me. My life is going to get very,
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very hard. So the bribe is just stay quiet
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and you can keep your peace. Exactly.
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You accept the bribe of a comfortable life in exchange for
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compromising the truth. The D kind man cannot be bought
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with that currency. He fears God more than he fears
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the messy consequences of doing the right thing.
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He looks at the rich man and the poor man and applies the word of
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God equally to both. Street really is the best word
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for it in a crooked generation. And we have to remember he is in
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Crete, the land of professional liars.
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Is this man straight? That is the fundamental
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question. If he says he will be at your
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house at 3.0, is he there at 3.0?
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If he borrows money, does he pay it back on time?
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If he makes a promise, does he keep it, even if it hurts him
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later? In a culture of cretinizing,
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where everyone is cutting corners and spinning the truth,
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the Upright Man is a jarring, confusing anomaly.
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I want to circle back to the theology of this for a second,
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because when we talk about being righteous or upright, especially
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in a reformed context, some alarm bells might go off for
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some of our listeners. We are Protestants.
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We believe in solified justification by faith alone.
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We aren't saved by being upright, We are saved by
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Christ's perfect uprightness being credited to our account.
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Right. Absolutely.
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So is Paul sliding into a kind of works righteousness here?
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Is he saying you earn your standing before God by being a
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good boy? It's a vital question to ask,
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and the answer is absolutely not.
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We have to be crystal clear and distinguish between
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justification and sanctification.
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The Westminster Confession of Faith makes this distinction
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beautifully clear. We are justified, that is
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declared right with God solely on the merit of Christ.
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We contribute nothing to that. Our best works are filthy rags
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in that courtroom. So that's our legal standing.
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That is our legal standing. But here Paul is talking about
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sanctification. He's talking about the fruit of
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that salvation. This is what the performers
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called the third use of the law. Break that down for us.
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The third use. OK so the first use of the law
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is a mirror. It shows us our sin and our need
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for Christ. It drives us to the cross.
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The second use is the civil restraint.
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It keeps society from descending into total chaos.
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But the third use is the law as a guide for the believers life.
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It shows us how to please the God who so graciously saved us.
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So this means we reject antinomianism.
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We rejected entirely. Antinomianism is that idea that
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because we are saved by grace, the law doesn't matter anymore.
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I can live however I want, grace will just cover it.
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Paul says no. 1000 times no. If you have been justified by
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grace, you will begin to live a life that is decayon.
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You cannot claim to have the righteousness of Christ imputed
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to you and then go on living a life of financial shadiness and
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broken promises. It just doesn't compute.
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It connects back to the mission and Crete, doesn't it?
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The Elder is supposed to be the visual aid for the gospel.
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If your visual aid is crooked, people are going to assume the
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gospel is crooked. That is the living anomaly.
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Imagine the contrast. Everyone in town is lying to get
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ahead. Everyone is cheating on their
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business deals. And then there's this elder.
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He tells the truth even when it costs him dearly.
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He treats the slave and the master with the same exact
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respect. He's a puzzle to the world.
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And that puzzle provokes a question.
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Why are you like this? What is wrong with?
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You and the answer is because I serve a king who is like this.
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That is powerful. So we've built 2 pillars of this
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architecture. We have Philigathon, the Lover
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of Good, which is internal. We have Decayon, the upright
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Man, which is horizontal. Now we move to the third virtue
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in this triad. Potion, potion.
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This is usually translated as holy.
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Yes, holy or devout. Now, for the Greek students out
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there, there's another more common word for holy, isn't
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there? Hagios.
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That's the one we usually see. The Saints are the hagiui.
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Why does Paul switch to Harjun here?
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Is it just a synonym or is there a difference?
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It's more than just a synonym, it's a very specific flavor of
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holiness. Hagios usually refers to a
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position being set apart. Israel was hagios because God
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chose them. The temple utensils were hagios.
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They were set apart for temple use.
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It's a status. OK, so it's about being set
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apart for something. What about Hosian?
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Hosian implies an intrinsic piety, a devoutness.
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It carries a sense of pleasing God, not just in your official
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standing, but in your disposition and your personal
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conduct. It is intensely personal.
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The sources make a distinction that they draw from classical
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Greek They say Decayon is about being right by human law,
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walking straight with your fellow men, but Hoojin is about
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being right by divine law. That's the vertical dimension.
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Decayan is man to man. Hoojin is man to God.
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This is The Secret Life. This measures the man Coram dio
20:32
before the face of God. This is the scary.
20:34
One, it's the scariest one it really is because you can fool
20:37
people with Decayan. You can.
20:39
You can pay your bills on time, you could be polite, you can
20:41
follow all the civics of your community, you can be a good
20:45
citizen and people will look at you and say he's a very upright
20:48
man. But they can't see the heart.
20:50
They can't see what happens when the doors are closed.
20:52
Hujan asks what is happening when no one is looking?
20:55
What is your prayer life actually like?
20:57
Do you actually reverence God? Do you tremble at His word?
21:01
Or do you just work for Him like He's the boss?
21:04
The Puritans used to warn about this constantly.
21:06
They talked about the man who is publicly respectable but
21:09
privately polluted. It's the whitewashed tomb
21:12
warning that Jesus gave. The outside looks clean and
21:15
freshly painted, but the inside is full of dead men's bones and
21:19
decay, and the source of material brings this right into
21:22
the 21st century. It talks about secret sins and
21:25
specifically it mentions pornography and Internet
21:28
immorality. We have to go there because this
21:30
is the elephant in the room for so many modern men.
21:33
We live in an age where secret sin is easier to access than at
21:37
any other point in human history.
21:38
It is. The whole world is in your
21:40
pocket. A man might say, look, I haven't
21:43
committed physical adultery. I haven't touched another woman.
21:46
I haven't broken the law, so he thinks he's Decayan.
21:48
He hasn't broken the civil contract of his marriage in a
21:51
public way. But in the dark, on his phone.
21:54
If he is consuming filth on a screen in the dark, he is not
21:57
ocean, he is not holy, He is polluted in the sight of God.
22:00
He's feeding his mind and his soul on the exploitation and
22:03
degradation of others. And Paul is saying that man, no
22:06
matter how respectable he looks on Sunday, cannot be an elder.
22:09
He. Cannot not because he's
22:11
unforgivable. Grace is available for every
22:13
sin, thank God, but he is unqualified.
22:16
The Elder is a steward of God's house.
22:19
He handles the holy things of God, the Word, the sacraments,
22:22
the care of souls. How can you bring the holy
22:25
things of God to the people if your own hands are stained with
22:29
secret, unrepentant sin? It's a matter of integrity.
22:32
You simply can't lead people to a place you aren't going
22:35
yourself. Precisely.
22:36
If you aren't actively pursuing holiness in the secret place,
22:40
you have no business trying to help others pursue it in the
22:43
public space. No, we need to balance this
22:45
because the sources also offer a really important clarification.
22:48
When we talk about holiness and elders, some people might hear
22:51
priests. They might think we're trying to
22:53
set up a special class of super spiritual intermediaries between
22:56
US and God. Right.
22:57
And we need to avoid that error of satchidotalism.
23:01
That's the Roman Catholic idea of this special priestly class
23:04
that dispenses grace. We are not saying the elder is a
23:07
mediator. There is one mediator between
23:09
God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
23:12
Period. And we aren't talking about
23:13
mysticism either, are we? No, we are not looking for a guy
23:17
who floats 3 inches off the ground when he prays, hears
23:20
voices and glows in the dark. That's not it.
23:24
Harjun is ordinary, durable devotion.
23:26
I like that phrase. Ordinary, durable devotion.
23:31
What does that actually look like in a man's life?
23:33
It looks like a man who actually prays.
23:35
He talks to God. It looks like a man who reads
23:37
his Bible not just to find sermon illustrations, but
23:41
because his soul is genuinely hungry for it.
23:44
It looks like a man who repents when he sins, and he will sin.
23:48
It breaks his heart because he offended a holy God he loves,
23:51
not just because he got caught. He has a soft conscience toward
23:55
God. I really like how the sources
23:57
tie these three virtues together.
23:58
It isn't just a random list, it's an interlocking portrait.
24:01
They protect each other. They absolutely do.
24:03
Think about it. If you have lover of good
24:05
philegaton, but you don't have upright to cayenne, what do you
24:09
get? You get a sentimentalist.
24:11
You love the idea of good. You get emotional during the
24:13
worship songs, but you don't actually treat people fairly.
24:15
You don't pay your employees on time.
24:17
You're all feeling no ethics. That's a disaster.
24:20
What if you have upright but you don't have holy?
24:22
And then you become a cold legalist, A Pharisee.
24:25
You follow all the rules, you're rigid, you're exacting, but
24:29
there is no warmth of devotion to God.
24:31
You're a rule keeper, not a worshipper.
24:34
You're a Stoic, not a Christian. And what if you have holy
24:38
without the other two? You become a monk, A hermit.
24:42
You isolate. You focus on your own private
24:44
spirituality, your own holiness, but you're completely useless to
24:48
the community. You ignore the real world needs
24:51
of your neighbor because you're too busy being spiritual.
24:54
Paul weaves them together. The heart that loves good, the
24:57
life that walks straight with men, and the spirit that bows
25:00
reverently before God. That the architecture.
25:03
It is a remarkably high bar. I mean, reading this, hearing
25:06
this, who is sufficient for these things?
25:08
If I'm a guy listening to this right now, thinking maybe I
25:10
should be an elder someday, I'm probably feeling pretty small.
25:13
And you should. We all should feel small.
25:16
If you read this list and think nailed it, that's me.
25:19
You are almost certainly not qualified.
25:21
Because the foundational mark of this man is humility.
25:25
But this leads us to the most important section of our whole
25:27
discussion, the Christological frame.
25:30
Right, because this isn't just a list of demands for us to meet
25:33
in our own strength. The sources call it borrowed
25:35
light. That is such a beautiful phrase,
25:38
Borrowed light. The elder is not the sun, he's
25:41
the moon. He's not the source of these
25:42
virtues. He's just a reflection.
25:45
And to understand the reflection we had to look at the source,
25:48
which is Christ as the archetype.
25:50
OK, walk us through that. How is Jesus the perfect
25:53
fulfillment of Titus 1.8? Well, let's start with
25:55
Philigathon. Jesus is the true lover of good.
25:58
He loved the Father's will perfectly.
26:00
He said my food is to do the will of him who sent me.
26:03
He loved the good, even with the good meant the unimaginable
26:06
suffering of the cross, and Hebrew says he did it not out of
26:09
grim duty, but for the joy that was set before him.
26:12
And he is the true Decayan, the truly just one.
26:16
The only truly upright man, whoever lived, he was tempted in
26:20
every way, yet without sin. He was completely unbribe, able.
26:23
Satan offered him all the kingdoms of the world in the
26:26
wilderness. That's the ultimate bribe.
26:28
And he just said no, right? He didn't play favorites.
26:32
He spoke hard truth to the rich Pharisees and offered tender
26:35
grace to the outcast woman at the well.
26:37
He was perfectly straight. And the true Hoseos.
26:40
Acts 2.27 actually calls him God's Holy 1 using that same
26:44
root word, Hoseos. His devotion to the Father was
26:47
constant and unbroken. So when we look for an elder, we
26:51
are fundamentally looking for a man who, in his own imperfect
26:54
way, reminds us of Jesus. This brings in the doctrine of
26:57
union with Christ. This is the engine that powers
27:00
these virtues. Because without this, it's just
27:02
moralism. It's just trying harder.
27:04
Yes, this is so crucial. We don't want a man who is just
27:07
white knuckling it every day. I will be good, I will be just.
27:10
I will be holy. I crashes and burns eventually.
27:12
That's just human willpower. We want a man who is united to
27:15
Christ by faith. The SAP of the vine is flowing
27:17
into the branch, producing fruit that he couldn't produce on his
27:20
own. Grace trains him.
27:21
That's Titus 2.1114 For the grace of God has appeared,
27:26
training us to renounce ungodliness.
27:28
The very same grace that saves is the grace that shapes.
27:32
So the elder isn't a man who earned his office by his moral
27:35
achievements. He is a man who has been
27:37
conquered by grace. His life is being actively
27:40
reshaped by the Redeemer. This also changes the nature of
27:44
his authority, doesn't it? The sources mention a
27:47
distinction between ministerial and magisterial authority.
27:51
This is a bit technical, but it seems really important for how
27:54
elders actually function. It's a classic Reform
27:56
distinction, and it's vital right.
27:58
Magisterial authority belongs to a master, the magister.
28:01
He makes the rules. He's the legislative branch in
28:05
the church that is Christ and Christ alone.
28:07
He's the head of the church. He wrote the book.
28:08
OK, so that's magisterial. What's ministerial authority?
28:11
Ministerial authority belongs to a minister or a servant.
28:14
He serves the rules that the master has already laid down.
28:16
He's the judicial or executive branch simply applying what the
28:20
master wrote. He has no authority to make up
28:22
new rules. I've heard the analogy of the
28:24
waiter and the chef. That is the best analogy for
28:27
this. Think about a high end
28:28
restaurant. The chef creates the menu, he
28:31
designs the dishes. He combines the ingredients.
28:34
He determines the entire flavor profile.
28:37
That is Christ in his Word. The elder is the waiter.
28:40
And the waiter doesn't cook the meal, no.
28:43
And he certainly doesn't decide what's on the menu.
28:45
He doesn't look at the skake the chef prepared and say, you know
28:48
what? I think this needs more sugar.
28:50
And then throw a handful of sugar on it before taking it out
28:52
to the table. No, his job is to get the food
28:54
from the kitchen to the table without spilling it or messing
28:57
it up. Exactly.
28:59
He served the word. He doesn't invent it.
29:01
He delivers it faithfully. This keeps the elder humble.
29:05
He always remembers. He ministers under the Chief
29:07
Shepherd. Precisely.
29:08
Your job isn't to be innovative. Your job is to be obedient.
29:12
You're just delivering the King's mail.
29:14
You're not writing your own letters.
29:15
That's actually very freeing. It takes the pressure off to be
29:18
some kind of creative genius, and it puts the pressure where
29:22
it belongs, on being faithful. It's incredibly freeing.
29:26
So we've built the architecture, we see the Christological
29:29
foundation. Now let's try to land the plane
29:31
with some very practical application.
29:33
If I'm in a church, maybe I'm on a pastor search committee, or
29:37
maybe I'm just a member who's about to vote on a new elder.
29:41
How do we actually find these guys?
29:43
Because we can't see into their hearts.
29:45
The source material is very practical here, and the first
29:48
piece of advice is look for patterns, not just moments.
29:52
Oh, that's good. Anyone can be holy for an hour
29:54
on a Sunday morning. Right.
29:56
Anyone can seem upright when everything in their life is
29:59
going well. But what is the pattern of this
30:02
man's life over years? You're not looking for
30:04
perfection, you're looking for a trajectory.
30:07
Is the arrow of his life generally pointing up toward
30:10
Christ? What are the red flags then?
30:12
If I'm looking at a candidate, what are the things that should
30:14
make me pause and say, hmm, let's wait a minute?
30:17
Habitual self justification. That's a massive 1.
30:20
When he's wrong, does he readily and humbly admit it or does he
30:24
spin it? Does he blame shift?
30:25
Well I only yelled at you because you made me so mad.
30:28
That is self justification. If a man cannot simply say I was
30:32
wrong, please forgive me. He cannot be an elder because he
30:36
doesn't fundamentally understand the gospel, which starts with I
30:39
am a Sinner in need of grace. What about financial opacity?
30:42
Secrecy around money. Huge red flag if he's secretive
30:45
about his money or if he's always looking for that shameful
30:48
game Paul mentions elsewhere. You need to stay away.
30:51
Money is so often a proxy for the heart.
30:53
If a man cannot be trusted with money, he absolutely cannot be
30:55
trusted with souls. And what about spiritual
30:58
performance? Yes.
30:59
The guy who always has to be the most spiritual person in the
31:01
room. The guy who prays the longest,
31:04
loudest, most eloquent prayers usually to be seen by others.
31:08
That is often a mask that is covering up a profound lack of
31:11
genuine ocean and private. True holiness is usually quiet,
31:15
doesn't need an audience. Paul gives a specific warning in
31:18
First Timothy regarding this whole process.
31:20
He says do not be hasty in the laying on of hands.
31:23
The time factor. Time is the great revealer of
31:27
character, and the sources quote a sentence that just chilled me
31:30
to the bone. It says Office amplifies
31:33
character flaws. It doesn't cure them.
31:36
Wow, say that again. That needs to sink in for every
31:39
church member. Office amplifies character
31:41
flaws. It doesn't cure them.
31:43
We so often think, oh, he's a little immature, maybe a bit
31:46
arrogant, but if we make him a leader, he'll rise to the
31:49
occasion. The responsibility will sober
31:52
him up. But that's.
31:53
Not what happens, is it? No.
31:55
It's like giving a faster car to a bad driver.
31:57
It doesn't make him a better driver, it just makes the
31:59
eventual crash much much bigger. If a man is slightly arrogant
32:03
now, give him authority and he will become a tyrant.
32:06
If he's slightly greedy now, give him access to the church
32:09
budget and he will become a thief.
32:11
Do not ever think the office is a remedy.
32:14
It's a magnifier. That is why the installation
32:16
process itself is so grave. It's not just, hey mob, you want
32:19
to be on the board, great. The first meeting is Tuesday.
32:22
No, it's a covenantal moment. It involves prayer, fasting, the
32:26
laying on of hands. The congregation is saying we
32:29
recognize the character of Christ in you, and we submit to
32:31
your leadership as you submit to Christ.
32:34
And man is saying, I will give an account to God for your
32:38
souls. It is terrifyingly serious.
32:42
Hebrew says. They watch over souls as those
32:44
who will have to give an account.
32:46
And once they're in that office, how do we protect them and
32:49
protect the church? The sources mentioned that
32:51
single man rule is incredibly dangerous.
32:54
Plurality is essential. In the New Testament.
32:56
You almost always see elders plural in every church.
33:00
Paul told Titus to appoint elders in every town.
33:02
Why? Because no one man has all the
33:04
gifts, and more importantly, no one man is immune to temptation
33:07
and pride. Power tends to corrupt, and
33:10
absolute power corrupts absolutely.
33:12
Lord Acton was right. Shared wisdom protects the
33:14
church from a dictator, and it also protects the man from
33:17
burnout and from his own pride. He needs brothers who could look
33:20
him in the eye and say, brother, you were wrong about this.
33:23
He needs real accountability. And we also need to protect them
33:26
from false accusations, but be ready to handle real sin if it
33:31
happens. Yes, First Timothy 5.19 says
33:33
don't even entertain an accusation against an elder
33:35
unless there are two or three witnesses.
33:38
Leaders are targets. People get angry when you tell
33:40
them the truth, so you need a shield.
33:42
You can't let every disgruntled rumor destroy a leader, but.
33:46
There is a but. If he is sinning, verse 20 says,
33:50
rebuke him publicly so that the others may take warning.
33:53
Balance again. Don't believe every rumor, but
33:55
don't cover up real proven sin. Exactly.
33:59
And finally, cultivation elders aren't robots.
34:02
They need rest. They need prayer.
34:04
They need encouragement. You want to fill like a thon a
34:07
lover of good. You need to encourage him when
34:09
you see good in him. Don't just treat him like the
34:10
church's complaint department. That is a good word for all of
34:13
us in the pews. We often consume their ministry
34:16
without ever thinking about ministering to them.
34:18
It's a symbiotic, not a parasitic relationship.
34:20
So let's wrap this all up. We've looked at Titus 1.8.
34:23
We've seen the context of Crete, the land of liars.
34:26
We've seen the mission bringing order through character, and
34:30
we've seen the architecture, the Phlegathon renovated affections,
34:34
the Decayon Upright walk, and the Hocios Pie spirit.
34:38
It's a complete interlocking picture of a man.
34:41
And we've seen that this is all about Christ.
34:43
This high standard isn't for the elders personal reputation, it's
34:47
for Christ's honor. That is the ultimate why?
34:50
Why does any of this matter so much?
34:52
Because the Church is the bride of Christ and the world is
34:55
watching us. If the Church is led by men who
34:58
are liars, greedy and unholy, the world will rightly conclude
35:02
that the Christ we serve must also be a liar, greedy and
35:05
unholy. But if the church is led by men
35:07
who love the good. Who are just in their dealings
35:09
and who are reverent before God. The world sees a small,
35:12
imperfect, but real reflection of the King we serve.
35:15
Here's the final thought I want to leave you with today, and it
35:18
is a provocative one from our sources.
35:20
We live in a world, and let's be totally honest, a church called
35:23
that prizes talent. We prize the platform, we prize
35:27
the results. The charisma, the big
35:30
personality. The charisma.
35:31
The question is this. Is your local church brave
35:35
enough to prioritize hidden holiness over visible charisma?
35:40
That is the question. The survival of the church in a
35:42
Cretan culture like ours might just depend on that specific
35:45
distinction. Are we building on a foundation
35:48
of performance or on the moral architecture of the steward?
35:51
Let's choose the architecture. Amen to that.
35:54
Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into reforms thinking.
35:57
We will see you next time.