Summary:

The word “unruly” means people who don’t want to be ruled. That’s the dictionary definition, and that’s how the words is used in the Bible as well. The only other people in the Bible called unruly are people who didn’t want to be ruled by the rulers of the local church (I Thes. 5:12-14). And that’s how the men in Crete were unruly as well.

But how’d Paul know they didn’t want to be ruled by rulers in the church if they didn’t have rulers yet (Tit. 1:5)? He knew because pastors don’t rule by dominating the faith of men (II Cor. 1:24). Men stand “by faith,” which comes from hearing the Word (Rom.10:17). So pastors rule by teaching the Word and letting it rule people. When Paul was in Crete, he’d seen that they didn’t want to be ruled by the Word, and he’d heard about it from Titus. So he told Titus to ordain elders to teach more of the Word, for God doesn’t have a Plan B. I.e., He didn’t give us anything else to rule our lives!

We know these unruly people were telling others not to be ruled by the Word for they are called “unruly…talkers” (1:10). They were “of the circumcision,” so they were doubtless telling men to be ruled by the Law. Of course, the Law is the Word of God—but not the Word for today! They didn’t want to be ruled by grace. Timothy had men just like that (I Tim. 1:3-7), whose speech he called “vain jangling,” just as these in Crete were “unruly and vain talkers.”

“Vain” can mean a lot of things, but here it means things which can’t profit or deliver (I Sam. 12:21), i.e., can’t save (Joel 2:32 cf. Rom. 10:13). Teaching the Law today is vain because the Law can’t save! Of course, it wasn’t vain when the Law was God’s program (cf. Ps. 119:113). But those who teach the law today are “unruly” in that they don’t accept the “rule” that nothing matters today but the “new creature” that God makes us when we get saved (II Cor. 5:17; Gal. 5:15,16). Of course, when the age of grace is over, teaching grace will be “vain” in the Tribulation (James 2:20).

Paul calls these men “deceivers” (1:10), which means they knew the truth but purposely taught the Law to mislead people. And when Paul says they were “specially” of the circumcision, that means that some of these Law teachers were Gentiles! They taught the Law because Satan always makes sure the Law is popular.

Paul told Titus to shut their mouths (Tit. 1:11). Not forcibly, but as the Lord did, by answering their questions and arguments so thoroughly that they were left speechless (Lu. 20:40).

When Paul says these Law teachers “subvert” whole houses (1:11), that word means to turn something upside down. That’s what they said about Paul (Acts 17:5,6)! Law teachers wanted to subvert grace and turn it back upside down to the Law. The leadership in the kingdom church wasn’t behind this, agreeing that it would subvert Gentiles to put them under the Law (Acts 15:24).

Next Paul quotes what they were saying to justify their teaching of the Law (Tit.1:12). If men are liars, they need the law — or so they reasoned! But grace says not to lie too (Eph.4:25).

When that Cretian prophet said that the Cretians are “evil beasts,” that means they didn’t obey civil rulers either (II Pe. 2:10-12; Jude 1:8-10). But they didn’t need the law (Deut. 17:12) to tell them to obey the government (Tit. 3:1) and not speak evil of civil leaders (Tit. 3:2).

The Greek words for “slow bellies” (1:12) is barren womb, and barren wombs that want children are “never satisfied” (Pr. 30:15,16). The Law says not to covet (Ex. 20:17), but you don’t have to put yourself under the curse of the law (Gal. 3:10) to know not to covet (Col. 3:5).

In Titus 1:13, Paul doesn’t say, “All that you say about the Cretians is true, so you’re right, they need the Law.” Instead he agrees it is all true, and tells these liars, evil beasts and slow bellies to be sound in the faith. Paul’s gospel is the answer to all of our needs in the dispensation of grace, not the Law of Moses!

Summary:

“Hospitality” (v. 8) is the receiving and entertaining of strangers. They had inns (Ex. 4:24) but sometimes “there was no room… in the inn” (Luke 2:7), so hospitality was important in those days. But pastors had safety concerns about taking in strangers just as you would, plus guests eat your food and cost money. That’s why Paul says pastors must be “not given to filthy lucre” (v. 7), but “given to hospitality” (I Tim. 3:2 cf. Titus 1:8).

Pastors must also be “lovers of good men” (v. 8) because you can tell a lot about a man by the kind of men he loves (cf. Rom. 1:32). If a pastor loves good men, he must be a good man himself. And he needs to value the qualities that make men good.

“Sober” can’t mean not a drunk, for Paul already covered that when he said a pastor must be “not given to wine” (v. 7). Sober can also mean not thinking higher of yourself than you ought (Rom. 12:3). Men like Sun Myung Moon and David Koresh thought they were Jesus Christ, and that’s certainly not thinking soberly. But “sober” can also mean not crazy (Acts 26:24,25; II Cor. 5:13). Pat Robertson used to claim he could leg press 2,000 pounds and Marshal Applewhite told followers that a UFO hiding behind the Hale-Bopp Comet would take them to heaven in 1997 — if they killed themselves, which 39 of them did. It is crucial that pastors be sober and not crazy.

A pastor must also be “just” (v. 8), able to handle problems justly when people come to him with issues. Marriage counseling issues are a frequent matter pastors are called upon to settle justly.

Pastors must also be “holy” (v. 8), which means sinless (Heb. 7:26). Pastors can’t be sinless, of course, but they can behave themselves “holily” (II Thes. 2:10). All Christians should, for when they don’t it hurts the cause of Christ. And when leaders don’t, it hurts it even more so (II Sam. 12:14), as Jim Bakker, Robert Tilton, Jimmy Swaggert, Bill Gothard and others learned the hard way.

“Temperate” (v. 8) means moderation or balanced. Athletes must be temperate in all things,” and so should Christians (I Cor. 9:24,25). Pastors must be moderate, and here at Faith Bible Church we present a balanced ministry that alternates between teaching Paul’s epistles and the rest of the Bible.

Pastors must also hold fast “the faithful word” (v. 9), something the verse itself defines. It doesn’t say to hold fast the faithful word to use the faithful word to convince gainsayers. When instead it says to hold the faithful word to convince gainsayers by sound doctrine, that defines “the faithful word” as sound doctrine, the sound doctrine given to Paul. The entire Bible is the Word of God, and God is faithful to all the promises in it.

But He didn’t make all those promises to you, so He’s not faithful to Matthew 21:22, for instance. Nor will He be faithful to the promise He made to Israel to spare them tribulation if they were good. Instead He’ll let you go through tribulation, then be faithful to His promise to use it to work patience in you (Rom. 5:3,4). He’ll also be faithful to His promises in Romans 8:13,18,28, and I Corinthians 3:14, Philippians 1:6; 4:6,7,19, Colossians 3:4 and I Thessalonians 5:9.

How “fast” should a pastor hold the faithful word that contains these promises? Job held his integrity fast after he lost everything (Job 2:3; 27:5,6). Tribulation saints will have to hold fast to their truth and endure to the end or they won’t be saved. Pastors don’t have to hold the truth fast to be saved, but we should hold it that fast as if we did. And you should too.

Because if you don’t, you’ll never be able to exhort and convince the gainsayers. “Exhort” can mean to encourage someone, but it can also mean to warn someone (Luke 3:16-18; Acts 2:38-40). Pastors must warn gainsayers and convince them they are wrong.

A gainsayer is someone who says things that contradict what you say, usually to gain something. Sometimes money, but men also gainsay to gain a following, like Core (Jude 1:11 cf. Num. 16:1-35). That’s what was happening in Crete.

Summary: 

To figure out the role of an “elder” (v.5), notice that before Paul ordained some elders he confirmed the disciples and exhorted them to continue in the faith despite tribulation (Acts 14:21-23). When he then ordained elders next, that means he expected elders to carry that work on when he was gone. So elders are the Bible teachers in an assembly.

“Blameless” (v.6) means saved (cf. I Cor. 1:7,8). What else would be at the top of the list of qualifications? This was important in view of the power struggle I believe was going on in Crete. We know the Jews causing trouble (Tit. 1:10) were unsaved, for if they were saved, God wouldn’t have let Paul go there, any more than he let him go to other places where there were saved Jewish kingdom saints (Acts 16:6,7 cf. I Pet. 1:1). And these unsaved Jews were teaching unsound doctrine to try to gain leadership in the churches.

They were probably also suggesting an elder could be the husband of more than one wife, based on their Hebrew Scriptures. Titus had to set that in order too. “Husband of one wife” (1:6) can’t mean divorced, by the way. “One wife” doesn’t mean there wasn’t a wife before any more than “one baptism” (Eph. 4:5) means there were no baptisms before. If it doesn’t mean one wife at a time then widowers can’t be elders. We know it also doesn’t mean a man must be married, for neither Paul, Timothy or Titus were. There are advantages to being single (I Cor. 7:32) and there are advantages to being married (Pr. 18:22).

The word faithful in “faithful children” (1:6) is defined in this context by “not accused of riot or unruly.” The word “riot” means we’re talking about older children. An elder’s kids can’t be “unruly” because the kids of those unsaved Jews were, just like their fathers (Tit. 1:10). The “rule” they didn’t want to observe is that circumcision didn’t mean anything (Gal. 6:15,16). Since “riot” just means to be in a highly excited uproar, Paul is saying that an elder’s older children can’t be starting doctrinal riots like that.

When Paul switches from “elders” to “bishops” (v.7) it shows these terms were interchangeable, such as “pastor” and “minister” and “preacher” are today. Because of this, we can call our leaders whatever we want, just not “father” (Mt. 23:9) or “reverend,” for that’s God’s name (Ps. 111:9).

Spiritual leaders were also called “stewards” (1:7). A steward took care of a wealthy man’s goods (Gen.44:1), and a steward in the local church took care of God’s goods, the things in His Word (I Cor. 4:1). “Mysteries” there is plural for there are seven sub mysteries in the overall mystery given to Paul. But unruly talkers of the circumcision would want to be stewards of the prophecies of God, not His mysteries, so they were disqualified from leadership on this count too.

An elder must be “blameless” in dispensing God’s mysteries. Here the word means scrupulous (cf. Lu. 1:6). He also can’t be “selfwilled” (1:7). The only other time that exact word is used defines it as being rebellious against the government (II Pet. 1:10). That describes unsaved Jews in that day (Mt. 22:17; Acts 5:36,37). Peter calls such men “beasts” (II Pet. 2:12), and Jude agrees (Jude 1:8-10), and there were some in Crete (Tit. 1:12). Only a wild beast refuses to let a man impose his will on him.

A leader also can’t be “soon angry” (1:7). The unsaved Jews were, just as Paul was when he was an unsaved Jew (Acts 16:11). The law he worshiped “worketh wrath” (Rom. 4:15) in unsaved Gentiles because they don’t like God telling them what to do. But it worked wrath in unsaved Jews because it pointed to Jesus as their Christ, and Saul didn’t want to admit that. His anger about that spilled over into all areas of his life, and in the Jews in Crete as well, meaning they couldn’t be leaders on this count either. That may have driven them to drink, and Paul says a leader can’t be “given to wine” (1:7)

You wouldn’t think Paul would have to say that a leader can’t be a “striker,” but unsaved Jewish leaders struck the Lord (Mark 14:63-65) and Paul (Acts 23:2). Religious power goes to a man’s head and prompts violence against those with whom he disagrees, but a leader in the church can’t be a striker, or “greedy of filthy lucre” (1:7) like the unsaved Jews on Crete (Tit. 1:10,11).