(S)

1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— ² in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, ³ and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,

⁴ To Titus, my true son in our common faith:

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Appointing Elders Who Love What Is Good

⁵ The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint^[a] elders in every town, as I directed you. ⁶ An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe^[b] and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. ⁷ Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. ⁸ Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. ⁹ He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

Rebuking Those Who Fail to Do Good

¹⁰ For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. ¹¹ They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. ¹² One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.”^[c] 13 This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith ¹⁴ and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth. ¹⁵ To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. ¹⁶ They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.

(O)

Paul leaves Titus in Crete to take charge of the work there and continue what has been started. Paul is calling Titus to stand up and be courageous. There is false teaching and lying going on and Titus is being challenged, as the leader, to stand up to it and call it for what it is. And it needs to happen fast before the lies spread any further. This will be tough for Titus, because the success or failure of this falls on his shoulders. As the leader, there is no one else to defer this responsibility to.

In our workplaces, our homes and our churches, as the leaders we need to be aware of lies and falsehoods being taught. But it is a tough thing to confront someone because we don’t want to upset them, offend them or leave, especially in the church. However, it doesn’t do anyone any good to skirt around the issue, and it is best addressed directly and immediately. This can be very emotionally draining and discouraging to the leader.

(A)

Encourage your leaders today. Whether that be your boss, your parents, your team leader, your pastor or the church elders, give them a note of encouragement today. Tell them you are praying for them. Or even better, actually call or visit them, and pray for them.

(P)

Lord, how can I encourage my leader(s) today? Give me words of life to speak into each of their lives today. In Jesus name, amen.