ACC ~ Titus 1 v5 - 9

OVERVIEW:

Paul lays out the ethical and moral requirements for anyone who would be suitable for the episcopal office by setting standards for domestic life, personal habits and faithfulness in ministry (CHRYSOSTOM, THEODORE, THEODORET, JEROME). By Jerome’s time, church governance had gone through a change from a council of presbyters to the election of a presiding elder or bishop (JEROME). Earlier the bishop and the elder were interchangeable terms; later they were distinguished (THEODORE, THEODORET). Pastors are ordained to teach (THEODORE), holding the presidency of a single church (CHRYSOSTOM). A bishop should have an exemplary moral character (JEROME). He must not have committed any crime within the civil order (AUGUSTINE). A bishop must be content with the wife he had when he came to ordination (APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS). If bishops can marry, marriage itself is not condemned, as some heretics claim (CHRYSOSTOM, AMBROSE). Monogamy is thereby taught by example (JEROME). The bishop’s care of his own children is a valid measure of his ability to care for others (CHRYSOSTOM). Yet even well-taught children may go astray (THEODORE, JEROME). The bishop must not be intemperate or acrimonious (CHRYSOSTOM, THEODORET, JEROME). A bishop must be capable of refuting adversaries (ORIGEN) on the basis of careful Scripture study, a good mind and a general education (CHRYSOSTOM, JEROME, AUGUSTINE). An inept teacher is not qualified (CHRYSOSTOM).

1:5 | Appoint Elders in Every Town

BRINGING ONE CHURCH INTO GOOD ORDER. CHRYSOSTOM: Here he is speaking of episkopoi [bishops]. … He did not wish the whole island to be entrusted to one elder, but that each one should have his own charge and care, for thus he would have less labor himself, and those under his rule would receive greater attention. The teacher would not then be required to hold the presidency of many churches but was left to be occupied with one only, and to bring that into order. HOMILIES ON TITUS 2.

ORDINATION TO TEACH. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Paul emphasizes that correct teaching must accompany these ordinations. He mentions only presbyters, since theirs is the most general office. COMMENTARY ON TITUS.

HOW CHURCH GOVERNANCE CHANGED. JEROME: Paul is speaking here to bishops who have the power of placing presbyters in the individual towns, so that they would hear clearly by what kind of rule correct church order should be maintained. … Originally the churches were governed by a common council of the presbyters. But after one of their number began to think that those whom he had baptized were his and not Christ’s, it was universally decreed that one of the presbyters should be elected to preside over the others, to whom the care of the whole church should pertain, that the seeds of schism might be alleviated. COMMENTARY ON TITUS.

PRESBYTER AND BISHOP WERE THE SAME. JEROME: And lest any should in a spirit of contention argue that there must then have been more bishops than one in a single church, there is the following passage which clearly proves a bishop and a presbyter to be the same. Writing to Titus the apostle says: “For this cause I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are wanting, and appoint presbyters in every city, as I had instructed you: if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having believing children not accused of wantonness or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God.” … When subsequently one was chosen to preside over the rest, this was done to remedy schism and to prevent each individual from rending the church of Christ by drawing it to himself. LETTERS 146.1.

1:6a | If Anyone Is Blameless

FREEDOM FROM CRIME. AUGUSTINE: The first freedom, then, is to be without crimes. And so when the apostle Paul chose either priests or deacons to be ordained, and when anyone is to be ordained to take charge of a church, he does not say, If anyone is without sin. For if he were to say this, every person would be rejected, no one would be ordained. But he says, “if anyone is without crime,” such as homicide, adultery and uncleanness of fornication, theft, fraud, sacrilege, and other things of this sort. TRACTATES ON JOHN 41.10.1.

BLAMELESS COMPREHENDS ALL VIRTUES. JEROME: “A bishop then must be blameless.” The same thing that he says to Titus, “if any be blameless.” All the virtues are comprehended in this one word; thus he seems to require an im-possible perfection. For if every sin, every idle word, is deserving of blame, who is there in this world that is sinless and blameless? Still he who is chosen to be shepherd of the church must be one compared with whom other men are rightly regarded as but a flock of sheep. LETTERS 69.8.

1:6b | The Husband of One Wife

MONOGAMY THE RULE. TERTULLIAN: Should we not rather recognize, from among the store of primitive scriptural precedents, those that correspond with the gospel order of things respecting discipline? By this means we convey to the new community the typical requirements of antiquity. In the old law I find the pruning knife applied to the license of repeated marriage. … Among us the prescript is more fully and more carefully laid down, that they who are chosen into the sacerdotal order must be men of one marriage. This rule is so rigidly observed that I remember some removed from their office for bigamy. ON EXHORTATION TO CHASTITY 7.

MARRIED NO MORE THAN ONCE. ANONYMOUS: We have already said that a bishop, a presbyter and a deacon, when they are constituted, must be married but once, whether their wives are alive or whether they are dead. It is not lawful for them, if they are unmarried when they are ordained, to be married afterwards; or if they are married at that time, to marry a second time, but to be content with that wife which they had when they came to ordination. CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 6.17.

BISHOP NOT EXCLUDED FROM MARRIAGE. AMBROSE: I have put down the faults which I have been taught to avoid. But it is the apostle who is the teacher of virtues. He teaches a bishop … to be “the husband of one wife.” The bishop is thereby not excluded from marriage altogether … but rather encouraged by chastity in marriage to preserve the grace of his baptism. … There are many who argue that “husband of one wife” is said of marriage after baptism, on the ground that the fault which would constitute an impediment has been washed away in baptism. … But where there has been a second marriage, it is not dissolved. Sin is washed away in baptism, law is not. LETTERS 63.62-63.

MARRIAGE HONORABLE. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul says this to stop the mouths of those heretics who condemned marriage. He shows that it is not an unholy thing in itself, but so far honorable that a married man might ascend the holy throne. And at the same time he wishes to reprove the wanton, not permitting their admission into this high office those who contracted a second marriage. HOMILIES ON TITUS 2.

TEACHING MONOGAMY BY EXAMPLE. JEROME: It is not that every monogamous man is better than every man who has been married twice. Rather, it is that the bishop must teach monogamy and, best of all, continence, by example. Indeed, some monogamous men are less continent than some who have been married twice and widowed. COMMENTARY ON TITUS.

1:6c | His Children Are Believers

HIS CARE FOR HIS OWN CHILDREN. CHRYSOSTOM: We should observe what care he bestows upon children. For he who cannot be the instructor of his own children, how could he be the teacher of others? … For if he was unable to restrain them, it is a great proof of his weakness. And if he was unconcerned, his want of affection is much to be blamed. He then who neglects his own children, how shall he take care of others’? HOMILIES ON TITUS 2.

WELL-TAUGHT CHILDREN MAY GO ASTRAY. JEROME: Parents should not be faulted if, having taught their children well, these turn out badly later. Indeed, if anyone had taught his sons well, it was Isaac, who must be viewed as setting even Esau on a firm foundation. But Esau turned out to be profligate and worldly, when he sold his birthright for a single meal. Samuel also, though he invoked God and God heard him, and he obtained rain at the time of the winter harvest, had sons who declined into greed. COMMENTARY ON TITUS.

1:6d | Not Profligate or Insubordinate

RULING HIS OWN HOUSE WELL. JEROME: “One that rules well his own house.” That is, not by increasing riches, not by providing regal banquets, not by having a pile of finely wrought plates, not by slowly steaming pheasants so that the heat may reach the bones without melting the flesh upon them. No, he does this rather by first requiring of his own household the conduct which he has to inculcate in others. LETTERS 69.9.

ARE THERE EXCEPTIONS? THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Paul does not measure the virtue of fathers by the depravity of their children, nor did the misbehavior of his sons make Samuel unworthy of the priesthood; Paul wishes only to show the likely intentions of the father from what has been created in the sons. COMMENTARY ON TITUS.

1:7a | A Bishop

SAME IN DIGNITY AS PRESBYTERS. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Paul here shows that at this time “elders” and “bishops” were interchangeable and that some were put in charge of towns, some of whole regions. These latter became the bishops of later times. COMMENTARY ON TITUS.

FEWER BISHOPS THAN PRESBYTERS. THEODORET OF CYR: Here it is clear that he calls presbyters bishops. In the same community it was the custom that there would be more presbyters than bishops. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO TITUS.

1:7b | Not Violent

NO STRIKER. CHRYSOSTOM: The teacher is the physician of souls. But the physician does not strike. Rather he heals and restores any who might strike him. HOMILIES ON TITUS 2.

NOT ACRIMONIOUS. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: He is not given to useless discord. COMMENTARY ON TITUS.

NOT INTEMPERATE. JEROME: He does not raise a hand easily for striking. COMMENTARY ON TITUS.

1:7c | Not Greedy for Gain

NOT FOND OF SORDID GAIN. JEROME: That a priest must avoid covetousness even Samuel teaches when he proves before all the people that he has taken nothing from anyone. And the same lesson is taught by the poverty of the apostles who used to receive sustenance and refreshment from their brothers and to boast that they neither had nor wished to have anything besides food and clothing. What the epistle to Timothy calls covetousness Titus openly censures as the desire for filthy lucre. LETTERS 69.9.

1:9 | Able to Give Instruction

CAPABLE OF REFUTING ADVERSARIES. ORIGEN: When Paul describes the character of those who are called bishops and portrays what sort of a man a bishop ought to be, he instructs that he should be a teacher. He must be “able also to refute the adversaries,” that by his wisdom he may restrain those who speak vainly and deceive souls. He prefers for the episcopate a man once married rather than one twice married, and a man unblamable rather than blameable, and a sober man rather than one not of this character, and a prudent man rather than one imprudent, and an orderly man rather than one even slightly disorderly. In the same way he most wishes that the one who is to be selected as bishop should be a teacher and capable of “refuting adversaries.” AGAINST CELSUS 3.48.

DO NOT WELCOME INEPTNESS IN A BISHOP. CHRYSOSTOM:

“For the bishop,” he says, “must hold to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to convict even the gainsayers.” How, then, if he is inexperienced at speaking, as they say, will he be able to convict the objectors and to stop their mouths? If it is permissible to welcome such inexperience in the episcopacy, then why should any church leader bother to read books and study the Scriptures? This is all just a pretense and excuse and a pretext for carelessness and indolence. ON THE PRIESTHOOD 4.8.

A STRONG MIND REQUIRED. CHRYSOSTOM: There is need not of pomp of words but of strong minds, of skill in the Scriptures and of powerful thoughts. Do you not see that Paul put to flight the whole world, that he was more powerful than Plato and all the rest? HOMILIES ON TITUS 2.

SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED. JEROME: To Titus he gives commandment that among a bishop’s other virtues [which he briefly describes] he should be careful to seek a knowledge of the Scriptures. A bishop, he says, must hold fast “the faithful word as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.” In fact, want of education in a clergyman prevents him from doing good to any one but himself. Even if the virtue of his life may build up Christ’s church, he does it an injury as great by failing to resist those who are trying to pull it down. LETTERS 53.3.

THE ABSURDITY OF NEGLECTING EDUCATION. AUGUSTINE: If anyone says, however, that if teachers are made learned by the Holy Spirit then they do not need to be taught by educators what they should say or how they should say it, he should also say that we should not pray because the Lord says, “for your Father knows what is needful for you, before you ask him.” With such a false premise one might argue that the apostle Paul should not have taught Timothy and Titus what or how they should teach others. One upon whom is imposed the personage of a teacher in the church should have these three apostolic epistles before his eyes. Do we not read in the first epistle to Timothy … and in the second epistle is it not said … again, does he not say to Titus that a bishop should persevere in “that faithful word which is according to doctrine, that he may be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to convince the gainsayers”? ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 4.16.33.