Titus "Ordain Leaders in Every City"
Each book in the Bible gently guides God's people into a more intimate relationship with their Creator, as He knows must occur, for His people to receive Him in the depth of the relationship that He purchased for them. Each day we are covering, in sequential order, one of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament and explaining how each of them is revealing God in a more intimate way than has been given to this point in the scriptures.
Today is the seventeenth day of the series, “The Progressive Revelation of Jesus Christ” and the book is, Titus, the seventeenth book in the New Testament as it appears in our Bible. Titus is a letter written to the leader of churches in Crete, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, and the focus of the letter is setting up church leaders in every city, instructions to “maintain good works, having the members of the church train their younger members, God’s peculiar people, and purging the Church from heretics.
Paul tells Titus to, “…ordain elders in every city…” in the two preceding books in the Bible, Paul wrote to another church leader about how to set up the church, and what their qualifications are, then there were multiple churches that were involved in the second book, and now Paul has instructed Titus to ordain elders in every city. This progression is what must occur in God’s people’s lives. There are different aspects in everyone’s life that seem to be segmented until God reveals to His people that everything in a person’s life is connected and not “on an island” individually segmented from each other, every member of the collective church is a part of each other, and every church across the world is connected.
The same man who wrote, “Why do I do the things that I will not to do” in a previous book in the Bible, also wrote “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” His progressive teaching is what the Body of Christ requires because people need to grow into to revelation of the relation that they already possess. There is a maturing process which must occur, and God is taking His people through it.
Paul taught in his previous book to commit the teachings to faithful men, now he is instructing to, “The aged women likewise, …That they may teach the young women to…” Instead of just the faithful men, it is now to the aged women as well. There are many different directions that can be speculated by wandering minds, but the basic truth is all people who are of the faith should be led and leading at whatever level of understanding and maturity that they are currently living to build the Body to the place God has for it.
Paul then writes, “…purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Paul is introducing the “peculiar people” phrase into the New Testament. This is definitely another step forward into boldly proclaiming the difference of the Body of Christ from the world. Many people who are “Christians” stay in the world, and you cannot tell the difference in their actions from the rest of the world. This should not be. God is the One who is purifying a peculiar people, zealous for good works and is boldly stating it in His Word.
Paul follows the last statement with, “A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;” removing people from the Body to keep the Body strong ad, not of many teachings and sinful distractions. As Jesus said, “A divided house cannot stand.”, and Paul was making certain to boldly explain that there is no room for foolishness in the Body of Christ; however, there is a place for repentance and loving reinstatement clearly made for everyone who is changed from their wicked ways to come into the unity of the faith.
The examples in this blog are only a limited sample of the deepening relational revelation described through the letter of “Titus” which include setting up church leaders in every city, instructions to “maintain good works, having the members of the church train their younger members, God’s peculiar people, and purging the Church from heretics.
The intent of the blog is to demonstrate the difference in the revelation that God gives to His people as they intently follow Him and focus on what He has told them through their individual lives and the revelation they’ve received through the Holy Spirit and His Holy Bible.
