From mistexts to typos to churches – it’s easy to mess things up, and generally harder to put them right again. This passage, and verse 5 in particular, addresses Paul and Titus’ work to put things right in the church on Crete.
First, this passage is a reminder of the importance and centrality of the local church to the Christian life. When Jesus sent out the apostles, they planted churches, because Christians need each other. This is contrary to the American outlook of independence and self-reliance. Our spiritual progress is tied to our church body.
And every church needs constant attention – a healthy church is always under construction. This was a relatively young church, and Paul hadn’t had time to do everything he wanted to do. and so Titus was specifically left behind to finish that work.
We often idealize the First Century church, with the scriptures in their own language and the apostles in their midst. But in reality there were issues throughout, and required constant attention from within and without.
Titus was doing this, essentially as an intentional interim pastor, relocated to deal with corrective action in the church, addressing unfinished issues and leadership development (appointing elders). His challenge, and ours, was to determine what to start with – you cannot do everything at once!
The New Testament does not spell out specifically how churches are to be organized, but it is clear that healthy churches need healthly leaders. Leaders can arise from unexpected places, and not all leaders in secular life are appropriate or healthy leaders in the church. But it is fairly clear that Titus was a healthy leader.
Titus was one of the earliest gentile Christian leaders, who we first hear about in Acts 11 where he travels from Antioch to Jerusalem and stands as something of a symbolic rebuke to the Judaizers. Later, Paul sent him to Corinth to check in on that fractious congregation, and he then reported back to and comforted Paul in Macedonia. Paul calls him his partner and fellow worker in 2 Corinthians.
Sometime after Paul’s first imprisonment, after the end of Acts, Paul sent Titus to Crete, then met up with him in Nicopolis before Titus moves on to Dalmatia (2 Tim 4:10).
God wants faithful, available and teachable workers (FAT). Titus was all three. He was faithful to complete all the work he was given. He was available to travel all around the Mediterranean to fulfill that work. And he was teachable, taking the instruction and the direction from this letter (and no doubt others!).
We should seek to be like Titus. There is much to be set in order, and much work to do within our own local church.
– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, October 6, 2019