Churches all need leadership. Paul has been setting out the requirements for that leadership to enable Titus to make good decisions. In the lay section, he walked through the “opium ground” of the household vs the negative qualities to be avoided. In these passages, Paul walks through the positive qualities.
Each of those qualities are those that start from the inside and work their way out.
First, they are to be hospitable. This specifically means loving strangers, “philoxenos.” This was vital to the early church, because traveling pastors and missionaries were often moving from town to town and needed a place to stay. Likewise, an elder’s home needed to be open for hosting services and other needs within the church.
Second, they must love what is good. This is a companion to the term hospitable, “philagathos” – balancing a love of those we do not know with a love of what we know is good.
Then there are a series of characteristics that boil down to “balance.” First, self control. Do they remain sane in the face of adversity, or do they lose control of their own mind and emotions when faced with adversity?
Next, they are to be upright – both in their own behavior and the judgements they offer. This refers to the horizontal relationships between brothers. They are to be holy in their vertical relationship with God. And they must be, again, disciplined and self-controlled – the internal relationship must be right as well.
They are not only to believe the word of God, but cling to it tightly, in order that he can both teach and correct.
Note that none of these descriptions have anything up do with the elder’s position in society, class or wealth or background or ethnicity.
The reason for these high – though not unattainable – qualifications is that the congregation needs to have trust in its leaders. Constant second-guessing of a church’s leadership is self-defeating and unhealthy. Where there is frustration and friction, leaders must be open to conversation and even correction as they seek that right horizontal relationship with their fellow believers.
On the side of the laypeople, we must keep the balance between submission to authority and discernment.
– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, October 20, 2019