1From Paul, servant of God, apostle of Christ Jesus, at the service of God’s chosen people, so that they may believe and reach the knowledge of truth and godliness.
2The eternal life we are waiting for was promised from the very beginning by God who never lies, 3and as the appointed time had come, he made it known through the message entrusted to me by a command of God, our Savior.
4Greetings to you, Titus, my true son in the faith we share. May grace and peace be with you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
On the elders of the Church
5 ① I left you in Crete because I wanted you to put right what was defective and appoint elders in every town, following my instructions. 6They must be blameless, married only once, whose children are believers and not open to the charge of being immoral and rebellious. 7Since the overseer (or bishop) is the steward of God’s house, he must be beyond reproach: not proud, hot-headed, over-fond of wine, quarrelsome or greedy for gain.
8On the contrary he must be hospitable, a lover of what is good, wise, upright, devout and self-controlled. 9He must hold to the message of faith just as it was taught, so that, in his turn, he may teach sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
10You know that there are many rebellious minds, talkers of nonsense, deceivers, especially the party of the circumcised. 11They have to be silenced when they go around disturbing whole families, teaching for low gain what should not be taught. 12A Cretan, one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans: always liars, wicked beasts and lazy gluttons.” 13This is true. For this reason rebuke them sharply if you want them to have a sound faith 14instead of heeding Jewish fables and practices of people who reject the truth.
15To the pure everything is pure; to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure: their minds and consciences have been defiled. 16They pretend to know God but deny him with their deeds. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
- Tit 1,5 Titus had to organize the churches of Crete with leaders in every city. We do not know if the title overseer (in Greek, episcopos, from which comes bishop) was given to all these elders or presbyters, or if the title was reserved for those with executive duties. After a while, there was only one bishop in charge of the entire community. After the apostles' death, bishops served as their representatives and ruled the Church with the same authority. What Paul says here about the requirements for a presbyter or bishop is the same as what we have in 1 Timothy. We may note the following: - Married only once. Obviously it is not necessary to be married, but as men of a certain age, usually married, were the ones who were consecrated, Paul is here considering the frequent case of Christians who had been divorced and remarried several times while they were still pagans. - He must be beyond reproach, not he alone but his family as well. His fitness to preside is essential to his vocation, and he will not be accepted by the community if his background gives an unfavorable witness. - He must be hospitable. The Church is communion more than organization. Everyone must be welcomed and feel at home in the house of the presbyter or the bishop. He must also welcome the brothers and elders from other districts in order to assure unity and communion among different communities. The human balance in this bishop is then part of his vocation: he cannot be a man of uneven character whose interventions could wound, whose authority ignores the elementary rules of social contact and respect of persons: although known for their faith, Church leaders are often reproached for not knowing how to act in a human way. The paragraph 2-16 is a cautionary measure against the return to a religion of practices and abstinences inspired by Jewish law. To the pure, everything is pure: in the spirit of Mt 15:11 and Rom 14:20. That will never mean to say that our intentions (our intentions are always pure!) justify our actions. That would be to forget that the tree (the desire urging us to act) is judged by its fruit; these cannot be justified if they are contrary to the will of God manifested in the Law.
