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Titus 1:5-9 - Put What Remains in Order

14 min read

The Gospel had reached Crete, but the work was unfinished. Local churches still needed tested shepherds, ordered care, and protection from teaching that would soon be shown overturning households. In five verses, St Paul gives Titus a city-by-city charge and then refuses to separate office from character: the one appointed must be credible at home, governed by positive virtue, and held firmly by the word he will teach. Christian authority begins here, under command, under examination, and under the God whose household it serves.

Set in Order What Is Lacking (Titus 1:5)

5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you—

“For this reason” joins the charge to the letter’s opening. Paul has just spoken of the truth that accords with godliness, the word entrusted through preaching, and Titus as a true son in the common faith. That same truth must now take durable form among local communities. Titus is left in Crete with a defined apostolic responsibility: recognize what remains unfinished, repair it, and appoint elders city by city.

Crete was not one compact congregation. Strabo names Cnossus, Gortyna, and Cydonia among the island’s prominent ancient cities, and Pleiades identifies Gortyna as a Roman provincial capital.1 Paul does not tell us Titus’s route, headquarters, or the number of Christian communities, so none should be supplied. The phrase “in every city” makes the pastoral point. Churches spread across a substantial island needed local shepherds who could be known, tested, and held accountable among the people they served.

Language insight: repair with a city-by-city shape

“Set in order” translates ἐπιδιορθώσῃ (epidiorthōsē), a rare verb with the sense of putting further into order what remains deficient or unfinished. The phrase κατὰ πόλιν (kata polin) gives the appointments a distributive shape: city by city.2 Paul is not asking Titus to invent a church from nothing. He is charging him to continue a work already begun and to address its real deficiencies.

That distinction keeps order close to pastoral care. A church may confess the true faith and still leave people poorly taught, correction inconsistent, responsibility confused, or vulnerable households exposed to persuasive voices. Repair begins when such needs are named truthfully. It continues through patient formation and accountable service, not through a burst of administrative activity that leaves the underlying weakness untouched.

The final words, “as I commanded you,” also matter. Titus has real authority, yet he exercises it as one entrusted with a received charge. His task is neither self-appointed reform nor imitation of Paul’s personality. He serves the apostolic Gospel already named in verses 1-4, and the elders he appoints will likewise stand beneath the faithful word.

St John Chrysostom sees Paul’s willingness to entrust this work to Titus as freedom from rivalry: “Here we see a soul free from all envy, seeking everywhere the advantage of his disciples.”3 The purpose of order is the good of Christ’s people. A ministry becomes distorted when preserving a leader’s importance matters more than repairing what the flock actually lacks.

This verse also corrects the temptation to live at a distance from the Church. “City by city” brings faith close to ordinary people and ordinary needs. The Christian life is learned in a concrete community where someone knows our name, receives our questions, notices danger, teaches the word, and answers before God for the care given. Apostolic unity does not erase local responsibility. It gives local responsibility its truth and direction.

Blameless Stewards in Household and Character (Titus 1:6-8)

6 if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination. 7 For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, 8 but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled,

Paul moves immediately from the appointment to the life of the man appointed. “Blameless” appears in verses 6 and 7, framing both household integrity and public ministry. The Greek ἀνέγκλητος (anenklētos) describes one who is not open to a sustainable charge, unreprovable or unaccused.4 This is not sinlessness. It is a life whose settled pattern does not give scandal a home. Influence, intelligence, family reputation, and eloquence cannot make up for a character ruled by anger, appetite, money, or dishonesty.

The household clause is one of the passage’s hard texts because it can be turned against the very family whose dignity the Church should protect. “The husband of one wife” plainly requires marital and sexual integrity, but the phrase by itself does not settle every later canonical question about celibacy, widowhood, remarriage, or ordination discipline. The Greek πιστά (pista) in “faithful children” can carry the sense of believing or of faithful and trustworthy; the following words emphasize public accusation of reckless dissipation or insubordination.5 The exact translation question remains disputed.

Paul’s pastoral concern is still clear. The candidate’s nearest relationships must not expose a double life. Public ministry cannot compensate for habitual neglect, manipulation, violence, or refusal of responsibility at home. At the same time, a spouse or child is a person with agency, suffering, and accountability before God. Illness, grief, conflict, or an adult child’s wandering does not automatically prove parental hypocrisy. The Church must examine the candidate’s own fidelity and care without turning a family’s pain into parish spectacle.

Verse 7 explains the seriousness of that examination: the bishop is “a steward of God.” Paul names elders in verse 5 and then speaks of the overseer or bishop in verse 7, closely relating the terms in this qualification. These verses are a strong apostolic root for ordered ministry, but they do not by themselves supply a complete account of every later diocesan and parish office. The controlling image here is οἰκονόμος Θεοῦ (oikonomos Theou), God’s steward, a person entrusted with another’s household and affairs.6 The office is received from God, exercised for His people, and answerable to Him.

That is why the negative list is so searching. The self-willed man makes his preference the measure of every decision. The quick-tempered man forces others to anticipate his reactions. Wine, violence, and greed place appetite above the good of the flock. None of these remains private once a person is entrusted with souls. Each changes who can speak honestly, whose needs are heard, how correction is given, and whether the weak are protected.

Chrysostom makes the danger of self-will unmistakable. A ruler who insists on his own will and shares counsel with no one, he says, “makes his presidency tyrannical rather than popular.”7 This warning does not empty ministry of real authority. It requires authority to remain teachable, accountable, and free from the need to overpower those it serves. Christ forbids His shepherds to imitate rulers who “lord it over” others (Matthew 20:25-28), and St Peter likewise commands elders to shepherd without acting as lords over those entrusted to them (1 Peter 5:1-4).

Verse 8 turns decisively from danger to virtue. Paul begins with ἀλλά (alla), “but,” and names active habits: φιλόξενον (philoxenon), hospitable; φιλάγαθον (philagathon), loving what is good; σώφρονα (sōphrona), sober-minded; δίκαιον (dikaion), just; ὅσιον (hosion), holy; and ἐγκρατῆ (enkratē), self-controlled.8 Avoiding disqualifying behavior is only the threshold. The shepherd’s life must have been trained toward the good.

Hospitality makes room for the stranger instead of arranging every relationship around convenience. Love of what is good shapes what the leader admires and rewards. Sober judgment refuses panic and impulse. Justice gives each person honest treatment rather than favoring those who are useful. Holiness orders life toward God. Self-control keeps desire, speech, anger, and appetite from seizing command. These virtues make authority trustworthy because they give people room to encounter the care of Christ rather than the unmanaged passions of His servant.

The test reaches every Christian with responsibility, not only the ordained. Parents, teachers, managers, deacons, ministry servants, and mentors all exercise forms of entrusted care. Paul asks whether those nearest to us meet the same person others praise in public, and whether our habits make it easier or harder for them to tell the truth. Grace does not call us to manage an appearance of blamelessness. It calls us to repentance deep enough that practiced virtue becomes visible where performance is hardest.

Holding Fast the Faithful Word (Titus 1:9)

9 holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.

The final qualification gathers the passage into one sentence. Before the elder teaches, he must hold fast. Before he answers contradiction, he must be answerable to what he received. His authority does not arise from novelty, force of personality, or the speed of his reply. He clings to the faithful word and lets that word form both his convictions and his manner of speaking.

Language insight: held by healthy teaching

The verb ἀντεχόμενον (antechomenon) means holding firmly, clinging to, or being devoted to. The Greek phrase is more explicit than an isolated appeal to personal instruction: the elder holds to “the faithful word according to the teaching.” The expression translated “sound doctrine” uses health language, ὑγιαίνω (hygiainō), to be sound or healthy.9 Doctrine in Titus is exact because persons and households can be either healed or harmed by what the Church teaches and tolerates.

Paul names two capacities: to exhort, strengthening people in faithfulness, and to convict, exposing contradiction and answering what opposes the truth. The character tested in verses 7-8 governs both. The person who speaks must be hospitable, just, holy, and self-controlled; he must not be self-willed, quick-tempered, or violent. A man ruled by anger cannot make his anger holy by calling it doctrinal zeal. Verse 9 joins doctrinal fidelity to a life disciplined by grace.

Paul will next show why conviction is necessary: teachers are overturning households for dishonest gain (Titus 1:10-16). That demonstrated-harm crisis belongs to the next passage. Here Paul establishes the prior test. The shepherd must be able to strengthen the faithful and answer contradiction without contradicting the healthy teaching by his own character.

Gems from the Fathers 💎

Chrysostom describes the teacher as a healer whose response to injury cannot imitate the injury: “The teacher is the physician of souls. But the physician does not strike, but heals and restores him that has stricken him.”10 The image binds verse 9 to the required character of verses 7-8. The elder must be strong enough to protect the flock and self-controlled enough not to retaliate.

Chrysostom also insists that a teacher needs strength of mind and skill in Scripture rather than verbal display. The elder has been tested in life, has received the teaching, and is holding fast to the word. His speech must therefore show both biblical fidelity and the virtue the word has formed in him.

Later Paul will say that Jesus Christ “gave Himself for us” to redeem and purify a people for His own possession (Titus 2:14). That self-giving Lord is the center of ordered ministry. The churches are repaired because they belong to Him, leaders are tested because His people are precious, and the faithful word is guarded because it forms His life in the Church.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

Bring one neglected place into the light. We often rename what remains unfinished so that repair can wait. Neglected prayer becomes “a busy season.” A broken promise becomes “poor communication.” An unresolved ministry failure becomes “something we will revisit.” Titus begins by naming what is lacking. Choose one area where delay has become avoidance, bring it plainly before God, and take one verifiable step this week: make the call, keep the promise, seek confession, ask for help, or finish the responsibility already given.

Let private integrity carry more weight than public usefulness. Service can become a refuge from repentance at home. A person may be patient in a meeting and sharp with a spouse, generous in public and secretive with money, available to parish needs and absent from a child who needs attention. Paul does not command family perfection, and his words must never shame a wounded household. He does require truth. If those nearest to you bear the cost of the person others admire, begin repair with an honest apology, a changed habit, and accountable help where needed.

Practice the virtue opposite your recurring danger. Paul does not stop after forbidding anger, violence, greed, and excess. He turns to hospitality, love of good, sober judgment, justice, holiness, and self-control. If irritability narrows your attention, practice patient listening. If self-protection closes your home or schedule, welcome one person who cannot repay you. If appetite repeatedly makes decisions for you, choose a concrete fast with prayer. Grace trains the heart not only to refuse evil but to become ready for good.

Let character govern correction. Contradiction can awaken insecurity, anger, and the pleasure of winning. Verse 9 places reception and tested character before response. Read the relevant Scripture carefully, pray until self-will and quick temper have loosened their grip, and seek counsel when another person’s safety or reputation is involved. When real harm is present, firm action may be necessary; the person acting must still remain hospitable, just, holy, and self-controlled.

Pray for local shepherds, and become easier to shepherd. City-by-city care requires clergy and servants who know their people, teach the received faith, welcome correction, and answer to God. Pray for their households, self-control, courage, and fidelity to Scripture. Support healthy local responsibility instead of building parish life around distant personalities. Receive sound teaching with humility, raise serious concerns through accountable channels, and offer your own gifts for the repair of what remains lacking.

Footnotes

  1. Strabo, Geography 10.4.7, LacusCurtius; Pleiades, Gortyn(a). ↩

  2. Titus 1:5 Greek interlinear and the lexical entry for ἐπιδιορθόω. The public lexical evidence supports the displayed form and basic sense; broader claims about the term’s full historical range remain uncertain. ↩

  3. St John Chrysostom, Homily II on Titus, New Advent. ↩

  4. Titus 1:6 Greek interlinear, Titus 1:7 Greek interlinear, and the lexical entry for ἀνέγκλητος. ↩

  5. Titus 1:6 Greek interlinear, with lexical entries for πιστός, ἀσωτία, and ἀνυπότακτος. The believing-children versus faithful-children reading remains disputed. ↩

  6. Titus 1:5 Greek interlinear, Titus 1:7 Greek interlinear, and the lexical entry for οἰκονόμος. ↩

  7. St John Chrysostom, Homily II on Titus, New Advent. ↩

  8. Titus 1:8 Greek interlinear. ↩

  9. Titus 1:9 Greek interlinear, with lexical entries for ἀντέχομαι and ὑγιαίνω. ↩

  10. St John Chrysostom, Homily II on Titus, New Advent. ↩

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