Gloriographs by Rick Reynolds

For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might set in order what remains, and appoint elders in every city as I directed you. Titus 1:3

There was some unfinished business in Crete, some untidiness. No lines of authority. No chain of command. That Titus was to set things in order (additionally arrange, further straighten) infers some disorder.

The stock of good men, despite the presence of many “Cretans,” was probably there. They just needed to be identified and tapped on the shoulder, with the Holy Spirit’s direction.

The idea behind Paul’s directive was to permanently establish biblical leadership in the churches, and to install (place down) the original team. This standard operating procedure along with the qualifications list, would survive to our day.

Titus was on Paul’s “go to list” because he was a proven “partner and fellow worker.” (2 Corinthians 8:23).

Here is the qualification list, which complements and mirrors the list in 1 Timothy 3:

⁶namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion. ⁷For the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, ⁸but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, ⁹holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. Titus 1:6-9