Titus 1:5 - Meaning and Application

Here is the purpose stated more generally: “For this reason I left you in Crete, so that you might set in order what was still unfinished.” This was the work of an evangelist, and Titus held that kind of office. He was to water what the apostles had planted (1 Corinthians 3:6), helping to complete what they had begun. The word used here means to put things in order after another, and Titus was to finish what Paul had not had time to complete during his brief stay.

This shows Paul’s great energy in the work of the gospel. As soon as he had started the work in one place, he moved on to another. He felt himself under obligation to Greeks and barbarians alike, and labored to spread the gospel as far as he could among them all. It also shows his faithfulness and wisdom. He did not neglect the places he left, but made sure others were there to care for the young church and carry on the work he had begun.

It also shows his humility. He did not think it beneath him to be helped by others, even by those who were lower in rank or less gifted than he was. If the gospel could be advanced and people’s souls could be helped, he gladly used other hands in the work. This is a good example for ministers, stirring them to zeal, diligence, and care for their flocks, whether they are present or absent, living or dying, so far as they can to provide for their people’s spiritual growth and comfort.

We can also see that Titus, though below an apostle, was above the ordinary settled pastors or bishops who had charge of single churches as their regular work. Titus worked on a larger scale. He was to appoint such pastors where they were lacking, put things in order in the church’s early stage, and then move on to other places for similar service as needed. He was not only a minister of the whole church, as all ministers are, but a traveling minister with authority to work wherever he came.

Other ministers had the basic right and ability to serve anywhere when called, but evangelists like Titus had full authority to exercise their ministry as they traveled. They could also receive support from the churches. In that sense, they were actually within their assigned field wherever they went, and they had the right to direct and lead among the ordinary pastors. Where an apostle could act as an apostle, an evangelist could act as an evangelist, for they both worked for the Lord in a similar traveling way (1 Corinthians 16:10).

At Crete, Titus was only there for a time, and Paul wanted him to finish the work quickly and then come to him at Nicopolis, where Paul planned to spend the winter. Later Titus was sent to Corinth, was with Paul in Rome, and was then sent to Dalmatia. That is the last we read of him in Scripture, so Scripture does not show him as a fixed bishop in one place. He left Crete, and we do not read that he returned there again.

But what about the authority of Paul and Titus? Did they not interfere with the rights of civil rulers? Not at all. They did not come to meddle with civil authority. Their work was spiritual, carried on by teaching and persuasion, and it did not weaken or threaten magistrates. In fact, it helped secure and strengthen civil order. The things left unfinished were not matters that civil rulers create or control, but divine and spiritual ordinances appointed for spiritual purposes, given by Christ the King and Head of the church. Titus was left to settle those matters.

We should also notice how hard it is to plant churches and bring them to maturity. Paul had already labored there himself, and yet things were still unfinished. Materials are often uneven and need much shaping and fitting before they take proper form. Even after they are set in order, they tend to slip back into disorder. Ministers are meant to help correct what is wrong and supply what is lacking.

This was Titus’s general work in Crete. More specifically, he was to ordain elders in every city, that is, ministers. These were usually chosen from the older and more experienced believers, or, if they were younger, from men whose behavior was grave and steady. They were to be placed wherever there was a suitable number of Christians, as was usually the case in larger towns and cities, though villages could also have elders if there were enough believers there.

These presbyters, or elders, were to have the ordinary and settled care of the churches. They were to feed them, govern them, and carry out all pastoral duties among them. Sometimes the word is used more broadly for anyone who holds church office, and in that sense even the apostles were presbyters (1 Peter 5:1). But here it means the ordinary fixed pastors who labor in preaching and teaching and are over the churches in the Lord, as the rest of this chapter describes them.

Some people use this word presbyter in the sense of priest, but gospel ministers are not priests in that proper sense. The only priest under the gospel is Christ himself, the great high priest of our confession (Hebrews 3:1). He offered himself as a sacrifice for us, and he still lives to intercede for us because of that sacrifice. So these elders are not priests who offer sacrifices, whether symbolic or real. They are gospel ministers, appointed to give out Christ’s ordinances and to feed the church of God, over which the Holy Spirit has made them overseers.

From this we learn, first, that a church without a settled ministry is incomplete and lacking. Second, where there is a suitable number of believers, elders must be appointed. Their continued presence in the churches is as necessary as their first appointment. Their work is to equip the saints and build up the body of Christ, until we all reach maturity in Christ, until all God’s chosen people are gathered and united to him in one body, and brought to their full measure of grace and strength (Ephesians 4:12-13).

This is work that must continue to the end of the world, so the means God has appointed for it must also continue. How much praise is due to God for such an arrangement. How thankful should those be who enjoy it. And how much pity and prayer should rise for those who lack it. We should pray the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. Faith comes by hearing, and through hearing it is also preserved, strengthened, and made fruitful. Where there is no teaching and refreshing ministry, ignorance and corruption grow, good things decline, and all kinds of evil increase.

Titus was left in Crete for this reason, to put in order what was still lacking and to appoint elders in every city. But he was not to do this on his own judgment or according to his own preference. He was to follow apostolic direction.

Paul says, “as I appointed you,” likely referring to instructions he had already given Titus when they were together, perhaps in front of others. He mentions this partly for Titus’s sake, but even more for the people’s sake, so they would more willingly obey Titus. They were to see that what Titus did came with apostolic support and authority.

As everything under the law had to be made according to the pattern shown to Moses on the mountain, so everything in the gospel church must be ordered according to Christ’s direction and the direction of his chief ministers, who were guided by him without error. Human traditions and inventions have no place in the church of God. Wise arrangements may be made to carry out Christ’s commands according to the general teaching of Scripture, and they should be. But no one may change the substance of the faith, worship, order, or discipline of the churches.

If an evangelist could do nothing except by appointment, then others must be even more careful. The church is the house of God, and it is his right to appoint its officers and its order as he chooses. The word “as” here points to the kind of elders Titus was to appoint. He was to ordain elders in every city, as Paul had directed him, meaning elders with the qualifications and character Paul had just described and would explain more fully in the verses that follow.