Titus Chapter 1
Q. What is your definition of a messed up church?
Q. Have you ever been a member of a church with problems? Can you describe them? Did things get better? How were the problems straightened out? Read the text
Q. What does verse 5 say about Titus’ duty?
A. He’s to straighten out the their mess and appoint elders in every town. (1:5-9) The list. Why is it different than the list mentioned in Timothy and for the Ephesian church?
Q. Is there a major difference here in the Cretan list?
A. The command that they not be new Christians is not listed.
Q. What could be the reason behind this?
A. Ephesus churches already had elders (Acts 20:17-35). The Ephesus church had been established quite a while and was more organized. The Cretan church was much younger and didn’t have long-time Christians.
After vs. 12 Epimenides, 600 years earlier, himself a Cretan said of the people from Crete how terrible they were. Paul is probably referring here to the false teachers and those who would follow the false teachers. He was using a shame tactic.
Q. How does verse 16 speak to reaching out to our postmodern pre-Christians (those who aren’t Christians yet)? “They claim to know God but deny him by their actions”
A. Authenticiy. People don’t like it. Especially those people who believe Jesus and especially the church, are irrelevant to their lives. They want to see actions, good actions, and especially actions that match our words (the words of Christians and the words of the church).
Q. We hear churches speak words, ideas, things they want to do. Have any of our words sounded nice, but not appeared in the actions of this church/class/group?
