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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 5 of 5
Titus 1:1-16
We find in the epistle to Titus the same subjects which occupied us in the first epistle to Timothy: good order in the assembly, sound teaching opposed to that of the false teachers, its fruit in the behaviour of believers. Paul instructed Titus to choose and ordain several in each assembly (Acts 14:23). This is far from the principle of so many churches in which today a single man holds these functions and moreover is regularly appointed to carry them out. Dignity, sobriety, hospitality, self-control: these are the moral characteristics essential to the overseer.
The picture of the Cretians drawn by their own prophet and confirmed by the apostle is not a flattering one. These characteristic features of the natural man are not obliterated by conversion. One person is still more inclined to lying, another to idleness or pride. Each child of God must learn to know his own tendencies and then watch with the Lord’s help in order to prevent them coming out. Insubordination for example! That of children toward parents (end of v. 6) threatens to show itself later toward the whole divine teaching (v. 10). God does not recognize the works of one who is not subject to the authority of His Word (v. 16).
