Sermon: What A Bishop Must Be - Part 2 (Titus 1:5-9)

The Local Christendom Podcast with Aaron Ventura

What A Bishop Must Be – Pt. 2
Sunday, August 10th, 2025
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Titus 1:5-9

Prayer

Father, we thank you for your Son Christ Jesus, our Chief Shepherd and the Supreme Bishop of our souls. Thank you for the example of Christ, through which we are taught how to pattern our own lives, so that we may arrive safely into the harbor of your heavenly kingdom. Help us now by your Holy Spirit, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

Last week we began our study of what a man must be if he desires the work of a bishop. Recall that the word bishop (ἐπίσκοπος) means literally to oversee, or to look out from above, andit is the duty of the presbyters/elders of the church to keep watch over God’s house, not as owners or lords of God’s heritage, but as stewards who set a good example for the flock (1 Pet 5:3).

• Paul describes what this spiritual authority ought to look like in 2 Corinthians 1:24, Not that we have dominion over your faith, but we are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand.
• He says likewise in Hebrews 13:7, 17, Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end [outcome] of their conversation…for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
  • Notice that the relationship between the elders and the congregation, between shepherds and sheep, ought to be marked by joy. Our ministry to you should be a kind of cooperative effort to help you find your joy in God.
  • Now ask yourself, what gets in the way of you finding your supreme joy in God? There are many temptations in this world, many counterfeit joys and attractions. There are also many trials and difficulties that assault us. And what all these diverse attacks upon your joy reduce to are two basic obstacles. There are: 1) your sins that kill your joy, and there are 2) your sufferings that obscure it. Shame and Pain. Guilt and Infirmity, these are the most common hindrances to us finding our joy in God.
  • Therefore, our words to you should be most frequently calling you to repent of your individual particular sins, and then also comforting you with the blessed hope of God’s promises, the hope of eternal life.
    • If your soul is never afflicted with conviction for your sins, either you, or us, or both of us, are doing something wrong. Our job is to speak the truth of God’s word to you from love, and your job is to receive that word of truth with faith and obey it. It is not much more complicated than that.
    • Paul says, we are workers (co-laborers) with you for your joy, and it is only by faith in Christ that you stand.
• So what is our ambition and aspiration as elders, as bishops? It is to be able to say to you with a clean conscience, what Paul says to the Corinthians, Follow me, as I follow Christ. Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ (1 Cor 11:1). And furthermore, woe to us, if we become as the scribes and Pharisees, of whom Jesus says in Matthew 23:3, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.
• So unlike the scribes and Pharisees who were hypocrites, we want our living to be in harmony with our speaking. Preaching is hard, but preaching is actually really easy compared to living up to what we preach. And therefore, we want to have high standards for ourselves, high standards for you, but that high standard must God’s standard, and we find that standard here in our sermon text.

Context

• Now this morning as we focus our attention on verse 7, remember the context of this letter.
  • Paul has left Titus in Crete to, “set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city.” And he has set down 16 distinct qualifications by which every Christian ought to judge and examine himself or herself, and which Titus is to use a rubric/ questionnaire as he searches for qualified presbyters.
  • The basic principle of church government is that if a man cannot govern his own passions and desires, and if a man cannot rule his own household well, then he is not qualified to rule and govern in Christ’s church.
  • And so we find in this list of 16 qualifications, what is really the whole theme of this letter, and that is, the marriage of sound doctrine with good living. Or as Paul will summarize a few verses later in Titus 1:15, To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.
    • And so what Paul wants for these Cretan Christians, is that they have both purity of doctrine and purity of life. And therefore, the only men who are qualified to lead the church, are those who have been examined and tested for their purity of doctrine and purity of life.
• Last week we considered the first four of these qualifications for a what bishop must be, and this morning we are going to look at five things that a bishop must not be.
  • So let me read again verses 6 and 7 for us.

6If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. 7For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; [and then we get the five things a bishop must not be] not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre…

#1 – A bishop must not be selfwilled (μὴ αὐθάδη)

• To be self-willed means to be stubborn, headstrong, brash, or arrogant. The self-willed man values his own opinion more than anyone else’s, including God, and therefore like the sluggard of Proverbs 26:16, he is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can answer sensibly.
• The self-willed man always insists on doing things his way. He is unreasonable, he is not teachable, he is a law unto himself.
  • When these kinds of men get into positions of authority (and it is sad how frequently they do), they become bullies and petty tyrants. The self-willed man has a distorted sense of proportion, and because of this, everything little thing becomes a hill to die on. He treats everyone else as if its “either my way or the highway.”
• The Bible likens the self-willed man to someone that is drunk on his own ego. Paul says in Romans 12:3-5, For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
  • So a bishop cannot be a self-willed man, because it is essential to the pastoral office, and to basic Christian living, that we consider others as more important than ourselves. And this is hard to do!
    • Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:23, Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.
  • A self-willed person is blind to the needs of others, because all he ever cares and thinks about is what he needs and what he wants. He does not regard himself as one member and a part of the whole, but as wholly sufficient in himself. And this is exactly contrary to the spirit of Christ, which is the spirit of charity and unity.
  • Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:4-5, charity does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not have behave rudely, does not seek its own.
• So in contrast to the self-willed man, a bishop must be good-willed. That is to say, a bishop wills the good that is God for himself and his people. He is most concerned with what God’s will is for the church, and he is zealous to study and search out that will in the Scriptures and in prayer, so that he mighy say with the Lord Jesus, not my will, but Yours be done.
  • Further, the good-willed bishop is not intimidated or threatened by people who are smarter than he is, or more talented than he is, or even more godly than he is. Indeed, the good-willed bishop wishes he was the least saintly in all the church, and he rejoices to be surrounded by holy creatures. A good-willed bishop says with the Apostle John in 3 John 4, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
  • So just as godly parents desire and delight in their children far surpassing them in virtue, so also the goodwilled bishop desires that his spiritual offspring (his disciples) far surpass him in virtue and praise before God.
• Another important aspect of being goodwilled rather than selfwilled, is that a man of goodwill seeks out and pursues other wise counselors.
  • It says in Proverbs 1:5, A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; And a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.
  • Likewise in Proverbs 20:18 it says, Every purpose is established by counsel: And with good advice make war.
  • It is a foolish king who wages war without counsel, and how much more foolish for those who wage holy war against the spiritual forces of darkness and sin?
  • It says in Proverbs 24:6, For by wise counsel you will wage your own war, And in a multitude of counselors there is safety.
  • This safety in a multitude of wise counselors is another reason why God has ordained that the church by governed not by any one man, but by a plurality of qualified men of equal rank. This is the beauty of good presbyterian government, when we have a multitude of wise counselors with which we may consult. Meanwhile, the self-willed man thinks he can do it all on his own. And this a bishop must not be!

#2 – A bishop must not be soon angry (μὴ ὀργίλον)

• Other translations say he must not be quick-tempered, or irascible, given to wrath.
• The reasons for this are quite obvious. It says in James 1:20, For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. And in 1 Corinthians 13, the first quality of love/charity is that it is patient and long suffering.
• Paul says that the preachers of the gospel are ambassadors and representatives of Christ. And when we look at Christ, when we study God’s character, we discover that He is exceedingly patient with us, gentle in his correction, and that when his wrath and punishment is poured out in this life, it is always for our healing and correction. Even God’s anger is as coming from His love.
  • It says in Psalm 86:15, But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, Longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
  • Likewise in Psalm 103:8 it says, The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
• So a bishop and pastor as God’s ambassador must be patient like God is patient. A man who is easily angered is a man who lacks love. And to be a Christian that is easily angered by the sins of others, is really to be blind and ignorant of just how far you daily fall short of the glory of God.
  • Jesus says in Matthew 7:3-4, And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?
  • And Paul says in Galatians 6:1, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
• So if you struggle with bitterness, resentment, and anger issues, the place you must go is to the cross of Christ. Look in the mirror and then look at the cross. Look in the mirror and behold your wretchedness. Acknowledge to God the grossness of your sins, your ingratitude, your whining, your blame shifting, your bad attitude, your lack of love, your lack of patience, your lack of all that God commands that you be.
  • As it says in James 4:9, Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
  • The place that anger issues go to die is the cross of Jesus Christ. You must see that your sins are so great, so great that the Son of God had to die for them, and that God has been exceedingly patient and kind to lead you to repentance.
  • By constantly looking not merely at your sins, but at your sins nailed to the cross and forgiven, a person learns meekness. A person learns gentleness in how he corrects others. Because he knows the infinite debt that God has forgiven, and how apart from grace, he would be the worst of all sinners.
• It says of the priest in Hebrews 5:2-3, He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins.
• So God requires that the pastors and elders in the church be constant in their confession of their own sins to God, so that they will be gentle, wise, and patient when they help others confess their sins to God. This confession Christ does perfectly as our High Priest, and because of His mediation, we can have assurance of God’s pardon, a good conscience that, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
• So because God is very patient, His bishops must not be easily angered. For anger clouds the judgment, and bishops must be wise men of justice.

#3 – A bishop must not be given to wine (μὴ πάροινον)

• The idea here is that a bishop must not be a drunkard or given to excess with alcoholic beverages. He should not need a beer every day to unwind, but should rather be moderate in his use of God’s gifts.
  • It says in Psalm 104:15 that God gave us wine to make glad the heart of man. And Paul explicitly tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:23, Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
  • And so there is a time and a place and due proportion for using wine (the Lord’s Supper for example). And a bishop needs to know what those times, places, and proportions are, for that belongs to the work of justice, of giving to others (especially the sheep) what is their due.
  • It says in Proverbs 31:4-5, It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; Nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, And pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.
  • And so the danger of going to excess in wine, is that a bishop loses or diminishes his powers of discernment. And it is this power of discernment that an overseer especially needs.
  • Paul says in Ephesians 5:16-18, See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.
• So a bishop must not be given to wine, instead he should be pursuing the excess of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

#4 – A bishop must not be a striker (μὴ πλήκτην)

• Other translations say, he must not be violent, or pugnacious.
  • A violent man or striker is like a doctor who uses a hammer when a band aid and a good night of sleep would do the trick. That is to say, a striker misdiagnoses the problems in the church, and thinks that force of arms, intimidation and threats, are how you get the job done.
  • The man who resorts to violence, whether physical or emotional, does not understand how the gospel triumphs.
  • It is true we are soldiers, it is true we are waging warfare, but as Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
• Christians need a martial spirit. Christians need a backbone and courage. But when it comes to spiritual problems, a bishop needs spiritual solutions. And therefore the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
• The violent man must learn the meekness of Jesus and the self-denial of the cross. Our crusade and holy war as Christians is to rescue our enemies from the devil’s army. And so while there is a place for just wars, and the civil sword to execute God’s wrath, the church is not an earthly kingdom, but rather a spiritual kingdom with many earthly consequences. The striker confuses these two kingdoms and conflates them as one, and for this reason, amongst many others, the violent men cannot be a bishop.

#5 – A bishop must not be given to filthy lucre (μὴ αἰσχροκερδῆ)

• What is filthy lucre? It is unjust or ill-gotten gain. The man given to filthy lucre commits the sins of greed and avarice. He inverts the created order by using spiritual goods (like the truth of the gospel) to gain earthly goods (money, status, fame, fortune).
  • Paul warns of this temptation in 1 Timothy 6:6-10 saying, But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
• A man who pursues ministry for self-serving motives is called a hireling.
  • Jesus speaks of such men in John 10:11-13 saying, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.
  • And so because bad motives are invisible, and often hard to discern, it is usually not until a wolf comes into the church, that a pastor is revealed for who he is. If the pastor is a hireling, only there for the paycheck and not the honor of Christ, he runs or is negligent when trouble comes. However, the faithful under shepherd imitates the Good Shepherd, and he stays and he fights so that God’s sheep are not scattered, and it is by this act of love that hirelings are distinguished from the true bishops.
• Paul tells us in Philippians 1:15-18 how we should feel and think about hirelings in the church. And it might surprise you what he says. He says, Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.

Conclusion

St. Augustine once said that “The shepherd is to be loved, the hireling is to be tolerated, and of the robber we must beware.” This captures Paul’s sentiment that while men will preach Christ from all different kinds of motives (good, bad, and mixed), our focus should be that our own heart and our own motives are right in the sight of God.

• For this is the only safe path to take, and it is God who will ultimately judge and separate the sheep from the goats, the shepherds from the hirelings, the bishops who are true bishops from those who are bishops in name only.
• Your concern must ever be that you are a true sheep, that you hear and recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd, and you follow him to the green pastures and still waters of heavenly glory.
  • Jesus says in John 10:15-16, As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
• May God call and gather and keep your soul under his watchful eye, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.