New Testament: Titus 1.7-9

To read the Bible in a year, read Titus 1 on October 31, In the year of our Lord Christ 2024

By Don Ruhl 

Do you want to know the kind of man who should serve as an overseer, or bishop, of a congregation? 

Paul gives us a good idea when he wrote to Titus: “For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict” (Titus 1.7-9). 

Do you get a mental picture now of what such a man should be? This passage does not cover everything about an overseer, also known as an elder, but it points us in the right direction. 

He should also be a man of prayer, a man who loves people, and so on, things that Paul did not mention, but you know that he must possess such qualities, along with many other things, to be able to shepherd the Church of God.

Questions from today’s reading and devotional: 

• Are there men like this in your congregation? 
• What can you do to encourage men to become what Paul painted of an overseer? 

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Don preaches with the Savage Street Church of Christ in Grants Pass, Oregon. 

Listen to his sermons here: GrantsPassChurchOfChrist.com