An Elder’s Character in the Church

Previously we looked at the passage in Titus 1 about the character of an elder in the home. Now we continue with the same idea, but expanding outward from that little home that God has placed the man over to the larger house of God that we call the church. Our text continues that, He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain (v. 6).

I should also point out what may become obvious. These are character traits. That means that they are already real in private and in the home, and at the workplace for that matter. By the words “in the church,” I am merely speaking in the general flow of Paul tasking the other elders with examining the man where they can. Now let us examine each of these in turn.

First, what does it mean to be arrogant? There’s no coincidence that this word has as its root autos, or “self.” Arrogance is simply “self-ism” and goes together perfectly with “self-willed … stubborn.”1 Just as love is the fruit of the Spirit that binds the rest together, so this vice called arrogance really produces all of these other evils. That’s because to be arrogant is to put ourselves first in all things, to see ourselves at the center of everything, and so to crave instant gratification and expect total surrender from others. In the song of Hannah—“let not arrogance come from your mouth” is applied to those who taunted her barren womb. In other words, to be arrogant is to judge everyone else on the basis of who isn’t currently “producing.” But she goes on to sing that “the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed” (1 Sam. 2:3).

The arrogant looks down on those who are down and out (cf. Ps. 10:2, 17:10). An arrogant man in the church accumulates power rather than distributing that power to empower others. He sees himself as the indispensable man.

Being quick-tempered is described as “inclined to anger, quick-tempered” and “prone to anger, irascible.”2 The Scriptures have good and bad things to say about anger—“Be angry and do not sin” (Eph. 4:26). You can see from that verse that we have to put our thinking caps on about anger. There must be a righteous kind and an unrighteous kind. The wise king Solomon might help us: “A man of quick temper acts foolishly” (Prov. 14:17). Sinful anger isn’t about the depth of the anger, but the irrational nature of it. In other words, anger is sinful, partly because it is out of touch with reality. It is not mad at the right thing. Like covetousness, sinful anger is losing it over losing an idol. 

The lexicons define being a drunkard as being “drunken, addicted to wine”3 and “one who sits long at his wine … given to wine, drunken” and even “quarrelsome over wine’; hence, brawling, abusive.”4 If you still want some definition to this, another author gives us a helpful three-fold criteria for when strong drink is bad: “anything that harms their bodies, clouds their thinking or brings them into bondage.”5 I think that’s a biblical balance. The same New Testament that commends wine to Timothy (1 Timothy 4:23) and has Jesus turning water into wine (John 2:6-11), also warns us to not be intoxicated (cf. Eph. 5:18). So it’s true—not abstinence, but absolute control over our indulgences. 

We might ask how on earth a violent person could ever make even the first cut of the elder selection process. But “violence” is actually a broader word than simply inflicting physical harm on others; although it includes that. Descriptions include “bully … bruiser, ready with a blow; a pugnacious, contentious, quarrelsome person,”6 or as one translation puts it, a “striker.” The Psalmist described the heart of his enemies in this way: “with what violent hatred they hate me” (Ps. 25:19).

So long before things come to physical blows, there is the person who has a sense of entitlement when it comes to the church. He uses underhanded means to seize power. He talks over others to silence reasoned debate. And through it all, he has dehumanized a brother or sister in Christ.

The way that Paul says greedy for gain to Timothy is that he must not be “a lover of money” (1 Tim. 3:3). Money has a way of making ministry into a mercenary affair: a means to some greater end. Our money is subordinate to the kingdom. I will have to settle for a paraphrase here, but I appreciate how Piper says this. It is something like: God gives us money to use in such a way that demonstrates to the world that money is not our god.

The Greek word for hospitable (φιλόξενον) is made up of the “love of” (philo) the “outsider” (xenos). Stott gives this cultural background: “For in those days there were no hotels comparable to those we are familiar with, and roadside inns were scarce, dirty, unsafe and unsavory. So Christian travelers, especially itinerant Christian preachers, needed to be accommodated by the pastor and his wife.”7 This is that welcoming dimension of Romans 14. It is a heart attitude which opens up all that we have to bring others to Jesus. 

The rest of these character traits strike us as more “internal,” but that doesn’t mean that they don’t show up clearly. So to be a lover of good has to at least mean to love good causes in the church, and I include in that good activities, even the smallest good activities.

There is not much worse for a church than having elders with negative spirits who are always against everything. Some people are all gaspedal, it is true; but this type of person is all brakes! Such a man is not a lover of good.

And this is more than a harmless killjoy. This is the sort of person who has all the marks of actually being a trouble-maker in the church, always opposing any outward momentum. Such a negativistic spirit cannot be made an elder.

That he must be self-controlled means “of sound mind, sane, in one’s senses … curbing one’s desires and impulses.”8 The difference between being upright and being holy is not clear to all commentators. They both refer to character, so we cannot say that the first refers to one’s status of being “justified,” since that would be true of every Christian. It may mean the difference between the external and the internal. Eric Alexander suggested that the difference is between our right actions toward others (upright) and toward God (holy), and then comes toward ourselves next.9

Finally an elder must be disciplined. One lexicon describes this word being used to mean “strong, robust … having power over, possessed of.”10 This is the man who has fully submitted his time, his talent, and his treasure to King Jesus. Such a man does not ask what he can get away with, but what he can give up to gain the real thing: “I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:27).

Paul knew himself—that he had an animal nature—and he wanted to pass on to Titus that there are many things that Christians may be free to do per se, but that there simply aren’t enough hours in the day, or brain cells in the head, or money in the bank, or passions in the soul—not enough of these to be split between two masters or two kingdoms. 

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1. Bauer, Danker, Arndt, Ginrich [BDAG], A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Second Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 120

2. BDAG, 579; Thayer’s, 452

3. BDAG, 629

4. Thayer’s, 490

5. Gene Getz, The Measure of a Man (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 2004), 107

6. BDAG, 669; Thayer’s, 516

7. John Stott, The Message of 1 Timothy & Titus (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 95

8. BDAG, 802

9. Eric Alexander, sermon on Titus 1:5-9. 

10. Thayer’s, 167