The Elder Must be Just (Titus 1:8)

Chapter 20
A just man is one who is guided by truth, reason, and fairness. Nearly thirty-five years ago, I worked under the tutelage of a pastor who stated to me that he would not teach any bible doctrine that would offend any of the members of his congregation. He told me it was more important to keep God’s church together than to teach any doctrine that would divide them. He also suggested when I matured I would understand. Well, it’s thirty three years later, and what I do understand is that he will give account to God Almighty for his refusal to put the absolute faithful and unbending exposition of Scripture first in his ministry. I would not want to be in his shoes when he stands before Jesus and gives account of himself. Thank God, I knew enough, as a three year old in Christ, to get out of that church. God’s Elder must never compromise an iota of truth for a ton of unity.

It truly saddens me when I recall the number of pastor/teachers and Elders in God’s local churches with which I have been acquainted who have been willing to compromise truth. More importantly, if I understand anything about God’s word, those men will not be receiving the “Well done, good and faithful servant,” accolades from Jesus when He returns and receives them unto Himself. I’m afraid, unless they have repented of their faithlessness, they will be cast into the outer darkness where there will be a weeping and a gnashing of teeth. God is truth and He expects His Elder to be a guardian of that truth.

When one is just, he is also reasonable. Many conclude one with a high school diploma is, by default, smarter than one without that diploma. And, if that’s true (which it is not), then the one with a bachelors degree is smarter than the one who only has a high school diploma. The concept of intellect is somewhat allusive. More importantly, all of the book learning one can acquire in a lifetime cannot make him godly. And one can have a PhD in astro-physics and not have an ounce of common sense or godly wisdom. I am currently dealing with a man every day who is entirely devoid of reason. He has ten or twelve men, some several years his senior, who have many years more than him solving problems he is attempting to solve, and he refuses to listen to any council they have to offer. He is an unbeliever who, by his arrogant attitude, perfectly demonstrates the reason unbelievers are horribly lacking in reason, common sense, or godly wisdom.

Life is not fair. Thank God! From both a theological and a secular point of view these two statements are true. Life is not fair, but God’s Elder must be. In dealing with matters regarding the church, God’s Elder must be fair. That simply means, he cannot be one who makes a decision for personal gain or to please someone he thinks he should please. His only concern is to make the decision that honors God and furthers the kingdom. Nothing else matters. If his wife, best friend, or the laundry delivery guy is angry at him for any decision he makes, so be it. He still must be fair.

We have a real problem in America understanding the concept of justice. The reason of course is that we believe democracy is more important than justice. Somehow we have gotten it into our heads that justice demands we give a person a “fair” trial. I place the term “fair” in quotes because we have distorted it so, we haven’t a clue what it actually means. According to God’s word, when two or three people have watched a man murder another, there is nothing just about giving him a trial at the cost of twenty million dollars of taxpayer’s money. That is not justice; it is insane. We, in America, have become obsessed with the concept of democracy to such a degree that we have lost all sense of justice. God’s idea of justice is that when two or three have witnessed the crime, it is confirmed and punishment for it is to be carried out immediately. One could probably buy the state of California several times each year with the money we spend in America dispensing our idea of justice. We seem determined to make the connection between justice and democracy. First of all, democracy is not God’s idea; it is mans’. Heaven will not be a democracy. It will be a pure theocracy. Second of all, dispensing justice simply means making sure the wrong person is not punished for a crime.

We are so confused about the complete lack of connection to democracy in America that we actually think it is justice to allow a man to go free who has confessed to a heinous crime because someone didn’t read him his Miranda warnings before he made the confession. We’re so confused about justice that we allow a child rapist to go free to rape again because a convincing psycho-babbler claims he only did it because his father beat him as a child. It is also critical to the whole concept of justice that we make sure the right person is punished for the crime. The only just outcome in a criminal trial is the appropriate punishment administered immediately upon the conviction of the one who has committed the crime.

God’s Elder must be just because there are many times weekly that members of a church need to get counsel about how they can be just in a given situation. God’s Elder must be just because there are occasions when members of God’s flock need to be disciplined and the Elders are responsible for implementing such discipline. God’s Elder must be just.