The Elder Must be Self-Controlled (Titus 1:8)

Chapter 22
Its interesting Paul tells Timothy the elder must keep his children under control with all dignity, but doesn’t include this requirement for the man himself. I’m not sure it is anything more than just interesting as the requirements are certainly just as demanding as recorded in his letter to Timothy. As neither Timothy nor Titus had access to the completed word of God as we do, it does us little good to speculate. The word he used to Timothy, “temperate”, is so similar in meaning they could easily be used interchangeably. This requirement does cause me to reflect on the diagram used by Dr. Bill Bright in the tract his ministry produced for evangelism. In that diagram, he suggested that when one is living a godly life, the self was off the throne of one’s life and Jesus was on the throne. When the self took over, Jesus was still in the circle of life, but He was not in control or the individual’s choices. I have struggled with that idea for decades. I concluded quite a number of years ago that concept is not biblical. I’m not aware of any time in history when God made the choice for one of his children to do His will. I believe the biblical idea is that the Holy Spirit’s position in the life of the individual’s life is presence not dominance. His presence in our life enables us to remain in continuous and uninterrupted awareness of God’s will for us at any given juncture. The bible teaches clearly in this one passage of Titus that self-control is not only possible for the true disciple of Christ, it is required if he is being obedient to the prompting of the Holy Spirit who is living within him.

There is a serious disconnect here, in Christian circles, regarding the concept of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Most of our charismatic brethren insist speaking in tongues is “the” sign that one is filled with the Spirit and that one cannot be filled unless he speaks in tongues. I have written an entire book on the gifts of the Spirit where I debunk that foolishness thoroughly, so I won’t belabor the point here. It is categorically absurd to suggest such a thing, and only serves to prove the one who teaches it hasn’t spent a whole lot of time critically analyzing what God’s word has to say on the topic

Of course, there’s also the same kind of disconnect in conservative, evangelical circles. Please allow me to clarify. Those whom God has called are, at a point in time regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God so they can understand the gospel message and respond to it. When, having been regenerated, we decide to turn our lives over the guidance of God for all of eternity, repent of and confess our sin, confess Jesus as Lord, believe God raised Him from the dead, and get baptized in obedience to His word, the Holy Spirit literally enters into the body of the new believer and takes up residence. That has been the act the bible calls the baptism of the Holy Spirit since the completion of God’s word. We begin our walk with Jesus by studying His word, fellowshipping with the brethren, praying, sharing our personal testimony and eventually the gospel when we are able to do so, and making sure every area of our lives brings glory and honor to the name of our God. When we sin, we confess that sin, claim God’s forgiveness which He provided at Calvary, and continue walking in the fullness of His indwelling Spirit. His Spirit, abiding in us, uses His word, which we have been studying faithfully, to guide us into truth. That simply means He gives us the wisdom and the power to make and do all of life’s decisions that keep us dead center in His will.

In other words, when we are told to be filled with the Spirit in Ephesians 5:18, it doesn’t mean we are to be controlled by the Him as if we were robots. It means our decisions will be based on known principles found in God’s word, and the Holy Spirits function in our life is to remind us of those principles as we make the hundreds of decisions each day requires. When a true disciple of Christ manifests self-control as instructed in this passage about the qualifications for elders, it means he is living under the divine guidance of the Spirit of God day by day, moment by moment. I recall as a new believer how I would have temporary lapses of godliness, and I, during those times would do ungodly things. Of course I still have such lapses today, but they are fewer and much shorter lapses as I mature in my walk with our Lord.

It is difficult for me as one who wholeheartedly believes in divine election and preordination to make such statements, but I believe, in the final analysis, even the will of man falls under the umbrella of God’s perfect, unalterable providence. In other words, there are times even today when I do that which is self-serving. There’s no doubt those are times when I am in control of myself. But in the biblical sense, this is not that self-control as demanded in the life of the Elder. In fact the opposite is true. When the Elder manifests godly self-control, he is so in perfect tune with God the Spirit that his presence in a room draws others to the person he claims to worship, Jesus Christ. I believe in Acts 19 we see an exemplary view of this idea when the seven sons of Sceva confront the demon possessed man who replies, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” Even the demons recognize the one whose life is exemplified by this idea of godly self-control. This man, possessed by the demon, jumped on seven full grown men and whupped (spelling intentional) them all. The point here is that the demon recognized Jesus, and he recognized the servant of Jesus, Paul, who lived a life of such self-control that he was literally famous, even in the world of the fallen angels.

Self-control is an elusive term in America because we have placed so much emphasis on the idea that it means we are free to do whatever we please as long as it doesn’t involve physically harming another. In America we believe ego maniacal behavior is good. As with all other bible doctrines, the bar for true followers of Christ in this, the church age, is much higher than it has ever been in the history of man. Self-control in the biblical sense involves such things as not even thinking about committing adultery, not even thinking about coveting a brother’s wife, livestock, farm, BMW, or home, not even thinking about winning the lottery, and not even thinking about living in self-indulging luxury. The very moment any of these kinds of thoughts enter the mind of the Elder, he demonstrates he is Elder material by immediately quoting the appropriate verse to the devil, the source of these thoughts, and just as immediately moving on to more productive thinking. I speak from experience, because I have awakened in the middle of the night on more than one occasion and had to do just that. Our arch enemy tries to catch us at our weakest moments (when we’re asleep), but Jesus always guards us. He always provides us with a way of escape. He never allows us to be tempted beyond our ability to overcome the temptation (I Cor. 10:13), even when we are sleeping.

When the elder goes shopping for a car, he chooses the Ford rather than the Lincoln. He chooses the Monte Carlo instead of the Cadillac. He chooses to shop at Mervin’s rather than Saks Fifth Avenue. He seeks out people in the church to invite over to dinner during the week who can’t afford to invite him back. He looks for people who need help, so he can demonstrate God’s care for them. He’s available day and night to counsel anyone experiencing traumatic life experiences. He opens his home (assuming he has an extra bedroom) to people in temporary financial difficulty. He supports orphans and widows, both financially and in his daily prayer life. He chooses carefully anything he watches on television or listens to on radio. He avoids even the appearance of evil. He gets so busy doing God’s work, that he doesn’t have time to waste much on fruitless activity. These are the kind of evidence that a church should be seeking in the life of the one chosen to be an Elder. The Elder who manifests self-control in the biblical sense, is the one whose life is overflowing with good works done in a quiet and unassuming manner. He is the man who never seeks to draw attention to the things he does day in and day out that bring glory and honor to our Lord. God’s Elder is self-controlled.