Titus 1:6, 7
7/7/10
Reading the Bible in another language usually forces a person to read slowly and therefore carefully. This fact alone is probably the single most important advice a person can follow. What struck me was that Titus 1:6 and 1:7 use the same adjective twice, anegkletos, which can be translated as blameless. It is used five times in the New Testament with the same general shade of meaning (1 Cor. 1:8, 1:22, 1 Tim. 3:10, Titus 1:6, 1:7).
The very fact that this word is found twice in Titus made me realize how important this quality really is for leaders. However, how do you measure this quality? It is rather general, that is, there is nothing too specific. For this reason, perhaps a good measure of blamelessness is a person’s reputation, something that 1 Timothy 3:7 espouses. To be sure, it is more than this, since the blamelessness has to be real and not just in reputation. However, it is probably not less than this.
If the above reasoning has some merit, reputation matters in the selection of leaders, especially from the witness of mature men and women. To put things within the context of Titus, does a potential leader have the reputation of being kind, a lover of good, hospitable, self-controlled, and the like? If so, then his person may have an important qualification of being a leader.