TITUS 1:5-9 DECISION MAKING

Q: So everything that Paul instructed Titus to do, like pick elders in every town. Did God actually pick them or did Titus do research to pick the best candidates?

This is a seemingly simple question; so the short answer is that the second possibility you give is the most probable. However, my long answer is considerably longer since it brings up the whole question of how we as believers make godly decisions today. If you want to pursue this issue in more detail, I would highly recommend Decision Making and the Will of God by Garry Friesen.

One thing we can infer fairly surely from the passage itself: since Paul went to the trouble of laying out for Titus' benefit all the necessary qualifications for local church leaders found in verses 6-9, he would not have bothered to do that if God was just going to give Titus a direct vision of which candidates to pick. In this respect, we could probably say that we today even have an advantage over Titus in making our decisions in that we now have the whole Scripture to guide us, not just the Old Testament and the few letters of Paul that were circulating in Titus' day.

Another place we could go to in order to get a feel of exactly how the early church leaders went about making their important decisions is the Book of Acts. Here are a few examples:

The first decision we see there was what to do about finding a replacement for Judas. This situation is actually quite similar to that faced by Titus. In Acts 1:15-26, we read that the recognized leader of the apostles, Peter, started out by interpreting a prophetic message in the Old Testament (Psalm 69:25) indicating that a replacement should be chosen. Next, he laid out a logical requirement for the candidate, namely, that he be someone who was a first-hand witness of Jesus' ministry and resurrection. At this point, the whole group recognized two followers who met that requirement. Since they couldn't decide between the two, they prayed to God to give them guidance. And the method they employed to discern God's will was by the casting of lots.

We can get some valuable guidance here. The process started with a pertinent Bible passage being interpreted by a recognized authority (today that could include a local pastor, denominational statements, the writings of a trusted Bible teacher, etc.). Practical considerations were next taken into account, followed by a discussion with others (Christian friends, leaders in the church, etc.). At this point, it appeared that there were two candidates, either one of which would fall under God's will. So only then did the apostles turn to God in prayer asking Him to be the tie-breaker. Casting lots appears to be a rather peculiar way of discerning God's will, but that was exactly the method used in the Old Testament when the Jews consulted the Urim and Thummin.

I had several Charismatic friends years ago who had problems in making decisions. These took several forms. One person said that she knew she should give up smoking, but she was waiting for a sign from God telling her to do it. The fact that she knew it was bad for her showed that she already had all the guidance she needed and shouldn't have been waiting for a supernatural confirming word.

Other friends I knew seemed to be paralyzed over making even the smallest decision. They would pray over issues such as which clothes to put on, feeling that if they did not make the correct choice they might fall out of God's will. Note that in choosing a replacement apostle, either of the candidates would have been within God's permissible and moral will. God may have an optimum goal in mind for us in any situation we are facing, but we are not going to be judged by Him if we do not figure it out correctly. He is big enough to work with us in accomplishing His will whatever we do as long as we are attempting to live within the moral and doctrinal teachings He has given us.

Still other Christian acquaintances have used this story in Acts and the story of Gideon in Judges 6 to justify “casting a fleece” in order to determine what God wanted them to do in a given case. This might, for example, take the form of telling God that they would do A if God gave them a green light at the next intersection and would do B if the light was red. This has the appearance of godly behavior by leaving everything one does up to God. In fact, it is a very misguided interpretation of those two biblical passages.

In the first place, a reading of the passage in Judges shows that Gideon had already been told by an angel exactly what to do, but Gideon didn't trust him. So Gideon put God to the test twice by using the fleece. God mercifully complied with Gideon's tests, but that certainly doesn't mean that He approved of Gideon's behavior, which demonstrated unbelief rather than belief.

And getting back to the Acts passage, remember that the apostles had already narrowed it down to two candidates using rational criteria before going to God in prayer and casting the lots. By the way, notice the plural “lots.” We don't know exactly how the apostles were doing this, but it was probably in direct analogy to the OT practice of consulting the Urim and Thummin for choosing between two options or answering a yes-or-no question.

Our best guess is that the the Urim and Thummin were two flat stones that the high priest had, each with distinguishable sides on them (like heads and tails on coins). After praying for God's guidance, these two stones would be thrown into the air. If the result was two heads, then God was indicating that choice A was correct. If the result was two tails, then God was indicating that choice B was correct. However, note that there is a 50:50 chance to get one head and one tail. In that case it meant that God chose not to answer the question at all. This shows that one cannot put God in a box by forcing him to answer our questions by use of an either-or test. By the way, this explanation of the Urim and Thummin explains why the Scripture says that at one point in King Saul's life, God would no longer speak to him through them.

The next story in Acts is found in Chapter 6. It begins with a complaint by the Greek-speaking members of the congregation complaining that their widows were not being given the same amount of food as the other widows during the daily distribution. The apostles call together the whole congregation and explain that it is not right that they themselves distribute the food since they have another ministry of preaching and teaching the Word instead. So they leave it up to the church as a whole to pick people to take care of that ministry. The criteria behind the choices are not given other than the fact that Stephen (and presumably the others, too) was said to be full of faith and the Holy Spirit. The names of the “deacons” chosen tell us something else about the church's decision. Every one of them has a Greek name, indicating that the church decided to bend over backwards to make sure that there was no discrimination against the Greek-speaking widows. This shows that love of the brethren was definitely an underlying motive in their decision. Finally, the church goes to the apostles to ask them to confirm their decision.

A third example of decision making in the early church is the so-called Jerusalem Conference, described in Acts 15. The question here involved what to do regarding assimilation of Gentiles who had come to Christ into the mainly Jewish-Christian church, especially whether these converts needed to be circumcised. Paul and Barnabas are delegated by their congregation to go to Jerusalem and ask the apostles and elders there to help them make a decision. Those parties debate the issue for some time until Peter stands up and shares the fact that God seemed to make no distinction between the converts and themselves in giving them all the Holy Spirit.

Paul and Barnabas next give their testimony regarding the signs and wonders they witnessed among the Gentiles. Finally, the leader of the Jerusalem Church, James, quotes an OT prophecy and deduces from it that circumcision is not needed for the Gentiles. This decision is then conveyed to others, being ratified by “the apostles and the elders, with the consent of the whole church.”

Notice some of the elements involved in decision making that Titus may have availed himself of in addition to overall guidance from the Holy Spirit: use of the written Scripture, oral advice from respected leaders such as Paul, common sense considerations, personal observations, and prayer to God.