ORDER MY STEPS IN THY WORD

God’s Order for Leadershipto punish, not intemperate, not quarrelsome, notgreedy of dishonorable gain, a lover of hospital-ity, a lover of what is good, of a sound mind,self-controlled, fair and equitable, not defiled orstained by sin and wickedness, and havingmastery of self. We must hold to errorless doc-trine to encourage the hearers and to refute thecontradictors. This great sound doctrine ofGod’s Word has the power of God behind it; itcan take men’s and women’s lives from the valleyof mere existence and put them on the high roadto glory.so that he understands the defiled Cretians. Theyaren’t pure. They are stained and unbelieving, sonothing is pure to them.Verse 16:They [the defiled and unbelieving] professthat they know God; but in [by] works theydeny him, being abominable [bdeluktos, detestable],and disobedient [apeith‘s, told thetruth but rejected it], and unto every goodwork reprobate [adokimos, worthless].The impure say that they know God, but bytheir actions they deny Him because they aredetestable, rejecting the truth, and are worthlessfor every good work.This is a beautiful chapter in which Paulteaches Titus the basis on which to choose thespiritual leaders of Crete. A good leader is truly aservant—a son of God who chooses to serve Godby ministering to men and women. What greatqualities an elder, a leader, must have. All of usneed to think about these qualities and build thegreatness of this knowledge in our minds.Whether or not we are ordained as an elder, eachof us should work at developing the sound qualitiesset forth in Titus 1: blameless, not selfwilled,not angry or seeking revenge and desiringThe Qualities of a Spiritual LeaderWe thank God for setting forth these guidelinesfor leadership so that we can examine ourown lives and walks and set the Word’s standardsfor ourselves.76 77