I left you behind in Crete for this reason, so that you should put in order what remained to be done and should appoint elders in every town, as I directed you: someone who is blameless, married only once, whose children are believers, not accused of debauchery and not rebellious. For a bishop, as God’s steward, must be blameless; he must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or addicted to wine or violent or greedy for gain, but he must be hospitable, a lover of goodness, self-controlled, upright, devout, and restrained, holding tightly to the trustworthy word of the teaching, so that he may be able both to exhort with sound instruction and to refute those who contradict it. There are also many rebellious people, idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision; they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for sordid gain what it is not right to teach. It was one of them, their very own prophet, who said, “Cretans are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons.” That testimony is true. For this reason rebuke them sharply, so that they may become sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths or to commandments of those who reject the truth. To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their actions; they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. (Titus 1:5-16, NRSVue)
Titus is attributed to Paul. Paul did not write this letter. It is one of the six of the thirteen that Paul wrote that Paul did not, in fact, write. This is important because Paul has caused a lot of harm, and some of that actually is not Paul’s fault.
These standards for leaders are also unreasonable in my opinion. No one is able to fit this list of characteristics: “someone who is blameless, married only once, whose children are believers, not accused of debauchery and not rebellious.” Am I also responsible for making sure my children are believers, not rebellious or accused of debauchery? Meaning I not only have to keep myself blameless, but also my children? No. This is out of the question. I am a human, and so are my children, and so we will never be blameless, no matter how hard I try. So no one can be a leader according to this.
It becomes even more impossible to do from here.
We are all human, and therefore we all fall short.
Live into the love you have been given by God and try to give that to the world.
