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Do You Know Where Your Children Are?

Or, what kind of children does an elder have?

Posted Friday, January 26, 2007 by Charlie Trimm
Categories: New Testament  

I've been looking recently at the qualifications for an elder in Titus 1:6 and the qualification about children of elders. The debate on this clause flows around whether the word pistos should be translated "faithful" or "believing." Are the kids of elders required to be belivers? I was wondering if anyone had an opinion about this and why they lean the way they do. Here is the evidence.

1. Faithful. The term pistos can have a passive sense, such as in 2 Timothy 2:2. The context leans toward this view, since the next clause seems to describe what faithful is: not accused of dissipation or rebellion. The parallel with 1 Timothy 3:4 is also instructive, as there it says that elders must keep their children under control. 

2. Believing. The term could have an active sense, such as in 1 Timothy 6:2.  If it was passive, we would expect a term that describes to what they were faithful (faithful to parents? to God?). Further, when the passive sense is used, it refers to believers. Therefore, the children could not truly be faithful without also being believers. Unbelievers are never called faithful, according to this line of evidence. 

So which lines of evidence seem compelling? Which seem weak? Are there some that I have missed? 

Sunday, January 28, 2007 8:11 AM

Brian wrote: 

I don't think the issue may be decided on grammar alone otherwise the correct reading would have been recognized a long time ago. But I do believe that the context favors your second option.

An elder is appointed “that he may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.” Those who contradict are “rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach.” An elder,then, is supposed to ensure the peaceful teaching of true doctrine.

So how does Timothy recognize men who can do this? These men don't have a resume or a diploma affirming that they mastered doctrine. Is there a context in which they could demonstrate their ability to lead others to the Faith? Yes. They have the context of their families. Given the tendency of children to reflect the views of their parents in matters politic and religious, any man whose children reject the Faith should not be appointed as an elder. If he cannot persuade those who are most inclined to be persuaded, how will he persuade those who will be inclined to oppose him.

Paul did not want ineffective (or worse than ineffective) men appointed as elders. The needs of the church then and now are for men who can effectively pass on the truth. Winsome persuasiveness is necessary. If a man's children do not follow him in belief, no one else will either.

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