There are people that just make you feel like everything's going to be okay. Frank is one of those guys. You walk into his house where he and his wife, Ann, raised their boys you immediately relax. Nothing else may have changed. Whatever stressors you carried in with you are still somewhere. But just being in their house took them off your shoulders and sent them away.
My grandfather was not that way. He seemed to stir things up. He lived a roiled life and apparently loved to roil everyone he encountered. It worked for him at work. But family life was tense. He's the kind of guy that the family would keep secrets from for fear of how he'd respond. He had a hot temper with a quick trigger. Of course, all the secrets that were kept he eventually found out. Let's just say hiding things from him didn't calm him at all.
One big difference between the two, as I observed, is maturity. Now, my grandfather was older. But you can't confuse old with mature. Or, maybe better said this way; physical maturity does not imply emotional, spiritual, mental, or relational maturity.
It seems the path of our journey with Jesus intends to take us where complete maturity lies. Jesus has called a group of gifted people to use their gifts to motivate others to use their gifts in serving everyone in the church. As everyone serves each other it causes us all to mature. The result of the giving combined with the receiving produces maturity. The net result of maturity is peace. This is my summary of Eph. 4:11-16.
So, relax already. Peace. Calmness is tied to maturity. So, let's all grow up. I need for you to serve me in the way God gifted you so that I can grow up and live in peace. I need for you to let me serve you, too. All of us together will collectively mature the church as we individually mature. The net result. Peace.
Paul must have recognized that Titus was mature. He left him in Crete to settle things. He was looking for some of the same characteristics in the men on Crete that Paul saw in him. It takes one to know one, doesn't it?
So, he would have been looking for men who were actively serving. And, these pool of prospects would have been much stronger where the entire church was serving.
We need more men like Frank than men like my grandfather. In order to have more mature men we need for all of us to be actively working, serving each other. So, if your goal is peace then we all need to get and stay busy.
Interesting thought, I'll find peace while we all work hard serving each other. That makes me rethink what peace really is. And, those most at peace, who bring the most peace, who roil things up the least, will be the ones who will be asked to be elders.
So, relax already.
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As I was reading the list of qualifications today, I found the following:
ReplyDeletebut hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.
What is the difference between self-controled and disciplined?
Interesting. I assume you're referring to v.8 where the NIV says "Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined"
ReplyDeleteMy NET bible says, "Instead he must be hospitable, devoted to what is good, sensible, upright, devout, and self-controled."
So, the NIV uses "self-controlled...disciplined" and the NET uses "sensible...self-controlled"
What does Strong's Concordance or Vine's Dictionary say are the meanings of the Greek terms? They may be close to interchangeable. But there has to be a subtle but important distinction between the two or Paul would not have used both terms.
BTW - Yes, I have both books I list above. But I want you to find the definitions and chew on them before we get to Wednesday morning.