Titus 1:5-9 Local Congregations Overseen By Elders And Deacons

Titus 1:5-9

1:5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:

1:6 If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.

1:7 For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;

1:8 But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate;

1:9 Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.

Paul, the apostle, a traveling elder, sent Titus, the apostle, a traveling deacon, to Crete.  He was to set elders, plural, in every city.  There is no mention of a singular elder in a church anywhere in the Bible.  There were elders who cared for the church as a shepherd cares for sheep.  These local men worked to support their families and received no salary for their work.  Other documents, letters in the early church, attest to this fact.  It much later that someone decided that it would be better to have a chief elder.  Up until that time, the elders were the bishops (overseers).  At that later date, they decided to change the order of God to a precept of man, and they set up a man-made order of a single bishop overseeing the elders.  At that time, the bishop started getting a salary for his work.