Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Titus · About this commentary
The Overseer as God's Steward
Titus 1:7-9
7 For the overseer must be blameless, as God’s steward, not self-pleasing, not easily angered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain; · WEB
The overseer manages what belongs to someone else, and the list of qualities is what that fact requires.
Verse 7 supplies the governing image: the overseer must be blameless as God's steward. A steward owns nothing he administers. Everything in the list follows from that — not self-pleasing, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain. Four of the five name a man serving himself with what was entrusted to him, and the fifth is the temper that guards it.
Verse 8 turns positive: hospitable, a lover of good, sober-minded — sōphrōn G4993, a word this letter presses on every group it addresses — fair, holy, self-controlled. Then verse 9 gives the one qualification of skill rather than character: holding to the faithful word as taught, so that he can both exhort in sound doctrine and convict those who contradict. Not eloquence; grip. He must hold something firmly enough that it holds when pulled, which the next verses show is exactly what will happen.
settled What this mark means