In this daily Bible reading Paul writes to Titus who was at work forming churches and appointing Church elders or overseers in Crete. Paul told Titus that an overseer of a Christian Church must be a person strong in the Faith whose life is characterized by self-control. Elders must also know the Word of God very well. They must be able to teach and also to refute those who contradict God’s Word.
At the time there were many Jewish converts to Christianity who were trying to influence the churches. They were telling the churches to hold to Jewish traditions and myths. These were traditions that originated from people and not from God. These people had to be prevented from corrupting the pure Word of God. So, the elder had to know the Word of God very well.
Corruption of God’s Word is present in various churches today. Religion has distorted the Word of God over the ages by using isolated scripture passages to form erroneous church doctrines. Good doctrines cannot be formed in this manner because the entire Bible must be considered. The Bible says, “The sum of Thy Word is Truth, O Lord.”
A good example of isolated scripture being used to form doctrine is the doctrine of the ‘assurance of salvation.’ Some churches teach that a person is assured of salvation if they merely profess belief in Jesus. A few Bible passages seem to support this. However, other Bible passages do not. Churches advocating this doctrine ignore the Bible passages that don’t support their doctrine. Therefore, one must know the entire Bible in order to avoid being led astray by bad doctrines.