Titus 1:1-11, which is quite similar to 1 Timothy 3:1-7, says,
Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God’s chosen ones and the full knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the times of the ages, but in its own times He manifested it as His word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the command of our Savior God; to Titus, genuine child according to the common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. For this cause I left you in Crete, that you might set in order the things which I have begun that remain and appoint elders in every city, as I directed you: if anyone is unreprovable, the husband of one wife, having believing children not accused of dissoluteness or unruly. For the overseer must be unreprovable as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick tempered, not an excessive drinker, not a striker, not greedy for base gain; but hospitable, a lover of good, of a sober mind, righteous, holy, self-controlled; holding to the faithful word, which is according to the teaching of the apostles, that he may be able both to exhort by the healthy teaching and to convict those who oppose. For there are many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who overthrow whole households, teaching things for the sake of base gain, which they ought not to do.
Paul’s Epistle to Titus concerns the maintaining of order in the churches. For this, the faith of God’s chosen ones, the truth according to godliness, and eternal life are indispensable. Hence, in the very opening word these three things are set forth. According to 1 Timothy 3:15-16, godliness is God manifested in the flesh, the divine life expressed in humanity. This is the truth of godliness. The hope of eternal life, which is the divine life, is altogether a matter of the expression of this life and is not only for the coming age and eternity future but also for this age. We have much to hope for in the eternal life, the life of God, because it is able to do many things that we are unable to do in ourselves. Without the eternal life, we are wretched, hopeless people, but because we have the divine life, we are full of hope. God promised the eternal life before the world began. When the New Testament time came, this promise became the manifested word. God manifested the word of His promise by Christ’s incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and descension as the Spirit. These accomplishments of God’s manifested word were revealed through the apostles and prophets.
Historically, many Christians have treasured Genesis 3:15, which says that the seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent. This verse is a prophecy concerning Christ’s coming as the seed of the woman through incarnation to destroy Satan on the cross and rescue us from his usurpation. Hence, it is a wonderful promise of our objective salvation. However, the hope of God’s promise is not only Christ as the seed of the woman but also Christ as the seed of life, the eternal life, that is sown into the believers (Mark 4:26-28). We have hope because the seed of the woman destroyed the serpent on the cross and, even more, because the seed of life has entered into us to be our daily salvation. We live in a hopeful situation because we have the hope of eternal life.
Confucius taught that the highest learning of ethics is to cultivate, or develop, one’s inner “bright virtue,” which is actually the conscience. Humanly speaking, this is very good, but as Christians, we hope not in the bright virtue but in the eternal life. We do not need to develop our bright virtue, because we have Christ as the seed of the divine life in us. This is much better and higher. The divine seed with the divine life is our hope. We cannot meet the requirements of the elders described in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9 simply by cultivating our conscience. We can meet these requirements only because we have God Himself as the eternal life within us. Since the eternal life is within us, we can fulfill the highest requirements. For example, by this life we can be patient and temperate. In ourselves we are hopeless, but in this life we are full of hope. The truth of godliness, the hope of eternal life, and the manifestation of God’s word all denote God becoming our life. Since God is now our life, there is nothing that we cannot do. We should not be discouraged by the high standard of the requirements in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Instead, we should be hopeful in the realization that these requirements prove the capacity of the divine life in us.