In Paul’s letter to Titus, Chapter 1 and Verse 5, Paul tells Titus why he left him on the Island of Crete. “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.” There were two reasons. The first reason is so that he might “set in order” what hadn’t been “set in order” yet. The root word from which the phrase “set in order” comes from is orthoo (or-tho-o). We get the medical specialties of orthodontics and orthopedics from that word. It literally means to make straight. Orthodontists straighten teeth or put them in their proper order. Orthopedics is the setting of broken bones or straightening of bent limbs. Apparently, the church on Crete had crooked teeth and broken or malformed bones.
Of course, Paul wasn’t referring to literal teeth or bones. To push this analogy beyond the reasonable, the crooked teeth that needed to be “put in order” were those church members or teachers who refused to submit to the authority of the Apostles’ teachings or to the Apostles’ appointments of qualified leaders in the churches on the Island of Crete. They had their own agendas and caused great turmoil. Paul adds a second reason for leaving Titus on the Island of Crete. Paul wanted him to “appoint elders in every church.” I could go on to push the analogy further and say that the “broken bones” in the church in Crete were those unqualified, self-appointed leaders who rejected apostolic authority and taught their opinions as doctrines of God, causing great cacophony amongst the believers in the church. They were making disciples of their own opinions rather than disciples of Jesus Christ. They added a works system that confused the Gospel message of salvation by grace through faith. This always results in a division in the church and destroys the beautiful, intended life of harmony amongst the believers of Jesus Christ.
Nothing functioned the way it should. The church looked like a mouth full of crooked teeth, uncooperative with the order of God’s intended design. The church looked like a body with all its bones out of joint, a grotesque perversion of God’s creative order. God is a God of order. There is a rhythm in everything God created. You see it in the movement of the planets and stars, in seasons, in the beauty of the flowers of the field, in the surf of the sea, the beat of the human heart. God put all creation in perfect harmonious order. When we get out of tune, trouble results, and strife erupts. When legalists take over a church, a critical spirit arises and disputes over personal opinions regarding law keeping or just plain lifestyles. Pride becomes an overpowering force dividing the members based on personalities in the church. Paul wrestled with this problem with the believers in several of the churches that he planted. He actually confronted the Corinthians when they were divided over which leader to follow Peter, Paul, Apollos, or the super-spiritual ones who claimed they followed Christ. Paul told the Romans and all the churches from their day to ours to “live in harmony with one another” (Romans 12:16). The only way we can do that is to focus on the grace God gave to us all as sinners. We are all sinners saved by grace. This is not a room we enter once and then pass through on our way to perfection. It’s the place we are to remain. When Jesus observed the two men in the Temple praying, one of them looked up to heaven and told God how glad he was that he was not like others. He tithed everything he had. He did not commit murder or adultery. He observed all the sabbath laws. This was the Pharisee. The other was a publican. I think that equates to a tax-collecting sinner. He hung his head and acknowledged that he needed God’s grace. He said, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Jesus told his disciples that it was the sinner who was justified. I can’t imagine that sinner coming back to the Temple the next week and praying the prayer of the Pharisees. It was the attitude of his heart that Jesus was complimenting. It’s that attitude that promotes harmony and health in any church.