… how old do they have to be, can you hold a 2 or 4 year olds accountable for being (riotous and unruly) and considered faithful, and are they still considered when they are 30 and their state is either unknown or they have become unfaithful, and finally how are step children figured into the equation when deciding about an elder? ~ Richard Morse, Wewahitchka, Fl
The King James Version of the Bible in Titus 1:6 reads, “If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly” (emphasis added). However, several other English translations indicate that the children are to be believers or Christians: “having children that believe” (American Standard Version), “whose children believe” (New International Version), “having children who believe” (New American Standard Version) and “his children are believers” (Revised Standard Version). While personally, I do not generally recommend the latter three versions of the Bible because of their weaknesses, in this case, they accurately represent the message for today’s readers more clearly than perhaps the King James Version. Two and four-year-olds (and much older children) are incapable of believing, repenting, confessing Christ and consenting to immersion for the remission of sins. Therefore, children who are not yet Christians do not correspond to the Titus 1:6 qualification for membership in the eldership (though one or more other children in one’s family may).
Whether grown, accountable children continue to affect the qualification of an elder by their righteous or unrighteous conduct is a matter of dispute among otherwise biblically sound brethren. There is nothing in the Greek word for “children” in Titus 1:6 to indicate age or stage of life. Raising a family whereby a man gains experience that he can apply to guiding the family of God is the intent of this qualification. “One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)” (1 Timothy 3:4-5). A man does not lose the experience he acquired while his children were in his home simply because they become adults and move out of his home. In my opinion, the qualifications for elders in this regard have to do with are one’s accountable, dependent (in the home) children members of the church. However, either a father or the church over which he serves or would serve may choose to forgo the eldership were one or more (especially all) of a man’s grown children to become unfaithful.
Also respecting the Greek word for children in Titus 1:6, there is nothing inherent in the word to limit its use to one’s natural children. The word is frequently used in Scripture to refer to people who are not the blood-related children of the person with whom they are being associated. There is no reason to suppose that “children” in Titus 1:6 must refer exclusively to children fathered by a prospective elder.
