Good evening, dear brother.<\/p>\n
I saw a flyer by a church that referred to its speakers as Saint … .\u00a0My question is can we use saint<\/strong>\u00a0as a title?<\/p>\n\t I suppose there is as much justification for using “saint” as a title as there is for using “brother” as a title. All Christians are saints, so using “Saint” before someone’s name doesn’t tell you much about them, except that he claims to be a Christian.<\/p>\n We tend to avoid using the term “saint” because denominations have redefined it to mean someone who is more than an ordinary Christian. To avoid leaving the impression that we are being prideful, the trend is to limit the use of “saint,” even though it is a perfectly fine description of a Christian.<\/p>\n Titles of any sort should not be used when the title elevates one person above others (Matthew 23:5-12). Jobs have titles. Thus, a man spreading the gospel is a preacher, evangelist, or minister. A man watching over the church is an elder, an overseer, or a pastor. A person teaching the Bible is a teacher. “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ<\/em>” (Ephesians 4:11-12). However, these are the names of the duty being done, not titles for a person.<\/p>\n\t Many thanks for your response. May the Lord continue to bless you.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Good evening, dear brother. I saw a flyer by a church that referred to its speakers as Saint … .\u00a0My question is can we use saint\u00a0as a title? Answer: I suppose there is as much justification for using “saint” as a title as there is for using “brother” as a title. All Christians are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[125],"class_list":["post-87051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-titles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41662,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-some-use-titles\/","url_meta":{"origin":87051,"position":0},"title":"Why do some use titles?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello brother Hamilton. Hope you're doing well. I have a question that pertains to \"titles\" given to those in position in the church and mainly I'm speaking on preachers and the title that some give themselves such as reverend, pastor, evangelist, etc. Now, I read some of your articles\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":80322,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/saints-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":87051,"position":1},"title":"Saints (Benton)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The term \"saint\" has been hijacked to mean something different from the way the Bible uses the term. Today, you can hear churches exalt a \"Christian\" after death to the status of a \"saint.\" This is not according to scriptural usage. Sometimes, we may hear someone\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87534,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/no-titles-please\/","url_meta":{"origin":87051,"position":2},"title":"No Titles, Please","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Joe Slater One of the minor annoyances of being a preacher is that well-meaning people frequently put some title before your name. It may be Reverend, Pastor, Father, or some other title. They are trying to be respectful, which I appreciate even though I repudiate the titles. I tell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91050,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/every-christian-is-a-saint-gods-surprising-truth\/","url_meta":{"origin":87051,"position":3},"title":"Every Christian Is a Saint: God\u2019s Surprising Truth","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Cleve Stafford When you hear the word \"saint,\" what comes to mind? For many, it's a statue in a cathedral, a figure in stained glass, or someone canonized long after death by religious authorities. In some traditions, sainthood is regarded as a special status, reserved for only a select\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58500,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/saints\/","url_meta":{"origin":87051,"position":4},"title":"Saints (Harris)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Webb Harris, Jr. Guardian of Truth XXXII: 13, pp. 402-403, July 7, 1988 The Problem of Avoided Terms It is fundamental to a proper understanding of divine revelation that we appreciate that the \"popular\" definitions of many words common to the Scriptures differ from the intended ideas of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26766,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-papacy-biblical\/","url_meta":{"origin":87051,"position":5},"title":"Is the Papacy Biblical?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Matthew 16:13-20 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The world was fascinated with the process the Roman Catholic Church used to pick a new pope. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We were given detailed accounts of all the traditions surrounding a pope\u2019s selection \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We were shown the events step by step. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But in all the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Answer:<\/h2>\n
Response:<\/h2>\n