Greeting

1Paul,a a •slave of Godb and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to build upc the faith of God’s electd and their knowledge of the truthe that leadsf to godliness,g 2in the hope of eternal lifeh that God, who cannot lie,i promised before time began.j 3In His own time He has revealedk His messagel in the proclamation that I was entrustedm with by the commandn of God our Savior:o

4To Titus,p my true sonq in our common faith.

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.r

Titus’s Ministry in Crete

5The reason I left you in Cretes was to set right what was left undone and, as I directed you, to appoint elderst in every town: 6oneu who is blameless,v the husband of one wife, having faithfulw children not accused of wildness or rebellion. 7For an •overseer,x as God’s administrator, must be blameless, not arrogant, not hot-tempered, not addicted to wine, not a bully, not greedy for money, 8but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, righteous, holy, self-controlled, 9holding to the faithful message as taught,y so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teachingz and to refute those who contradict it.

10For there are also many rebellious people, full of empty talk and deception, especially those from Judaism.aa 11It is necessary to silence them; they overthrow whole households by teaching what they shouldn’t in order to get money dishonestly. 12One of their very own prophets said,

Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.ab

13This testimony is true.ac So, rebuke them sharply,ad that they may be sound in the faith 14and may not pay attention to Jewish mythsae and the commands of men who reject the truth.af

15To the pure, everything is pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; in fact, both their mind and conscienceag are defiled. 16They profess to know God,ah but they deny Him by their works.ai They are detestable, disobedient, and disqualified for any good work.aj