Titus 1:1-13 ▼

1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of the chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth that is according to godliness,

2 upon the hope of eternal life, which God, who is without falsehood, promised before times eternal

3 and revealed in His own seasons in His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the command of God our Savior.

4 To Titus, my genuine child according to a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

5 For the sake of this I left you in Crete, that you might set in order the things lacking and might appoint elders in every city, as I directed you,

6 if anyone is blameless, the husband of one wife, having believing children, not under accusation of debauchery, or insubordinate.

7 For it is necessary for the overseer to be blameless, as God’s steward—not self-pleasing, not prone to anger, not given to wine, not a striker, not greedy for shameful gain,

8 but hospitable, a lover of good, sound-minded, righteous, holy, and self-controlled,

9 holding to the faithful word according to the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in sound teaching and to convict those contradicting it.

10 For there are also many insubordinate ones, empty talkers, and mind-deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,

11 whom it is necessary to silence, who overturn whole households, teaching things that it is necessary not to teach, for the sake of shameful gain.

12 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”

13 This testimony is true, through which cause you are to rebuke them severely, so that they may be sound in the faith,