Titus
Paul’s Letter to
Titus
1
Introduction
1 From Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, charged to strengthen the faith of God’s chosen people, and their knowledge of that truth which makes for godliness
2 and is based on the hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began,
3 and has revealed at his own time in his message, with the proclamation of which I was entrusted by the command of God our Savior.
4 To Titus, my true child in our one faith: May God, the Father, and Christ Jesus, our Savior, bless you and give you peace.
Mission of Titus in Crete
5 My reason for leaving you in Crete was that you might put in order what had been left unsettled, and appoint officers of the church in the various towns, as I myself directed you.
6 They are to be of irreproachable character, faithful to their partners, whose children are Christians and have never been charged with dissolute conduct or have been unruly.
7 For a presiding officer, as God’s steward, ought to be of irreproachable character; not self-willed or quick-tempered, nor addicted to drink or to brawling or to questionable money-making.
8 On the contrary, they should be hospitable, eager for the right, discreet, upright, people of holy life and capable of self-restraint,
9 who hold doctrine that can be relied on as being in accordance with the accepted teaching; so that they may be able to encourage others by sound teaching, as well as to refute our opponents.
10 There are, indeed, many unruly persons — great talkers who deceive themselves, principally converts from Judaism,
11 whose mouths ought to be stopped; for they upset whole households by teaching what they ought not to teach, merely to make questionable gains.
12 It was a Cretan — one of their own teachers — who said: ‘Cretans are always liars, base brutes, and gluttonous idlers’; and his statement is true.
13 Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith,
14 and may pay no attention to Jewish legends, or to the directions of those who turn their backs on the truth.
15 Everything is pure to the pure-minded, but to those whose minds are polluted and who are unbelievers nothing is pure. Their minds and consciences are alike polluted.
16 They profess to know God, but by their actions they disown him. They are degraded and self-willed; and, as far as anything good is concerned, they are utterly worthless.