Titus 1

¹Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, sent out for the purpose of building up the trust of God’s chosen ones and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness,

²in hope of life in the age to come, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began,

³but now at the proper time he has revealed his word through the preaching that I was entrusted with by the command of God our Savior.

⁴To Titus, my true child with respect to our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

⁵For this reason I left you in Crete, so that you would set in order the things that were unfinished and appoint elders in every city as I directed you—

⁶but they must be blameless, the husband of one wife, and have children who believe and who are not accused of reckless actions or rebelliousness.

⁷For the overseer, as a manager of God’s household, must be blameless, not arrogant, not quick-tempered, not an excessive drinker, not a bully, not greedy for money,

⁸but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sensible, righteous, pure, self-controlled,

⁹holding firmly to the faithful word as he has been taught, so that he will be able both to encourage others by his sound doctrine and to refute those who oppose it.

¹⁰For there are many who are rebellious, who are empty talkers and deceivers, especially those from among the Circumcised,

¹¹whose mouths must be stopped, who are overthrowing whole houses by teaching things that they should not teach in order to get money dishonestly.

¹²One of them (one of their own prophets) said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons!”

¹³This testimony is true. For this reason, reprove them sharply so that they come to be sound in the faith

¹⁴instead of paying attention to Jewish myths or the commandments of people who turn away from the truth.

¹⁵To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; in fact, both their mind and their conscience are defiled.

¹⁶They claim to know God, but by their works they deny him, being detestable and disobedient and unfit for every good work.