Titus 1

¹Titus 1:1. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness,²Titus 1:2. in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.³Titus 1:3. In His own time He has made His word evident in the proclamation entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior.⁴Titus 1:4. To Titus, my true child in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

⁵Titus 1:5. The reason I left you in Crete was that you would set in order what was unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.⁶Titus 1:6. An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, having children who are believers and who are not open to accusation of indiscretion or insubordination.⁷Titus 1:7. As God’s steward, an overseer must be above reproach—not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not greedy for money.⁸Titus 1:8. Instead, he must be hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.⁹Titus 1:9. He must hold firmly to the faithful word as it was taught, so that he can encourage others by sound teaching and refute those who contradict it.¹⁰Titus 1:10. For many are rebellious and full of empty talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision,¹¹Titus 1:11. who must be silenced. For the sake of dishonorable gain, they undermine entire households and teach things they should not.¹²Titus 1:12. As one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”¹³Titus 1:13. This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sternly, so that they will be sound in the faith¹⁴Titus 1:14. and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of men who have rejected the truth.¹⁵Titus 1:15. To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled.¹⁶Titus 1:16. They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.