OEB - Titus - 1

1:1  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

1:2  and is based on the hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began,

1:3  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.

1:4  To Titus, my true child in our one faith: May God, the Father, and Christ Jesus, our Savior, bless you and give you peace.

1:5  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.

1:6  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.

1:7  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.

1:8  On the contrary, they should be hospitable, eager for the right, discreet, upright, people of holy life and capable of self-restraint,

1:9  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.

1:10  There are, indeed, many unruly persons — great talkers who deceive themselves, principally converts from Judaism,

1:11  whose mouths ought to be stopped; for they upset whole households by teaching what they ought not to teach, merely to make questionable gains.

1:12  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.

1:13  Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith,

1:14  and may pay no attention to Jewish legends, or to the directions of those who turn their backs on the truth.

1:15  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.

1:16  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.