Twenty - 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 Immortal 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 men of irreproachable character, who are faithful husbands, 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 a man 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, he should be hospitable, eager for the right discreet, upright, a man of holy life and capable of self-restraint,

1:9  who holds doctrine that can be relied on as being in accordance with the accepted Teaching; so that he 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 upon 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.