Titus 1

1 ¹Paul, servant of our Father and apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of our Father's chosen ones and knowledge of truth leading to devotion to God, ²in the hope of eternal life, which our Father, who never lies, promised before the ages began, ³and at his own time he revealed his word through the message entrusted to me by command of our Father, our Savior. ⁴To Titus, my true child in shared faith: grace and peace from our Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Elders Who Reflect the Father's Character

⁵I left you in Crete for this reason: to finish what remained and appoint elders in every town, as I instructed you. ⁶An elder must be blameless, husband of one wife, with faithful children not accused of wild living or rebellion. ⁷For an overseer, as our Father's steward, must be blameless—not arrogant, not quick-tempered, not a drunkard, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain, ⁸but hospitable, a lover of what is good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. ⁹He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as taught, so he can encourage with sound teaching and refute those who oppose it.

¹⁰For many are rebellious, talking nonsense and misleading others—especially the circumcision group. ^a a v10 The 'circumcision group' refers to Jewish-background teachers who insisted Gentile believers must be circumcised to be truly saved. ¹¹They must be silenced, because they wreck whole households, teaching what they shouldn't, for shameful profit. ¹²One of their own prophets said it: "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." ¹³This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith, ¹⁴and ignore Jewish myths and rules from those who reject the truth. ¹⁵Everything is pure to the pure; but for the corrupted and unbelieving, nothing is pure—both mind and conscience made unclean. ¹⁶They claim to know our Father, but deny him by their actions—detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.