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

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

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.

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.

Mission of Titus in Crete

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.