Titus 1 - Christian Standard Bible Anglicised

Greeting

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,

² in the hope of eternal life  that God, who cannot lie,  promised before time began.

³ In his own time he has revealed  his word  in the preaching with which I was entrusted  by the command  of God our Saviour:

⁴ To Titus,  my true son  in our common faith. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour.

Titus’s Ministry in Crete

⁵ The reason I left you in Crete  was to set right what was left undone and, as I directed you, to appoint elders  in every town.

⁶ An elder  must be blameless,  the husband of one wife, with faithful  children who are not accused of wildness or rebellion.

⁷ As an overseer  of God’s household, he must be blameless, not arrogant, not hot-tempered, not an excessive drinker, not a bully, not greedy for money,

⁸ but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, righteous, holy, self-controlled,

⁹ holding to the faithful message as taught,  so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teaching  and to refute those who contradict it.

¹⁰ For there are many rebellious people, full of empty talk and deception, especially those from the circumcision party.

¹¹ It is necessary to silence them; they are ruining entire households by teaching what they shouldn’t in order to get money dishonestly.

¹² One of their very own prophets said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’

¹³ This testimony is true.  For this reason, rebuke them sharply,  so that they may be sound in the faith

¹⁴ and may not pay attention to Jewish myths  and the commands of people who reject the truth.

¹⁵ To the pure, everything is pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; in fact, both their mind and conscience  are defiled.

¹⁶ They claim to know God,  but they deny him by their works.  They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.