Titus
From Paul, a servant of God and Apostle of Jesus Messiah, for the faith of God’s chosen ones and the knowledge of the truth which leads to godliness,
in the hope of the Life of the Age to Come, which God, who
cannot lie, promised before the ages began.
Now at the right time He has
revealed this hope in His Gospel-word, in the proclamation I was entrusted with by the
command of God our Savior.
To Titus, my genuine child in our common
faith: Grace and peace from God who is the Father and from Messiah Jesus our Savior.
The reason I left you in Crete was to put in order what was left undone
and, as I directed you, to appoint elders in every town:
An elder must be
blameless, the husband of one wife, with believing children who cannot be
accused of wild behavior or rebellion.
As God’s manager, the elder must be
blameless, not arrogant, not quick-tempered, not a drunkard, not violent, not
greedy for money,
but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, upright,
holy, and self-controlled.
He must hold to the faithful Gospel-word as it has
been taught, so that he will be able to encourage people with that sound
teaching and also refute those who contradict it.
For there are many rebellious people, idle talkers and deceivers,
especially those of the circumcision.
It is necessary to silence them, because
they are disturbing whole households by teaching for dishonest gain what
they should not teach.
One of their very own, a prophet, said, “Cretans are
always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”
This testimony is true. So you must
rebuke them sharply, so that they may become sound in the faith
and not pay
attention to Jewish myths and the commands of people who reject the truth.
To
the pure everything is pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving
nothing is pure; in fact both their minds and their consciences have been corrupted.
They claim to know God, but they deny Him with their actions. They are
detestable, disobedient and unqualified to do anything good.
Titus