Greeting

¹Paul, a servant1 of God and aan apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and btheir knowledge of the truth, cwhich accords with godliness, ²din hope of eternal life, which God, ewho never lies, fpromised gbefore the ages began2 ³and hat the proper time manifested in his word3 ithrough the preaching jwith which I have been entrusted kby the command of God our Savior;

⁴To Titus, lmy true child in ma common faith:

nGrace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Qualifications for Elders

⁵oThis is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and pappoint elders in every town as I directed you— ⁶qif anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife,4 and his children are believers5 and not open to the charge of rdebauchery or insubordination. ⁷For an overseer,6 sas God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not tbe arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent uor greedy for gain, ⁸but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, vand disciplined. ⁹He must whold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in xsound7 doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

¹⁰For there are many who are insubordinate, yempty talkers and deceivers, especially those of zthe circumcision party.8 ¹¹They must be silenced, since athey are upsetting whole families by teaching bfor shameful gain what they ought not to teach. ¹²cOne of the Cretans,9 a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”10 ¹³This testimony is true. Therefore drebuke them esharply, that they fmay be sound in the faith, ¹⁴gnot devoting themselves to Jewish myths and hthe commands of people iwho turn away from the truth. ¹⁵jTo the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and kunbelieving, nothing is pure; but both ltheir minds and their consciences are defiled. ¹⁶mThey profess to know God, but they ndeny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, ounfit for any good work.

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