| 1 From Paul, servant of God, apostle of Christ Jesus, at the service of God’s chosen people, so that they may believe and reach the knowledge of truth and godliness. | |
| 2 The eternal life we are waiting for was promised from the very beginning by God who never lies, | |
| 3 and as the appointed time had come, he made it known through the message entrusted to me by a command of God, our Savior. | |
| 4 Greetings to you, Titus, my true son in the faith we share. May grace and peace be with you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. | |
| 5 I left you in Crete because I wanted you to put right what was defective and appoint elders in every town, following my instructions. | |
| 6 They must be blameless, married only once, whose children are believers and not open to the charge of being immoral and rebellious. | |
| 7 Since the overseer (or bishop) is the steward of God’s house, he must be beyond reproach: not proud, hot-headed, over-fond of wine, quarrelsome or greedy for gain. | |
| 8 On the contrary he must be hospitable, a lover of what is good, wise, upright, devout and self-controlled. | |
| 9 He must hold to the message of faith just as it was taught, so that, in his turn, he may teach sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. | |
| 10 You know that there are many rebellious minds, talkers of nonsense, deceivers, especially the party of the circumcised. | |
| 11 They have to be silenced when they go around disturbing whole families, teaching for low gain what should not be taught. | |
| 12 A Cretan, one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans: always liars, wicked beasts and lazy gluttons.” | |
| 13 This is true. For this reason rebuke them sharply if you want them to have a sound faith | |
| 14 instead of heeding Jewish fables and practices of people who reject the truth. | |
| 15 To the pure everything is pure; to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure: their minds and consciences have been defiled. | |
| 16 They pretend to know God but deny him with their deeds. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. | |
