Introduction
1
📚✭Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s chosen✭ ones and the knowledge of the truth that is in accordance with godliness, 2 📚in expectation✭ of eternal life✭,✭ which God, who cannot lie✭, promised before the world began✭, 3 📚and at the proper time✭ has revealed his word through preaching, which has been committed to me✭ according to the command of God our Saviour,4 📚To Titus, my own son in the common faith, grace, mercy and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Qualifications for church elders
5 📚✭For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order what was lacking, and ordain elders✭ in every city, as I had instructed you, 6 📚✭if there is anyone who is blameless, the husband of only one wife, having faithful children✭ not accused of wildness or unruliness. 7 📚For an overseer in the church, as God’s steward, must be blameless, not self-pleasing✭, not soon angry✭, not given to wine, not quarrelsome, not greedy for sordid gain✭, 8 📚but a lover of hospitality, a lover of what is good✭, able to think soundly✭, upright✭ holy✭, temperate, 9 📚✭holding firmly the faithful word as he has been taught, so that by sound doctrine✭ he will be able both to exhort and to convince opponents.
Empty talkers and deceivers
10 📚For there are many unrestrained people,✭ empty talkers✭ and deceivers✭, especially from the circumcised ones✭, 11 📚whose mouths must be stopped✭, who destroy whole households✭, teaching things they ought not, for the sake of sordid gain✭. 12 📚One of them, a prophet of their own, has said, “The Cretans✭ are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons”. 13 📚This witness is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith✭, 14 📚and not pay attention to Jewish fables✭, and the commandments✭ of men who turn away from the truth. 15 📚To the pure✭ all things are pure, but to those who are unclean and unbelieving nothing is pure. Even their mind and conscience✭ are unclean✭. 16 📚✭They profess to know God, but in works they deny him,✭ being abominable and disobedient and unfit for any good work.