1FROM PAUL,
SERVANT of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, marked as such by faith and knowledge and hope—the faith of God's chosen people, knowledge of the truth as our religion has it, and the hope of eternal life. 2Yes, it is eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, 3and now in his own good time he has openly declared himself in the proclamation which was entrusted to me by ordinance of God our Saviour.
4To Titus, my true-born son in the faith which we share, grace and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour.
5My intention in leaving you behind in Crete was that you should set in order what was left over, and in particular should institute elders in each town. In doing so, observe the tests I prescribed: 6is he a man of unimpeachable character, faithful to his one wife, the father of children who are believers, who are under no imputation of loose living, and are not out of control? 7For as God's steward a bishop must be a man of unimpeachable character. He must not be overbearing or short-tempered; he must be no drinker, no brawler, no money-grubber, 8but hospitable, right-minded, temperate, just, devout, and self-controlled. 9He must adhere to the true doctrine, so that he may be well able both to move his hearers with wholesome teaching and to confute objectors.
10There are all too many, especially among Jewish converts, who are out of all control; they talk wildly and lead men's minds astray. 11Such men must be curbed, because they are ruining whole families by teaching things they should not, and all for sordid gain. 12It was a Cretan prophet, one of their own countrymen, who said, 'Cretans were always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons'— 13and he told the truth! All the more reason why you should pull them up sharply, so that they may come to a sane belief, 14instead of lending their ears to Jewish myths and commandments of merely human origin, the work of men who turn their backs upon the truth.
15To the pure all things are pure; but nothing is pure to the tainted minds of disbelievers, tainted alike in reason and conscience. 16They profess to acknowledge God, but deny him by their actions. Their detestable obstinacy disqualifies them for any good work.
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