1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, in the service of the faith of God's chosen ones and of their full knowledge of the truth that goes with godliness,
2 resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before time everlasting,
3 and in his own seasons he revealed his word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted at the command of God our Savior;
4 to Titus, a genuine son in the faith we share: grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
5 I left you in Crete for this purpose: to set right the things still lacking and to install elders in each city, as I instructed you—
6 if a man is irreproachable, the husband of one wife, with faithful children who are not accused of reckless living or of being unruly.
7 For as God's steward the overseer must be free of accusation: not self-willed, not prone to anger, not a drinker, not a striker, not grasping for shameful gain,
8 but hospitable, a friend of what is good, prudent, upright, devout, disciplined,
9 keeping a firm grip on the reliable word that agrees with the teaching, so that he can both encourage people with healthy doctrine and convict those who speak against it.
10 For there are many who are rebellious, idle talkers and deceivers of the mind, above all those of the circumcision.
11 Their mouths must be shut, for they turn whole houses upside down, teaching what is improper for the sake of shameful gain.
12 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, wicked beasts, idle bellies."
13 This witness is true; for this reason reprove them with severity, so that they may be sound in the faith,
14 and not pay heed to Jewish fables and to the rules of men who turn their backs on the truth.
15 All things are clean to the clean; but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean, for their very mind and conscience are defiled.
16 They declare that they know God, yet in their works they disown him; they are loathsome and disobedient, and useless for any good work.