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Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness—
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To Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
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An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.
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He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
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Rebuking Those Who Fail to Do Good
For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group.
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They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain.
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This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith
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and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth.
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To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.
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They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
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Doing Good for the Sake of the Gospel
You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.
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Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
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and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.
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For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.
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while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
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who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
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At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
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whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,
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so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
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This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
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But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.
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Final Remarks
As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there.
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Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.
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Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.
