Titus 1

1Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I serve to build up the faith of God's chosen people and to help them know the truth that leads to a godly life.

2This faith and truth give us the hope of eternal life. God, who never lies, promised this life before time began.

3And at the right time God made his message known through the preaching that God our Saviour trusted to me.

4To Titus, my true son in the faith we share: May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour give you grace and peace.

5I left you in Crete so that you could put right the things that still needed work, and choose leaders for the church in every town, as I told you.

6A church leader must have nothing against him. He must be faithful to his wife, and his children must be believers who are not wild or disobedient.

7Since a leader is trusted with God's work, he must have nothing against him. He must not be proud, quick-tempered, a heavy drinker, violent, or greedy for money.

8Instead, he must welcome strangers, love what is good, and be wise, fair, holy, and self-controlled.

9He must hold firmly to the true message he was taught. Then he can encourage others with sound teaching and show those who argue against it where they are wrong.

10For there are many people who will not obey. They talk nonsense and lead others away from the truth, especially those who say everyone must follow the Jewish law.

11These people must be stopped. They are upsetting whole families by teaching wrong things, and they do it for dishonest money.

12Even one of their own prophets said: The people of Crete are always liars, cruel animals, and lazy people who only want to eat.

13This is true. So correct them strongly, so that their faith will be sound.

14Tell them to stop paying attention to Jewish myths and to the rules of people who turn away from the truth.

15To those who are pure, everything is pure. But to those who are sinful and do not believe, nothing is pure; even their minds and their hearts are unclean.

16They say they know God, but their actions say no. They are disgusting and disobedient, and they are no good for doing anything right.