Titus 1

1 Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God’s chosen ones and the full knowledge of truth that is according to devoutness, [a] 2 in hope of everlasting life, which the God who does not lie promised before everlasting times [c] 3 and at his own seasons made his word plain in a proclamation with which I myself was entrusted, according to the order of God our rescuer — [d] 4 to Titus, a genuine child according to a common faith. Favor and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our rescuer. [f]

5 For this reason I left you behind in Crete, so that you might straighten out what was left undone and appoint elders city by city, as I myself directed you: [g] † 6 if anyone is without accusation, a husband of one wife, having faithful children, not under an accusation of recklessness or unruly. [h] 7 For the overseer must be without accusation, as God’s household manager: not self-willed, not quick to anger, not given to wine, not a striker, not greedy for shameful gain, [j] 8 but a lover of strangers, a lover of good, of sound sense, righteous, holy, self-controlled, [k] 9 holding firmly to the faithful word that is according to the teaching, so that he may be able both to urge with the healthy teaching and to convict those who speak against it. [l]

10 For there are many who are unruly, empty talkers and deceivers of minds, most of all those of the circumcision, [m] 11 whose mouths must be stopped — people who overturn whole households, teaching what they should not, for the sake of shameful gain. [n] 12 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, [o]

13 This testimony is true. For this reason convict them sharply, so that they may be healthy in the faith, [p] 14 not paying attention to Jewish myths and commands of people who turn away from the truth. [q]

15 All things are clean to the clean; but to those who are defiled and faithless nothing is clean — rather, both their mind and their conscience are defiled. [r] 16 They acknowledge that they know God, but by their works they deny him, being detestable and disobedient and unapproved for every good work. [s]