Titus 1

¹Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, and set apart for the gospel of God—

³If anyone teaches another doctrine and disagrees with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and with godly teaching,

¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to everyone.

¹²It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

²⁵He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.

³His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

²³But reject foolish and ignorant speculation, for you know that it breeds quarreling.

¹⁹God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

⁹He has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose and by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time began.

²⁵And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life.

¹⁷So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath.

¹⁸Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.

¹¹And this is that testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

¹²Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus,

¹¹that agrees with the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.

⁴But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,

⁵He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,

¹⁰not stealing from them, but showing all good faith, so that in every respect they will adorn the teaching about God our Savior.

¹³as we await the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

³⁶He has sent this message to the people of Israel, proclaiming the gospel of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

²To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

³Beloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints.

¹Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:

¹³I had no peace in my spirit, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.

¹¹and you will receive a lavish reception into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

²³As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker among you. As for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ.

²³Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church, praying and fasting as they entrusted them to the Lord, in whom they had believed.

³As I urged you on my departure to Macedonia, you should stay on at Ephesus to instruct certain men not to teach false doctrines

⁹Not only was the Teacher wise, but he also taught the people knowledge; he pondered, searched out, and arranged many proverbs.

⁴⁰But everything must be done in a proper and orderly manner.

²¹After the men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have followed my advice not to sail from Crete. Then you would have averted this disaster and loss.

¹²Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided to sail on, hoping that somehow they could reach Phoenix to winter there. Phoenix was a harbor in Crete facing both southwest and northwest.

²An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

³not dependent on wine, not violent but gentle, peaceable, and free of the love of money.

¹²A deacon must be the husband of but one wife, a good manager of his children and of his own household.

⁷A discerning son keeps the law, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his father.

⁶An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, having children who are believers and who are not open to accusation of indiscretion or insubordination.

⁷As God’s steward, an overseer must be above reproach—not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not greedy for money.

¹⁹For I have chosen him, so that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, in order that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has promised.”

¹⁸Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

¹⁸Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

¹⁰Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings.

¹⁰As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another.

²Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed, but out of eagerness;

⁴²And the Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their portion at the proper time?

¹⁹My beloved brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

²⁰for man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness that God desires.

²An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

⁷In everything, show yourself to be an example by doing good works. In your teaching show integrity, dignity,

⁷When Hiram received Solomon’s message, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the Lord this day! He has given David a wise son over this great people!”

¹⁰You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless our conduct was among you who believed.

¹⁴We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.

¹⁵Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

¹⁵Therefore, brothers, stand firm and cling to the traditions we taught you, whether by speech or by letter.

¹³Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching you have heard from me, with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

³If anyone teaches another doctrine and disagrees with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and with godly teaching,

¹⁰for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for anyone else who is averse to sound teaching

³Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.

¹¹I am coming soon. Hold fast to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.

⁶Some have strayed from these ways and turned aside to empty talk.

¹Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.

⁴This issue arose because some false brothers had come in under false pretenses to spy on our freedom in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us.

¹⁴Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.

¹³while evil men and imposters go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

⁶I am amazed how quickly you are deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—

⁷which is not even a gospel. Evidently some people are troubling you and trying to distort the gospel of Christ.

⁶They are the kind who worm their way into households and captivate vulnerable women who are weighed down with sins and led astray by various passions,

⁵and constant friction between men of depraved mind who are devoid of the truth. These men regard godliness as a means of gain.

¹⁰Reject a divisive man after a first and second admonition,

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

¹¹But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by Him will exult, for the mouths of liars will be shut.

⁹He must hold firmly to the faithful word as it was taught, so that he can encourage others by sound teaching and refute those who contradict it.

¹⁸For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

²influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.

²⁸‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’

¹⁵They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.

⁸Yet in the same way these dreamers defile their bodies, reject authority, and slander glorious beings.

⁹But even the archangel Michael, when he disputed with the devil over the body of Moses, did not presume to bring a slanderous charge against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

¹²These men are like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be captured and destroyed. They blaspheme in matters they do not understand, and like such creatures, they too will be destroyed.

²⁰But those who persist in sin should be rebuked in front of everyone, so that the others will stand in fear of sin.

²Older men are to be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, and sound in faith, love, and perseverance.

²Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction.

¹⁵Speak these things as you encourage and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.

⁵Better an open rebuke than love that is concealed.

¹⁰This is why I write these things while absent, so that when I am present I will not need to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down.

⁴So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

²²These will all perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.

⁹But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

²²Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

⁹They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’”

¹³Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.

¹⁴I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.

²⁰Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to let his eating be a stumbling block.

²³“Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is edifying.

³They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

⁴For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected,

¹⁸But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a man.

²³But the one who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that is not from faith is sin.

⁴If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

¹³Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.

⁶Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.

³¹So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain.

⁵having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these!

⁶They are the kind who worm their way into households and captivate vulnerable women who are weighed down with sins and led astray by various passions,

⁴For certain men have crept in among you unnoticed—ungodly ones who were designated long ago for condemnation. They turn the grace of our God into a license for immorality, and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.