Titus

¹ From: Paul, a worker enslaved to God and emissary of Jesus Christ whose purpose is the faithfulness of God’s chosen ones and their understanding of the truth, of which the purpose is respectfulness ² and the hope of agelong life, which God—who does not speak falsehood—promised long ages ago. ³ At the proper time, God made the message clear with an announcement with which I was entrusted regarding what was required by God our Liberator.

⁴ To: Titus, my genuine child with regard to a shared faithfulness.

Generosity and peace from Father God and Christ Jesus our Liberator!

⁵ The reason I left you to stay behind in Crete was so that you could set right the remaining issues and establish elders in each town, as I arranged for you to do. ⁶ Establish someone as an elder if they are guiltless, a one-woman man, have faithful children without any accusation of being non-liberative or being uncooperative. ⁷ You see, it’s necessary for the supervisor to be guiltless as God’s steward, not self-centered, not prone to anger, not prone to drunken aggression, not violent, and not intent on dishonorable advantage. ⁸ Instead, they should be hospitable, cares about benefitting others, self-disciplined, just, dedicated to their sacred calling, and self-regulated, ⁹ maintaining focus on what is in alignment with the teaching of the faithful message so that they are also able encourage others with healthy teaching and expose those who speak against it.

¹⁰ You see, there are many who cause confusion, who speak nonsense, and who mislead people, especially those among the Circumcision, ¹¹ whom it is necessary to silence. These people mislead whole households, teaching things which should not be taught for the sake of dishonorable advantage. ¹² Someone among them—one of their own prophets—said, “Cretans are invariably liars, worthless beasts, gluttonous and lazy.” ¹³ They truly said that!

Call them out emphatically for such things, so they can be healthy in connection with faithfulness, ¹⁴ not paying attention to Judean narratives and the directions of people who have been turned from the truth. ¹⁵ Everything is clean to those who are clean, but nothing is clean to those who are unfaithful and have been stained—rather, specifically, their mind and understanding having been stained. ¹⁶ They unashamedly claim to know God, but their actions deny it because they are repugnant, intransigent, and are discredited for every kind action.

¹ You, however, speak about what things fit with healthy teaching. ² Some examples are elder men being sober, honorable, self-disciplined, being healthy in connection with faithfulness and with love and with endurance. ³ Other similar examples are elder women being gracious, not slandering people, not being enslaved to much wine, and being teachers of how to treat people well. ⁴ That way, they can guide young women in being self-disciplined in caring about their men, self-disciplined in caring about their children, ⁵ in being ready for sacred actions, in running a household, in being generous, and in being women who cooperate with their own men, so that God’s message would not be slandered. ⁶ Similarly, you yourself, encourage young men to be self-disciplined ⁷ concerning everything by presenting yourself as a template for kind actions, as having integrity and being honorable to the standard of the teaching, ⁸ a healthy discussion with nothing to criticize, so that no one from the opposition will have anything to say about us being unethical. ⁹ Similarly, encourage enslaved workers to cooperate with their own enslavers in everything, to satisfy them well, not refusing them, ¹⁰ not stealing, but rather demonstrating complete, generous faithfulness so that they would give credibility to the teaching of God our Liberator.

¹¹ You see, God’s liberatory generosity has been made visible to all people, ¹² training us like children so that rejecting disrespectfulness and worldly desires, we can live during this present Age with self-discipline, justness, and respectfulness ¹³ since we welcome the gratifying hope and praiseworthy arrival of our remarkable God and Liberator, Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for our sake so that he could pay the price to purchase us from enslavement, from all torahlessness, and that he could cleanse his own people for himself, who are passionate for kind actions. ¹⁵ Say these things, and encourage people and call people out with each directive. No one should consider themselves above you.

¹ Remind them to cooperate with leaders and authorities, to be compliant, to be ready for every generous action, ² not to disparage anyone, to be nonviolent and equitable, demonstrating complete gentleness for all people. ³ You see, we also used to be thoughtless, intransigent, misled, enslaved to various desires and pleasures, living with hostility and spite, dreaded and hating each other. ⁴ However, “When the active kindness and care for humanity of God our Liberator was made evident, ⁵ God liberated us not because of actions done justly that we did but rather based on God's committed compassion through the ritual washing of regeneration and renewal of the Sacred Life-breath, ⁶ which God poured over us fully through Jesus Christ our Liberator ⁷ so that, having been aligned through Christ’s generosity, we could come to be heirs based on the hope of agelong life.

⁸ That message is trustworthy. I wish you to assert these things confidently so that those who have trusted God can give thought to stepping forward for honorable actions. These things are honorable and helpful for people. ⁹ But keep away from offensive inquiries, genealogies, arguments, and fights about Torah because they are unhelpful and pointless. ¹⁰ Refuse a bigoted person after a first and a second warning, ¹¹ having come to understand that such a person has been uprooted. and is deviating by their own prejudice.

¹² When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, take coming to me in Nicopolis seriously because I have decided to spend the winter there. ¹³ Quickly, send Zenas the Torah scholar and Apollos on their way so they won’t be lacking anything. ¹⁴ Those who are ours should certainly learn to step up for kind actions regarding pressing needs so that they would not be fruitless.

¹⁵ Everyone with me wishes you well. Give well wishes to our friends connected by faithfulness. Generosity be with you all.