Dual Panel1PAUL, A bond servant of God and an apostle (a special messenger) of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) to stimulate {and} promote the faith of God's chosen ones and to lead them on to accurate discernment {and} recognition of {and} acquaintance with the Truth which belongs to {and} harmonizes with {and} tends to godliness,
2[Resting] in the hope of eternal life, [life] which the ever truthful God Who cannot deceive promised before the world {or} the ages of time began.
3And [now] in His own appointed time He has made manifest (made known) His Word {and} revealed it as His message through the preaching entrusted to me by command of God our Savior;
4To Titus, my true child according to a common (general) faith: Grace (favor and spiritual blessing) and [heart] peace from God the Father and {the Lord} Christ Jesus our Savior.
5For this reason I left you [behind] in Crete, that you might set right what was defective {and} finish what was left undone, and that you might appoint elders {and} set them over the churches (assemblies) in every city as I directed you.
6[These elders should be] men who are of unquestionable integrity {and} are irreproachable, the husband of [but] one wife, whose children are [well trained and are] believers, not open to the accusation of being loose in morals {and} conduct or unruly {and} disorderly.
7For the bishop (an overseer) as God's steward must be blameless, not self-willed {or} arrogant {or} presumptuous; he must not be quick-tempered or given to drink {or} pugnacious (brawling, violent); he must not be grasping {and} greedy for filthy lucre (financial gain);
8But he must be hospitable (loving and a friend to believers, especially to strangers and foreigners); [he must be] a lover of goodness [of good people and good things], sober-minded (sensible, discreet), upright {and} fair-minded, a devout man {and} religiously correct, temperate {and} keeping himself in hand.
9He must hold fast to the sure {and} trustworthy Word of God as he was taught it, so that he may be able both to give stimulating instruction {and} encouragement in sound (wholesome) doctrine and to refute {and} convict those who contradict {and} oppose it [showing the wayward their error].
10For there are many disorderly {and} unruly men who are idle (vain, empty) {and} misleading talkers and self-deceivers {and} deceivers of others. [This is true] especially of those of the circumcision party [who have come over from Judaism].
11Their mouths must be stopped, for they are mentally distressing {and} subverting whole families by teaching what they ought not to teach, for the purpose of getting base advantage {and} disreputable gain.
12One of their [very] number, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, hurtful beasts, idle {and} lazy gluttons.
13And this account of them is [really] true. Because it is [true], rebuke them sharply [deal sternly, even severely with them], so that they may be sound in the faith {and} free from error,
14[And may show their soundness by] ceasing to give attention to Jewish myths {and} fables or to rules [laid down] by [mere] men who reject {and} turn their backs on the Truth.
15To the pure [in heart and conscience] all things are pure, but to the defiled {and} corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are defiled {and} polluted.
16They profess to know God [to recognize, perceive, and be acquainted with Him], but deny {and} disown {and} renounce Him by what they do; they are detestable {and} loathsome, unbelieving {and} disobedient {and} disloyal {and} rebellious, and [they are] unfit {and} worthless for good work (deed or enterprise) of any kind.