Living_Oracles(i)
1 Paul, a servant of God, and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, (according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledgment of the truth, which is according to godliness;
2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who can not lie, promised before the times of the ages-
3 who has now manifested his word, at the proper season, by the proclamation with which I am entrusted, according to the appointment of God our Saviour;)
4 to Titus, my genuine son, according to the common faith: Favor, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour.
5 For this purpose, I left you in Crete, that you might set in order the things left unfinished, and to ordain seniors in every city, as I commanded you.
6 If any one be without blame, the husband of one wife, having believing children, not accused of riotous living, nor unruly.
7 For a bishop should be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not prone to anger, not given to wine, not a striker, not one who makes gain by base methods;
8 but hospitable; a lover of good men, prudent, just, holy, temperate;
9 holding fast the true doctrine, as he has been taught; that he may be able, by wholesome teaching, both to exhort and to confute the gain-sayers.
10 For there are many unruly and foolish talked and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,
11 whose mouths must be stopped; who subvert whole families, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of sordid gain.
12 One of themselves, a prophet of their own, has said, "The Cretans are always liars, evil wild beasts, lazy bodies."
13 This testimony is true; for which cause rebuke them sharply, that they may be healthy in the faith-
14 not giving heed to Jewish fables, and precepts of men who pervert the truth.
15 To the pure, all meats are pure; but to the polluted and unbelieving, nothing is pure; for both their understanding and conscience are polluted.
16 They profess to know God; but by works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate.