Qualifications for Elders and Rebuke of False Teachers
Titus 1:1-16
1Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that accords with piety,2upon the hope of eternal life, which the truthful God promised before eternal ages,3and at the proper times he revealed his word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted by the command of God our savior,4to Titus, my genuine child according to the common faith: grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our savior.5For this reason I left you in Crete, so that you might set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city, as I directed you.6If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having faithful children who are not accused of debauchery or insubordination,7for the overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not greedy for gain,8but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.9holding firmly to the trustworthy word that accords with the teaching, so that he may be able both to encourage with sound doctrine and to refute those who oppose it.10For there are many insubordinate people, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party,11whom it is necessary to silence, because they are upsetting whole households by teaching what they ought not to teach for the sake of shameful gain.12One of their own prophets has said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons."13This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith,14not paying attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of men who reject the truth.15To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; in fact, both their minds and their consciences are defiled.16They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him; they are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.