Paul's Greeting to Titus
(2 Corinthians 8:16-24)
1Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according tothe faith ofthe elect of God andthe knowledge ofthe truth whichis according to godliness,2inthe hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time eternal3andin His own seasons revealed in His word, inthe proclamation with which I have been entrusted according tothe commandment of God our Savior.
4To Titus,my true child according toour common faith:
Grace and peace from Godthe Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Appointing Elders on Crete
5On account of this I left you in Crete, that you might set in order the things lacking and might appoint elders in every town, as I directed you,6if anyone is blameless,the husband of one wife, having believing children, not under accusation of debauchery, or insubordinate.
7For it behooves the overseer to be blameless, as God’s steward; not self-willed, not quick tempered, not given to wine, not a striker, not greedy of base gain,8but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy,and disciplined;9holding to the faithful word according to the teaching, that he may be able both to encourage with sound teaching and to convict those contradictingit.
Correcting False Teachers
10For there are also many insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,11whom it is necessary to silence, who overthrow whole households, teaching things thatthey ought not forthe sake of base gain.12One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretansare always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”a
13This testimony is true, for which cause rebuke them severely, so that they may be sound in the faith,14not giving heed to Jewish myths andthe commandments of men turning away from the truth.
15To the pure all thingsare pure; but to those being defiled and unbelieving, nothingis pure. Instead, both their mind and conscience are defiled.16They profess to know God, but intheir works they denyHim, being detestable and disobedient and unfit for any good work.
a12This quote has been attributed to the Cretan philosopher Epimenides
