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The Epistle of Paul to Titus , Chapter 1 . I , Paul , am writing this letter . I serve God and I am an apostle of Jesus Christ . God sent me to help His chosen people believe in Christ more and more . God sent me to help them understand even more the truth that leads to godly living . That belief and understanding lead to the hope of eternal life .
Before time began , god promised to give that life , and he does not lie . Now , at just the right time , he has made his promise clear . He did this through the preaching that he trusted me with . God , our Savior has commanded all these things . Titus , I am sending you this letter . You are my true son in the faith we share .
May God , the Father , and Christ Jesus , Savior , give you grace and peace . I left you on the island of Crete . I did this because there were some things that hadn't been finished . I wanted you to put them in order . I also wanted you to appoint elders in every town . I told you how to do it . An elder must be without blame .
He must be faithful to his wife . His children must be believers . They must not give anyone a reason to say that they are wild and don't obey . A church leader takes care of God's family . That's why he must be without blame . He must be without blame . He must not look after only his own interest . He must not get angry easily . He must not get drunk .
He must not push people around . He must not try to get money by cheating people . Instead , a church leader must welcome people into his home . He must love what is good . He must control his mind and feelings . He must do what is right . He must be holy . He must control the desires of his body . The message , as it has been taught , can be trusted .
He must hold firmly to it . Then he will be able to use true teaching to comfort others and build them up . He will be able to prove that people who oppose it are wrong . Many people refuse to obey God . All they do is talk about things that mean nothing . They try to fool others . No one does these things more than the circumcision group .
They must be stopped . They are making trouble for entire families . They do this by teaching things they shouldn't . They do these things to cheat people . One of Crete's own prophets has a saying . He says people from Crete are always liars . They are evil beasts . They don't want to work , they live only to eat . This saying is true .
So give a strong warning to people who refuse to obey God . Then they will understand the faith correctly . Then they will pay no attention to Jewish stories that aren't true . They won't listen to the mere human commands of people who turn away from the truth . To people who are pure , all things are pure .
But to those who have twisted minds and don't believe , nothing is pure . In fact , their minds and their sense of what is right and wrong are twisted . They claim to know God , but their actions show they don't know him . They are hated by God . They refuse to obey him . They aren't fit to do anything good .