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- ¶ PAUL, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ in the faith of God’s elect and in the knowledge of true godliness;
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- In the hope of eternal life, which the true God promised ages ago;
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- And has in due time revealed his word by our preaching (which preaching has been intrusted to me by the command of God our Saviour);
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- To Titus, a true son in the common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.
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- ¶ For this cause I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city where there is a need as I had commanded you.
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- ¶ Appoint only an elder who is blameless and the husband of one wife, and one who has faithful children who do not swear and who are not intemperate.
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- For an elder must be blameless, as a steward of God;
and he must not be self-willed, not quick tempered, not excessive in the use of wine, not too ready to strike with his hand, not a lover of filthy lucre;
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- But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good things, sober, just, pious, and temperate of worldly desires;
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- Holding fast the doctrine of faith, so that he may be able to comfort by his sound doctrine, and to rebuke those who are proud.
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- For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers of the people, especially those who belong to the circumcision,
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- Whose mouths must be stopped, for they corrupt many families, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of filthy lucre.
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- One of them, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are always liars, vicious beasts with empty bellies.
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- This testimony is true.
Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,
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- And not give heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who hate the truth.
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- To the pure, all things are pure;
but nothing is pure to those who are defiled and faithless;
even their mind and conscience is defiled.
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- They profess to know God, but in works they deny him, and they are abominable and disobedient, condemning every kind of good work.
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