Titus 1: Verse-by-Verse Commentary (with Videos)

¹Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness,

²in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.

³In His own time He has made His word evident in the proclamation entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior.

⁴To Titus, my true child in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

⁵The reason I left you in Crete was that you would set in order what was unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.

⁶An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, having children who are believers and who are not open to accusation of indiscretion or insubordination.

⁷As God’s steward, an overseer must be above reproach—not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not greedy for money.

⁸Instead, he must be hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.

⁹He must hold firmly to the faithful word as it was taught, so that he can encourage others by sound teaching and refute those who contradict it.

¹⁰For many are rebellious and full of empty talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision,

¹¹who must be silenced. For the sake of dishonorable gain, they undermine entire households and teach things they should not.

¹²As one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”

¹³This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sternly, so that they will be sound in the faith

¹⁴and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of men who have rejected the truth.

¹⁵To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

¹⁶They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.