Titus 1 (MSG)

¹I, Paul, am God's slave and Christ's agent for promoting the faith among God's chosen people, getting out the accurate word on God and how to respond rightly to it.

²My aim is to raise hopes by pointing the way to life without end. This is the life God promised long ago—and he doesn't break promises!

³And then when the time was ripe, he went public with his truth. I've been entrusted to proclaim this Message by order of our Savior, God himself.

⁴Dear Titus, legitimate son in the faith: Receive everything God our Father and Jesus our Savior give you!

⁵I left you in charge in Crete so you could complete what I left half-done. Appoint leaders in every town according to my instructions.

⁶As you select them, ask, "Is this man well-thought-of? Are his children believers? Do they respect him and stay out of trouble?"

⁷It's important that a church leader, responsible for the affairs in God's house, be looked up to—not pushy, not short-tempered, not a drunk, not a bully, not money-hungry.

⁸He must welcome people, be helpful, wise, fair, reverent, have a good grip on himself,

⁹and have a good grip on the Message, knowing how to use the truth to either spur people on in knowledge or stop them in their tracks if they oppose it.

¹⁰For there are a lot of rebels out there, full of loose, confusing, and deceiving talk. Those who were brought up religious and ought to know better are the worst.

¹¹They've got to be shut up. They're disrupting entire families with their teaching, and all for the sake of a fast buck.

¹²One of their own prophets said it best: The Cretans are liars from the womb, barking dogs, lazy bellies.

¹³He certainly spoke the truth. Get on them right away. Stop that diseased talk of Jewish make-believe and made-up rules

¹⁴so they can recover a robust faith.

¹⁵Everything is clean to the clean-minded; nothing is clean to dirty-minded unbelievers. They leave their dirty fingerprints on every thought and act.

¹⁶They say they know God, but their actions speak louder than their words. They're real creeps, disobedient good-for-nothings.