1 P aul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of the choice ones of God, and an acknowledging of truth that according to piety,

Paul, a bond servant of God and an apostle (a special messenger) of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) to stimulate and promote the faith of God’s chosen ones and to lead them on to accurate discernment and recognition of and acquaintance with the Truth which belongs to and harmonizes with and tends to godliness,

2 u pon hope of life age-during, which God, who doth not lie, did promise before times of ages,

in the hope of eternal life, which the ever truthful God Who cannot deceive promised before the world or the ages of time began.

3 ( and He manifested in proper times His word,) in preaching, which I was entrusted with, according to a charge of God our Saviour,

And in His own appointed time He has made manifest (made known) His Word and revealed it as His message through the preaching entrusted to me by command of God our Savior;

4 t o Titus -- true child according to a common faith: Grace, kindness, peace, from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour!

To Titus, my true child according to a common (general) faith: Grace (favor and spiritual blessing) and peace from God the Father and the Lord Christ Jesus our Savior.

5 F or this cause left I thee in Crete, that the things lacking thou mayest arrange, and mayest set down in every city elders, as I did appoint to thee;

For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might set right what was defective and finish what was left undone, and that you might appoint elders and set them over the churches (assemblies) in every city as I directed you.

6 i f any one is blameless, of one wife a husband, having children stedfast, not under accusation of riotous living or insubordinate --

men who are of unquestionable integrity and are irreproachable, the husband of one wife, whose children are believers, not open to the accusation of being loose in morals and conduct or unruly and disorderly.

7 f or it behoveth the overseer to be blameless, as God's steward, not self-pleased, nor irascible, not given to wine, not a striker, not given to filthy lucre;

For the bishop (an overseer) as God’s steward must be blameless, not self-willed or arrogant or presumptuous; he must not be quick-tempered or given to drink or pugnacious (brawling, violent); he must not be grasping and greedy for filthy lucre (financial gain);

8 b ut a lover of strangers, a lover of good men, sober-minded, righteous, kind, self-controlled,

But he must be hospitable (loving and a friend to believers, especially to strangers and foreigners); a lover of goodness, sober-minded (sensible, discreet), upright and fair-minded, a devout man and religiously correct, temperate and keeping himself in hand.

9 h olding -- according to the teaching -- to the stedfast word, that he may be able also to exhort in the sound teaching, and the gainsayers to convict;

He must hold fast to the sure and trustworthy Word of God as he was taught it, so that he may be able both to give stimulating instruction and encouragement in sound (wholesome) doctrine and to refute and convict those who contradict and oppose it.

10 f or there are many both insubordinate, vain-talkers, and mind-deceivers -- especially they of the circumcision --

For there are many disorderly and unruly men who are idle (vain, empty) and misleading talkers and self-deceivers and deceivers of others. especially of those of the circumcision party.

11 w hose mouth it behoveth to stop, who whole households do overturn, teaching what things it behoveth not, for filthy lucre's sake.

Their mouths must be stopped, for they are mentally distressing and subverting whole families by teaching what they ought not to teach, for the purpose of getting base advantage and disreputable gain.

12 A certain one of them, a prophet of their own, said -- `Cretans! always liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies!'

One of their number, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, hurtful beasts, idle and lazy gluttons.

13 t his testimony is true; for which cause convict them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,

And this account of them is true. Because it is, rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith and free from error,

14 n ot giving heed to Jewish fables and commands of men, turning themselves away from the truth;

ceasing to give attention to Jewish myths and fables or to rules by men who reject and turn their backs on the Truth.

15 a ll things, indeed, pure to the pure, and to the defiled and unstedfast nothing pure, but of them defiled even the mind and the conscience;

To the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled and corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are defiled and polluted.

16 G od they profess to know, and in the works they deny, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work disapproved.

They profess to know God, but deny and disown and renounce Him by what they do; they are detestable and loathsome, unbelieving and disobedient and disloyal and rebellious, and unfit and worthless for good work (deed or enterprise) of any kind.