Titus 3

₁You must tell the believers that they must remember to listen to the people who rule over them and obey them. They must always be ready to do good things. ₂They must not say bad things about other people, or argue. They must be friendly and show their love to everyone. ₃Before we started to believe in Christ, we were also foolish and we did not listen to God. People had deceived us and we wanted to do a lot of bad things. We could not stop ourselves. We did things that were wrong and we were jealous of other people. Everyone hated us and we hated each other.

₄But then God, who saved us, showed us how much He loves everyone and we saw how good He is. ₅He saved us, but He did not do it because we did good things. No, God saved us because He felt sorry for us. How did God save us? He sent the Holy_Spirit to wash our sins away. He made us new and we were born again. ₆God sent Jesus Christ our Saviour to give us the Holy_Spirit so that the Holy_Spirit can rule our lives. ₇God made us righteous. He did it when He gave his grace to us. Now we know and we are sure that we will get the eternal_life that God has promised us.

₈What I have said now is true. I want you to tell the people who believe in God that they must try hard to do good things. These good things that they do will help everyone.

₉You must not argue with other people like fools about who your forefathers were. Do not fight about laws, because if you do, you don't help anyone. ₁₀When someone teaches things that are different, not the same as the true message of God, tell him to stop doing it. If he does not listen, warn him again. And if he still does not listen to you, then you must not talk to him again. Stay away from him ₁₁because you know that a person like this is on the wrong road, and he sins. And his sins show that he is guilty before God.

₁₂When I send our friend Artemas or Tychicus to you, you must try hard to come to me in the town of Nicopolis. I have decided to stay there this winter. ₁₃You must try hard to help Zenas, the lawyer, and Apollos to get ready to go away from Crete. Help them to get everything they need. ₁₄Our own people, the Christians on the Island of Crete, must learn to do good things and work hard every day so that they can help other people.

₁₅Everyone who is here with me sends greetings to you. Greet the believers who love us. I pray that God will be good to you and give his grace to all of you.