Titus must teach God's true message well
1 But as for you, Titus, you must teach people to do what is right. Teach them only the things that belong to God's true message. 2 Tell the older men to control themselves properly. They must think carefully about how they live, so that people respect them. They must continue to believe in Christ. They must continue to love other people. They must continue to be patient and strong.
3 Also, tell the older women to live in a good way. Their lives must show that they respect God. They must not say bad things about other people. They must not be drunks. They must teach what is good. 4 In this way, they can teach the young women how they should live. As a result, the young women will love their husbands and their children. 5 The young women will control themselves well and be pure in how they live. They will be good housewives who are kind to other people. They will respect their husbands. If they live in a good way like that, nobody will be able to say bad things about God's message.
2:5A good housewife takes care of the family and their home. She is a good wife for her husband. She is a good mother for her children.
6 As for the young men, tell them also to control themselves wisely in how they live. 7 You yourself must always do good things too. In that way, you will show the young men how they should live. When you teach the believers, be honest and serious. 8 Teach a message that is correct, so that nobody can say anything against it. Then our enemies will be ashamed, because they cannot say anything bad about us.
9 As for slaves, tell them to obey their masters always. They must not argue with their masters. Instead, they should work well to please their masters. 10 Slaves must not take things that belong to their masters. Their masters must be able to trust them completely. Then people will respect the message that we teach about God, our Saviour.
God gives believers a new life
11 God has shown us clearly how very kind he is. He has come to save all people. 12 Because God is kind, he teaches us to stop living in a bad way. We no longer do the bad things that do not make God happy. We turn away from the bad things that belong to this world. God teaches us to control ourselves wisely while we live in this world. He teaches us to do what is right. He teaches us to please him in the way that we live.
13 We are waiting for Jesus Christ to return to this world. When he comes, that will make us very happy. Everyone will see how great Jesus Christ is. He is our great God. He is the one who saves us from our sins. 14 He gave himself as a sacrifice on our behalf. He did that to make us free from every kind of bad thing. As a result, we can be completely good and clean inside ourselves. We can become his own special people, who want to do good things.
15 You must teach these things to the believers. Help them to live in a good way. Warn them when they do wrong things. Use all the authority that you have as a leader in the church. Make sure that everyone respects you properly.
Titus 3
Believers must be careful to do good things
1 Tell the believers there to respect the government and those who have authority. They must remember to obey their rulers. They must always be ready to help other people. 2 They must not say bad things about anyone. They must not argue with people. Instead, they should be kind. They should be careful to respect everyone.
3 Before we believed in Christ, we ourselves were fools too. We did not obey God. We believed a false message. We wanted to do many kinds of bad things to make us happy. We could not stop doing them. Every day we did evil things. We were jealous of other people. People hated us, and we hated each other.
4 But then God, our Saviour, showed clearly that he is very kind. He showed that he loves all people. 5 God did not save us because of any good things that we ourselves had done. He saved us because he chose to forgive us. God has washed us so that we are clean inside. We have been born again, so that we live a new life. God's Holy Spirit has done this for us. 6 Jesus Christ died as a sacrifice to save us. So now God has poured his Holy Spirit into us, to fill us. 7 Because God is very kind, he has accepted us as right with himself. As a result, we know that we will receive the good things that God has prepared for us. We know that we will live with God for ever.
8 That message is certainly true. So you must teach people the things that I have said in this letter. Make sure that they understand them well. Then the people who have believed in God will be careful to do good things. Good things like that will help everyone.
