Know this, that in the final days hard times will set in. For men will be lovers of themselves and lovers of money, pretentious, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, impious, loveless, implacable, troublemakers, intemperate, wild, with no love for good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than God, keeping the form of piety but denying its force.
Have nothing to do with these people. For from their number come those who get into houses and captivate women who are overcome by sins, who are seduced by fantastic desires, always learning something but never able to come to the recognition of the truth. As Jannes and Jambres stood up against Moses, so these men will stand up against the truth, being corrupt in mind and unworthy in the matter of faith. But they will progress no further, for their madness will be made evident to all, as was that of those others.
But as for you, you have followed my teaching, my behavior, my devotion, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness; my persecutions, my sufferings, the sort of thing that happened to me in Antioch, in Icon- i^n, in Lystra; such persecutions have I borne, but the Lord rescued me from all of them. And all who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted; bad men and wizards will make progress, for the worse, leading men astray and led astray themselves. But as for you, abide by what you learned and what you came to believe, realizing from what people you learned it, and that even when you were a child you knew sacred scriptures, which have power to make you wise for your salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every writing that is divinely inspired is also useful for teaching, for argument, for correction, for education in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.
II charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his coming appearance and his Kingdom: preach the word, insist on it in season and out of season; confute, reprove, exhort, with complete patience, with every kind of instruction. For the time will come when people will no longer put up with healthy doctrine, but will get themselves masses of teachers who accord with their own desires; their ears will be flattered, and they will tum their ears from the truth, and go over to myths. But as for you, keep your head at all times, endure your suffering, do your evangelist's work, fulfill your ministry.
For I am now being offered up as a sacrifice, and the hour for my departure is upon me. I have run the good race, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; for the rest, the wreath for righteousness is set aside for me. The Lord, the just umpire, will award it to me on the great Day; and not to me alone, but to all who have loved his appearing.
Try hard to come to me soon. For Demas has forsaken me, being in love with the present age, and gone to Thes- salonica. Crescens went to Galatia and Titus to Dalma- tia. Only Luke is with me. Bring Mark along with you; he is helpful in my service. I sent Tychicus back to Ephesus. Bring with you when you come the cloak which I left behind with Carpus at Troas; also the book rolls, especially the parchments.
Ale^mder the bronzesmith did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him according to his acts. Beware of him, you also, for he has been all too much opposed to our speaking.
in my first defense, no one stood by me but all forsook me. May it not be counted against them. But the Lord was with me and gave me strength, so that through me the message should be completed and all the nations should hear it; and I was rescued out of the lion's mouth. And the Lord will rescue me from every bad action and will save me for his heavenly Kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Give greetings to Prisca and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus remained in Corinth; I left Tro- phimus sick in Miletus.
Try hard to come before winter.
Eubulus and Pudens and Linus and Claudia, and all the brothers, send you their greetings.
May the Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.
The Letter
to Titus
11PAUL, THE SLAVE OF GOD, AND APOStle of Jesus Christ in the faith of the chosen of God and the recognition of the truth which comes by piety in the hope for life everlasting, which God, who cannot lie, promised countless ages ago and, in his own time, revealed in the annunciation with which I have been entrusted at the bidding of God our savior; to Titus, my true child through shared faith; grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our savior.
This is the reason that I left you in Crete, so that you could set right what remains to be done, and institute elders in every city, as I have instructed you to do. Such an elder must be unimpeachable, married to one wife, with children who are believers, not open to the charge of dissipation, not disobedient. For the bishop, as God's steward, must be unimpeachable, not self-willed, not choleric, not given to drinking, no brawler, not shamefully grasping; but hospitable, lover of the good, discreet, just, pious, temperate, holding fast to the word of faith, according to doctrine, so that he can have power to exhort men by healthy teaching and confute those who oppose it.
For there are many who are disobedient, speakers of vanities and deceivers of the mind. They come mostly from among the circumcised. One must stop their mouths; for they overturn whole households by teaching as they should not, out of love for shameful gain.
For one of their number, their own prophet, has said: Cretans are always liars, foul beasts, lazy gluttons. That testimony is true. For this reason, confute them sharply, to make them grow healthy in faith, no longer giving their minds to Jewish myths and the commandments of people who reject the truth. To the pure all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but their mind and conscience are defiled. They confess that they know God, but in their acts they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unfit for any good work.
11 Go on telling them, in the way that befits healthy doctrine, that older men should be sober, dignified, discreet, sound in faith, in love, in endurance. So also older women should be, in their behavior, reverent, not troublemakers or enslaved to excessive wine drinking, and teachers of the good; so as to set the young women right and make them love their husbands and their children, be discreet, chaste, housewifely, good, obedient to their own husbands, so that the word of God may not be Ш spoken of. So also exhort the younger men to behave themselves. In every case present yourself as an ex^ple of good works: in your teaching, integrity, dignity, discourse that is irreproachably sound, so that anyone who opposes you may be put to shame, unable to say anything bad about us. Slaves should be obedient to their own masters in everything, pleasant, not talking back to them, not misappropriating anything, but showing completely good faith, to improve the image of the teaching of God our savior among people in general.
For the saving grace of God was shown forth to all people. It educates us, so that disowning impiety and worldly desires we may live discreetly and righteously and piously in this present age, looking forward to the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of the great God and our savior Christ Jesus; who gave himself for our sakes, to set us free from all lawlessness and purify for himself a chosen people, making them eager for good works. Keep on speaking thus and exhorting and confuting. Let no one despise you.