Show Everyone how good God’s Message is
An EasyEnglish Version with Notes (1200 word vocabulary) of Paul’s letter to Titus
Carol Betts
The translated text has been through Advanced Checking.
Words in boxes are comments on the text.
The word list at the end explains words with a star * by them.
Paul was a great Christian teacher. God sent him to many countries to tell the people about Jesus Christ. Titus was a young man who had travelled with Paul. He had been to Jerusalem with Paul. (See Galatians 2:1-3.) Later, Paul sent Titus to Corinth city. There were serious problems among the Christians at Corinth, and Paul sent Titus there to help them. (See, for example, 2 Corinthians 7:5-16; 8:16-24.)
We think that Paul wrote this letter at some time between *AD 62 and *AD 65. That was more than 30 years after Jesus died. Titus had been travelling again with Paul. And Paul had asked him to stay on the island called Crete. Crete is in the Mediterranean Sea, south from the countries called Greece and Turkey. Paul left Crete and he travelled to other places. But Titus stayed on Crete, to help the Christians there.
The Christians who lived on Crete had believed Christ for only a short time. They needed good leaders. So, in this letter, Paul tells Titus what kind of people he should choose as leaders.
Also, there were some false teachers there. So, Paul tells Titus that he must stop the Christians from believing those false teachers. Titus must teach only the true Christian message. He must tell the Christians to do good things that make God happy.
v1 This letter is from me, Paul. I am God’s servant and I am a special worker and teacher on behalf of Jesus Christ. God has sent me to help the people that he has chosen. I help those people to believe God more completely. I help them so that they will understand the true message about Christ completely. So then they will know the things that they should do to make God happy. v2 As a result, those people will hope certainly that they will live with God always. God has promised that his people will live with him always. He promised that before the world began. And God always says only things that are true. v3 Then, at the proper time, God caused people to know what he had promised. God’s servants started to tell his message to people. And God, who saves us, has given this work to me also. He has said that I must tell his message to people.
v4 I am writing to you, Titus. You are like my own child because we both believe the same things about Christ. I pray that God, the Father, and Christ Jesus, who saves us, will be very kind to you. I pray that they will cause you to be without trouble inside yourself.
v5 I asked you to stay on Crete so that you could do certain things. Some things there are not as they should be. You must cause those things to become as they should be. Also, you must choose elders (leaders) to lead the Christians in every town, as I told you.
v6 A leader must do what is good. So then nobody can say anything bad about him. He must be the husband of one wife. His children must be *believers. They must always do what is right and proper. Everyone should know that a leader’s children always obey him. v7 A leader has authority for God’s work on God’s behalf. So, nobody should ever be able to say anything bad about him. A leader must not think that he himself is very important. He must not make other people do just what he wants. He must not become angry easily. He must not be a drunk. He must not be a person who likes to fight. He must not want money so much that he does wrong things to get it. v8 Instead, he must be happy to have visitors in his home. He must really want to do good things. He must rule himself well. He must do what is right. He must want always to make God happy. He must do what is proper always.
v9 A leader must continue to believe strongly the true Christian message, just as we taught it. Then he will be able to teach true and right things to people. So, he will help people to believe Christ more strongly. A leader like that will also be able to speak to people who argue against the Christian message. So, those people will know certainly that they are wrong.
v10 There are many people who refuse to obey anyone. They teach false things that are worth nothing. They want people to believe those false things. Some *Jews who have become Christians are teaching these things very much.
Verse 10 Some *Jews may have been teaching that the Christians on Crete must obey the *Jews’ rules. They may have been teaching that people should circumcise the Christians. To ‘circumcise’ means to cut the skin from the end of a boy’s or man’s sex part. God had told Abraham to do this. (See Genesis 17: 9-14.)
The *Jews circumcised men and boys to show that Israel’s people belonged to God. But the Bible does not say that Christians need to do that. We are God’s people because Christ died on behalf of us. We belong to God in our *spirits. The Bible does not tell Christian men to cut their bodies.
v11 You must stop those people from teaching these false things. They are teaching things that they should not teach. So, they are causing whole families to stop believing the true message. Those false teachers’ purpose is bad. They are teaching only because they want people to give them money. v12 Many years ago, one great teacher who lived on Crete spoke like this about his own people. ‘People who belong to Crete are always doing bad things. They are always saying things that are not true. They are like dangerous wild animals. They are lazy and they eat too much food.’
v13 What that man said is true. So, you must speak to those people who believe false things. Tell them very strongly that they are wrong. Tell them, so that they may believe the true message. v14 They must stop listening to false stories that the *Jews teach. They must stop listening to people who have refused to believe the true message. They must stop obeying the human ideas that those people tell them. v15 For people who have clean *spirits and minds, everything is clean and good. But for people who have dirty *spirits and minds, nothing is clean or good. Those people cannot think good thoughts. They cannot recognise the difference between what is right or wrong. v16 Those bad people say that they know God. But they do bad things, that God *hates. So, everyone can see that those people do not really know God. They refuse to obey God and they are unable to do anything good.
v1 But you must teach right things that belong properly to God’s message. v2 Tell the older men that they must rule themselves well. They must think seriously. They must always do what is proper. They must continue to believe Christ strongly. They must love other people and they must continue to be patient and brave.
v3 Also, tell the older women what they must do. They must always do right and proper things, as God’s people should do. They must never say bad things about people. They must not be drunks. They must teach what is good. v4 So then they can teach the young women what they must do. The young women must love their own husbands and their own children. v5 The young women must always do what is proper. They must think clean thoughts and they must do good things. They must be good housewives. They must be kind and they must obey their own husbands. So then nobody will be able to say bad things about God’s message because of what the young women do.
v6 Also, tell the young men strongly that they must always do right and proper things. v7 You yourself must always do good things. Then you will show the young men what they should do. When you teach, be honest and serious. v8 Teach things that are correct. So, nobody will be able to say that you are wrong. And then our enemies will be ashamed, because they cannot say anything bad about us.
v9 Tell the slaves that they must obey their masters always. They must make their masters happy. They must not argue with their masters. v10 Slaves must not rob their masters. Instead, slaves must show their masters that they themselves are completely honest and good. Then people will see that those slaves are always good. So, people will say good things about the message that we teach. That message about God, who saves us, is very good. And people will know that it is good.
v11 God has shown us how very kind he is. He has shown us that because he came to save all people. v12 And because God is so kind, he teaches us to do right things. We should stop doing bad things that do not make God happy. We should stop wanting strongly the things that belong to this world. Instead, God teaches us to rule ourselves properly. He teaches us to do what is right. He teaches us to do the things that make him happy. We should do these good things while we live in this world.
v13 We should do these good things while we wait for Jesus to return. On that happy day, Jesus will certainly show everyone how very great he is. Jesus Christ is our great God, who saves us. v14 He gave himself on behalf of us. He made us free from every bad thing, so that we could be completely good and clean inside ourselves. So then we could become his own special people, who really want to do good things.
v15 You should teach these things, with all authority. Tell the Christians strongly the things that they must do. Tell them the things that they must not do. Do not let anyone think that they know better than you.
v1 Tell your people to remember that they must obey the rulers and the government. They must obey everyone who has authority over them. They must be ready always to do what is good. v2 They should never say bad things about anyone. They should not quarrel with people, but instead they should be patient and friendly. They should always be polite and kind to everyone.
v3 Before we believed Christ, we ourselves were fools too. We did not obey God or anyone. We believed things that are not true. We wanted to do many kinds of bad things. We could not stop ourselves. We were always bad. We were always angry about other people because we wanted to be like them. Other people *hated us, and we *hated each other. v4 But then God, who saves us, did something to help us. He showed us how much he loves all people.
v5 God did not save us because of any good things that we ourselves had done. Instead, he saved us because he himself is so very kind. God has washed us so that we are completely clean in our *spirits. His Spirit has caused us to be born again, so that we have become new people. v6 By Jesus Christ, who saves us, God gave his Spirit to us, to fill us. v7 God did this because he is so very kind. He did it so that he could make us right with him. So then we could hope certainly that we will live with God always. That is what God has promised to his people. v8 These words are certainly true.
I want you to teach these things strongly. I want you to be sure that the people understand these things. So then the people who believe God may be careful to do good things. They should think always about good things that they can do. Those good things will help everyone.
v9 But stay away from people who argue about silly questions and about lists of people’s families’ names from years ago. Refuse to quarrel. Refuse to argue about God’s rules. Those kinds of things are not good and they do not help anyone. v10 Some people may teach things that are different from the true message. Anyone who teaches false things like that can cause the Christians not to agree with each other. So, you must tell him to stop. If he does not stop, you must tell him one more time. Then, if he still does not stop, stay away from him. v11 You know that a person like that has chosen not to believe the true message. He is doing what is wrong. And he knows that. But still he continues to do what is wrong.
v12 I will send either Artemas or Tychicus to you. After one of them has arrived, try very much to meet me at the city called Nicopolis. I have decided that I will stay at Nicopolis during the winter.
Verse 12 Tychicus was a man who had travelled with Paul. (See Acts 20:4, Ephesians 6:21, Colossians 4:7 and 2 Timothy 4:12.) We do not know who Artemas was.
Nicopolis was a city on the west coast of the country that we call Greece.
v13 Zenas, who is a *lawyer, and Apollos will be travelling from Crete. Do everything that you can to help them. So then they will have everything that they need for their journey.
Verse 13 A lawyer is someone who knows about a government’s rules.
The name ‘Apollos’ is also in Acts 18:24; 19:1 and 1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:4; 16:12.
v14 Our Christian people must learn to do good things always. They should help to supply the things that people really need. Then the Christians will not be lazy and they will not waste their time.
v15 Everyone who is here with me says ‘hello’ to you. Say ‘hello’ on our behalf to those Christians there who love us. I pray that God will continue to be very kind to all of you.
AD ~ AD 50 means the year that was 50 years after Jesus came, and so on.
being ~ a person or animal that is alive.
believer ~ a person who knows and accepts Christ.
hate ~ to strongly or completely not like something or someone. To hate is the opposite of when you love something or someone.
Jew ~ a person who is born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
lawyer ~ someone who knows about a government’s rules.
Lord ~ master; another name for God which means that he is greater than everyone else.
spirit ~ a *being that is always alive, even without a body. A person’s spirit is the part of them that will always be alive. It will be alive even after their body is dead.
Marshall ~ The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament
D. A. Arichea and H. A. Hatton ~ A Handbook on Paul’s Letters to Timothy and Titus
John Banker ~ Semantic Structure Analysis of Titus
Nigeria Bible Translation Trust ~ Draft Translator’s Notes on Titus
Various Bible versions
© 1997-2003, Wycliffe Associates (UK)
This publication is written in EasyEnglish Level A (1200 words).
August 2003
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