10-16 For there are a lot of rebels out there, full of loose, confusing, and deceiving talk. Those who were brought up religious and ought to know better are the worst. They’ve got to be shut up. They’re disrupting entire families with their teaching, and all for the sake of a fast buck. One of their own prophets said it best:

The Cretans are liars from the womb,
    barking dogs, lazy bellies.

He certainly spoke the truth. Get on them right away. Stop that diseased talk of Jewish make-believe and made-up rules so they can recover a robust faith. Everything is clean to the clean-minded; nothing is clean to dirty-minded unbelievers. They leave their dirty fingerprints on every thought and act. They say they know God, but their actions speak louder than their words. They’re real creeps, disobedient good-for-nothings.

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Rebuking Those Who Fail to Do Good

10 For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk(A) and deception, especially those of the circumcision group.(B) 11 They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households(C) by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. 12 One of Crete’s own prophets(D) has said it: “Cretans(E) are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.”[a] 13 This saying is true. Therefore rebuke(F) them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith(G) 14 and will pay no attention to Jewish myths(H) or to the merely human commands(I) of those who reject the truth.(J) 15 To the pure, all things are pure,(K) but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure.(L) In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.(M)

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Footnotes

  1. Titus 1:12 From the Cretan philosopher Epimenides