Brief instructions for organizing churches on the island of Crete.
Titus, the third Pastoral Epistle, is addressed to a colleague left on Crete to appoint local leaders and counter disruptive teaching, with an unusually blunt view of the local culture.
The letter's practical core instructs Titus to appoint elders in every town, listing the character required, and to correct teachers - especially some from a Jewish-Christian background - who are upsetting whole families for financial gain.
A section gives short instructions to different groups in the congregation, with the recurring aim that the community's conduct should not bring its message into disrepute among outsiders.
The letter frames right behavior as the natural response to God's kindness rather than a way of earning it, and twice tells Titus to insist that believers devote themselves to good works and avoid pointless controversies.