3
1 This
is a faithful
saying: someone
who seeks to be
an overseer
desires a good
work.
2 The
overseer therefore
must be
without reproach, the husband
of one wife,
temperate, sensible,
modest, hospitable,
good at teaching;
3 not
a drinker, not
violent, not greedy
for money, but
gentle, not quarrelsome,
not covetous;
4 one
who rules his own
house well, having
children in
subjection with
all reverence;
5 (for
how could someone
who doesn’t know
how to rule
his own house
take care of
God’s assembly?)
6 not
a new convert,
lest being puffed
up he fall
into the same
condemnation as
the devil.
7 Moreover
he must have
good testimony
from those who
are outside,
to avoid falling into
reproach and the
snare of the
devil.
8 Servants,
in the same
way, must be reverent,
not double-tongued,
not addicted to
much wine,
not greedy for money,
9 holding
the mystery of
the faith in
a pure conscience.
10 Let
them also first
be tested; then
let them serve
if they
are blameless.
11 Their
wives in the
same way must
be reverent, not
slanderers, temperate,
and faithful in
all things.
12 Let
servants
be husbands of one
wife, ruling their
children and their
own houses well.
13 For
those who have
served well
gain for
themselves a
good standing and
great boldness in
the faith which
is in Christ
Jesus.
14 These
things I write
to you, hoping
to come to
you shortly,
15 but
if I wait long,
that you may
know how men
ought to behave
themselves in God’s
house, which is
the assembly of
the living God,
the pillar and
ground of
the truth.
16 Without
controversy, the
mystery of
godliness is great:
God
was revealed in
the flesh,
justified in the
spirit,
seen by angels,
preached among
the nations,
believed on in
the world,
and received up
in glory.