1 Timothy 3

World English Bible

¹This is a faithful saying: if a man seeks the office of an overseer, he desires a good work.

²The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching;

³not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;

⁴one who rules his own house well, having children in subjection with all reverence;

⁵(but if a man doesn’t know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the assembly of God?)

⁶not a new convert, lest being puffed up he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.

⁷Moreover he must have good testimony from those who are outside, to avoid falling into reproach and the snare of the devil.

⁸Servants, in the same way, must be reverent, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for money;

⁹holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

¹⁰Let them also first be tested; then let them serve if they are blameless.

¹¹Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.

¹²Let servants be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

¹³For those who have served well gain for themselves a good standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴These things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly;

¹⁵but 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.

¹⁶Without 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.

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