1 Timothy 3

¹ This is a faithful saying: someone who seeks to be an overseer¹ 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,² 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 serve³ if they are blameless.

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

¹² Let servants⁴ be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

¹³ For those who have served well⁵ 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: God⁶ 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.