Chapter 3

The word [is] faithful: if any one aspires to exercise oversight, he desires a good work.

The overseer then must be irreproachable, husband of one wife, sober, discreet, decorous, hospitable, apt to teach;

not given to excesses from wine, not a striker, but mild, not addicted to contention, not fond of money,

conducting his own house well, having [his] children in subjection with all gravity;

(but if one does not know how to conduct his own house, how shall he take care of the assembly of God?)

not a novice, that he may not, being inflated, fall into [the] fault of the devil.

But it is necessary that he should have also a good testimony from those without, that he may fall not into reproach and [the] snare of the devil.

Ministers, in like manner, grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not seeking gain by base means,

holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

And let these be first proved, then let them minister, being without charge [against them].

[The] women in like manner grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.

Let [the] ministers be husbands of one wife, conducting [their] children and their own houses well:

for those who shall have ministered well obtain for themselves a good degree, and much boldness in faith which [is] in Christ Jesus.

These things I write to thee, hoping to come to thee more quickly;

but if I delay, in order that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God's house, which is [the] assembly of [the] living God, [the] pillar and base of the truth.

And confessedly the mystery of piety is great. God has been manifested in flesh, has been justified in [the] Spirit, has appeared to angels, has been preached among [the] nations, has been believed on in [the] world, has been received up in glory.