This is a faithful saying: someone who seeks to be an overseer desires a good work. The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching; not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having children in subjection with all reverence; (but how could someone who doesn’t know how to rule one’s own house take care of God’s assembly?) not a new convert, lest being puffed up he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have good testimony from those who are outside, to avoid falling into reproach and the snare of the devil.
Servants, in the same way, must be reverent, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. Let them also first be tested; then let them serve if they are blameless. Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things. Let servants be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For those who have served well gain for themselves a good standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
These things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly; 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.
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.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–16 1 It is a true saying Chrysostom thinks, that…
1 It is a true saying Chrysostom thinks, that this is the conclusion of the preceding doctrine. But I do not approve of the opinion; for Paul commonly makes use of this form of expression as a prelude to what he is about to introduce, Besides, in the former discourse there was no need of so strong an affirmation; but what he is now about to say, is somewhat more weighty. Let these words, therefore, be received as a preface intended to point out the importance of the subject; for Paul now begins a new discourse about ordaining pastors, and appointing the government of the Church.
If any one desireth the office of a bishop Having forbidden women to teach, he now takes occasion to speak of the office of a bishop. First, that it may be more clearly seen that it was not without reason that he refused to allow women to undertake so arduous a work; secondly, that it might not be thought that, by excluding women only, he admitted all men indiscriminately; and, thirdly, because it was highly proper that Timothy and others should be reminded what conscientious watchfulness ought to be used in the election of bishops. Thus the context, in my opinion, is as if Paul had said, that so far are women from being fit for undertaking so excellent an office, that not even men ought to be admitted into it without distinction.
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He desireth an excellent work The Apostle affirms that this is no inconsiderable work, such as any man might venture to undertake. When he says that it is καλός, I have no doubt that he alludes to the ancient Greek proverb, often quoted by Plato, δύσκολα τὰ καλά, which means that “those things which are excellent, are also arduous and difficult;” and thus he unites difficulty with excellence, or rather he argues thus, that it does not belong to every person to discharge the office of a bishop, because it is a thing of great value.
I think that Paul’s meaning is now sufficiently clear; though none of the commentators, so far as I perceive, have understood it. The general meaning is, that a selection ought to be made in admitting bishops, because it is a laborious and difficult charge; and that they who aim at it should carefully consider with themselves, whether or not they were able to bear so heavy a burden. Ignorance is always rash; and a mature knowledge of things makes a man modest. How comes it that they who have neither ability nor wisdom often aspire so confidently to hold the reins of government, but because they rush forward with their eyes shut? On this subject Quintilian remarked, that the ignorant speak boldly, while the greatest orators tremble.
For the purpose of restraining such rashness in desiring the office of a bishop, Paul states, first, that this is not an indolent rank, but a work; and next, that it is not any kind of work, but excellent, and therefore toilsome and full of difficulty, as it actually is. It is no light matter to be a representative of the Son of God, in discharging an office of such magnitude, the object of which is to erect and extend the kingdom of God, to procure the salvation of souls which the Lord himself hath purchased with his own blood, and to govern the Church, which is God’s inheritance. But it is not my intention at present to make a sermon, and Paul will again glance at this subject in the next chapter.
Here a question arises: “Is it lawful, in any way, to desire the office of a bishop?” On the one hand, it appears to be highly improper for any one to anticipate, by his wish, the calling of God, and yet Paul, while he censures a rash desire, seems to permit it to be desired with prudence and modesty. I reply, if ambition is condemned in other matters, much more severely ought it to be condemned in “the office of a bishop.” But Paul speaks of a godly desire, by which holy men wish to employ that knowledge of doctrine which they possess for the edification of the Church. For, if it were altogether unlawful to desire the office of a teacher, why should they who spend all their youth in reading the Holy Scriptures prepare themselves by learning? What are the theological schools but nurseries of pastors?
Accordingly, they who have been thus instructed not only may lawfully devote themselves and their labors to God by a voluntary offering, but even ought to do so, and that too, before they have been admitted unto the office; provided that, nevertheless, they do not thrust themselves forward, and do not, even by their own wish, make themselves bishops, but are only ready to discharge the office, if their labors shall be required. And if it turn out that, according to the lawful order; they are not called, let them know that such was the will of God, and let them not take it in that others have been preferred to them. But they who, without any selfish motive, shall have no other wish than to serve God and the Church, will be affected in this manner; and, at the same time, will have such modesty that they will not be at all envious, if others be preferred to them as being more worthy.
If any one object, that the government of the Church is a matter of so great difficulty, that it ought rather to strike terror into the minds of persons of sound judgment than to excite them to desire it. I reply, that the desire of great men does not rest on confidence of their own industry or virtue, but on the assistance of
“God, from whom is our sufficiency,”
as Paul says elsewhere. (2 Corinthians 3:5.) At the same time, it is necessary to observe what it is that Paul calls “the office of a bishop;” and so much the more, because the ancients were led away, by the custom of their times, from the true meaning; for, while Paul includes generally all pastors, they understand a bishop to be one who was elected out of each college to preside over his brethren. Let us remember, therefore, that this word is of the same import as if he had called them ministers, or pastors, or presbyters.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 He speaketh not here of ambitious seeking, than the…
He speaketh not here of ambitious seeking, than the which there cannot be a worse fault in the Church, but general of the mind, and disposition of man, framed and disposed to help and edify the Church of God, when and wheresoever it shall please the Lord.
Having dispatched the treatise, as well of doctrine and of the manner of handling of it, as also of public prayer, he now in the third place cometh to the persons themselves, speaking first of Pastors and afterward of Deacons, and he useth a preface, that the Church may know that these be certain and sure rulers.
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A Bishopric or the ministry of the word is not an idle dignity, but a work and that an excellent work: and therefore a Bishop must be furnished with many virtues both at home and abroad. Wherefore it be requisite before he be chosen, to examine well his learning, his gifts, and ableness, and his life.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–16 1 This is a true saying, If a man…
1 This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
Ver. 1. If a man desire] As no woman, so neither may every man desire the office of a minister, but such only as are gifted and fitted for such a service.
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He desireth a good work] But a hard work. The ministry is not an idle man’s occupation, but a sore labour; Onus ipsis etiam angelis tremendum, saith Chrysostom, a burden too heavy for an angel’s shoulders; a pains nothing short of that of a travailing woman, saith Melancthon after Paul, Gal 4:19. There were those who read this text thus, Quicunque desiderat episcopatum bonum, opes desiderat. But this was a foul mistake at best. That is a good observation of Estius, that the former word, ορεγεται, rendered desire, importeth a more earnest desire (such as is that after meat when one is hungry) than the other following, επιθυμει. "He desireth a good work," quod eadem res nomine Episcopatus desideretur ardentius, quam nomine operis et officii, because the same thing by the name of episcopacy is more ardently desired than by the name of work and duty. That hypocrisy of the Canonists is very ridiculous, not admitting any to personal government in the Church, unless he either seem to refuse it, or unwillingly to undertake it, though he had never so much laboured it. The Bishop of Metis answered cunningly, when being demanded whether he desired a bishopric, he replied, Nolens volo, et volens nolo, I do, and I do not. One reporteth of a priest that used to have a net spread upon his table where he dined, that he might mind St Peter, that fisher of men. But when by his diligent preaching he had gotten a bishopric, he did take away the net, for he had got what he fished for.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–16 This is a true saying; πιστος, a faithful saying,…
This is a true saying; πιστος, a faithful saying, that which none can dispute, of which none ought to doubt.
If a man desire the office of a bishop; if a man desire any office to which belongs an oversight of the church of God. The Greek word επισκοπη signifies in the general an oversight of others; here the following discourse restrains it to an oversight of persons and affairs in the church. The apostle by this phrase determines this employment lawful, and under due circumstances to be desired, and saith of it, that he who desireth it
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desireth καλον εργον, a good work, a noble employment; it is a work, the office of the ministry in the church is and ought to be a work. The titles of gospel ministers are not mere titles of honour, and of all works or employments, the ministry is the most noble employment. We (saith the apostle) are stewards of the mysteries of God, ministers of Christ, 1Co 4:1; ambassadors for Christ, in Christ’s stead, 2Co 5:20; God’s angels or messengers to churches, Rev 2:1. It being so good, so great, and noble an employment, it is no wonder that God hath restrained women, the weaker and more ignoble sex, from invading it, for all men are not fit for it, but only such as are hereafter described.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 Observe here, 1. Our apostle acquaints Timothy with the…
Observe here, 1. Our apostle acquaints Timothy with the dignity, honour, and excellency of the sacred function: He that desireth the office of a bishop, that is, to rule and teach in the church of God, he desireth a good work, that is, honourable employment.
As if our apostle had said, "Know, O Timothy, that as to the office of a bishop, whoever desireth it, doth desire a very great and excellent work; it is not a bare name, title, dignity, a place of honour and command; but a work, a work of vast importance, labour, and difficulty: take heed therefore whom thou dost admit, and of those that are also admitted into the sacred function, to consider the great weight of that important service, to enterprize it with extraordinary dread and caution, looking upon their office not with aspiring but tremendous thoughts:--for who is sufficient for these things?
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 14 The two epistles to Timothy, and that to Titus,…
The two epistles to Timothy, and that to Titus, contain a scripture-plan of church-government, or a direction to ministers. Timothy, we suppose, was an evangelist who was left at Ephesus, to take care of those whom the Holy Ghost had made bishops there, that is, the presbyters, as appears by Act 20:28, where the care of the church was committed to the presbyters, and they were called bishops. It seems they were very loth to part with Paul, especially because he told them they should see his face no more (Act 20:38); for their church was but newly planted, they were afraid of undertaking the care of it, and therefore Paul left Timothy with them to set them in order. And here we have the character of a gospel minister, whose office it is, as a bishop, to preside in a particular congregation of Christians: If a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good work, Ti1 3:1. Observe,
I. The ministry is a work. However the office of a bishop may be now thought a good preferment, then it was thought a good work. 1. The office of a scripture-bishop is an office of divine appointment, and not of human invention. The ministry is not a creature of the state, and it is a pity that the minister should be at any time the tool of the state. The office of the ministry was in the church before the magistrate countenanced Christianity, for this office is one of the great gifts Christ has bestowed on the church, Eph 4:8-11. 2. This office of a Christian bishop is a work, which requires diligence and application: the apostle represents it under the notion and character of a work; not of great honour and advantage, for ministers should always look more to their work than to the honour and advantage of their office. 3. It is a good work, a work of the greatest importance, and designed for the greatest good: the ministry is conversant about no lower concerns than the life and happiness of immortal souls; it is a good work, because designed to illustrate the divine perfections in bringing many sons to glory; the ministry is appointed to open men's eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, etc., Act 26:18. 4. There ought to be an earnest desire of the office in those who would be put into it; if a man desire, he should earnestly desire it for the prospect he has of bringing greater glory to God, and of doing the greatest good to the souls of men by this means. This is the question proposed to those who offer themselves to the ministry of the church of England: "Do you think you are moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this office?"
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II. In order to the discharge of this office, the doing of this work, the workman must be qualified. 1. A minister must be blameless, he must not lie under any scandal; he must give as little occasion for blame as can be, because this would be a prejudice to his ministry and would reflect reproach upon his office. 2. He must be the husband of one wife; not having given a bill of divorce to one, and then taken another, or not having many wives at once, as at that time was too common both among Jews and Gentiles, especially among the Gentiles. 3. He must be vigilant and watchful against Satan, that subtle enemy; he must watch over himself, and the souls of those who are committed to his charge, of whom having taken the oversight, he must improve all opportunities of doing them good. A minister ought to be vigilant, because our adversary the devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, Pe1 5:8. 4. He must be sober, temperate, moderate in all his actions, and in the use of all creature-comforts. Sobriety and watchfulness are often in scripture put together, because they mutually befriend one another: Be sober, be vigilant. 5. He must be of good behaviour, composed and solid, and not light, vain, and frothy. 6. He must be given to hospitality, open-handed to strangers, and ready to entertain them according to his ability, as one who does not set his heart upon the wealth of the world and who is a true lover of his brethren. 7. Apt to teach. Therefore this is a preaching bishop whom Paul describes, one who is both able and willing to communicate to others the knowledge which God has given him, one who is fit to teach and ready to take all opportunities of giving instructions, who is himself well instructed in the things of the kingdom of heaven, and is communicative of what he knows to others. 8. No drunkard: Not given to wine. The priests were not to drink wine when they went in to minister (Lev 10:8, Lev 10:9), lest they should drink and pervert the law. 9. No striker; one who is not quarrelsome, nor apt to use violence to any, but does every thing with mildness, love, and gentleness. The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle towards all, etc., Ti2 2:24. 10. One who is not greedy of filthy lucre, who does not make his ministry to truckle to any secular design or interest, who uses no mean, base, sordid ways of getting money, who is dead to the wealth of this world, lives above it, and makes it appear he is so. 11. He must be patient, and not a brawler, of a mild disposition. Christ, the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, is so. Not apt to be angry or quarrelsome; as not a striker with his hands, so not a brawler with his tongue; for how shall men teach others to govern their tongues who do not make conscience of keeping them under good government themselves? 12. Not covetous. Covetousness is bad in any, but it is worst in a minister, whose calling leads him to converse so much with another world. 13. He must be one who keeps his family in good order: That rules well his own house, that he may set a good example to other masters of families to do so too, and that he may thereby give a proof of his ability to take care of the church of God: For, if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God. Observe, The families of ministers ought to be examples of good to all others families. Ministers must have their children in subjection; then it is the duty of ministers' children to submit to the instructions that are given them. - With all gravity. The best way to keep inferiors in subjection, is to be grave with them. Not having his children in subjection with all austerity, but with all gravity. 14. He must not be a novice, not one newly brought to the Christian religion, or not one who is but meanly instructed in it, who knows no more of religion than the surface of it, for such a one is apt to be lifted up with pride: the more ignorant men are the more proud they are: Lest, being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. The devils fell through pride, which is a good reason why we should take heed of pride, because it is a sin that turned angels into devils. 15. He must be of good reputation among his neighbours, and under no reproach from former conversation; for the devil will make use of that to ensnare others, and work in them an aversion to the doctrine of Christ preached by those who have not had a good report.
III. Upon the whole, having briefly gone through the qualifications of a gospel-bishop, we may infer, 1. What great reason we have to cry out, as Paul does, Who is sufficient for these things? Co2 2:16. Hic labor, hoc opus - This is a work indeed. What piety, what prudence, what zeal, what courage, what faithfulness, what watchfulness over ourselves, our lusts, appetites, and passions, and over those under our charge; I say, what holy watchfulness is necessary in this work! 2. Have not the best qualified and the most faithful and conscientious ministers just reason to complain against themselves, that so much is requisite by way of qualification, and so much work is necessary to be done? And, alas! how far short do the best come of what they should be and what they should do! 3. Yet let those bless God, and be thankful, whom the Lord has enabled, and counted faithful, putting them into the ministry: if God is pleased to make any in some degree able and faithful, let him have the praise and glory of it. 4. For the encouragement of all faithful ministers, we have Christ's gracious word of promise, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, Mat 28:20. And, if he be with us, he will fit us for our work in some measure, will carry us through the difficulties of it with comfort, graciously pardon our imperfections, and reward our faithfulness with a crown of glory that fadeth not away, Pe1 5:4.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–16 This is a true saying,.... Some think this clause…
This is a true saying,.... Some think this clause belongs to the last verse of the preceding chapter; and then the sense is, this is a doctrine that is true, and to be believed, that there is salvation through the birth of a Son, or through the incarnate Son of God, for men and women that believe in him, and continue in the faith of him, and love to him, joined with works of righteousness and holiness. And so the same phrase seems to belong to what goes before in Ti1 4:8. Though it regards what follows in Ti1 1:15 and so it seems that it should be considered here; and is used to excite attention, and suggests that what was about to be said was of moment and importance, and what was without controversy, and unquestionably true. The apostle, having denied to women the work and office of teaching, proceeds to observe, that though this belonged to men, yet not to every man; and therefore he gives the qualifications of such; which might serve as a direction to churches, in the choice of them; as well as be a means of stirring up persons in such an office, to a proper regard to themselves and their work:
if a man desire the office of a bishop; which is the same with that of a pastor or elder; and so here the Syriac version renders it, "if a man desires presbytery, or eldership"; and it lies in preaching the word, administering the ordinances of the Gospel, and taking care of the discipline of the church, and in the visiting, inspection, and oversight of it; as the word "episcopacy", here used, signifies; and this work and office may be lawfully and laudably desired, with a view to the glory of God, and the good of immortal souls. Nor should any undertake it, but such who find in themselves an hearty desire, and inclination to it, on such principles, and a real delight and pleasure in it; and such an one
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he desireth a good work: the office of a bishop, elder, or pastor of a church, "is a work", and a very laborious one; wherefore such are called labourers in the word and doctrine: it is not a mere title of honour, and a place of profit, but it is a business of labour and care; yet a good one, a famous and excellent one; it being an employment in things of the greatest excellency in themselves, and of the greatest usefulness for the good of men, and the honour of God; as the doctrines, ordinances, and discipline of the Gospel; and so must be excellently, honestly, pleasantly, and profitably a good work.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16 He desireth a good work - An excellent, but…
He desireth a good work - An excellent, but labourious, employment.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–16 Concerning bishops, their qualifications and work, 1-7.
CHAPTER III.
Concerning bishops, their qualifications and work, 1-7.
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Of deacons, and how they should be proved, 8-10.
Of their wives and children, and how they should be governed,
11-13.
How Timothy should behave himself in the Church, 14, 15.
The great mystery of godliness, 16.
NOTES ON CHAP. III.
Verse 1. This is a true saying] πιστος ο λογος. This is a true doctrine. These words are joined to the last verse of the preceding chapter by several of the Greek fathers, and by them referred to the doctrine there stated.
The office of a bishop] επισκοπης. The episcopacy, overseership or superintendency. The word ορεγεται, which we translate desire, signifies earnest, eager, passionate desire; and επιθυμει, which we translate desire, also signifies earnestly to desire or covet. It is strange that the episcopacy, in those times, should have been an object of intense desire to any man; when it was a place of danger, awl exposure to severe labour, want, persecution, and death, without any secular emolument whatsoever. On this ground I am led to think that the Spirit of God designed these words more for the ages that were to come, than for those which were then; and in reference to after ages the whole of what follows is chiefly to be understood.
A good work.] A work it then was; heavy, incessant, and painful. There were no unpreaching prelates in those days, and should be none now. Episcopacy in the Church of God is of Divine appointment, and should be maintained and respected. Under God, there should be supreme governors in the Church as well as in the state. The state has its monarch, the Church has its bishop; one should govern according to the laws of the land, the other according to the word of God.
What a constitutional king should be, the principles of the constitution declare; what a bishop should be, the following verses particularly show.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14 1Ti 3:1. Because some false teachers were now spreading…
1Ti 3:1. Because some false teachers were now spreading their erroneous doctrines with assiduity among the believers at Ephesus, and it was necessary that Timothy (to whom the care of the church there was committed) should be assisted by some bishops, or elders, and deacons, well qualified to teach the people, the apostle, after observing what an honourable office that of a Christian bishop is, here describes the qualities and virtues necessary in one who desires to attain it. This is a true saying — Most certain in itself, and worthy of being always acknowledged and attended to; if a man desire, (or earnestly seek, as ορεγεται signifies,) the office of a bishop — Overseer, or pastor of Christ’s flock, frequently termed presbyters, or elders, in the New Testament. See on Act 20:28; 1Pe 5:1-2; he desireth a good work — An excellent but laborious employment. “A bishop’s office is termed εργον, a work, to intimate that he must not spend his life in ease and idleness, but in a continued application to the duties of his office. It is also termed καλον αργον, a good, or excellent work, because of its honourableness and usefulness. See on 2Ti 2:2. The words καλος and αγαθος are often used promiscuously, to denote what is morally good. But when they are distinguished, καλος includes also the idea of honour, and ογαθος the idea of profit.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–16 This is a trite saying - Greek, “Faithful is…
This is a trite saying - Greek, “Faithful is the word” - the very phrase which is used in 1Ti 1:15; see the notes on that verse. The idea here is, that it was worthy of credence; it was not to be doubted.
If a man desire - Implying that there would be those who would wish to be put into the ministry. The Lord, undoubtedly, by his Spirit, often excites an earnest and irrepressible desire to preach the gospel - a desire so strong, that he in whom it exists can be satisfied in no other calling. In such a case, it should be regarded as one evidence of a call to this work. The apostle, however, by the statements which follow, intimates that wherever this desire exists, it is of the utmost importance to have just views of the nature of the office, and that there should be other qualifications for the ministry than a mere desire to preach the gospel. He proceeds, therefore, to state those qualifications, and no one who “desires” the office of the ministry should conclude that he is called to it, unless these qualifications substantially are found in him. The word rendered “desire” here (ὀρέγω oregō), denotes properly, “to reach” or “stretch out” - and hence to reach after anything, to long after, to try to obtain; Heb 11:16.
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The office of a bishop - The Greek here is a single word - ἐπισκοπῆς episkopēs. The word ἐπισκοπή episkopē - “Episcope” - whence the word “Episcopal” is derived - occurs but four times in the New Testament. It is translated “visitation” in Luk 19:44, and in 1Pe 2:12; “bishoprick,” Acts . Act 1:20; and in this place “office of a bishop.” The verb from which it is derived (ἐπισκοπέω episkopeō), occurs but twice, In Heb 12:15, it is rendered “looking diligently,” and in 1Pe 5:2, “taking the oversight.” The noun rendered bishop occurs in Act 20:28; Phi 1:1; 1Ti 3:2; Tit 1:7; 1Pe 2:25. The verb means, properly, to look upon, behold; to inspect, to look after, see to, take care of; and the noun denotes the office of overseeing, inspecting, or looking to. It is used to denote the care of the sick, Xeno. Oec. 15, 9; compare “Passow;” and is of so general a character that it may denote any office of overseeing, or attending to. There is nothing in the word itself which would limit it to any class or grade of the ministry, and it is, in fact, applied to nearly all the officers of the church in the New Testament, and, indeed, to Christians who did not sustain “any” office. Thus it is applied:
(a)To believers in general, directing them to “look diligently, lest anyone should fail of the grace of God,” Heb 12:15;
(b)To the elders of the church at Ephesus, “over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers,” Act 20:28;
(c)To the elders or presbyters of the church in 1Pe 5:2, “Feed the flock of God, taking the oversight thereof;
(d)To the officers of the church in Philippi, mentioned in connection with deacons as the only officers of the church there, “to the saints at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons,” Phi 1:1;
(e)To Judas, the apostate. Act 1:20; and,
(f)To the great Head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ, 1Pe 2:25, “the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.”
From this use of the term it follows:
(1) That the word is never used to designate the “uniqueness” of the apostolic office, or so as to have any special applicability to the apostles. Indeed, the term “bishop” is “never” applied to any of them in the New Testament; nor is the word in any of its forms ever used with reference to them, except in the single case of “Judas,” Act 1:20.
(2) It is never employed in the New Testament to designate an order of men superior to presbyters, regarded as having any other functions than presbyters, or being in any sense “successors” to the apostles. It is so used now by the advocates of prelacy; but this is a use wholly unknown to the New Testament. It is so undeniable that the name is never given in the New Testament to those who are now called “bishops,” that even Episcopalians concede it. Thus, Dr. Onderdonk (Tract on Episcopacy, p. 12) says, “All that we read in the New Testament concerning ‘bishops’ is to be regarded as pertaining to the ‘middle grade;’ that is, to those who are now regarded as ‘priests.’” This is not strictly correct, as is clear from the remarks above respecting what is called the “middle grade;” but it is strictly correct, so far as it affirms that it is “never” applied to prelates.
(3) It is used in the New Testament to denote ministers of the gospel who had the care or oversight of the churches, without any regard to grade or rank.
(4) It has now, as used by Episcopalians, a sense which is wholly unauthorized by the New Testament, and which, indeed, is entirely at variance with the usage there. To apply the term to a pretended superior order of clergy, as designating their special office, is wholly to depart from the use of the word as it occurs in the Bible.
(5) As it is never used in the Scriptures with reference to “prelates,” it “should” be used with reference to the pastors, or other officers of the church; and to be a “pastor,” or “overseer” of the flock of Christ, should be regarded as being a scriptural bishop.
He desireth a good work - An honorable office; an office which it is right for a man to desire. There are some stations in life which ought never to be desired; it is proper for anyone to desire the office of a bishop who has the proper qualifications; compare notes on Rom 11:13.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 15, 16 He desireth a good work. No doubt but the…
He desireth a good work. No doubt but the work, or office, and charge of a bishop is good; but the motive of desiring to be a bishop not always good. However, in those days, the desire could scarce be grounded on temporal advantages. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 1 Timothy Chapter 3
1 Timothy Chapter 3
The apostle next points out to Timothy the qualities necessary for a bishop or a deacon, as well as for the wife of the latter. [4] He supposes here that there were some who desired to undertake this work. It was a good work. To care for souls and have a vigilant eye upon the walk of believers; to watch over them in order that the members of Christ should answer to His love and lose no Christian privilege; to do this by maintaining that happy order and that precious unity which were realised at that time, and to protect the flock of the Lord against the ravaging wolves that were seeking to invade it: this indeed was valuable work, and he on whose heart the Lord had thus laid the souls of His people might well desire to undertake it. The apostle felt this: it was a true and faithful saying; but certain qualities were needed to make any one fit for such a charge. Gifts are not included among them, unless the being “apt to teach” might be so considered; but even this is presented as a quality-the man must have ‘aptness’ [5] for it-not as a gift. Power to use such truth with others was very useful in fulfilling his charge, without saying at all that he taught publicly in the assembly. The essential thing was that which gave moral weight.
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Timothy was not left at Ephesus to appoint elders; but these were the qualities necessary to a bishop, and Paul exhorts him to be watchful on this point.
It is not needful to enter into the details of these qualities; they are plain enough, as well as those required for a deacon.
We see what was the subject of “the condemnation of the devil:” he exalted himself at the thought of his own importance. (Compare Eze 28:1-26) “The snare of the devil” is another thing. If a man is not of good report, he will yield somewhere to the enemy, because he will not dare to withstand him boldly.
It will be noticed that the apostle speaks of the wives of deacons, not those of bishops [6] (except to say that these must be the husbands of one wife only). Bishops had a charge, in which they were occupied with souls and exercised authority in the church, in which women were not to act. Deacons were necessarily occupied with family details and circumstances. In these women might well be concerned and often very useful. In the spiritual cares of elders they had nothing to do. It was requisite therefore that the wives of deacons should possess qualities which would cause their husbands to be respected, and at the same time guard themselves from becoming busybodies and tale-bearers.
Faithfulness in the charge of a deacon-the exercise of which in fact is a matter of the greatest delicacy, and requires much Christian love and patience-was a means of acquiring strength in the work of God. Stephen and Philip are examples of this: their spiritual powers soon carried them beyond their services as deacons.
What was the assembly in those happy days ? That which surely it always is in the sight of God, but then in fact, when love displayed itself in an order maintained by the energy of the Holy Ghost, and when the oneness of the entire body developed itself in the action of all its members, it was the house of God. Thank God, it is so always; yet what a difference since then in its practical condition!
But let us here examine the character which the apostle gives to the assembly on earth. He wrote hoping soon to come, but in order that, in case he might tarry long, Timothy should know how to conduct himself. He then tells us what the assembly is.
In the first place it is the ‘house of God’. God dwells in it upon the earth. (Compare Eph 2:22) We understand that it is here viewed as on the earth, because the apostle is speaking of how to behave in it. But this truth is important. It gives a character to the assembly of the highest importance for us with regard to our responsibility. It is not a vague thing, composed of the dead, of the living-a thing which we know not where to find, because one part of it is alive on the earth and another part consists of souls in heaven. It isthe house of God here below, in which we have to behave (whatever other position we may hold) in a manner that becomes the house of God. God dwells in the assembly upon earth. We cannot too earnestly remember this fact. Whatever would bring confusion into the presentation of the truth, through the idea that some are dead and that the whole assembly is not here, comes from the enemy and is in opposition to the word. The assembly viewed as subsisting on earth, is the house of God.
In the second place it is the assembly of the living God. God, in whom is the power of life, in contrast with men and with dead idols, has an assembly not of the world, having set it apart for Himself. It is not a nation like Israel. That people were the assembly of God in the wilderness. The assembly is now the assembly of the living God.
In the third place it is the pillar and support of the truth. Christ on earth was the Truth. (He is so always, but He was so on the earth.) He is now hidden in God. The assembly is not the truth: the word of God is the truth. His word is truth. Truth exists before the assembly; it is faith in the truth which gathers the assembly together. But the assembly is that which maintains the truth on earth.[7] When the assembly is gone, men will be given up to a strong delusion. It may be that there is only a little remnant of those that call themselves Christians who maintain the word of truth; but it is not the less true that the assembly-as long as it remains here below-is the only witness for the truth upon the earth. It is God’s witness to present the truth before men. At the end that which God owns as such will be the feeble flock at Philadelphia; and then that which is in the responsible position of being the assembly (Laodicea) will be spued out of the mouth of Christ, who Himself takes the character of Amen, the faithful and true Witness. But the assembly as planted by God on the earth is the pillar and support of the truth. Authority is not the question here, but the maintenance and presentation of the truth. That which does not maintain and present the truth is not the assembly as God understands it.
The presence, then, of the living God, and the profession of the truth, are the characteristics of the house of God. Wherever this assembly of the living God is, wherever the truth is, there is His house.
The mystery of piety, which lies at the very centre of what the assembly maintains before the world, is great, and relates essentially to the Person of Christ. The apostle naturally does not here develop all the different parts of the truth, but that which is the living centre of the whole-that which is essential to the relations between God and men.
God had been manifested in the flesh; marvelous truth in fact! There, where all is confusion and sin, in the nature of him in whom all this sin and all this confusion are introduced, the Centre of all blessing, He who is Light itself, He who as the light puts every thing morally in its place, and who by the fact of His presence shews that love is above everything, God who is love, has been manifest in the flesh. Where sin was, there was love above the sin. Man, who is the slave of evil, sees here in his own nature the source and the power of all good. In the centre of evil and of weakness, in human nature, God Himself has been manifested. Was there then evil in Him who was such ? Did He undergo the lot of the common bondage? By no means. Truly in the same circumstances, in the same nature, He proved superior to all evil, perfect in all respects. The absence of all sin was made evident by the power of the Holy Ghost during His whole life (if men had been able to discern it; and, in fact, it was manifest to the conscience of every man, for He was pure light shining upon all), and with power by the resurrection. (Compare Rom 1:4)
Thus God was made visible to the angels, was preached to the Gentiles (not merely the God of the Jews), became the object of faith in the world (it was not the manifestation of visible power, claiming His rights and His glory), and at last took a place on high in the glory whence He had descended. It is thus that God is known in the assembly according to the truth. There is no truth outside the maintenance of this revelation of the Person of Christ.
It is worthy of notice that in this epistle, and even in the second, the apostle speaks nowhere of the relationship of Christians with God as His children, of the privileges of children, or of that which is known within in the intimacy of the family. He speaks of truths that are essential as testimony before the world; that which the assembly is externally, that which it is as the witness of God towards men. It is the house of God, the assembly of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth: that which it is as responsible in the world, and in order that all should learn what God is. The mystery of piety, of which the assembly is the vessel for testimony, answers to this. It is the grand essential truth on which all relation between God and men is founded, by means of which God has to do with men. Therefore also he says previously, ‘“There is but one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.”
We have not here the privileges of children, nor the heavenly bride of Christ, but the foundation of God’s relations with all men. Thus the Father is not named, nor even the Spirit, except here in connection with the Lord’s Person, as the justification of His testimony. It is God the Mediator, and man, and the assembly as the vessel and depositary of this truth of the testimony of God; or else evil spirits turning men away from the faith. This deserves all attention.
Not only, as we have seen elsewhere, the testimony of the grace of the gospel maintains the great eternal principles of the nature and glory of God, and His relations according to that glory with men; but even in the pains the apostle takes that the assembly may be cared for and guarded, during his absence, from the assaults of the enemy and from disorder and improprieties within; it is not of its internal privileges that he speaks. God is set before us, and the Lord Jesus Christ. God, in the majesty of His immutable truth in His relations with men as such, and in the revelation of Himself in the flesh-God was in Christ, reconciling the world; dwelling in the assembly, in order that it should present and maintain the truth before the world-the truth (as we have seen) with regard to Christ, of the revelation of God in Him. God desires to be in relation with men: it is thus that He accomplishes it. The assembly maintains the rights of the Creator and Saviour-God on the earth. The assembly itself must be maintained in moral order that it may confront the enemy who is in the world and be able to sustain this testimony.
Footnotes for 1 Timothy Chapter 3
4:
5: Some translate this word (‘aptness’), “ready to learn.”
6: See note number
7: But the assembly does not teach. Teachers teach the assembly, but by faithfulness in holding fast the truth taught, it sustains it in the world. Thus, in order to judge what the assembly is, we must know and be able to distinguish the truth and the living God. It is this which the apostle says with regard to the individual, “the Spirit is truth.” These are the cardinal points with regard to unbelief and faith, the truth and the Spirit; and the word of God is the truth.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 14 The proper temper of the overseers of the community,…
VII
The proper temper of the overseers of the community, of the deacons, and of their wives
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A.—Dignity and nature of the office of the overseer
1Ti_3:1-7
1This is a true1 saying [Faithful is the saying], If a man desire [aspire unto] the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. 2A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant,2 sober, of good behaviour [decorous = ornatum], given to hospitality, apt to teach; [,] 3Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre;3 [,] but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; [,] 4One that ruleth well his own house,4 having his children in subjection with 5all gravity; [—] For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? [—] 6Not a novice, lest being lifted up [blinded] with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7Moreover he must have5 a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Ti_3:1. This is a true saying. There is no reason whatever to refer this phrase, which often occurs in the Pastoral Epistles, to the preceding remarks (Chrysostom); it is clear, on the contrary, that here, as 1Ti_1:15, there begins a new line of thought. After the Apostle, in the former chapter, has treated of the duties of the church as a whole, especially in regard of public prayer, he turns to the special view of certain persons, the episcopi and diaconi. Undoubtedly it would fall to the lot of Timothy, in his intimate relations to the body, to appoint such officers; and as there might arise a difference of opinion, it was desirable for him to have a written direction from the Apostle, to which he might always appeal. Paul begins, therefore, by informing him, as Titus (1Ti_1:6), what special qualities such officers should possess. It is from his own knowledge, doubtless, of the high importance of this function of the episcopus, that he considers first its weighty requirements.—If a man desire, &c. It appears as if, at that time, there was in Ephesus, and its neighborhood, an eager strife for such a presbyterial rank—a strife which contrasts strikingly with the reluctance shown to its acceptance by so many eminent men in the third and fourth centuries; and as it certainly did not spring with all from the purest motives, it does not give us the happiest proof of their Christian spirit. Yet we need not understand ὀρέγεται in the sense of an ambitious rivalry (thus De Wette, against which comp. Heb_11:16), since the Apostle would surely have rebuked it with decision. It may have been joined, on the part of many, with an active zeal for the church, which needed only a partial check and guidance.—The office of a bishop, ἐπισκοπή. The word does not before occur in this sense in the New Testament, with the exception of the citation from the Old Testament (Act_1:20). As to its real meaning, it is proven beyond doubt that in the days of the Apostle the ἐπίσκοποι had no higher rank than the πρεσβύτεροι, although Paul (1Ti_5:17) makes a distinction even among the latter and it is certain, likewise, that first in later times, by the combined influence of various causes, a higher place was given to the bishops among their fellow episcopi (Act_20:17; Act_20:28). The rule of the church at large was entrusted to, the Apostles; that of the individual communities, to the episcopate or presbyterate. On the diaconate, which is not at all identical with these last, see below, 1Ti_3:8.—He desireth a good work, καλον ἔργον ἐπιθ. The adjective expresses the excellence, the noun the difficulty of the work; since ἔργον, in this connection, is not the same as πρᾶγμα or χρῆμα. The Apostle regards it not as a passive, but an active reality; and Augustin thus far wrote with truth, De Civ. Dei, xix. 19: “Episcopatus est nomen operis, non honoris.”—Jerome: “Opus, non dignitatem, non delicias; opus per quod humilitate decrescat, non intumescat fastigio.” Bengel: “Negotium, non otium.” On the whole subject here treated by Paul, we may well compare the Tractatus by Joh. de Wiclef, De Officio Pastorali, published by Dr. G. B. Lechler, Leipzig, 1863. He treats of two points, de sanctimonio vitæ, et de salubritate doctrinæ, and gives suggestions to be laid to heart.
[Note, on the Presbyter-Episcopal Office.—This verse is the crux of the whole controversy concerning the ministry of the apostolic church, and should not, therefore, be passed by with so slight notice as in this commentary. We will endeavor here to give an impartial, critical summary of the evidence contained in the Pastoral Epistles. It is clear, from 1Ti_3:1-7; Tit_1:5-9, that the titles “episcopus” and “presbyter” belonged at first to the same rank. See Bingham, “Ch. Antiq.,” B. 1, c. 3; Schaff, “Apost, Ch.,” B. 3, c. 3, and the citation from Jerome, Ep. 82, Ad Oceanum. Presbyter was the earlier Jewish-Christian name, nomen ætatis; episcopus the later, taken from political usage among the Greeks, nomen officii. The former very probably denoted the general ministerial dignity; the latter, the oversight of a particular church. The restriction of the episcopate to a superior order, therefore, came later. Was it of apostolic date or authority? We turn to this Epistle, and it is clear that Timothy had the power of judging presbyters; 1Ti_4:11; 1Ti_4:14; 1Ti_5:1; 1Ti_5:17-24; and the power of ordaining them; 1Ti_5:22. The power of ordaining elders in every city is also given to Tit_1:2; the injunction to rebuke with all authority, Tit_2:15. We omit 2Ti_1:6; 2Ti_1:14; 1Ti_2:2, since these are too vague for any fair argument. Timothy and Titus, then, were commissioned by St. Paul, and had the two powers of ordination and of judicial rule. See Hooker, Eccl. Pol., B. 7, c. 11, where the argument is forcibly stated. But the next question is, was this superior office a temporary or permanent one? Were these diocesan bishops, or only evangelists, sent on a special mission? It cannot be proved with certainty, from these Epistles, that they were more than evangelists. Timothy, moreover, is charged to “do the work of an evangelist,” 2Ti_4:5. Titus is spoken of, 2Co_8:23, with other brethren, as “messengers of the churches.” See Calvin, Inst.i1Tim 1Ti_3:3, s. 4. The fact of their superior authority appears to us, then, a presumptive argument for the establishment of the episcopate; yet it cannot be a demonstration. But a further question remains: How can this change of name be explained, by which the later bishop became higher than the presbyter? It is the received theory of the Episcopal divine, that when the apostolic authority had thus passed into this diocesan form, the official title was restricted to the higher rank. The name, it is said, is unimportant, but the fact is the essential. See Bingham, B. 2, c. 19. But this does not wholly meet the difficulty. It is not at all likely, had these new diocesan rulers been appointed directly, like Timothy and Titus, by the Apostles, that they would have taken a name appropriated to a lower order. The change points naturally to some election of a presbyter by the college as their chief. This sufficiently explains the case, and appears the most probable custom in the early church. Thus Field, “Of the Church,” B. 5, c. 27. Yet it is, after all, uncertain whether this was done in all cases, as he claims, by the direct choice of the Apostles, or by the choice of the body. There can be little doubt, however, from the appointment of Timothy and Titus, that such a superior order of men was becoming the general rule of the church, and that, too, with the permission, if not by the ordinance of the Apostles. We must, then, draw our conclusion from these meagre and uncertain hints. The chief error has been on either hand, that men have judged the plastic, growing institutions of the early church by the fixed order of a later age. It is enough to say, that toward the close of the lives of St. Paul and St. John, there was a natural, historic change of the church, as it became settled in its great social centres, from the general rule of the apostolate to a diocesan structure. See Rothe, Anfänge d. christl. Kirche, p. 498, ff. We see, in the cases of Timothy and Titus, the germinal form of such an episcopal office. It was a legitimate outgrowth. It had the sanction of the Apostles. To say that it was the invention of a later age, an apostasy from primitive parity or democracy, is unhistoric. Such a structural change could not have taken place without conflict; and the very silence of the sub-apostolic records, the undisputed right with which diocesan episcopacy emerges at the opening of authentic church history, confirms it as primitive. Yet it is alike unhistoric to rear this fact into a jus divinum, or to identify this simple episcopate of the early church with the type of a later hierarchy. Compare also the numerous works on the Ignatian controversy, by Cureton, Bunsen, Baur, Lipsius, Uhlhorn, and others.—W.]
1Ti_3:2. A bishop then must be, &c. Here follows a long list of qualifications, partly negative, and wholly concerned with the circle of daily, household life; since the Apostle is not speaking here of the higher gifts of Spirit and faith, which should be lacking in no Christian, least of all in an episcopus. All which is needed for the life hid with Christ, is passed by in silence, that he may consider solely the special requisites of the office. This fully met his purpose, as he speaks only of the aspirants to the episcopate, not of those already in it; and this apostolic rule was to serve Timothy as a safeguard against the importunity of incapable and unworthy men.—Then, οὖν, joins the following counsel with the previous praise of the office. Bengel: “Bonum negotium, bonis committendum.”—Blameless, the husband of one wife. Two qualifications are named first, which the Apostle holds of highest worth. The episcopus must be blameless, ἀνεπίληπτον εἶναι, in good repute, without offence in the eyes of believers, as well as of the unbelieving world. Thus he would be by no means blameless, were he not μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἀνήρ. Is this phrase to be understood as forbidding polygamy or deuterogamy to the newly-appointed overseer? Scholars are not agreed, and the subject itself is far from clear. It is cited in favor of the former view, that polygamy was by no means strange among the Jews; see Justin M., Dial c. Tryph., § 134, ed. Colon; that this custom was less common among the Greeks, and might give offence; that Christianity expressly enjoins and demands (monogamy. The champions of the other view maintain that Timothy hardly needed the warning not to choose an episcopus who had several wives, since the unfitness of so sensual a man for this spiritual office would be self-evident; that, on the other hand, a second marriage might not have been approved by the Greeks; that Paul did not prescribe this abstinence as a general rule (the opposite is clear from 1Co_7:8; 1Co_7:39), but that this may rightly have been enjoined on such officers, who were to set an example of the highest self-restraint; and that, finally, in 1Ti_5:9, it is required of a widow, chosen as deaconess, to have been once only married. The last reason seems of the greatest weight; and we therefore agree with those who hold this command of Paul to be directed against a second marriage, as unseemly for the episcopal office. As to the question how far this rule should be considered binding now, we cannot better reply than with Heubner, in loco: “Perhaps the rude, quarrelsome disposition of the stepmother, in the servile condition of women at that time, was the cause of this law. With us such a reason is no longer applicable; and, on the contrary, the nurture of the young often requires a second marriage. If we regard marriage ideally, as the heartfelt union of two persons, wholly surrendered to each other, then a second marriage seems to disparage the first, or to be rather a thing of policy than love. Our general inference is, that a church teacher should conform to the usages of the country or the society in which he lives, so far as he can.” That, however, Christian antiquity had really no favorable opinion of second marriage, is seen from Athenag., Legat. pro Christo, p. 37. Theophilusad Autolyc. iii. p. 127, ed. Colon. Minucius Felix Octav.: “Unius matrimonii vinculo libenter adhæremus, cupiditate procreandi aut unam scimus, aut nullam.” Tertullian. ad ux. i. 7. Exhort. Castit., c. 7. De Monogamia, c. 12. Origenes, Contr. Celsum, iii. p. 141, and elsewhere. (According to Diod. Sic. xiii.12, the old Sicilian legislator Charondas had deemed that he who gave his children a stepmother, should not hold office as judge.) The wisdom of this apostolic rule was specially suited to that time, when Christians were anxious to avoid whatever might harm their reputation with the heathen. The view, that Paul speaks here only of the married state, as a conditio sine quânon for the episcopi, or that he merely discourages anything unusual, immoral, or illegal in the married life of such officers, does not fully explain his language. We may mention, as a curious view, still another of some Romish expositors, that by the γυνή here named should be understood the church. Such finespun ingenuity cannot destroy the strong argument which this passage contains against the law of Gregory VII. enforcing celibacy. [Conybeare has here a suggestive note. “In the corrupt facility of divorce allowed both by Greek and Roman law, it was very common for man and wife to separate, and marry other parties during the life of each other. Thus, a man might have three or four living wives, or women who had successively been his wives. An example of this may be found in the English colony of Mauritius, where the French revolutionary law of divorce had been left unrepealed by the English Government; and it is not uncommon to meet in society three or four women who have all been wives of one man, and three or four men who have all been husbands of one woman. This successive rather than simultaneous polygamy is perhaps forbidden here.”—W.]—Vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, &c Vigilant, νηφάλιος; here probably in the sense of spiritual vigilance, since it would else make a tautology with 1Ti_3:3; having thus the same meaning as prudent, judicious, and joined, therefore, with σώφρων, the opposite of that violent disposition which can never keep the right measure. Of good behaviour; orderly, so that his whole conduct has in it nothing unseemly; the outward sign of the inward state, expressed by σώφρων.—Given to hospitality (comp. Tit_1:8); especially toward so many Christian brethren (Rom_12:13; Heb_13:2; 1Pe_4:9).—Apt to teach. It appears, from 1Ti_5:17, that he counts worthy of special honor the episcopi, who labor in word and doctrine (comp. 2Ti_2:24).
1Ti_3:3. Not given to wine = μὴ οἴνῳ πολλῷ προσέχοντας, 1Ti_3:8 (comp. Tit_1:7); a vice usually leading to quarrel, and hence the phrase just after: No striker; one who, in his rage, would soon use blows against his opponents. [Wordsworth notices that this injunction against striking shows the impulsive vehemence of the Oriental character. We may add, that it shows the half-Christianized morality of the early Church, which could need such precepts in regard to the first rules of social conduct. The history of church councils in the East supplies too many shameful illustrations.—W.]—But patient, ἐπιεικῆ; the opposite of a quarrelsome character. Luther: Gentle.—Not a brawler, ἄμαχον; shunning all needless strifes. Luther: Not wrangling.—Not covetous, ἀφιλάργυρον; free from that selfish greed which so often begets wrath and strife (comp. 1Ti_6:10; Heb_13:5). We know how often the Lord warned His disciples to beware of covetousness (Luk_16:14, and elsewhere).
1Ti_3:4. One that ruleth well his own house. Bengel: “Multi, foris mansueti, domi eo minus coercent iracundiam, erga conjuges,” &c. The Apostle requires of the episcopus that he shall make his own family a little Christian community. House here embraces the members of the whole household, the private family, in distinction from the public affairs of the Christian body (1Ti_3:5). Slaves are therefore included; but the Apostle has in special view the good training of the children.—Having his children in subjection. Here, as often, ἔχοντα = κατέχοντα; see Wolf on this passage. Subjection is regarded as the wholesome rein to check all lawless, froward actions in the children.—With all gravity, does not apparently refer to the children (Wiesinger, Huther), since the word fitly signifies the gravity of the manly and the epicopal character; it betokens, too, the way in which the father must do his duty (comp. Tit_2:15), by the needful exercise of his paternal power. The justice of such a requirement is obvious, as the firmness which enables us to rule our own household must be needed to guide the community; and he who lacks this in the smaller, personal sphere, cannot exhibit it in the greater. In the following verse this is still more plainly urged.
1Ti_3:5. For if a man know not, &c. A parenthetical proposition, containing a conclusion a minori ad majus.—Take care, ἐπιμελεῖσθαι; to nourish, provide for, administer—almost identical with the foregoing προΐστασθαι. It is used in Luk_10:34, of the care of the Samaritan for the wounded Jew. Theodoret: “ὁ τὰ σμικρὰ οἰκονομεῖν οὐκ εἰδὼς πῶς δύναται τῶν κρειττόνων καὶ θείων πιστευθῆναι τῆν ἐπιμέλειαν.”
1Ti_3:6. Not a novice, νεόφυτος, newly planted; i. e., who has shortly since become a convert to Christianity. Undoubtedly, in a community so recently established, there must have been such a novice now and then placed in the episcopal office. But in Ephesus, where the church had existed some years already, Timothy could more easily choose among those who, earlier or later, had professed the gospel; and it was wise, therefore, not to include the latter among those raised to the episcopal office. This meets the objections of De Wette. It was not merely youth, but the lack of necessary knowledge and experience, which marked the novice; and he would, besides, be in danger of being misled by his pride.—Lifted up, τυφωθείς; literally, beclouded, darkened, befooled; i. e., from pride and self-delusion, through his promotion to such rank above even older converts. There could be no readier sin for the newly converted than such self-exaltation, and, above all, if they were placed in any eminent position; the grace of God must keep them in the path of humility, discipline, and suffering. The following words, lest he fall into the condemnation of the devil, are variously explained. Luther has: “That he be not puffed up, and fall under the judgment of the slanderers;” i. e., give, occasion to slanderers. Others (Mosheim, Wegscheider) refer it to calumnious men. But there is no reason, when τοῦ διαβ. is here used, to understand by it aught save the father of lies, the murderer from the beginning. Nor is the idea satisfactory (Matthias), that the principle of evil is here denoted; but we think it should have the significance of the inward spiritual Power of evil. But what is the condemnation (κρίμα) of the devil? Not the judgment which the devil brings on those who fall under his influence (Genit. subjecti); for here Bengel’s remark applies: “Diabolus potest opprobrium inferre, judicium inferre non potest; non enim judicat, sed judicature.” But it is rather the judgment which has been fulfilled in the case of the devil (Genit. objecti), and will reach, likewise, all who are led astray by pride. Jerome: “Tale judicium, in quod etiam diabolus incidit.” Κρίμα is not merely denunciation, accusation (Matthies), but, as often, in the sense of κατάκριμα or τιμωρία = the sentence of condemnation. If we compare this passage with 2Pe_2:4; Judges 6, we may infer that pride was the chief cause of the devil’s fall. Bengel: “Videtur prius quam alii angeli ad præfecturam super multos angelos, licet multis junior esset, fuisse suscitatus et erectus, quod ipsum ei quoque occasio superbiæ fuit.” Comp. Artemonius, ad init. Joh. præfect., p. 23.
1Ti_3:7. Moreover, he must, &c. A last requisite is added to the rest. It is not enough that the episcopus should be blameless in the eyes of the community (1Ti_3:2), but he must have a truly good report from those without; that is, who are not, or no longer members of the Christian body.—Lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. If before his nomination he had lived in gross sin, yet had been appointed, the remembrance of his old vices would still remain with those who had known him, and this might bring suspicion on the office itself. It was better for such a man, even after a genuine conversion, to retire into the seclusion of a private life, than take a prominent place. Otherwise he would fall εἰς ὀνειδισμόν—into suspicion,—whether deserved or not, and from those, too, within, as well as without the community; and thus, in his weakness and depression, he might readily fall into the snare of the devil, παγίδα τ. διαβ. Deprived of his good name, he might lapse into the same sins which he had scarcely renounced, and become as evil as he was reputed to be. “Quid enim spei restat, si nullius peccati pudor?” Calvin. As ὀνειδισμόν and παγίδα are not separated by εἰς, we must consider the former no less than the latter as the work of the devil.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The worth of the episcopal office, which Paul has here so impressively set forth, has been affirmed in all ages and in manifold ways. Compare, e.g., Chrysostom, De Sacerdotio; Baxter, “Reformed Pastor;” Burk, “Pastoral Theology in its Examples;” and the well-known writings of Harms, Vinet, Nitzsch, Ebrard, Moll, Löhe, and others. “Pastor habet triplex officium; primo, verbo Dei spiritualiter pascere oves suas; secundo, purgare prudenter oves suas a scabie, ne sese et alios magis inficiant; tertio, defendere oves suas a lupis rapacibus, tam sensibilibus quam insensibilibus;” Wiclef.
2. Undoubtedly the Greek church, in forbidding second marriage to its clergy, has a support in the μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἀνήρ of Paul. Yet it is quite another question how far the Apostle enjoins the literal fulfilment, in all countries, times, and circumstances, of the precept which he gave for Ephesus. The opponents of the papal hierarchy—which has found so strong a prop in the law of celibacy—rightly point to the liberty given by Paul to the episcopi, of entering once at least into marriage. A compulsory abstinence, without any special calling to it, is surely most unlike the spirit of the Apostle. Yet, whether the eagerness, with which many young pastors of the evangelical church unite their entrance into the ministry with their marriage, would always have his sanction, is quite a doubtful question. All depends on the time and circumstances; but it might be wished that, in the choice of their wives, clergymen would not quite forget the Christian church to which they may be so useful. Compare the “Mirror of a Good Clergyman’s Wife,” by Chr. Burk, 1842. [See Wordsworth for a valuable note on the usage of the Eastern and Western churches in regard of the Apostle’s rule. It seems to have been a general, unwritten law, yet not held of perpetual obligation, or enforced by any decree of general councils. In the time of Callistus, at the beginning of the second century, we learn from Hippolytus that persons twice or thrice married were admitted to the ministry. The whole passage, however, is most striking as a picture of the simple, healthful household life of the primitive clergyman, in contrast with the later diseased type of the Latin church.—W.]
3. It is a noteworthy proof of the practical spirit of Christianity, that the Apostle gives such special worth to the domestic and social virtues even in the official rulers of the community. A life of faith and morality are indivisible in his view. The pastor of the church must above all be a good father in his own family, and that even to the least particulars. If there be those who think that the care of their wider sphere of labor will not permit them to attend to such private duties, the Apostle sets before them our Lord’s words: “These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone” (Mat_23:23). The family of the clergyman must specially deserve the name of a little household church. “He must have a hundred eyes on every side; his spiritual vision must be sharp, not short-sighted. He must be awake, not for self, but for others;” Chrysostom. It is notable that the same Church father laments, in eloquent words, that his care for his large flock hardly left him time to think and watch over his own soul. 44 Hom. in Act. App. Opp. ix. p. 335, ed. Montfauc.
4. With reason Paul here enjoins that an episcopus should be ἀφιλάργυρος. If this vice be the root of all evil in general, the life of Judas Iscariot and Simon Magus show what injury it has done to the clergy and the church; and we may say in this view, that the history of simony is no less shameful than that of celibacy.
5. The words of Paul on the condemnation of the devil is a striking contribution to the New Testament dæmonology, although he gives us but a glance behind the raised veil. The representation of Satan as a fallen angel makes a marked distinction between this scriptural doctrine and the Persian dualism from which it is so often sought to be derived.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The high worth of the episcopal office.—“If any man desireth the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.” This is clear from (1) Its origin; (2) its nature; (3) its lineage; (4) its object; (5) its fruit.—The episcopal office: (1) A work; (2) a noble work; (3) a work which every one should not desire.—The due qualifications named by Paul are: (1) Manifold; (2) difficult; (3) just; (4) rich in blessing.—The evangelical clergyman is called to be a pattern of all personal, domestic, and social virtues.—The clergyman (1) a householder of God in the church; (2) in his own dwelling.—Use and abuse of the saying, “Whoso careth not for his own house,” &c.—The rocks which are in the way of a newly-converted man.—Through high to low, through low to high.—The value of a blameless youth to him who would feed the flock of God.—The snare of the devil in the office of pastor and teacher.
Starke: Art thou of high rank, and therefore ashamed to be a preacher of Christ? yet believe it, the office is noble and weighty; it has to do with the greatest things; it regards the salvation of souls, and eternal life.—A preacher may be unmarried without wrong, yet it is better for many reasons that he marry.—Continence of body must be joined with soberness of soul, in him who would grow in spiritual prudence, discretion, foresight.—Lange’s Opus: Covetousness is a hidden, shameful lust, especially in a clergyman.—Starke: A clergyman may be zealous, but not deal blows like a godless man.—A teacher who would not make his family an offence to the church, must look to it that he choose a devout help-meet; else, if he make a blind and carnal choice, he will lay the corner-stone of great evil.—A man can more easily rule his household, than a whole community: (1) Because it is far smaller; (2) because the household will sooner obey than strangers; (3) because he associates more with them than with others; (4) because he naturally treats them with more affection than others.—If a new convert be unfit for the office of teacher, how much more an unconverted person.—The shame and vice of a teacher are snares of the devil, whereby Satan robs his office of its blessing (1Co_9:12).
Lisco: The personal characteristics of a servant of the word.
Heubner: The bishop must consider his good appearing, his good fame, not hold it lightly because of his real purity; for his good fame adds to his influence.—Covetousness is a blot on the character of a clergyman.—Loss of honor often makes a man dull and base; honor leads to self-respect.—Perhaps the Apostle regarded the higher virtues, here omitted, as acknowledged requisites, and would only keep us from undervaluing those lower ones; or he would guide us upward from the outward conduct of life, here sketched, to the inward gifts.
Footnotes:
[1]1Ti_3:1.—[πιστὸς; all the authorities; the Sinaiticus. But Δ., Orig. also, ἀνθρώπινος; humanus, hæc lectio vetustior est Hieronymo. But no one is rash enough to approve it. Matthäi, quoted by Huther.—E. H.]
[2]1Ti_3:2.—[νηφάλεον. Every one now reads νηφάλιον.—E. H.]
[3]1Ti_3:3.—μὴ αἰσχροκερδῆ. Wanting in A. D. F. G., and others, and upon this account Lachmann and Tischendorf have left it out. The Sinaiticus has it not. Apparently it has been intercalated from Tit_1:7.
[4]1Ti_3:4.—[προϊστάμενον. So Recepta, Lachmann, Tischendorf. The Sinaiticus reads προϊστανόμενον—peculiar and exceptional.—E. H.]
[5]1Ti_3:7.—[δεῖ δὲ αὐτόν; αὐτόν left out by Lachmann and Tischendorf (wanting in A. F. G. H., and others); not in the Sinaiticus. In G., the whole seventh verse is written in the margin; according to Lachmann.—E. H.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–16 The existence of Church organization and presbyters at Ephesus…
The existence of Church organization and presbyters at Ephesus is presupposed (Ti1 5:17, Ti1 5:19). The institution of Church widows (1Ti. 5:3-25) accords with this. The directions here to Timothy, the president or apostolic delegate, are as to filling up vacancies among the bishops and deacons, or adding to their number. New churches in the neighborhood also would require presbyters and deacons. Episcopacy was adopted in apostolic times as the most expedient form of government, being most nearly in accordance with Jewish institutions, and so offering the less obstruction through Jewish prejudices to the progress of Christianity. The synagogue was governed by presbyters, "elders" (Act 4:8; Act 24:1), called also bishops or overseers. Three among them presided as "rulers of the synagogue," answering to "bishops" in the modern sense [LIGHTFOOT, Hebrew and Talmudic Exercitations], and one among them took the lead. AMBROSE (in The Duties of the Clergy [2.13], as also BINGHAM [Ecclesiastical Antiquities, 2.11]) says, "They who are now called bishops were originally called apostles. But those who ruled the Church after the death of the apostles had not the testimony of miracles, and were in many respects inferior. Therefore they thought it not decent to assume to themselves the name of apostles; but dividing the names, they left to presbyters the name of the presbytery, and they themselves were called bishops." "Presbyter" refers to the rank; "bishop," to the office or function. Timothy (though not having the name) exercised the power at Ephesus then, which bishops in the modern sense more recently exercised.
blameless--"unexceptionable"; giving no just handle for blame.
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husband of one wife--confuting the celibacy of Rome's priesthood. Though the Jews practiced polygamy, yet as he is writing as to a Gentile Church, and as polygamy was never allowed among even laymen in the Church, the ancient interpretation that the prohibition here is against polygamy in a candidate bishop is not correct. It must, therefore, mean that, though laymen might lawfully marry again, candidates for the episcopate or presbytery were better to have been married only once. As in Ti1 5:9, "wife of one man," implies a woman married but once; so "husband of one wife" here must mean the same. The feeling which prevailed among the Gentiles, as well as the Jews (compare as to Anna, Luk 2:36-37), against a second marriage would, on the ground of expediency and conciliation in matters indifferent and not involving compromise of principle, account for Paul's prohibition here in the case of one in so prominent a sphere as a bishop or a deacon. Hence the stress that is laid in the context on the repute in which the candidate for orders is held among those over whom he is to preside (Tit 1:16). The Council of Laodicea and the apostolic canons discountenanced second marriages, especially in the case of candidates for ordination. Of course second marriage being lawful, the undesirableness of it holds good only under special circumstances. It is implied here also, that he who has a wife and virtuous family, is to be preferred to a bachelor; for he who is himself bound to discharge the domestic duties mentioned here, is likely to be more attractive to those who have similar ties, for he teaches them not only by precept, but also by example (Ti1 3:4-5). The Jews teach, a priest should be neither unmarried nor childless, lest he be unmerciful [BENGEL]. So in the synagogue, "no one shall offer up prayer in public, unless he be married" [in Colbo, ch. 65; VITRINGA, Synagogue and Temple].
vigilant--literally, "sober"; ever on the watch, as sober men alone can be; keenly alive, so as to foresee what ought to be done (Th1 5:6-8).
sober--sober-minded.
of good behaviour--Greek, "orderly." "Sober" refers to the inward mind; "orderly," to the outward behavior, tone, look, gait, dress. The new man bears somewhat of a sacred festival character, incompatible with all confusion, disorder, excess, violence, laxity, assumption, harshness, and meanness (Phi 4:8) [BENGEL].
apt to teach-- (Ti2 2:24).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–16 2. In officiary, 1Ti_3:1-13.
2. In officiary, 1Ti_3:1-13.
a. Of presbyter-bishops, 1Ti_3:1-7.
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1. A true saying—Literally, faithful is the saying. Worthy of reliance is the maxim.
Desire—Reach-after, as with the hand. Paul seems unconscious that we may construe that desire into an unholy ambition. Evil is in him that evil thinks. The apostle’s pure mind is thinking only of those who earnestly desire to achieve a good work, in discharging the office.
Bishop—The word is the Greek term episkopos, with both ends clipped, the initial p softened, and the central k turned into an aspirate. It is compounded of epi, over, and skopeo, to inspect; and is exactly synonymous with the Saxon overseer or the Latin superintendent. Wesley, in ordaining Coke as bishop, or first of three ordained ministerial grades, preferred the term superintendent to bishop.
The Greek word episkopos was a political term, used by the Athenians to designate those whom they appointed to superintend their foreign dependencies. As the word is used of a Church officer in the Greek Testament only by Paul and his disciple Luke, (Act_20:28; Php_1:1; Tit_1:7,) it is possible that such application originated with Paul. It is now agreed, we believe, generally, by Episcopalian scholars as well as others, that in the New Testament the term is always synonymous with elder. In the present chapter no order is recognised between the bishop and deacon. It is in Timothy himself, the delegate of the apostle, that Episcopalian scholars find the bishop. They thus maintain that while the word bishop, once given to the elder, was afterwards transferred to the first order, yet the order itself is the continuation of the apostolate, divested of its miraculous powers. Others maintain that while elder and bishop were originally one order, the apostles raised certain elders to a higher ordained grade, to whom the term bishop was excusively applied. The Presbyterian scholars, on the other hand, maintain that the apostolic office wholly ceased, and that the only scriptural Church officers are presbyters, or elders, and deacons.
Dr. Adam Clarke’s exposition of this paragraph is hardly less than a curiosity. He seems to suppose it a thing undoubted that episkopos here means diocesan bishop, and brings out very Episcopal conclusions: “Episcopacy in the Church of God is of divine appointment, and should be maintained and respected.… The State has its monarch, the Church has its bishops; one should govern according to the laws of the land, the other according to the word of God.” But writers like Bloomfield, Wordsworth, Ellicott, and Bishop Onderdonk, (in his Episcopacy Tested by Scripture,) find no bishop in the Scripture episkopos.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–16 1. This is a true saying] Better, It is…
1. This is a true saying] Better, It is a faithful saying; R.V., as in 1Ti_1:15, literally ‘Faithful is the saying’; most probably to be referred, as there and in the other three passages, to the following sentence. So A.V. and R.V., though the margin of R.V. mentions that ‘Some connect the words … with the preceding paragraph’; and Westcott and Hort in their text by the mode of printing so connect it. The early Greek Fathers are divided; Chrysostom, e.g. is for reference to the preceding, Theod. Mops, to the following, quoting our Lord’s ‘Verily, verily.’ The various reading of D anthrôpinos (some Latin Versions have humanus) ‘this is a human saying,’ read also in 1Ti_1:15, cannot very well be explained as by Ellicott, an equivalent of benignus, for how could benignus at all fairly represent pistos, faithful, trusty? Nor can it have arisen from the spread of the nolo episcopari feeling, causing this place to give offence, so that ‘human,’ ‘carnal’ was substituted; for when substituted it turns the context upside down, and the explanation could not hold in 1Ti_1:15. We may look for the explanation rather in the use by St Paul of the phrase kata anthrôpon, anthrôpinos, Rom_6:19; Gal_3:15; 1Co_15:32, where the original idea is ‘according to the way of ordinary human speaking.’ So here ‘the saying has won its way to acceptance in the common speech,’ has become proverbial, representing the wisdom of many and the wit of one.
desire] R.V. seeketh, the word being stronger than that in the next clause and meaning literally ‘stretcheth out to take’; it is used (in N. T.) only in 1Ti_6:10, ‘love of money, which some reaching after,’ and Heb_11:6 ‘a rewarder of them that seek after him.’
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the office of a bishop] The episcopate, lit. ‘overseership,’ which Alford would retain as the translation, to avoid the later limitations suggested by ‘the office of a bishop.’ Fairbairn on the other hand urges ‘pastorate.’ But ‘pastor’ originally meant only ‘bishop’ in its English ecclesiastical use. It is clear that the originals of our episcopate, diaconate and apostolate were at first interchangeable as general terms; Act_1:17, ‘this diaconate,’ 20 ‘his episcopate,’ 25 ‘this diaconate and apostolate,’ all used of the office from which Judas fell: diaconate expresses the service done for Christ, and apostolate the mission from Him; episcopate the oversight and care of those among whom the service is done and to whom the mission is.
For the first trace of separation of the term ‘diaconate’ to a distinct class cf. Act_6:1-2, contrasted with 1Ti_3:4; though the word is still used of St Paul’s apostleship, 1Ti_1:12, and of Timothy’s office, 2Ti_4:5. A separate ‘bishop’ or ‘overseer’ and a separate ‘deacon’ or ‘minister’ come first in Php_1:1, ‘all the saints with the bishops and deacons’: then in Act_20:17, compared with acts 20:28, ‘the presbyters of Ephesus at Miletus’ … ‘the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops,’ we get a new name synonymous with bishop—‘presbyter’; and later 2Jn_1:1 this new name ‘presbyter’ is used of the apostle St John and 1Pe_5:1 by St Peter of himself.
We infer then that in N. T. times ‘bishop’ and ‘presbyter’ were both used of certain senior ministers and of the apostles, and that there were junior ministers called ‘deacons’; but the word ‘deacon’ could still be used generally. The conclusion of Bp Wordsworth is that the reference of episcopate here, while mainly to be made to the office of presbyter, does not exclude the office to which Timothy was appointed in the room of the apostle, to which the term was afterwards restricted, and from which comes our word ‘bishop.’ See Introduction, pp. 13–28, 53, 54; Appendix, C.
he desireth a good work] With all commentators from Chrysostom we must lay stress on good work; ‘non dignitates sed opus eo quod pro communi est utilitate constitutum.’ Theod. Mops.
1–7. The duties and characters of Bishops or Presbyters
Following the directions concerning the general arrangements for public worship come instructions as to the character and qualifications of the appointed ministers, the presbyterate, and the diaconate (male and female). These are introduced by a well-known saying among them, declared to be ‘faithful’ or ‘trustworthy.’ See Appendix, E.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–16 (1) This is a true saying.—There is no reason…
III.
(1) This is a true saying.—There is no reason why the rendering of this formula adopted in 1Ti_1:15, “faithful is this saying,” should be altered here. The “faithful saying” here refers to the wish for high and arduous work in the Church of Christ, and declares such a wish to be a noble one; for the office in question was a beautiful one, and honourable, and in those days meant stern and ceaseless work, grave and constant danger. It was no doubt one of the well-known sayings among the brethren of the first days, and not improbably, with the other “faithful sayings” of this group of Epistles, formed a part of their liturgy, and was woven into some of their special prayers offered in public. Perhaps this “faithful saying” was a portion of a prayer offered not unfrequently in the public assembly, asking that volunteers might be moved by the Holy Ghost to present themselves for the then dangerous office of ordained ministers of the Word.
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“Well might a man desire the office of chief pastor; it was indeed a good work;” but, in the first place, such a dignity could only be held by one possessing many qualities, then and there enumerated.
If a man desire the office of a bishop.—More accurately rendered, If a man seeketh. In the . . Pastoral Epistles the Greek words rendered “bishop” and “presbyter” or elder (episcopos, presbuteros), are applied indifferently to the same person, for up to this period (A.D. 65-6) no necessity had arisen in the constitution of the Church for the appointment of a special order of superintending presbyters. The numbers of the members of the brotherhood, though every year showing a vast increase, were still, comparatively speaking, small. St. Peter, St. Paul, St. James and St. John, and certainly the majority of the apostolic college, were still living; while, till A.D. 70, the Jerusalem congregation still acted as the central authority of the Church, and grave questions continued to be referred to the Fathers resident there.
Early in the second century, however, there is not a shadow of doubt that the episcopal office, as we understand it, was widely established. During the last thirty years, then, of the first century, this great change in Church organisation must have been effected—that is, during the life-time of St. John. How this was brought about is admirably stated by Professor Rothe, of Heidelberg, as quoted by Canon Lightfoot in his dissertation on the Christian ministry (Commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians), who, without accepting all the details suggested, still in the main agrees with the famous Heidelberg professor in his theory respecting the very early establishment of episcopacy in the Catholic Church. After painting the distractions and growing dissensions of the Church, occasioned by the jealousies between the Jewish and Gentile brethren, and the menacing apparition of the Gnostic heresy, Rothe states how, in the face of this great emergency, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. James were carried away by death almost at the same time; while, with the overthrow of Jerusalem very shortly after, the visible centre of the Church was removed, the keystone of the fabric was withdrawn, and the whole edifice was threatened with ruin. There was a crying need for some organisation which should cement together the diverse elements of Christian society, and preserve it from disintegration. Out of this need the Catholic Church in its episcopal character arose. From notices in Eusebius, Irenæus, and Clement of Rome, Rothe (quoted by Lightfoot) concludes “that, immediately after the fall of Jerusalem, a council of the surviving Apostles and first teachers of the gospel was held to deliberate on the crisis, and to frame measures for the well-being of the Church. The centre of the system thus organised was episcopacy, which at once secured the compact and harmonious working of each individual congregation, and, as the link of communication between the separate brotherhoods, formed the whole into one undivided Catholic Church. Recommended by this high authority, the new constitution was immediately and generally adopted.”
He desireth a good work.—The office of a presbyter of the Church in the days of St. Paul was a difficult and dangerous post. It involved much labour; it was full of risk; it meant a hard and severe life; yet, from the Christian’s standpoint, it was a work, if faithfully performed, of all toils the most beautiful, the most honourable, the most noble. “Negotium non otium” comments Bengel, in his usual pithy, untranslatable way.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–16 Faithful is the saying for this is a true…
Faithful is the saying for this is a true saying, A.V; seeketh for desire, A.V Faithful is the saying. (see above,. 1Ti_1:15, note) This manifestly refers to what follows, not, as Chrysostom and others, and margin of the R.V, to the saying which precedes, ingetai); 1Ti_2:15. Seeketh (ojre) literally, stretches out his hands after. It is peculiar in the New Testament to the pastoral Epistles and the Epistle to the Hebrews, though common in classical Greek. (see 1Ti_6:10; Heb_11:16) The noun urexiv, appetite, desire (which is found several times in the LXX), is used once by St. Paul. (Rom_1:27) The office of a bishop; meaning here, as everywhere else in Scripture, that of a presbyter, or priest. jEpiskoph, in the sense of "the episcopate," occurs only here Act_1:20, where it is rendered "bishopric" in the A.V, and "overseer-ship" in the margin of the R.V, being the translation in the LXX of Psalm 108. (109., A.V) of the Hebrew wOtd; qup, "his office." Elsewhere (Luk_19:44 1Pe_2:12 1Pe_5:6) it means "visitation." But ejpiskopov, "bishop" (ver. 2) except in 1Pe_2:25, where it is applied to Christ always means the overseer of the particular flock, the presbyter (Act_20:28; Php_1:1; Tit_1:7) and ejpiskopein the functions of such ejpiskopov (1Pe_5:2 compared with 1). It was not till the sub-apostolic age that the name of ejpisjopov was confined to the chief overseer who had priests and deacons" under him, as Timothy and Titus had. Possibly this application of the word arose from the visits of the apostles, and afterwards of men sent by the apostles, as Timothy and Titus, Tychicus and Artemas, were, to visit the Churches, being occasional and temporary only, as those of Visitors. For such occasional visitation is implied in the verb ejpiskeptesqai (Mat_25:36, Mat_25:43; Luk_1:68, Luk_1:78; Act_7:23 Act_15:36; Jam_1:27) Afterwards, when the wants of the Churches required permanent oversight, the name ejpiskopovvescovo (It.), eueque (Fr.), bischof (Get.), bisceop (A.S.), aipiskaupus (Moeso-Goth.), etc. became universal for the chief overseer of the Church. A good work (kalou ergou, not ajgaqou, as ver. 10). Kalou means "honourable," "becoming," "beneficial," and the like.
Vers. 1-16.
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The clergy.
It was one of the weightiest duties laid upon Timothy, when called to be the spiritual ruler of the Church of Ephesus, to take care that the priests and deacons were men well qualified for their holy office. The condition of a congregation depends so largely upon the spiritual character of those who minister to it, that the choice of fit persons to serve in the sacred ministry of God"s Church is a matter of vital importance to the welfare of the people, and demands the utmost wisdom and fidelity of those who have the chief oversight of the house of God. Accordingly St. Paul lays down with great care the qualifications of priests and deacons respectively. For the priest an irreproachable character amongst those outside as well as those inside the Church, in order to ensure respect; a life of chastity, that his example may give no countenance to a lax morality; strict temperance in the use of meat and drink, both for his own sake and as an example to others; a staid, sober mind and demeanor, as becomes one who lives near to God, and handles holy things; a large hospitality, as one who counts all he has to belong to the Church, whose servant he is; aptitude to teach the doctrines of the gospel, and a delight in teaching; a placable, gentle disposition, abhorring brawls and quarrels, and studying peace with all men; the absence of all greediness and covetousness, as one whose conversation is in heaven, and as one determined to be fair and impartial in all his dealings with men; these are the things needful for one who is a priest in the Church of God. But besides these strictly personal qualifications he must have a well-ordered house. His family must bear the traces of a gentle but firm parental discipline. He that is a ruler in the house of God must show that he can rule his own children and servants; and a portion of the gravity and sobriety of the man of God must be seen in the members of his household. With regard to deacons, they too must be grave in their demeanor and conversation; in all their private intercourse with the members of the Church where they serve, they must be conspicuously honest and ingenuous. In all social intercourse they must show themselves temperate and abstemious. In handling the public money, and ministering the alms of the faithful, they must make it clear that none sticks to their own fingers, and that they have no eye to gain in the ministrations they undertake. The spirit of their ministrations must be all for love and nothing for reward." Nor must they be only honest men; they must be devout believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, thoroughly instructed in the mystery of the Christian faith, and adorning that faith by their personal holiness. As regards their families, the same rule applies to them as to the priests. Like the priests, they hold office in the Church of God; they minister in that temple where God"s pure truth is fixed and established for ever; they are the expounders, with the priests, of the great mystery of godliness, the incarnate Word, the preached Jesus, the glorified Christ. What, then, ought their character to be; how high above things earthly, how closely assimilated to the glorious holiness of heaven!
HOMILIES BY T. CROSKERY.
Ver. 1.
The Christian pastorate a good work.
The apostle, having in the previous chapter regulated the worship of the congregation and placed it in the hands of men, not women, now proceeds to describe the qualifications of the pastors of congregations, as if to imply that the pastorate did not belong to all men.
I THE OFFICE OF PASTOR IS A GOOD WORK. "Faithful is the saying, If any one seeketh the office of pastor or, "bishop", he desireth a good work.
1. The office in question was held by persons called by the two names of bishop and elder.
(1) The apostle uses the terms of the same office. (Tit_1:5-7)
(2) The terms came from two different quarters. The term "elder," or "presbyter," was of Jewish origin, and was earlier than the other, having been long in use in the synagogue administration. It had respect primarily to the age of those presiding over the religious community, but came by-and-by, and especially in the Christian Church, to signify its head, and was a title of dignity and gravity. The other term, "bishop," came from the Greek world, and was a designation of the duties of the office as involving an oversight of the Churches.
(3) The term "bishop" is, therefore, mostly employed of the Churches in Asia Airier, consisting of converted Greeks, but the Jewish term "elder" had precedence of it at that earlier stage when the Church consisted of a nucleus of converted Jews. In Crete, where the Greek and Jewish elements were about equally powerful, both terms are used.
2. The office in question is a good work. This was one of the faithful sayings of the apostle. It was
(1) a work, not a sinecure, or title of honor, but a laborious office, and therefore pastors are called "laborers in the Word and. doctrine;
(2) a good work, being excellent in itself, and in its aims as for the good of men and the glory of God.
II THE PASTORATE IS A WORTHY OBJECT OF AMBITION. "He desireth a good work." It may be laudably desired, not as an office of profit or honor, but with a supreme regard to the glory of God and the welfare of man, and ought not to be undertaken except by those who have a real delight and pleasure in acting upon these great principles. T.C.
HOMILIES BY R. FINLAYSON
Vers. 1-13.
Qualifications of three classes of office-bearers.
I QUALIFICATIONS OF A BISHOP. Preliminary direction to Timothy. "Faithful is the saying, If a man seeketh the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." The Scripture idea of the episcopate is that of oversight , viz. of souls. A bishop was one who had the duty of overseeing a congregation in spiritual matters, being, in respect of gravity and dignity, called presbyter or elder. Timothy was to encourage any who sought to enter into the episcopate. The saying in Christian circles was to be relied on, "If a man seeketh the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." It is not a sinecure, but a work or employment taxing the energies. Its excellence lies in its having respect to men"s highest interests. But if he was to encourage entrance into the episcopate, he was not to do so without regard to the proper qualifications which he has laid down for him. The bishop therefore must be without reproach." This is a general qualification. A minister is not to be chosen without regard to character. If a man gives just ground for reproach has not character behind his gifts he is not fitted for the office of a minister, which is to influence men in the production of Christian character. "The husband of one wife." Some high authorities take the meaning to be that the contraction of a second marriage, even after the death of the first wife, was a disqualification for the office of a bishop. But this forbidding to ecclesiastics of what in the New Testament is expressly permitted to others, seems to belong to a post-apostolic asceticism. The language seems to be directed against "any deviation from morality in respect of marriage, whether by concubinage, polygamy, or improper second marriages." "Temperate, sober-minded, orderly." One who is to be chosen as a minister must be temperate, i.e. must have command of his desires and his temper. He must also be sober-minded, i.e. must bring sound sense to the consideration of all matters, He must also be orderly, i.e. must have a love for good rules. "Given to hospitality." He must be raised above all meanness toward those whom he ought to entertain. How is he to commend the generosity of God, if he is niggardly in his own dealings? "Apt to teach." This is a special qualification. With all that is righteous and sensible and even lovely in his character, he must have skill in teaching in opening the Word, and in bringing it to bear for all its uses on the wants of men. However excellent a man"s character is, he is not fit for being a minister if he cannot skillfully handle Divine truth. "No brawler, no striker; but gentle, not contentious." A disqualification is being quarrelsome over wine, and consequently coming to blows. He must, on the other hand, be gentle; i.e. while he is to be thoroughly reasonable, he is to be kindly and forbearing, waiving even his rights for the sake of gaining his end as a minister, viz. the spiritual good of those with whom he deals. It is a disqualification to be contentious, i.e. to be in one"s element, and to give way to unholy feelings, in fighting. "No lover of money." It is a further disqualification to have a groveling desire for money, instead of having a feeling of responsibility with regard to its proper uses. "One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity." This is in one view an ordinary qualification, inasmuch as it is what is expected of every one who is in authority in a house. It is expected even of a man who is not qualified to teach that he can rule well his own house, i.e. lay down proper rules for his household, and see to their being carried out. The apostle"s idea of ruling the house well, is the having the children in subjection with all gravity. "In the phrase, "all gravity," he is looking at a kind of obedience that touches the deepest notes of principle and character. Contrary to this, there is an obedience without principle, which is obedience with all levity; that which is paid to mere will and force; that which is another name for fear; that which is bought by promises and paid by indulgences; that which makes a time-server, or a coward, or a lying pretender, as the case may be, and not a Christian. This latter that which makes a Christian is the aim of all true government, and should never be out of sight for an hour." Parenthesis showing how a bishop ought to be able to rule his own house well. "But if a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?" A bishop has to manage men. The Church of God is the family enlarged and heightened. If one fails in the lower sphere, how, can he be expected to succeed in the higher sphere? Even Confucius had before this time said, "It is impossible that be who knows not how to govern and reform his own family should rightly govern and reform a people." "Not a novice, lest being puffed up he fall into the condemnation of the devil." By a novice we are to understand a recent convert to Christianity. Such a one being necessarily inexperienced in the truth, and also in the evil of his own heart, was unfitted for office. And the putting him into office was fitted to have a bad effect upon him. The introducer of evil into the universe was in high position, but gave way to a feeling of pride. How this feeling operated is described by a word, which means enveloped with smoke, as if that were the kind of atmosphere that pride throws around a person. In some matter in which his rank was involved, under the clouding of pride, instead of bending to the will of God, which would have been his approval, he asserted his self-importance, which was his condemnation. So the novice, instead of being weighed down under the responsibilities of office, is more likely, under the clouding of pride occasioned by his elevation, to fall into the condemnation of the devil. "Moreover he must have good testimony from them that are without lest he fall into reproach; and the snare of the devil." He must be able to command the respect of non-Christians, especially for his acting in a way consistent with his professions. For if he falls so low as not to be respected by those, then this want of respect is sure to be used as a snare by Satan for his destruction.
II QUALIFICATIONS OF DEACONS. "Deacons in like manner." Deacons, originally the almoners of the Church, came to be regarded as assistants of the eiders, having the oversight of the temporal affairs as these of the spiritual affairs of a congregation. "Must be grave." They must feel the responsibility of life, and especially the responsibility connected with their office. "Not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre." Of the three disqualifications, the first has respect to a temptation connected with the desire for public favor, the second has respect to a temptation connected with the enjoyment of hospitality, the third has respect to a temptation connected with the use of office. Those who serve God in the management of the temporal affairs of a congregation must be free from obsequiousness, from intemperate habits, from avarice. "Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience." Their duty to the truth, regarded as the object of faith which was formerly concealed from men, was not to teach it, but to enshrine it in a holy life, characterized by the power which has to do with the production of it. "And let these also first be proved; then let them serve as deacons, if they be blameless." The deacons, no more than the bishops, were to be put suddenly into office. Opportunity was to be given for their being proved, and, if found to be blameless in the estimation of those who had opportunity of watching their conduct, they were to be appointed to service.
III QUALIFICATIONS OF DEACONESSES. "Women in like manner." The apostle has not yet given all the qualifications of the deacons; we must, therefore, think of these women as closely associated with the diaconate. We might think of the wives of the deacons, but, as nothing has been said about the wives of bishops, and as by the insertion of the phrase, "in like manner," we are led to think of the election of women to office, it is better to think of deaconesses. We have an example of a deaconess in Phoebe of Cenchrea, mentioned in Rom_16:1. They were probably assistants in the same way as the deacons, in so far as they had the care of the sick and the destitute. "Must be grave, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things." It was fitting that those who were engaged in such service should be women who were serious, or free from frivolity. They were not to go about from house to house as bearers of evil reports. They were to be temperate, or free from all unholy excitement. And they were to be faithful in all things, not abusing their charge.
IV QUALIFICATIONS OF DEACONS RESUMED. "Let deacons be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own house well." In these two particulars the apostle requires the same qualifications of the deacons as of the bishops. "For they that have served well as deacons gain to themselves a good standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus." The old translation is preferable here to themselves a good degree." The idea is that they obtain for themselves a step, or get higher up. In those days this might mean their elevation to the episcopate. They also obtain Christian boldness, such as was especially required in those days of peril. For getting up, and the encountering of greater difficulties, go together. R.F.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 11, 12, 15, 16 The office of a bishop.
1Ti_3:1-7
The office of a bishop.
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The office of a bishop a good work
If a man desire the office of a bishop from right principles, he desireth.
not a secular dignity--not a good benefice--not a post of honour or profit--not an easy idle life--but he desireth a work; a good work indeed it is: but still it is a work.
I. It may properly be called a work, if we consider the duties of the office, which require the utmost assiduity, and some of which are peculiarly painful and laborious.
II. It is a good work, whether you consider, for whom, with whom, or for what you work. The ministers of the gospel work for God, who is carrying on the grand scheme of salvation in our world. His immediate service is the peculiar business of their lives. Ministers also work for Jesus Christ. It was He that originally gave them their commission; it was He that assigned them their work; it is He that is interested in their success. Again, the ministers of the gospel work for the souls of men. To do good to mankind is the great purpose of their office. Let us next consider with whom the ministers of the gospel work; and we shall see how good their employment is. They are workers together with God. (2Co_6:1). They are also co-workers with Jesus Christ, promoting the same cause for which He became man; for which He lived the life of a servant, and died the death of a malefactor and a slave. They may also be called fellow-workers with the Holy Spirit, whose great office it is to sanctify depraved creatures, and prepare them for the refined happiness of heaven. They also act in concert with angels; for what are these glorious creatures but ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation? (Heb_1:14). An angel once condescended to call a minister of the gospel his fellow-servant (Rev_19:10). Ministers also are engaged in that work in which the apostles went before them. The office of a bishop will farther appear a good work, if it be considered for what it is that ministers work. They do not indeed work for a reward upon the footing of personal merit; but they hope for it on the plan of the gospel, through Jesus Christ. In this view, like Moses, they have a respect to the recompense of reward (Heb_11:26). And thus it appears, their laborious and painful work is good--good in itself, good for the world, and good for themselves. (S. Davies, M. A.)
The ideal minister
The apostle who most boldly maintained the brotherhood of believers clearly recognized the necessity for order and office in Christian communities.
I. The moral characteristics of the ideal pastor are strongly insisted upon. Strangely enough, nothing is said about his piety, his love to God, his communion with Him, his delight in Him, his devotion to Him; but this is naturally presupposed as the basis of the rest. It is not alluded to here, partly because Timothy did not require to be reminded that personal religion is the first essential in all spiritual work, and partly because he was less able to judge of inward piety in others than of the qualities mentioned here.
1. Self-rule is one of the principal of these, and it is to display itself in all directions. The bishop is to be sober, exercising habitual self-restraint, not only in respect of intoxicating drinks, but also in respect of indulgence in pleasures of all kinds, setting an example of dominion over the carnal and sensuous. But temper is to be as much under control as other passions, for the Christian teacher must be no brawler, no striker, but patient.
2. Again, sound judgment is a qualification much needed by every pastor and teacher. This is no doubt one reason of Pauls for urging on Timothy, as he does in the sixth verse, that a pastor in the Church should not be a novice, i.e., a recent convert. If the young life of a plant be exposed to the glare of the sunshine, death will supervene. And in the life of every creature--insect, and bird, and beast, and most of all in the life of man--the period of development must precede the period of manifestation.
3. Another characteristic of the ideal minister should be open-heartedness and open-handedness. The phrase given to hospitality in Authorized Version, or more correctly a lover of strangers, denotes what was relatively more important then than now.
II. The relations of the minister to those around him, his right relation with God being pre-supposed.
1. He is to be the husband of one wife.
2. Then allusion is made to the pastors own house as distinguished from Gods house. So it is urged that any leader in the Church should rule well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. On which Dr. Reynolds has beautifully said, The child-life of the pastors home should suggest the sacred ness of a temple and the order of a palace. And is not this true for us all? Is it not in the home that we are the most tested, and is it not there we can best glorify God?
3. The relation the pastor should hold towards the world. Much stress is laid in this passage on being blameless, and having a good report of them that are without--those, namely, who are outside the kingdom of Christ. We cannot afford, as Christs representatives, to defy the worlds opinion about us so far as moral reputation is concerned. The world is a poor judge of doctrine, of motive, and of religious hopes and thoughts; but it is a keen and on the whole an accurate judge of character; and when the members and leaders of the Church are recognized by the world as honest, sincere, trusty, pure men and women, Christ will win the day against His foes. (A. Rowland, LL. B.)
Preference for the ministry
A remarkable avowal of the late Senator John A. Logan is reported by a clergyman in a letter to us. He says that in talking with the senator not long before his death, Logan said: I have often thought that I would like to be in the ministry. I replied: To have done that, general, you must have surrendered many ambitions. That, was his noble reply--that would be nothing. The end will soon come, and these things will then be seen to be worthless. I was convinced of his transparent honesty when he uttered these words, and am of opinion that he simply spoke as he believed and felt. (Philadelphia Press.)
The dignity of the Christian ministry
Moreover, if we weigh all things in the balances of justice, we shall see that there is no king, whatever may be the pomp that surrounds him, who as a king is not in dignity below, I will not say a bishop only, but even a simple village pastor, regarded as a pastor. We have only, in order to realize the fact, to cast our eyes on the functions of the pastor and of the king respectively. What do the labours of princes regard? Is it not that evil-doers may be kept down by the vigilance of the law, and that the good may not be disturbed? That is to say, so to act that the persons and property of the citizens of the state shall be in safety? But how much more excellent is the aim of the minister of the gospel, who desires to establish in each individual soul the serenest tranquility by quieting and subduing the lusts of the world! The kings labours are intended to secure that the state shall live at peace with its neighbours; the priests aim is that every one may be at peace with God, that each may possess peace within, and that no one may have it in his heart to injure another. The prince designs to protect the house, lands, and cattle of particular persons from the violence of depredators. But what does the priest design? To defend the property of the souls entrusted to him, their faith, their charity, their temperance, their purity against the assaults of the devil; property which confers happiness on those who possess it, and the loss of which plunges them into the direst misfortune... In one word, all that comes under the management of the prince is earthly and transient; but that which occupies the pastor is divine, celestial, eternal. And, therefore, as much difference as there is between the heaven and the earth, between the body and the soul, between temporal goods and eternal possessions, so much difference is there between the functions committed to the king and the trust devolved on the priest. (Erasmus.)
A well-governed family
When there is to be a real order and law in the house, it will come of no hard and boisterous or fretful and termagant way of command. Gentleness will speak the word of firmness, and firmness will be clothed in the airs of true gentleness. How many do we see who fairly rave in authority, and keep the tempest up from morning till night, who never stop to see whether anything they forbid or command is in fact observed! Indeed, they really forget what they have commanded. Their mandates follow so thickly as to crowd one another, and even to successively thrust one another out of remembrance. The result is, that by this cannonading of pop-guns, the successive pellets of command ment are in turn all blown away. If anything is fit to be forbidden or commanded, it is fit to be watched and held in faithful account. On this it is that the real emphasis of authority depends, not on the windstress of the utterance. Let there be only such and so many things commanded as can be faithfully attended to; these in a gentle and film voice, as if their title to obedience lay in their own merit; and then let the child be held to a perfectly inevitable and faithful account; and by that time it will be seen that order and law have a stress of their own, and a power to rule in their own divine right. The beauty of a well-governed family will be seen in this manner to be a kind of silent, natural-looking power, as if it were a matter only of growth, and could never have been otherwise. (Horace Bushnell.)
Luther and his children
Luther used to teach his children to read the Bible in the following way. First, to read through one book carefully, then to study chapter by chapter, and then verse by verse, and lastly word by word, for, he said, It is like a person shaking a fruit tree. First shaking the tree and gathering up the fruit which falls to the ground, and then shaking each branch and afterwards each twig of the branch, and last of all looking carefully under each leaf to see that no fruit remains. In this way, and in no other, shall we also find the hidden treasures that are in the Bible. (J. Stewart.)
A minister above the love of money
A little while ago, in Calcutta, a native, a Christian merchant, was deeply interested in a community of outcasts, and he made an offer of £60 a-year to any native Christian who would go and live among these people, and teach them the Word of Life. The offer had no sooner been made than a candidate for the office appeared. Who was he? As humble and devoted and consistent a Christian as you ever met. He was a professor in a missionary college, M.A. and LL.B. of the Calcutta University, and drawing a salary of £200 a year. Such was the candidate for this office of £60 a year! (Christian Herald.)
A liberal bishop
Bishop Barings generosity and munificence were unbounded. One instance may be given out of many. He was spending the Sunday with a vicar blessed with very moderate means and a large family. His lordship noticed the pale faces of the children, and said to their mother, You must take these little ones to the seaside, and their father, too, must have a complete rest. I will provide his duty for six weeks. The good lady wondered where she was to find the wherewithal to carry out this excel lent scheme. As the bishop, however, shook hands with her on leaving he put a £50 note into her hand in the kindest way, and solved the difficulty. It is not, however, every one who has such hereditary wealth as the late Bishop of Durham. (Christian Herald.)
Ministers not contentious
(Revised Version):--How a soft answer can turn away wrath, as well as dissatisfaction, is illustrated in the following anecdote of the late President Wayland. Deacon Moses Pond went to Dr. Wayland once with the complaint that the preaching did not edify him. Im sorry, said the pastor; I know they are poor sermons. I wish I could make them better. Come, let us pray that I may be able to do so. The deacon, telling the story, used to say, Dr. Wayland prayed and I prayed; he cried and I cried. But I have thought a hundred times that it was strange that he did not turn me out of the house. I tell you there never was a better man nor a greater preacher than Dr. Wayland. (W. Baxendale.)
Apt to teach.--
The pulpit a light and Tower
These three words are but one in the Greek. Ignorance is the inheritance of our fall in Eden. The grand work of the ministry of Christ is to illuminate the darkened mind. There is a fire that does not give light, and a cold phosphorescent flame that yields no heat. Our teaching, while it dispels the darkness of sin, must shed its beams to warm the frozen virtues into life.
1. To meet the claims of a good teacher one must he willing to learn. The apostles, dropping their nets and other worldly craft, went to a school of the prophets, such as never before or since existed on earth. Its sole instructor was the Great Teacher, the Creator of all things. They learned wisdom without a book from the source of all knowledge.
2. If we would be apt to teach, we must have a lesson to impart.
3. To be apt to teach, one must be master of the lesson he would impart.
4. To be apt to teach, a sacred enthusiasm is indispensable.
5. To be apt to teach under the wings of the Eternal Spirit, Holy Dove, we must gather strength and success by prayer.
6. Apt to teach, finally, has the element of faith. (W. H. Van Doren.)
Take care of the Church of God.
Pastoral care
Observe the sacred charge committed to Gods appointed bishops, or shepherds, or pastors. I should, first of all, insist that Christs pastors, who take care of the Church committed to their charge are to take care of their food--that they shall have nothing to eat but what is pure and wholesome. That in the care which Gods servants have to take of the Church committed to their charge, they have to nourish three descriptions of character, or three classes of the family specified in Scripture--as babes, young men, and fathers. This care taken of the Church must be with all tenderness, but with all firmness, and under the consciousness of responsibility. It must be with all tenderness. We must be gentle, as the apostle says, even as a nurse cherisheth her children; and because we were desirous of your welfare, we were ready to impart unto you our own souls, because ye were dear to our souls. But we are not only to use tenderness--in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves--towards the lambs, the weak lings, the little ones; but we must use all firmness. Moreover, if we would fake care of the Church of God, it must be by keeping our hearts and thoughts fixed on our responsibility. (J. Irons.)
Not a novice.--
Vanity in preachers
I. Young preachers are especially subject to such vanity. It is the novice that is liable to be lifted up with pride.
1. The young are naturally disposed to over-rate their abilities.
2. They are peculiarly susceptible to adulation. The more unenlightened and unreflective men are, the more they are given to flattery.
II. The devils destiny must follow such vanity. Fall into the condemnation of the devil. (The Homilist.)
Ministerial pride rebuked
An aged Scotch divine had occasionally to avail himself of the assistance of probationers. One day, a young man, very vain of his accomplishments as a preacher, officiated, and on descending from the desk, was met by the old gentleman with extended hands, and expecting high praise, he said, No compliments, I pray. Na, na, ha, my young friend, said the parson, nowadays Im glad o onybody. Rowland Hill on ministerial work:--No man ever had stronger views than Mr. Rowland Hill of the true nature of the ministerial work, and of the necessity of a humble dependence on the Lords assistance for a blessing in it. One of his remarks was, If favoured at any time with what is called a good opportunity, I am too apt to find myself saying, Well done!, when I should lie in the dust, and give God all the glory. Another was, Lord, make me distrustful of myself, that I may confide in Thee alone; self dependence is the Pharisees high road to destruction. He was accustomed strongly to urge on all who entered the sacred office the necessity of maintaining Christian and heavenly tempers among their people. Some folks, he would say, appear as if they had been bathed in crab verjuice in their infancy, which penetrated through their skins, and has made them sour-blooded ever since; but this will not do for a messenger of the gospel; as he bears a message, so he must manifest a spirit of love. He used to like Dr. Rylands advice to his young academicians--Mind, no sermon is of any value, or likely to be useful, which has not the three Rs in it,--Ruin by the Fall, Redemption by Christ, Regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Of himself he remarked, My aim in every sermon is a stout and lusty call to sinners, to quicken the saints, and to be made a universal blessing to all. It was a favourite saying with him, The nearer we live to God, the better we are enabled to serve Him. Oh how I hate my own noise, when I have nothing to make a noise about! Heavenly wisdom creates heavenly utterance. In a letter to Mr. Jones, he observes, There is something in preaching the gospel, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, I long to get at. At times I think I feel somewhat like it, and then I bawl almost as bad as the Welshman. If we deal with Divine realities, we ought to feel them such, and the people will in general feel with us, and acknowledge the power that does wonders on the earth; while dry, formal, discussional preaching leaves the hearers just where it found them. Still, they who are thus favoured had need to be favoured with a deal of humility. We are too apt to be proud of that which is not our own. Oh humility, humility, humility! It is no wonder, with such impressions as to the nature of his work, and the state of his mind, that Mr. Rowland Hills preaching was so honoured and blessed of God. Lord, help! was his constant and earnest prayer, and it was heard. (Scottish Christian Herald.)
Humility in ministers
The Rev. George Gilfillan, who died in 1877, was not only an author of some distinction, but a wit. A congregation to whom he had been preaching presented him, when a probationer, with a suit of clothes; and after he had put them on, the old ones were tied up in a bundle. Where shall I send them? said the tailor. I will take them myself, said Mr. Gilfillan; I have carried them too long upon my back to be ashamed of carrying them under my arm. There was no false pride about him. He gave due honour to old friends. (Christian Herald.)
Ministerial pride rebuked
The American religious journal, the Independent, relates the following story of rebuked vanity, which was told recently in a gathering of ministers, by the Rev. Dr. Gould, of Worcester. A certain Rev. Samuel Smith had been discoursing very learnedly and loftily, and was now walking home with his brother, eagerly waiting for some word of commendation. Not finding it forthcoming, he dropped a slender oblique hint, to see what could be drawn out. He was somewhat startled and shocked by the outburst: I tell you, Sam, what it is. Instead of preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified, you seem to have been preaching Samuel Smith and him dignified. How necessary it is for preachers of the gospel to hide themselves in the shadow of Christs Cross, and to forget themselves in the majesty of the message which they deliver.
I. A minister of good report:--About thirty years ago the present Bishop of Minnesota went to Chicago, and built a church near the business centre of the city. In those days there were no street cars, and it happened that the reverend gentleman took up his residence in West Chicago, convenient to an omnibus line. It frequently occurred that the omnibus would be crowded, and many obliged to take deck passage. The writer was riding on the seat with the driver one Saturday night, when the conversation turned upon Sunday labour and the consistency of professed Christians, the driver thinking it rather hard that he should be obliged to labour on Sunday, while others should take their rest. It appeared from his conversation that his faith in Christianity was rather weak; but turning to me he said, with considerable emphasis, There is one clergyman whom I respect and believe to be a consistent Christian. Being a little curious to know who the clergyman was, and upon what evidence he had based his opinion, I asked him for an explanation. Well, said he, there is the Rev. Mr. Whipple, who built that church down town; he has a free pass over this line, but walks down and back on Sundays rather than compromise his Christianity; that proves to me that he is a consistent Christian. It sometimes occurs that a clergymans most eloquent sermon is being preached when he least expects it; and any private Christian may preach the same kind of sermon. (Christian Age.)
The causes and remedies of pride
You can hardly fail to perceive that this reasoning of St. Pauls proceeds on the supposition that they who know but little are most in danger of pride. It is just because man is a novice that he is likely to be lifted up. Is it not a confessed and well-known fact that the arrogant and conceited person is ordinarily the superficial and the ignorant? You will hardly ever find the man of real power and great acquirement other than a simple and unaffected man. It would scarcely ever lead you to a false estimate of persons, were you to take it as a rule, that where there is the manifestation of conceit, there is shallowness of intellect. And why is this, but because he who knows most is most conscious how little he knows? Can he be vain of his mental power who, having applied it to the investigation of truth, has discovered little more than that truth would exhaust power a thousand-fold greater? Can he be proud of his scientific progress who, having laboured long and hard, finds himself only a beginner, so vast are the spreadings which lie dimly beyond? Oh! it is not, and it never will be, the man of experience who shows himself haughty and conceited. We have thus taken the case generally of a novice in knowledge, as it helps to place under a clearer point of view the gist of St. Pauls argument--namely, that ignorance is the great parent of pride. But we will now confine ourselves to such particular branches of life as must have been referred to by the apostle, when he penned the direction for the exclusion of a novice; and forasmuch as it is the novice in Christian doctrine of which he speaks, we shall perhaps thoroughly compass his argument if we give our attention to knowledge of ourselves, in the two grand respects of our state by nature and our state by grace. Of all knowledge there is confessedly none which is either more valuable in itself, or more difficult of attainment, than self-knowledge; none more valuable, for a man has an immeasurably greater interest or deeper stake in himself than in the whole surrounding universe; none more difficult of attainment, for we have it on the authority of the Bible itself, that none but a Divine Being can search the human heart. And if we were not able to show of all knowledge whatsoever that it is a corrective of pride, or at least reads such lessons to each, as to his incompetence and insignificance, as leaves him inexcusable if he be not humble, we should have no difficulty in doing this in regard to self-knowledge. Let it be, if you will, that the study of stars in their courses might tend to give a man high thoughts of himself; for, indeed, till you look closely into the matter, there is something ennobling--something that seems to excuse, if not to form, a lofty estimate of power--when, with daring tread, the astronomer pursues the heavenly bodies into untravelled regions, tracking their wanderings and counting their revolutions; but in regard, at all events, of self-knowledge, there can be no difficulty in showing to any one who will hearken that pride can subsist only where this knowledge is deficient. If we consider man in his natural condition, how could any one be proud who thoroughly knew that condition? Self-knowledge--knowledge of the body--as appointed to all the disorders of the grave, would be the most effectual corrective to the self-complacency, of which beauty is the food. Who, again, could be proud of rank, puffed up because of some petty elevation above his fellow-men, who was deeply aware of his own position as an accountable creature? Who, once more, could be proud of his intellectual strength, of his wit, his wisdom, his elocution, who knew the height from which he had fallen--and saw in himself but the fragments--we had almost said the rubbish--of what God designed and created him to be? Indeed, you have here in the general the grand corrective to pride. Men have but to know themselves as fallen and depraved creatures, and we might almost venture to say that they could not be proud. But we have spoken of self-knowledge as though it were knowledge of man in regard only of his natural condition. We must, however, consider him as a redeemed being, and not merely as a fallen; for possibly, though knowledge of him in his ruined state be the corrective of pride, it may not be the same with knowledge of him in his restored state. Yes, a slight knowledge of the gospel, so far from generating humility, may even tend to the fostering pride. There is such an opposition between man ruined and man redeemed, if in the one state he may be exhibited as loathsome and worthless, in the other he may be thought of some such importance as ransomed by Christ whilst angels were left to perish, that it is hard to avoid on first hearing of the gospel, feeling that, after all, our degradation must have been exaggerated and our insignificance overdrawn. Thus the novice is once more in danger of being lifted up with pride. As the novice in that knowledge which has to do with man fallen, so the novice in that knowledge which has to do with man redeemed, is liable, through his knowing but little, to the thinking more highly of himself than he ought. And will not the danger diminish as the gospel is more thoroughly studied and understood? Yes, indeed; for what were it but the worst libel on the system of Christianity to suppose it not adapted to the producing humility? And if to this argument for humility, which is interwoven with the whole texture of the gospel, you add the constant denunciations of that gospel against pride--its solemn demands of lowliness of mind as essential to all who would inherit the kingdom of God--you will readily see that the further a man goes in acquaintance with the gospel, the more motives will he have to the abasing himself before God. Redemption as a scheme of wonders into which the very angels desire to look, may kindle in him a dream of his importance; but redemption as emanating from free grace, will convict him of his nothingness; and redemption as requiring from him the mind which was also in Christ, will cover him with confusion. And thus we reach the same conclusion, when we examine self-knowledge in regard to our condition as redeemed, as we reach when we examine it in regard of our condition as fallen. It is the novice who is in most danger of pride; it is his being a novice which exposes him to danger. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 14 Chapter 10
Chapter 10
ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY; VARIOUS CERTAINTIES AND PROBABILITIES DISTINGUISHED. - 1Ti_3:1-10
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THIS passage is one of the most important in the New Testament respecting the Christian ministry; and in the Pastoral Epistles it does not stand alone. Of the two classes of ministers mentioned here, one is again touched upon in the Epistle to Titus, {Tit_1:5-9} and the qualifications for this office, which is evidently the superior of the two, are stated in terms not very different from those which are used in the passage before us. Therefore a series of expositions upon the Pastoral Epistles would be culpably incomplete which did not attempt to arrive at some conclusions respecting the question of the primitive Christian ministry; a question which at the present time is being investigated with immense industry and interest, and with some clear and substantial results. The time is probably far distant when the last word will have been said upon the subject; for it is one on which considerable difference of opinion is not only possible but reasonable: and those persons would seem to be least worthy of consideration, who are most confident that they are in possession of the whole truth on the subject. One of the first requisites in the examination of questions of fact is a power of accurately distinguishing what is certain from what is not certain: and the person who is confident that he has attained to certainty, when the evidence in his possession does not at all warrant certainty, is not a trustworthy guide.
It would be impossible in a discussion of moderate length to touch upon all the points which have been raised in connection with this problem; but some service will have been rendered if a few of the more important features of the question are pointed out and classified under the two heads just indicated, as certain or not certain. In any scientific enquiry, whether historical or experimental, this classification is a useful one, and very often leads to the enlargement of the class of certainties. When the group of certainties has been properly investigated, and when the various items have been placed in their proper relations to one another and to the whole of which they are only constituent parts, the result is likely to be a transfer of other items from the domain of what is only probable or possible to the domain of what is certain.
At the outset it is necessary to place a word of caution as to what is meant, in a question of this kind, by certainty. There are no limits to skepticism, as the history of speculative philosophy has abundantly shown. It is possible to question ones own existence, and still more possible to question the irresistible evidence of ones senses or the irresistible conclusions of ones reason. A fortiori it is possible to throw doubt upon any historical fact. We can, if we like, classify the assassinations of Julius Caesar and of Cicero, and the genuineness of the Aeneid and of the Epistles to the Corinthians, among things that are not certain. They cannot be demonstrated like a proposition in Euclid or an experiment in chemistry or physics. But a skeptical criticism of this kind makes history impossible; for it demands as a condition of certainty a kind of evidence, and an amount of evidence, which from the nature of the case is unattainable. Juries are directed by the courts to treat evidence as adequate, which they would he willing to recognize as such in matters of very serious moment to themselves. There is a certain amount of evidence which to a person of trained and well-balanced mind makes a thing "practically certain": i.e., with this amount of evidence before him he would confidently act on the assumption that the thing was true.
In the question before us there are four or five things which may with great reason be treated as practically certain.
1. The solution of the question as to the origin of the Christian ministry has no practical bearing upon the lives of Christians. For us the problem is one of historical interest without moral import. As students of Church History we are bound to investigate the origines of the ministry which has been one of the chief factors in that history: but our loyalty as members of the Church will not be affected by the result of our investigations. Our duty towards the constitution consisting of bishops, priests, and deacons, which existed unchallenged from the close of the second century to the close of the Middle Ages, and which has existed down to the present day in all the three great branches of the Catholic Church, Roman, Oriental, and Anglican, is no way affected by the question whether the constitution of the Church during the century which separates the writings of St. John from the writings of his disciples disciple, Irenaeus, was as a rule Episcopal, collegiate, or Presbyterian. For a churchman who accepts the Episcopal form of government as essential to the well-being of a Church, the enormous prescription which that form has acquired during at least seventeen centuries, is such ample justification, that he can afford to be serene as to the outcome of enquiries respecting the constitution of the
2. various infant Churches from A.D. 85 to A.D. 185. It makes no practical difference either to add, or not to add, to an authority which is already ample. To prove that the Episcopal form of government was founded by the Apostles may have been a matter of great practical importance in the middle of the second century. But, before that century had closed, the practical question, if there ever was one, had settled itself. Gods providence ordained that the universal form of Church government should be the Episcopal form and should continue to be such; and for us it adds little to its authority to know that the way in which it became universal was through the instrumentality and influence of Apostles. On the other hand, to prove that episcopacy was established independently of Apostolic influence would detract very little from its accumulated authority.
A second point, which may be regarded as certain with regard to this question, is, that for the period which joins the age of Irenaeus to the age of St. John, we have not sufficient evidence to arrive at anything like proof. The evidence has received important additions during the present century, and still more important additions are by no means impossible; but at present our materials are still inadequate. And the evidence is insufficient in two ways. First, although surprisingly large as compared with what might have been reasonably expected, yet in itself, the literature of this period is fragmentary and scanty. Secondly, the dates of some of the most important witnesses cannot as yet be accurately determined. In many cases to be able to fix the date of a document within twenty or thirty years is quite sufficient: but this is a case in which the difference of twenty years is a really serious difference; and there is fully that amount of uncertainty as to the date of some of the writings which are our principal sources of information; e.g., the "Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles," the Epistles of Ignatius, the "Shepherd of Hermas," and the "Clementines." Here also our position may improve. Further research may enable us to date some of these documents accurately. But, for the present, uncertainty about precise dates and general scantiness of evidence compel us to admit that with regard to many of the points connected with this question nothing that can fairly be called proof is possible respecting the interval which separates the last quarter of the first century from the last quarter of the second.
This feature of the problem is sometimes represented by the useful metaphor that the history of the Church just at this period "passes through a tunnel" or "runs underground." We are in the light of day during most of the time covered by the New Testament; and we are again in the light of day directly we reach the time covered by the abundant writings of Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and others. But during the intervening period we are, not indeed in total darkness, but in a passage the obscurity of which is only slightly relieved by an occasional lamp or light-hole. Leaving this tantalizing interval, about which the one thing that is certain is that many certainties are not likely to be found in it, we pass on to look for our two next certainties in the periods which precede and follow it.
3. In the period covered by the New Testament it is certain that the Church had officers who discharged spiritual functions which were not discharged by ordinary Christians; in other words a distinction was made from the first between clergy and laity. Of this fact the Pastoral Epistles contain abundant evidence; and further evidence is scattered up and down the New Testament, from the earliest document in the volume to the last. In the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, which is certainly the earliest Christian writing that has come down to us, we find St. Paul beseeching the Church of the Thessalonians "to know them that labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them exceeding highly in love for their works sake" (1Th_5:12-13). The three functions here enumerated are evidently functions to be exercised by a few with regard to the many: they are not duties which every one is to discharge towards every one. In the Third Epistle of St. John, which is certainly one of the latest, and perhaps the very latest, of the writings contained in the New Testament, the incident about Diotrephes seems to show that not only ecclesiastical government, but ecclesiastical government by a single official, was already in existence in the Church in which Diotrephes "loved to have the preeminence" (3Jn_1:9-10). In between these two we have the exhortation in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "Obey them that have the rule over you and submit to them: for they watch in behalf of your souls, as they that shall give account". {Heb_13:17} And directly we go outside the New Testament and look at the Epistle of the Church of Rome to the Church of Corinth, commonly called the First Epistle of Clement, we find the same distinction between clergy and laity observed. In this letter, which almost certainly was written during the lifetime of St. John, we read that the Apostles, "preaching everywhere in country and town, appointed their firstfruits, when they had proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons unto them that should believe. And this they did in no new fashion; for indeed it had been written concerning bishops and deacons from very ancient times; for thus saith the Scripture in a certain place, I will appoint their bishops in righteousness, and their deacons in faith"-the last words being an inaccurate quotation of the LXX of Isa_60:17.
And a little further on Clement writes: "Our Apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife over the name of the bishops office. For this cause, therefore, having received complete foreknowledge, they appointed the aforesaid persons, and afterwards they provided a continuance, that if these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed to their ministration. Those therefore who were appointed by them, or afterward by other men of repute with the consent of the whole Church, and have ministered unblamably to the flock of Christ in lowliness of mind, peacefully and with all modesty, and for long time have borne a good report with all-these men we consider to be unjustly thrust out from their ministration. For it will be no light sin for us, if we thrust out those who have offered the gifts of the bishops office unblamably and holily. Blessed are those presbyters who have gone before, seeing that their departure was fruitful and ripe, for they have no fear lest any one should remove them from their appointed place. For we see that ye have displaced certain persons, though they were living honorably, from the ministration which they had kept blamelessly" (42., 44.).
Three things come out very clearly from this passage, confirming what has been found in the New Testament.
(1) There is a clear distinction made between clergy and laity.
(2) This distinction is not a temporary arrangement, but is the basis of a permanent organization.
(3) A person who has been duly promoted to the ranks of the clergy as a presbyter or bishop (the two titles being here synonymous, as in the Epistle to Titus) holds that position for life. Unless he is guilty of some serious offence, to depose him is no light sin.
None of these passages, either in the New Testament or in Clement, tells us very clearly the precise nature of the functions which the clergy, as distinct from the laity, were to discharge; yet they indicate that these functions were of a spiritual rather than of a secular character, that they concerned mens souls rather than their bodies, and that they were connected with religious service (λειτουργια). But the one thing which is quite clear is this, -that the Church had, and was always intended to have, a body of officers distinct from the congregations to which they ministered and over which they ruled.
4. For our fourth certainty we resort to the time when the history of the Church returns once more to the full light of day, in the last quarter of the second century. Then we find two things quite clearly established, which have continued in Christendom from that day to this. We find a regularly organized clergy, not only distinctly marked off from the laity, but distinctly marked off among themselves by well-defined gradations of rank. And, secondly, we find that each local Church is constitutionally governed by one chief officer, whose powers are large and seldom resisted, and who universally receives the title of bishop. To these two points we may add a third. There is no trace of any belief, or even suspicion, that the constitution of these local Churches had ever been anything else. On the contrary, the evidence (and it is considerable) points to the conclusion that Christians in the latter part of the second century-say A.D. 180 to 200-were fully persuaded that the Episcopal form of government had prevailed in the different Churches from the Apostles time to their own. Just as in the case of the Gospels, "Irenaeus and his contemporaries" not only do not know of either more or less than the four which have come down to us, but cannot conceive of there ever being either more or less, than these four: so in the case of Church Government, they not only represent episcopacy as everywhere prevalent in their time, but they have no idea that at any previous time any other form of government prevailed. And although Irenaeus, like St. Paul and Clement of Rome, sometimes speaks of bishops under the title of presbyter, yet it is quite clear that there were at that time presbyters who were not bishops and who did not possess Episcopal authority. Irenaeus himself was such a presbyter, until the martyrdom of Pothinus in the persecution of A.D. 177 created a vacancy in the see of Lyons, which Irenaeus was then called upon to fill; he held the see for upwards of twenty years, from about A.D. 180 to 202. From Irenaeus and from his contemporary Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, we learn not only the fact that episcopacy prevailed everywhere, but, in not a few cases, the name of the existing bishop; and in some cases the names of their predecessors are given up to the time of the Apostles. Thus, in the case of the Church of Rome, Linus the first bishop is connected with the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul, and, in the case of Athens, Dionysius the Areopagite is said to have been appointed first bishop of that Church by the Apostle Paul. This may or may not be correct: but at least it shows that in the time of Irenaeus and Dionysius of Corinth episcopacy was not only recognized as the universal form of Church government, but was also believed to have prevailed in the principal Churches from the very earliest times.
5. If we narrow our field and look, not at the whole Church, but at the Churches of Asia Minor and Syria, we may obtain yet another certainty from the obscure period which lies between the age of the Apostles and that of Dionysius and Irenaeus. The investigations of Lightfoot, Zahn, and Harnack have placed the genuineness of the short Greek form of the Epistles of Ignatius beyond reasonable dispute. Their exact date cannot as yet be determined. The evidence is strong that Ignatius was martyred in the reign of Trajan: and, if that is accepted, the letters cannot be later than A.D. 117. But even if this evidence be rejected as not conclusive, and the letters be dated ten or twelve years later, their testimony will still be of the utmost importance. They prove that long before A.D. 150 episcopacy was the recognized form of government throughout the Churches of Asia Minor and Syria; and, as Ignatius speaks of "the bishops that are settled in the farthest parts of the earth (κατα ταρατα ορισθεντες)" they prove that, according to his belief, episcopacy was the recognized form everywhere. {Eph. 3} This evidence is not a little strengthened by the fact that, as all sound critics on both sides are now agreed, the Epistles of Ignatius were evidently not written in order to magnify the Episcopal office, or to preach up the Episcopal system. The writers main object is to deprecate schism and all that might tend to schism. And in his opinion the best way to avoid schism is to keep closely united to the bishop. Thus, the magnifying of the Episcopal office comes about incidentally; because Ignatius takes for granted that everywhere there is a bishop in each Church, who is the duly appointed ruler of it, loyalty to whom will be a security against all schismatical tendencies.
These four or five points being regarded as established to an extent which may reasonably be called certainty, there remain certain other points about which certainty is not yet possible, some of which admit of a probable solution, while for others there is so little evidence that we have to fall back upon mere conjecture. Among these would be the distinctions of office, or gradations of rank, among the clergy in the first century or century and a half after the Ascension, the precise functions assigned to each office, and the manner of appointment. With regard to these questions three positions may be assumed with a considerable amount of probability.
1. There was a distinction made between itinerant or missionary clergy and stationary or localized clergy. Among the former we find apostles (who are a much larger body than the Twelve), prophets, and evangelists. Among the latter we have two orders, spoken of as bishops and deacons, as here and in the Epistle to the Philippians (1) as well as in the Doctrine of the
2. Twelve Apostles, presbyter or elder being sometimes used as synonymous with bishop. This distinction between an itinerant and a stationary ministry appears in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, {1Co_12:28} in the Epistle to the Ephesians, {Eph_4:11} and perhaps also in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles of St. John. In the "Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles" it is clearly marked.
There seems to have been a further distinction between those who did, and those who did not, possess supernatural prophetical gifts. The title of prophet was commonly, but perhaps not exclusively, given to those who possessed this gift: and the "Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles" shows a great respect for prophets. But the distinction naturally died out when these supernatural gifts ceased to be manifested. During the process of extinction serious difficulty arose as to the test of a genuine prophet. Some fanatical persons believed themselves to be prophets, and some dishonest persons pretended to be prophets when they were not such. The office appears to have been extinct when Ignatius wrote: by prophets he always means the prophets of the Old Testament. Montanism was probably a forlorn attempt to revive this much desired office after the Church as a whole had decided against it. Further discussion of the gift of prophecy in the New Testament will be found in a previous chapter (6).
1. The clergy were not elected by the congregation as its delegates or representatives, deputed to perform functions which originally could be discharged by any Christian. They were appointed by the Apostles and their successors or substitutes. Where the congregation selected or recommended candidates, as in the case of the Seven Deacons, {Act_6:4-6} they did not themselves lay hands on them. The typical act of laying on of hands was always performed by those who were already ministers, whether apostles, prophets, or elders. Whatever else was still open to the laity, this act of ordaining was not. And there is good reason for believing that the celebration of the Eucharist also was from the first reserved to the clergy, and that all ministers, excepting prophets, were expected to use a prescribed form of words in celebrating it.
But, although much still remains untouched, this discussion must draw to a close. In the ideal Church there is no Lords Day or holy seasons, for all days are the Lords, and all seasons are holy; there are no places especially dedicated to Gods worship, for the whole universe is His temple; there are no persons especially ordained to be His ministers, for all His people are priests and prophets. But in the Church as it exists in a sinful world, the attempt to make all times and all places holy ends in the desecration of all alike; and the theory that all Christians are priests becomes indistinguishable from the theory that none is such. In this matter let us not try to be wiser than God, Whose will may be discerned in His providential guiding of His Church throughout so many centuries. The attempt to reproduce Paradise or to anticipate heaven in a state of society which does not possess the conditions of Paradise or heaven, can end in nothing but disastrous confusion.
In conclusion the following weighty words are gratefully quoted. They come with special force from one who does not himself belong to an Episcopalian Church.
"By our reception or denial of priesthood in the Church, our entire view of what the Church is must be affected and molded. We shall either accept the idea of a visible and organized body, within which Christ rules by means of a ministry, sacraments, and ordinances to which He has attached a blessing, the fullness of which we have no right to look for except through the channels He has ordained (and it ought to be needless to say that this is the Presbyterian idea), or we shall rest satisfied with the thought of the Church as consisting of multitudes of individual souls known to God alone, as invisible, unorganized, with ordinances blessed because of the memories which they awaken, but to which no promise of present grace is tied, with, in short, no thought of a Body of Christ in the world, but only of a spiritual and heavenly principle ruling in the hearts and regulating the lives of men. Conceptions of the Church so widely different from each other cannot fail to affect in the most vital manner the Churchs life, and relation to those around her. Yet both conceptions are the logical and necessary result of the acceptance or denial of the idea of a divinely appointed and still living priesthood among men."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1–16 1. If a man desire the office of a…
1. If a man desire the office of a bishop. Here, for the first time in the New Testament, is there a delineation of the qualifications and duties of bishops and deacons. Both offices have been alluded to in Acts, and both are named in the first verse of the Epistle to the Philippians. To form a correct idea of the New Testament bishop we must get away from modern episcopacy. The New Testament bishop was not diocesan, but in charge of a single church. Each church had a plurality. Elders or presbyters, and bishops were only different designations for the same office. This arrangement was not changed until after the close of the first century and the death of the last of the apostles. Of these statements, admitted by the candid learned even of episcopal bodies, the following proofs may be submitted: (1) Paul (Acts 20:17) summons the “elders” of the church at Ephesus, and in verse 28 calls them “bishops.” (2) In the church of Philippi the “bishops and deacons” are named as the officers (Phil. 1:1). (3) Paul in this Epistle names bishops and deacons as the officers (chapter 2), but in 5:17–22, names “elders” as officers intrusted with the same duties already named as those of the bishops. (4) In the Epistle to Titus, Paul commands (1:5) to “ordain elders in every city,” but in turn describing the qualifications of an elder he calls him a bishop (1:7). (5) Peter (1 Peter 5:1, 2) addresses “elders” and commands them to exercise the office of “bishops” over the flock. The Greek word as well as the word bishop, etymologically means to act as an overseer, or to take the oversight. (6) I might add that Clement of Rome, who wrote to Corinthians about the beginning of the second century, uses the terms interchangeably. Desireth a good work. A very important duty.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 14 1Ti_3:1. This is a true saying.—See note on 1Ti_1:15.…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1Ti_3:1. This is a true saying.—See note on 1Ti_1:15. If any man desire the office of a bishop.—It is generally admitted that to the latest New Testament times the terms “bishop” and “presbyter” were applied to the same persons. Whether subsequent developments have any binding force for us may be left an open question. The R.V. indicates that there are two words in the original for “seeketh” and “desireth”—not one, as the A.V. might lead us to suppose. The former means “to stretch oneself out in order to grasp.”
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1Ti_3:2. Blameless.—R.V. “without reproach.” Some think the term an agnostic one, signifying one who gives his adversary no hold upon him, applied here metaphorically to one who gives others no just cause to accuse him. Ellicott denies any but an ethical sense. The husband of one wife.—Full play is given to subjective interpretation on this passage. A bishop must have a wife, only one at a time, must not have a concubine, only a wife, and on the loss, even by death, of his wife must never have a second. Such are some of the interpretations. Vigilant.—R.V. better “temperate,” in its usual and literal meaning. Sober.—R.V. “sober-minded.” Of good behaviour.—R.V. “orderly.”
1Ti_3:3. Not given to wine.—R.V. “no brawler.” The A.V. margin indicates that it is not simply a liking for wine, but the quarrelsomeness of a man so addicted. Not greedy of filthy lucre.—Omitted in R.V. The idea comes in with the last word of the verse.
1Ti_3:4. One that ruleth well.—The management of his own household with dignity would be a recommendation to the oversight of a larger family.
1Ti_3:6. Not a novice.—Lit. “a neophyte”—one just born. Lest being lifted up.—“A beclouded and stupid state of mind must be associated with that of pride” (Ellicott). The condemnation of the devil.—Whose great sin was pride.
1Ti_3:7. A good report of them which are without.—How different this sounds from the Master’s “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you!” And yet how often has the world borne witness to a life of spotless humility!
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Ti_3:1-7
Qualifications of a New Testament Bishop.
I. He must be a man of upright and irreproachable life (1Ti_3:1-3).—The office of bishop or presbyter is a good work in itself, has to do specially with good things, and gives a signal opportunity of doing good to others. Speaking to Bishop Crowther, the first coloured bishop in connection with the Church of England, a clergyman said: “If a man desire the office of a bishop, what saith the word of God that he desireth?—a large income?—a palace?—to be called my lord? No—he desireth a good work. Work for Christ is the true honour of the bishop.” Such a man should possess both gifts and grace, and both in a high degree. The qualifications of a bishop are here given by the apostle in detail. “A bishop then must be blameless”—unexceptionable, giving no just handle for blame. “The husband of one wife.” The feeling which prevailed among the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, of that age against a second marriage would, on the ground of expediency and conciliation in matters indifferent and not involving compromise of principle, account for Paul’s prohibition here in the case of one in so prominent a sphere as a bishop or a deacon. “Vigilant, sober”—ever on the watch, as sober men alone can be—keenly alive, so as to foresee what ought to be done. “Of good behaviour”—orderly. “Sober” refers to the inward mind; orderly to the outward behaviour, tone, look, gait, dress. “Given to hospitality”—both to Christian brethren and to strangers. “Apt to teach.” They who labour in word and doctrine are counted worthy of double honour. “Not given to wine”—not merely drunkenness, but any intemperance in wine-drinking. The word also includes not indulging in the brawling, violent conduct towards others which proceeds from being given to wine. “Not covetous”—not a lover of money, whether we have much or little.
II. He must be a man showing the faculty of government in his own family.—“One that ruleth well his own house … for how shall he take care of the Church of God?” (1Ti_3:4-5). Presiding over his own children and servants, as contrasted with the house of God, which he may be called on to preside over. The fact that he has children, who are in subjection to him in all gravity and modesty, is the recommendation in his favour as one likely to rule well the Church. If he cannot perform the lesser function, how can he perform the greater and more difficult one?
III. He must be a man not raw and inexperienced in spiritual things.—“Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil” (1Ti_3:6). Not one just converted—a neophyte, a young plant, luxuriantly verdant—lest being lifted up with pride, being beclouded, darkened, befooled, inflated with self-conceit and exaggerated ideas of his own importance, he falls into the same condemnation as that in which Satan fell, who was condemned for his pride. The minister is emphatically the spiritual man, and should be deeply and experimentally acquainted with the mind of the Spirit and with spiritual things.
IV. He must be a man of unquestionable reputation.—“He must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil” (1Ti_3:7). He should be blameless, not only in the eyes of the Church, but be esteemed for his moral worth and uprightness by the world. Not even the former life of a bishop should be open to reproach. The reproach continually surrounding him for former sins might lead him into the snare of becoming as bad as his reputation. Despair of recovering reputation might, in a weak moment, lead some into recklessness of living.
Lessons.—
1. The officers of the Church should be above reproach. 2. A bishop should be a competent leader of the Church. 3. Only the grace of God can make a true bishop.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Ti_3:2. “Apt to teach.” The Pulpit a Light and Power.
I. To meet the claims of a good teacher one must be willing to learn.
II. We must have a lesson to impart.
III. One must be master of the lesson he would impart.
IV. A sacred enthusiasm is indispensable.
V. We must gather strength and success by prayer.
VI. Apt to teach has the element of faith.—Homiletic Monthly.
1Ti_3:4-5. Family Government—
I. Must be carried on in a religious spirit.
II. Is necessary in the proper training of children.
III. Is a preparation for higher ministerial duties.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 15 The New Testament knows nothing about the modern bishopric,…
ARGUMENT 6
THE NEW TESTAMENT EPISCOPACY
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The New Testament knows nothing about the modern bishopric, such as prevailed in the dead national Churches of the Old World, a separate and distinct ecclesiastical order. It was the fatal point of departure from apostolic simplicity, developing into priestcraft, progressing into prelacy, and culminating in the papacy. These high ministerial orders, unknown in the New Testament, are awful temptations to ambition, and enemies to sanctification; as you can not be sanctified in a candidacy for anything but heaven. Well does the Methodist simply apply the term superintendent, recognizing the so-called episcopacy as no separate order from the eldership. Good Lord, fortify Methodism against the Oriental episcopacy! So when you read about the bishop in the New Testament, understand the meaning is simply the leader of those little houseless, moneyless, and persecuted holiness bands, by the Holy Ghost denominated Ecclesia; i.e., the people called out of this wicked world and separated unto God, “to await his Son from heaven,” thus representing the ascended Lord during his absence, hated, despised, and maltreated by the world as he was. Bishop is the Greek episcopos, from epi, over, and skopeo, to see. Hence, it means a shepherd overseeing his flock. The Latin translation is pastor, which has been adopted into the English language, and is now correctly used as a translation of the Greek episcopos. Hence, bishop in the Pauline epistles, as well as throughout the New Testament, simply means the pastor of the church, or circuit, or district. Hence, the New Testament episcopacy is simply the pastorate.
1. “It is a faithful saying, If any one desires the episcopacy, he is seeking after a beautiful work.” It is perfectly laudable and right in the sight of God and man to desire and seek after the pastorate as a laudable work, in which to save souls and glorify God. Aspiration to the modern episcopacy would be ambitious and condemnatory in the sight of God and man.
2. “Therefore it behooveth a bishop to be blameless.” The code of Lycurgus, the great Spartan lawgiver, remained in force fourteen hundred years, thus surviving every other human code in the world’s history. When out in life’s evening, he secured a pledge from the people that they would obey his laws, at least till they heard of his death. Then he went into lonely exile, never seen nor heard of again, leaving the people thus obligated to obey his laws forever. Prominent in the Lycurgian code was the law that no man could be senator till he had passed his sixtieth year, and sustained an irreproachable character. (Under that law, I fear, we would have to import our senators.) Here we see the Holy Ghost requires an irreproachable character, appertaining to every pastor. “The husband of one wife;” i.e., polygamy prohibited. “Watchful.” The faithful shepherd must stand on his watchtower, and see that none of his flock go astray, and neither wild beast nor robber purloin nor slay. “Prudent.” The pastor is to have a well rounded Christian character, amply fortified against fanaticism, carnal oddities, and eccentricities. “Orderly.” He is to be a man of order; having everything in its right place, prompt in all of his duties, and a good organizer. “Hospitable.” His habitation is the retreat of the homeless, widows, orphans, and all in distress. “Competent to teach.” The pastor is ex-officio the teacher of his Church, the school of Christ. Hence, he is to be so cultured by the Holy Ghost as to be competent to teach his people the Holy Scriptures. O what an awful delinquency on this important line of pastoral duty this day! How few Churches are really the school of Christ! “Not given to wine!” At that time Satan had never taught the people how to manufacture alcoholic wine. Coffee had not been discovered and brought into use. The people used wine on their tables, like coffee and tea at the present day. The ordinary sweet wine was harmless, nutritious, and reviving; simply the expressed juice of the grape. (Act 2:13.) E.V., “These men are drunk on new wine,” is erroneously translated, the Greek being gleukous, fermented wine, the only sort that would make them drunk. “Not a controversialist.” An old schoolmaster in the administration of discipline to his fighting pupils made it a rule to hit the one who struck the second blow twice as many licks as the aggressor who struck the first, alleging that it was not the first lick that caused the fight, but the second; for if a boy gets mad and strikes another, and he does not strike back, the aggressor gets ashamed, and strikes no more. Hence, there is no fight. So it is the second lick, retaliatory of the offense given, that really brings up the fight. The meaning of this Scripture is, that the pastor is not to strike back, but meekly to bear assaults and insults for Jesus’ sake. If he preaches the truth, the ecclesiastical pugilist can not overthrow it. If he should preach error, it will be a great blessing to him and to others to have it overthrown. Hence, like his Master, meek and lowly, he is to retaliate nothing. “Gentle.” A good case of salvation invariably makes you a model gentleman. You need not read Chesterfield nor go into the society of the world to learn politeness. At the feet of Jesus, taught by the Holy Ghost, you soon become a model gentleman. “Peaceable.” The pastor of the Church must not only have the peace of God in his own heart, but God wants to honor him as a peacemaker throughout his bailiwick. “Free from the love of money.” This is a deadener on the money loving and salary-seeking pastors of the present age. They have all missed their calling. God does not want them in the pastoral charge of his Churches. They ought to read Ezekiel 44 and 1 Peter 5, consider the irreconcilable disharmony of their attitude with God’s Word, and either wallow in the straw till God sanctifies out of them every vestige of money love, or go out of the pastorate forever.
4. “Ruling their own family in the beauty of holiness, having their children in subordination with all gravity.
5. (“But if any one does not know how to rule his own family, how will he take care of the Church of God?”) These two verses sweep many a metropolitan pastor out of his stilted pulpit. The Bible is a plain book, and, with candor and honesty, easily understood. If a man can not save his own home, he is incompetent to fill the office of pastor; from the simple fact that the wicked example of his own ungodly family will rear a Popocatepetl between him and his people. Despite all he can do, they will stumble over the profligate example of the pastor’s family headlong into hell. Let such a man labor as an evangelist, seeking his field beyond the influence of his own incorrigible and ungodly family. Remember the Bible makes no mistakes. Hence, it is the inalienable duty of God’s people to enforce all of these restrictions, and see that the pastor is in full harmony with the laws of God regulating his ministry.
6. “Not a novice” (Greek, a new shoot). The old Methodists strictly obeyed this injunction, never committing a pastoral charge to a young preacher but always sending him out as the junior of a senior pastor. In these times, in which we sadly see the rapid apostasy of the Churches on all sides, so fearfully fulfilling the latter-day prophecies, the fallen worldly Churches are everywhere clamorous for juvenile pastors, whose inexperience and worldliness will be to them a guarantee of loose administration and carnal pleasures. Good Lord, help us back to first principles lest, having been puffed up, we may fall into the condemnation of the devil. “What is so calculated to inflate a boy preacher with vanity, foster egotism, inflame carnal passions of lust and covetousness, and expose him to Satan’s lasso, as to promote him to the pastorate, thus giving him authority over people old enough to be his grandparents, and exposing him to the attractions of the giggling girls and carnal youths who constitute the devil’s choir! Though he does not fall into public scandal, he simply apostatizes from God;” thus falling into the condemnation of the devil, becoming a cultured, popular pastor, but shorn of his spiritual locks, he spends his life grinding in the mills of Dagon.
7. “It behooveth him to have a good report from outsiders, lest he may fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” Satan’s people have more sense than we give them credit for. In a revival where many were getting saved, I finally got a hard rowdy in the rear of the audience down on his knees, and prayed for him. When he consented for me to go to the altar, and bring a preacher back there to pray for him (as this occurred in my boyhood), I said, “Which one?” “Bring old Thompson, for he has got more religion than all the balance.” Depend on it, the outsiders measure up every pastor in your town; they don’t miss the mark; if you are money-loving, worldly, cold, formal, and unspiritual, they find it out. What a deplorable pity that every Church on the globe does not enforce the laws of God relative to the pastorate! If it had been done, the world would have been conquered long ago, and our glorified Lord, in the splendors of his millennial glory, reigning from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof. The holiness movement is God’s relief train, sent to the Churches wrecked by the world, the flesh, and the devil. God help us to be true and stick pertinaciously to the letter of the law! Do that, and you will come out right every time. The enforcement of the positive law of heaven here revealed would de-episcopate the great majority of the Churches in all lands. But God would raise up pastors in harmony with his Word to supply them all. The Protestant Churches have really gone into the wildest fanaticism on the subject of pastoral education. If a man has a collegiate diploma, and passes through the prescribed theological course, he is admitted with a clamorous welcome, though he be radically deficient in the qualifications here laid down by the Holy Ghost through the apostle Paul. The truth of it is, they will admit him and promote him to a metropolitan pulpit without so much as having investigated this inspired catalogue of indispensable pastoral graces. God help you all to study, appropriate, and do your utmost, by the grace of God, to confer them on every candidate for the pastorate!
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 1Ti 3:9
1Ti 3:9
I. Look at the remarkable combination of revelation and truth, and conscience which the text exhibits. The Apostle knew nothing or cared nothing for those controversies between revelation and conscience, or faith and conscience, or authority and conscience which now agitate men’s minds. As these several things presented themselves to his mind there were no rival claims to be adjusted between them. Is Christian doctrine to be accepted because it is a Divine revelation of the evidence of which faith is to judge? or is it to be accepted because, and only as far as it commends itself to the human conscience? Modern writers have a great deal to say on this question. St. Paul had simply nothing—nothing, at least, that he thought it necessary to say. Faith, and a pure conscience with him went hand in hand. Both were necessary, and there was no need to decide the limits of their respective domains. He had united them together in his direct charge to Timothy himself. He now unites them again in stating his qualifications for the first step in the ministry. A good conscience is the natural element in which a sound faith exists. Therefore, the man who deliberately thrusts away from him the former, renders himself incapable of holding the latter, or at least places himself in great danger of making shipwreck of it. A true faith cannot live in an impure heart, though it may be there dormant and inactive. Indulgence in sin, which obscures the lesser light of man’s moral nature, must at length hide out the view of God Himself, though we have the promise of our Lord that the pure in heart shall eventually see God, and from which we may infer that it is darkness and sin alone that can entirely obscure Him. Yet we cannot doubt the fact that purity of outward life may co-exist with unbelief. It does not, however, by any means necessarily follow that purity of outward life involves that purity of heart to which our Lord’s promise is attached. With regard to it, the teaching of the New Testament is no way doubtful. The power within man which triumphs over the strength of his natural corruption is the power of faith, faith in Christ as an ever-living Redeemer, and that faith is an instrument in the hands of the Holy Spirit, by which He works upon the hearts of men. It is thus alone, according to the teaching of the New Testament, that true purity of heart can be attained so far as man in his present state is capable of attaining it.
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II. The idea which any man forms of the evil of sin, must depend upon the purity of his conscience; and it therefore follows that purity of conscience is an important element in determining our belief upon such doctrines as the Incarnation and the Atonement, or to use the words of the text, that those parts of the mystery of faith must be held in a pure conscience. And the same may be said of any conception of God which includes the idea of holiness as a part of His character. It is true that all our ideas of holiness are relative and imperfect, as are the teachings of conscience itself; but what idea of beauty, and excellence, and holiness, can be formed by one whose own heart and conscience are defiled, or how can such an one form any conception of the holiness of Him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. The mystery of that faith whose seat is in the heart and conscience cannot abide in an impure dwelling-place. From the polluted sanctuary are heard the ominous words—the cry of a lost faith: "Let us depart hence."
J. H. Jellett, Oxford and Cambridge Journal, June 7th, 1877.
Reference: 1Ti 3:9.—Homilist, 3rd series, vol. vi., p. 6.1.
1Ti 3:13
The Good Degree.
I. In what consists the good degree? It consists in a higher state of spiritual life—a stronger faith, a higher hope, a more entrancing and captivating love; in short, a larger possession of God, as if the Deity within flung His own grace and glory over the soul in which He dwells. That such a state is both possible and blessed, a state to be desired above all other things, will be readily admitted. For that person must be unfortunate, who has not in the circle of his acquaintance some such saint, whose whole soul is aflame with God, and who walks around the familiar objects of daily life, consecrating with his own beauty every act and deed, and reflecting in a face like the face of an angel, the shining of the light that fills the soul within.
II. But a good degree includes a further idea, and that is a higher state in glory, a place nearer God in the world to come, a more perfect knowledge of Him, and a more entrancing enjoyment of Him for ever and ever. This, we must bear in mind, springs from the other, and is but its completion. Grace is but the preparation for glory, the blossom of which glory is the ripened fruit. The hope of such a reward is a grand and elevating sentiment, far above those gross elements, which have led some to regard the hope of reward as an unworthy motive for a Christian. We need not attempt to be superior to our Master, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross. The bestowment of any reward at all is wonderful when the work is all of grace. But our gracious Master knows that we have need of the stimulus of it, and He has made it worthy of Himself,
E. Garbett, Experiences of the Inner Life, p. 95.
References: 1Ti 3:13.—Church of England Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 73; vol. xxi., p. 285.
1Ti 3:15
I. I cannot think of the Christian Church as if it were a selection out of humanity. In its idea it is humanity. The hard, iron-faced man whom I meet upon the street, the degraded, sad-faced man who goes to prison, the weak, silly-faced man who haunts society, the discouraged sad-faced man who drags the chain of drudgery—they are all members of the Church, members of Christ, children of God, heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Their birth made them so. Their baptism declared the truth which their birth made true. It is impossible to estimate their lives aright, unless we give this truth concerning them the first importance. Think, too, what would be the meaning of the other sacrament, if this thought of the Church of the living God were real and universal. The Lord’s Supper, the right and need of every man to feed on God, the bread of Divine sustenance, the wine of Divine inspiration offered to every man, and turned by every man into whatever form of spiritual force the duty and the nature of each man requires, how grand and glorious its mission might become! No longer the mystic source of unintelligible influence; no longer certainly the test of arbitrary orthodoxy; no longer the initiation rite of a selected brotherhood, but the great sacrament of man! The seeker after truth, with all the world of truth freely open before him, would come to the Lord’s table, to refresh the freedom of his soul, to liberate his soul from slavery and prejudice. The soldier going forth to battle, the student leaving college, the merchant getting ready for a sharp financial crisis, all men full of passion for their work, would come then to the Lord’s Supper to fill their passion with the Divine fire of consecration. They would meet and keep their unity in beautiful diversity—this Christian Church around the Christian feast. There is no other rallying place for all the good activity and worthy hopes of man. It is in the power of the great Christian sacrament, the great human sacrament, to become that rallying place.
II. And then the ministry, the ministers, what a life theirs must be, whenever the Church thus comes to realise itself! We talk today, as if the ministers of the Church were consecrated for the people. The old sacerdotal idea of substitution has not died away. What is the release from such a false idea? Not to teach that the ministers are not consecrated, but to teach that all the people are; not to deny the priesthood of the clergy, but to assert the priesthood of all men. When that great chain is made, and justified in life, then, and not till then, lordship over God’s heritage shall disappear, and the true greatness of the minister, as the fellow-worker with, and servant of, the humblest and most struggling child of God, shall shine out on the world.
III. Yet once more, here must be seen the true place and dignity of truth and doctrine. It is not knowledge anywhere that is the end and purpose of man’s labour or of God’s government. It is life. It is the full activity of powers. Knowledge is a means to that. Why is it that the Church has magnified doctrine overmuch and throned it where it does not belong. It is because the Church has not cared enough for life. She has not over-valued doctrine; she has under-valued life. When the Church learns that she is, in her idea, simply identical with all nobly active humanity, when she thinks of herself as the true inspirer and purifier of all the life of man, then she will—what? not cast her doctrines away, as many of her impetuous advisers would have her do. She will see their value as she has never seen it yet; but she will hold them always as the means of life, and she will insist that out of their depths they shall send forth manifest strength for life, which shall justify her holding them.
Phillips Brooks, Twenty Sermons, p. 42.
References: 1Ti 3:15.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., No. 393; vol. xxiv., No. 1436; J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 359; Plain Sermons, vol. ii., p. 177. 1Ti 3:15, 1Ti 3:16.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. iii., p. 74; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 207.
1Ti 3:16
I. Note the facts recorded. These you will perceive to be points in the life of our Lord, commencing with His incarnation, and, reaching through the intermediate period, to the time of His final exaltation. Take away the Divinity of Christ, and His example, and His teaching, and His promises lose their power, and the whole body of faith becomes cold and formal as a carcase from which the living spirit has fled.
II. The greatness of the mystery involved in these facts. Wonderful beyond the thoughts of man are the manner and the completeness and the glory of redeeming love.
III. The practical lessons to be derived from these thoughts. (1) Foremost of all is the duty of believing and accepting this wondrous redemption, as alike due to God and necessary for ourselves. To know the will of a Saviour, and the sufficiency of His redeeming merits, and the glory of the inheritance which He has prepared for His people, will but aggravate despair if we are cut off from personal participation in them. (2) Again, we ought to give to these blessed hopes of salvation an importance predominant above all things else in the world. They ought to occupy the same place in our own estimate of life as they occupy in the dealings of God towards mankind. There we see that they are the first and the last, the Alpha and Omega of all. (3) See how vast is the debt of gratitude we owe to Him, who bought us with His blood. All we have, and all we are—our zeal; our worship; our praise; our faith, though it never fainted; our hope, though it never grew weak; our love, though it never was chilled, would be but a poor instalment of its payment. It will be the glory and bliss of heaven to go on for ever fathoming its length, and breadth, and depth, and height, and yet for ever to find it towering upward above our utmost thought, in the infiniteness of that love which passeth knowledge.
E. Garbett, The Soul’s Life, p. 76.
Joy to All People—a Christmas Homily.
Every revelation is either an enigma or the solution of an enigma,—a riddle or the reading of a riddle, according as we approach it. In the one case, it is a "mystery," in the human sense; in the other case, it is a "mystery," in the Divine sense; in the sense which mystery uniformly bears in Scripture—not an unfathomable, inscrutable dogma, to which the mind must bow in its formal utterance, without endeavouring, without expecting to comprehend it, but a secret which God has told for the edification, for the comfort, of an inquiring, a perplexed, a struggling soul.
I. Which of us has not oftentimes felt the pressure upon him of the want of God. In seasons of adversity, of disappointment, of sickness, of sorrow, of anxiety, of loneliness, of the conviction of sin, who would not give anything for the personal assurance that he has God Himself with him. Nothing less than Incarnation—which is the incorporation of God with the creature—could have enabled God to feel with us in our trials. He rested not in words of pity, nor in acts of help, but came Himself to be one of us: surely this was a wonderful addition to what could otherwise have been; surely it is enough to make the Incarnation the most blessed of His gifts, and this festival of Christmas the brightest and happiest of our year.
II. The Incarnation is the key to Gospel doctrine, in both parts. It brings together the dignity of the body and the supremacy of the spirit. It says to us, God Himself, when He would deal most intimately with His creatures, began by taking to Himself a body. In that body He tabernacled through a lifetime, submitted even to grow in stature and wisdom, to eat and to drink, to sleep and to awaken, to speak, and pray, and work, to die, and to rise, to ascend into glory. Thus He taught us by His own example, how this framework of the body may be consecrated to His use, how even the spirit needs it for action, how the work even of eternity will want a body, glorified, but not destroyed, to do it as it must be done. The Incarnation, mysterious in one sense, is the key to all mysteries in another. God gives it, if not as an explanation, yet as a reconciliation; showing us, in Christ, how the body is honoured, and what is its place in the economy of the fulness of time. For action alike, and for communion, an incorporeal being is but half a man. Let us rest in nothing short of the full Christian doctrine. Tidings of great joy, the angel called it who came with it from God’s presence. Joy to all people he further called it, as though to remind us that the Emmanuel’ of our being, the God with us, was equally necessary to high and low, to rich and poor, to youth and age, to health and sickness, to life and death. The Desire of all nations is come to His temple, and that temple is the heart of mankind.
C. J. Vaughan, Words of Hope, p. 1.
The Mystery of Godliness.
I. The mystery of godliness may properly be taken as the description of God’s dealings with mankind. How impossible it is for us to comprehend, even in a moderate extent, the dark, mysterious riddles which we meet with in the history of the world; the mere existence of evil there; the existence of a power competing with that of God Himself, and a power so strong as sometimes to appear capable of baffling the Holy Spirit of God; the existence of one whose position is such that he could venture to say to the Lord: "The kingdoms of the earth are committed to me, and to whomsoever I will I give them."
II. The simplest Christian, who knows very little, it may be, of the history of the world, may find abundant evidence of the mysteriousness of God’s dealings if he looks into the mystery of himself. If he regards his life as a thing for him to speculate upon and unravel, then, forthwith, he will lose himself, and he will find endless riddles such as no human wit can solve; the guide has been a pillar of cloud after all, a cloud which may be followed as a safe guide in the wilderness, but into which, if he penetrate, he will inevitably lose his way.
III. If, then, we find that mystery essentially belongs to the revelations of God; if we find that in all there is light enough to guide, but not light enough to puff men up, as though they were able to comprehend the infinite, why should we not expect to find the same character of mystery belonging to the revelation of God to men in Jesus Christ? Here, above all, God gives light enough for guidance, but not light enough for unbounded speculation. It is good for us that the gate of godliness should be a gate of humility; it is good for us that we should admire the mercy of God, while we confess His ways to be past finding out; it is good that, as the elders cast down their crowns before the throne, so we should throw down all pride of intellect and self-conceit, and walk humbly with God.
Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, vol. iii., p. 274.
Few words in the New Testament have ever been more strangely misinterpreted than these; few could be found which have been equally perverted, inasmuch as they have been used to inculcate notions the very opposite to their real meaning. They have been constantly quoted as speaking of the darkness and difficulty of some points in Christianity, whereas their real purpose is to commend the great and glorious nature of these truths which it has made known.
I. The substance of the Gospel revelation is, that God was manifest in the flesh, and justified in the Spirit; that He was seen of angels, and preached to the Gentiles; that He was believed on in the world, and received up into glory. This, then, is the mystery of godliness; this is the great truth, unknown and undiscoverable by our unaided reason, which the Gospel has now made known to us. The knowledge of God the Father is not called a mystery, because a mystery, in the language of the Apostles, means a truth revealed which we could not have found out if it had not been told us. Yet, as experience has shown that men did not, in fact, make themselves acquainted with God the Father, so it has been mercifully ordered that even what we could have discovered if we would, has yet been expressly revealed to us; and the Law and the Prophets are no less full and plain in pointing out our relations to God the Father, than the Gospel is in pointing out our relations to God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.
II. True it is, that the Bread of Life does not nourish us all, and, instead of seeing that the fault is in ourselves, and that with our sickly bodies the most wholesome food will lose its virtue, we are apt to question the power and usefulness of the food itself. True it is, that if we were but good and holy, it would be an idle question to ask about our faith, when our lives sufficiently declare it. But not more foolish is it to suppose that a man can be strong and healthy without wholesome food, than to think that we can be good and holy without a Christian’s faith. Those who have tried it know that without that faith they would be nothing at all, and that, in whatever degree they have overcome the world and themselves, it is owing to their faith in the promises of God the Father, resting on the atonement of the blood of His Son, and given and strengthened by the abiding aid and comfort of the Holy Spirit.
T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 70.
I. To live on the edge of mystery is the very condition of our being. If we begin to discard doctrines from the Christian scheme because they are mysteries, it is hard to say where the process will end. Discard the Trinity, there remains the Incarnation. Discard the Incarnation, there remains the Atonement. Discard the Atonement, there remains the life of Christ, the miracles of Christ. Discard St. Paul, there remains the Church—there remains, without adequate explanation, the world’s history for eighteen hundred years.
II. There is no attempt in the Bible to conceal the fact that the Revelation which it conveys is mysterious. It is not unnatural that the human mind, in its pride of conquest and of power, should chafe impatiently under limitations which make it conscious of its feebleness. But it is not for us to fix the conditions of the Divine gifts. The brightest things are ever the most dazzling. We cannot gaze full in the face of the noonday sun; and the darkness in which God hides Himself is simply, we are told, light unapproachable.
III. All minds, it must be admitted, have not passed through the same discipline, nor can build their hopes on the same foundation. To some one truth has proved more precious than another—more full of light, or strength or comfort. Saul might feel safe in the battle in his armour of proof, David, when trusting to nothing better than his shepherd’s sling and stone. But any truth that is held as truth, is a help towards attaining further truth. It is the posture of the will before the Divine message that is the condition of knowing the doctrine. The temper in which we believe is much more important than the greater or less articulation of our creed. A stout ship, ere now, has outridden the wildest gale on a single cable. It is a dragging anchor—an unstable mind—that tells of the coming wreck of faith.
Bishop Fraser, University Sermons, p. 29.
References: 1Ti 3:16.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii., No. 786; vol. xviii., No. 1087; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 156; Expositor, 1st series, vol. ix., p. 382; H. P. Liddon, Christmastide Sermons, p. 107; Ibid., Church Sermons, vol. i., p. 97; C. Kingsley, National Sermons, p. 257; Homilist, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 86; J. H. Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 68; J. Kennedy, Ibid., vol. xxi., p. 57; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 376; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 275; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 86. 1Ti 4:1-5.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. iii., p. 142. 1Ti 4:6-16.—Ibid., p. 224; Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 65; R. W. Dale, Ibid., vol. vi., p. 289.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Division 3. (1Ti 3:1-16; 1Ti 4:1-16.)
Division 3. (1Ti 3:1-16; 1Ti 4:1-16.)
The house of God and the holiness belonging to it.
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We now come really to the house of God itself first of all, indeed, to that which was instituted for the preservation of the character which it should necessarily have as the house of God. The elder, or overseer, and the deacon are provisions for the expression, on the one hand, of that godliness which belongs to it as such, and also of that character which we see must necessarily belong to it as the house of a Saviour-God, and whose love, therefore, must be shown by ministry to the need, which is, in fact, ordered on God’s part, to draw out and cultivate the spirit so necessary in the Christian. These things are all that we may learn how to conduct ourselves in the house of God. Whatever special place Timothy might have and had, yet the conduct of any in the house of God must befit the place in which he is. The directions even as to elders and deacons are not, so to speak, merely for their own sake; they show us the character that God values and seeks from His people, giving it only an emphasis which cannot certainly make the lesson for us less.
1. The bishop, commonly so-called, or "overseer," as the word means, comes before us first here. His title of office expresses the character of it. The man himself who is to fill the office is the "elder," though not here named as such. We have the two brought together in the plainest way in the apostle’s address to the elders at Ephesus in the book of Acts, where, calling for the elders of the Church, he bids them to take care for the Church of God, in which the Holy Spirit had made them bishops, or overseers. The elder (elder in years) is necessarily the one who is alone fit for such an office. The incongruity of a young man being appointed to it should be obvious at first sight. It is a place which requires experience, and which calls for a reputation on the part of one who fills it, gained not all at once, but as he is tested and manifested by the testing. He was appointed specifically to this work, did not appoint himself to it, though he might aspire to such, and desire a good work in aspiring to it. In fact, work of this character is what there is, perhaps, more danger of men shrinking from than aspiring to. Not every elder in years would therefore be what his years should have made him, and the apostle’s words indicate here that the love to others which necessarily exists in the Christian heart should lead him to desire labor of this kind. It is labor, not authority, that he desires. The appointment, which is what is called ordinarily ordination now, was that which manifestly gave authority. The idea everywhere entertained today that the evangelist, or teacher, needs such authority for the exercise of his proper gift, is an entire mistake as to the very purpose of the ordination. A gift speaks for itself. It is the "manifestation of the Spirit," as the apostle says, which is for every man to profit with it; that is, he is to use it for the profit of others. The fact of the gift entails the responsibility of using it, and to seek authority from man in this way is, however ignorantly, to slight the authority of God, which can make no mistake in the gift that has been given. People would say, of course, that the question here is as to the possession of the gift; but there is in Christianity, as we have seen, the widest liberty for every one, without pretension, to help another according to the full capacity which he may realize to do so. Christians will easily determine for themselves whether it is help that they are getting or the reverse. We know the baker by the bread he gives us. We know the teacher by the spiritual food which he supplies. Ordination at the hands of a certain number of any limited class sets aside in reality the responsibility of every one to take heed for himself as to what he hears. The teaching is supposed to have been otherwise guaranteed to him, and he has little to do except to sit down and receive that which comes with such a sanction. The abuse is everywhere manifest, and the abuse is inherent in such a use of ordination as we find here. The conscience of both hearer and teacher is taken away from its proper immediate exercise before God, and human influences get their leave to rule in a disastrous way. The independence of the teacher must be secured in obedience to the Spirit Himself, who is in this respect the true Overseer every way and, on the other hand, the one who hears is to be in no wise dependent upon the teacher. The unscriptural thought of a minister and his congregation gives, in fact, the teacher a monopoly of instruction which a true soul, uninfluenced by tradition, would surely, as a matter of course, refuse. Who would desire to assume responsibility of giving to those under him all that they need in this way, shutting out the divers gifts in the body of Christ, as himself all-competent to be all gift? God’s way is at once that of liberty to serve, and of service instead of rule, which in this case is out of place. Wherever it is a question of teaching or evangelizing, the authority is in the Word itself, and no other is needed. The Word is maintained in its place as the decisive word of God, to which all are to be subject, and is that also which every one is responsible for himself to recognize, and empowered to do so by the Spirit which is received. If the teaching becomes in any wise erroneous, so as to affect fundamental points, of course the discipline of the assembly comes rightly into its place. Apart from this, the rule is, as the apostle says of prophesying in the assembly: "Let the prophets speak" -give them also their liberty -"and let the rest judge." All party spirit, all working of men’s minds merely, in this way finds its most effectual power of restraint. But we have here to do, not with the evangelist or teacher, but with the overseer, who is indeed to be "apt to teach;" that is, he is to be able to use the word of God as he has received it. If he could not do this, he could have no right influence or authority over others; but this does not amount to a teacher’s gift, and in fact we find elsewhere that the elders that rule well are to be accounted "worthy of double honor, specially those who labor in the word and doctrine." If they labored in the word and doctrine, that was an additional thing, and of necessity deserved additional honor; but the elder might rule well, apart from that. In the case, then, of oversight of the kind that is indicated here, (that fatherly oversight which he has shown his readiness for by having his children in subjection in his own house) ordination had its rightful place. There might be matters to inquire into which it would be in no wise well for every one to have liberty for. On the other hand, we never hear of an elder in a place or congregation, but of elders. It was not the rule of one man that could be tolerated even here. Too much power of this sort man cannot be safely trusted with; while, on the other hand, the presence of a class which had such authority would be necessarily of great advantage. It is evident that the elders in no wise interfered with the responsibility of assembly discipline, however much they might be leaders here; but the assembly in this was to act as the assembly everywhere, in its own place and responsibility.
The character needed in the overseer will now be easy to understand. A man might rightly aspire to oversight, as has been already said. He might rightly crave the ability to help in matters in which every assembly, in fact, needs help. If he desired it as a good work, not for personal display, it was all well. But the overseer must be irreproachable. There must not be a cloud upon him. His moral character must be spotless in the eyes of all. He was to be the "husband of one wife, sober, discreet, decorous, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, but mild, not given to contention, not fond of money." Here is the moral character which becomes him, and it needs scarcely to be enlarged upon. A special point is that which follows here, and we see how necessarily the elder would be both an elderly and a married man. There must have been time to show his power to conduct well his own house, otherwise how could he take this larger care as to the assembly of God itself? The apostle does not exactly say "the house of God" because, as we may believe, he is thinking of the local assembly, and the house of God is a larger thought than that; but the care, nevertheless, is similar. It is a fatherly care, suited to the house of God as such, although he cannot be the father in that house, as in fact he never was the father, even in one assembly. There was a community of fathers, for the house of God needs the care of many, and the various ability implied in this. He was not to be a novice, even though he might have all other qualifications. He should be a man tried, and therefore who has had time for the trial, "lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil;" that is, should fall into the sin for which the devil is condemned. A solemn word this, which has been commented on, perhaps, sufficiently elsewhere; but here we have the primal sin itself, in view of which God has acted all the way through human history, and in the very creation of man no less. How solemn to think that a being created in perfection, one of those "angels that excel in strength," who are the type of creature independence so far as this can be spoken of, should fall in the only way, perhaps, in which we can think of any possibility of a fall on the part of such an one, by self-occupation, self-admiration; and what an awful fall it was! How has God hedged man around in this respect to hide pride from him, with the limitation of a human body, naturally a naked creature, inferior in some respects to the beasts around him, whose nature, too, in many respects he shares!
A limitation this, which the fall has only been the means of more strictly circumscribing, so that the lesson shall be more fully learned at last. In how many ways, spite of all, may this pride seek its satisfaction; nay, its recognized place, one might almost say, among Christians themselves. and how many current systems provide more or less for this! Man in the office of an elder must be specially one who has shown himself not easily lifted up with pride. He must show that he has laid to heart the lesson of his origin, and of all God’s dealings with him by the way. His testimony also must be good from those that are without. God does not make light of a man’s testimony from the world itself, although we must not expect the world to appreciate that which is peculiarly Christian in him; but he must have a good testimony in this way, so as not to fall into reproach, (and bring reproach, therefore, upon those among whom he has a place of this sort,) and into the snare of the devil, the accuser, who will be apt to buffet and render him useless by this very reproach.
2. The deacon is, in the strict meaning of the word, the "minister" one who serves; and this word is applied in a larger way than to the local office which is here indicated by it. Here, no doubt, the minister was such as in the case of the seven appointed in Jerusalem; whose duty it was to "serve tables." This expressively indicates what is in question. It is the bodily need especially that the deacon serves. In this way he cannot and must not forget that he is the spiritual man, and that all lesser and lower things are necessarily to have their character from their spiritual bearing. The ministry of the assembly is the outflow of the heart drawn out by the needs which God permits for this purpose. It is the same principle as that which obtains in the whole body of Christ, here more in outward things; but there is, of course, nothing secular in it, nor indeed is there to be anywhere, in any point of Christian life. Those chosen in the Acts were to be "men full of the Holy Spirit," no less; and we may be sure that they needed and could find use for all that this implies. Stephen and Philip are beautiful examples of those who in such ministry acquired "for themselves a good degree, and much boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus."
The deacons, then, are to be "grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not seeking gain by base means;" and while not absolutely, as in the case of an elder, needing to be "apt to teach," yet must hold "the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience." Faith and conscience are thus to be joined together, as we have already seen. Mere orthodoxy is incompetent everywhere. If the conscience is not under the authority of the truth, the truth can only be a burden to one instead of the blessing that it should be. The deacons, also, were to be men who had been tested, and had abode the test. They were to be entrusted with things which manifestly have their power of temptation even among Christians. They are to be first proved, and then to minister as those without blame and who have approved themselves. The wives are mentioned also in a special manner here, as not in the case of the elder, which has also, no doubt, to do with the relative characters of the two offices. The wives were to be "grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things." The deacons, too, were to be "husbands of one wife, conducting their children and their own houses well." We are reminded of Philip’s daughters who were prophetesses, when Philip himself had risen to a larger sphere of labor than that which was his at Jerusalem in the first place. In this way they would "acquire for themselves a good degree," they would be helped in helping, and find boldness also in the faith in Christ.
3. The apostle now tells Timothy that he was writing these things that he might know how to conduct himself in the house of God. Holiness becomes God’s house forever. The holiness which should be found in the houses of His people is, of course, but the mere reflection of this. Yet here, too, the character of the house is left in measure to the responsibility of those who are in it. A responsibility indeed it is, for this house of God is the assembly of the living God, indwelt by the living Spirit, the witness for Christ upon the earth. As this, it is of necessity "the pillar," proclaiming, and "the ground of the truth," supporting it by its character; and this remains always in principle the same, although, alas, the failure of man has come in plentifully, as we know, to affect it. Still, if we think of Christendom itself, we could not look outside it for the truth, or for the character which the truth emphasizes. We must not, indeed, look at the masses -that is sadly true; but we cannot look outside the profession of the faith for this faith that is professed. The truth which it declares is of the most marvelous character. It is "the mystery of piety" -thus, that which is necessary absolutely to godliness, as we have already seen. Without the truth there will be no godliness; but here it is "the mystery of piety," not the truth simply which Israel had, but much more than this, and having features which, though we may find them in germ in the Old Testament, yet, after all, are peculiar in the full sense to the Christianity which has replaced it. A mystery is always something hidden; but which, nevertheless, is made known to those initiated. To them it is not a mystery any longer, not a secret, but a thing revealed, however much it be true that indeed there are heights and depths in it which no man has ever fathomed, or will fathom. This mystery is in a Person, acquaintance with whom, if it be real, in the heart, is piety itself. It is "He who hath been manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, received up in glory."
The opening clause here is, as we all know, contested. Our common version is: "God was manifested in the flesh." The Revised has it as here: "He who hath been manifested." It is a question of text, which criticism is answering in a way, perhaps, somewhat distasteful to one who cleaves most to the blessed thought, which is, however, really the same, however we read it. We are not really so poor in texts regarding the deity of Christ as to take so seriously the loss of this one; but in fact it is only a superficial view that we do lose it: for WHO is it that has been "manifested in the flesh"? What do such words mean? We cannot think of angels; we cannot think of a man manifested in the flesh. Deity it must after all be, and the language is almost equivalent to that which the apostle John uses in the place in which he is giving us the very criterion of orthodoxy in this matter: "Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in flesh is of God." That is the confession, to deny which constitutes an antichrist; yet the deity of Christ is no more positively stated there than in the questioned passage before us. But who could speak of a man come in flesh? And there is no doctrine of an angel so coming, to be put in opposition to that which is plainly the true one. The manifestation of God is that which is the intent and purpose of all divine communications. It can be nothing else here than God manifested in the flesh, whether this be stated or only implied. The passage, even as commonly read, has been taken by those unsound in the doctrine, the Gnostics, as merely a sort of appearance, a manifestation indeed, but not a personal one. The connection with what follows, however, speaks in favor of the new rendering. One can hardly say "God justified in the Spirit." This latter clause, which speaks of the descent of the Spirit of God upon Christ, making Him thus the Christ, the Anointed, refers to Him as the Man Christ Jesus, the Second Man, wholly approved of God, refusing the first fallen one. It is quite true that here also is the One to whom God at the same time testifies as His beloved Son, but the expression has reference to the white robe in which the priest must offer, or the unblemished character of the lamb of sacrifice. It is thus John, who has seen the Spirit descend, testifies of Him as "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world;" and the whole scene is in harmony with this.
In any case, as already said, it is the Lord’s deity that is implied here. There is no meaning really otherwise in it; and what a wonderful thing it is, flesh, the human nature as identified with its lowest part, with just that which speaks of weakness and mutability, yet the vessel of the display of Deity itself! A Man here is found who can give God His character -single and alone can do it. The One who has revealed Himself in the Old Testament as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, (and then we must look at these as types, rather than at the men themselves,) is now revealed in One who as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ awakes the whole heart to worship. The lowliness of the manifestation is an essential part of its glory. The "vessel of earth" (although not in the same sense in which the apostle speaks of it in Corinthians) discloses, is fitted to disclose, the excellency of a power which is all of God. It is not a gleam of glory that is there, but the full reality of it, which will make the throne of God forever to be also the throne of the Lamb. God and man are here in such relation that the one is, so to speak, essential to the other. There must be truest humanity and there must be the full truth of Godhead, or the revelation is lost. It must be the Creator who becomes the Redeemer. If it were any way possible, which it is not, yet the moral impossibility of God leaving the work of redemption to another should be manifest at once. It is God Himself who thus wins man’s heart to Himself. It is God who has this double claim now upon His creature. It is thus He wins for Himself the creature He has made.
From this point His justification in the Spirit becomes a necessity. God has not repented of His creation of man. Here the thought that He had in the beginning as to him is revealed. Here is the blessed Man before us who embodies that thought -One upon whom, without shedding of blood at all, because of His own perfection, the Holy Spirit can abide -nay, we should say, must abide. Our justification is, as we have seen in Corinthians, by the Spirit too; the Spirit now able to dwell in us because of the perfection in which we are before God; but this is no perfection of our own. It is the perfection of the work accomplished for us and of Him in whom we stand. On the other hand, Christ as indwelt of the Spirit is the testimony to His own perfection, and this can never know any change. He is thus the Christ, the Anointed One. This becomes His very title -the Man approved of God, and approved as suited for the work with which He here connects Himself, just come out of that retirement in which He had been before the eye of God alone, to take His place openly as ministering to man, and that to the giving up of Himself in death; as Jordan, out of which He has come up, testifies.
The next thing that we have here shows us the grandeur of the scene for which the revelation is. It is a revelation in manhood, in flesh; but it is a revelation "seen of angels." The principalities and powers become not merely spectators, but spectators of that which is wonderful blessing for them, even while the Lamb of sacrifice is, of course, not for them; but we have seen in Ephesians that God the Father as revealed to us in Christ is thus "the Father of every family in heaven and earth." The relation of Fatherhood is necessarily characterized by all that this revelation of the Father brings out in it.
In the next clause we have another but a different expansion of the grace that is here: "Preached among the nations" shows that the old hindrances to that which was ever in His heart have been removed, and that now Jew and Gentile alike become the recipients of His favor. He is plainly seen not to be the God of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. Thus He is "believed on in the world." Though it be true that it is by the power of the Spirit only that anything is effected, yet there is this response in the world at large to the revelation made. That which Judaism could not accomplish, the Gentile world being practically almost untouched by it, is now accomplished. Man’s heart awakens in the new spring-tide of blessing which is opening up, and which, whatever the conflict yet with the cloud and darkness, is destined at last to banish them from the earth, and Christ "lifted up" from the earth to draw men unto Him.
With all this ensured, then, the final word here is: "Received up in glory." The glory of God from which He has come, once more receives Him. The cloud may for a while hide Him from the earth which His presence has so blessed, nevertheless it is only to open new scenes of higher blessing to man himself. He has glorified God upon earth, and God has glorified Him in heaven. There is hence not only a light breaking out through the opened veil for men, but also a way opened in for men into the place in which He is.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Concerning the Officers of the Church
Concerning the Officers of the Church
1-7. The fourth charge to Timothy, in respect to presbyters.
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1. Desireth a good work] i.e. a noble occupation.
2. A bishop] RV 'the bishop,' RM 'overseer.' Some think (see General Intro.) that the terms 'bishop' and 'elder' are used interchangeably in these Epistles, as they seem to have been at an earlier date (Act_20:28; Php_1:1). Others, however, think that, at the close of the apostolic age, to which these Epistles belong, the term 'bishop' was coming into use in the sense of a chief ruler of the Church, or presiding elder, and that that is the meaning here. In favour of the latter view it is urged that 'bishop' in these Epistles occurs only in the singular, and always with the definite article ('the bishop': see RV Tit_1:7), whereas 'elder' is found in the plural, and where it occurs in the singular has no article (1Ti_5:1, 1Ti_5:17, 1Ti_5:19; Tit_1:5). The question, however, requires to be handled with caution, owing to the limited and imperfect knowledge we have of the development of Church organisation in the first century.
The husband of one wife] lit. 'a man of one woman.' Four meanings have been attached to the words: (a) The presbyter is not to be a Christianised Jew, who, in accordance with the Law of Moses, had previously taken two wives. (b) He is not to take a second wife after the death of the first. (c) He is not to marry again while his divorced wife lives, (d) He is to be faithful to his wife, 'a man of one woman,' and 'keep himself only unto her so long as they both should live,' whether it were a first wife or a second wife. The last is probably the right exposition, as set forth by Theodore of Mopsuestia and Theodoret. In any case the presbyter or bishop is contemplated as a married man. Given to hospitality] This injunction was most necessary for the sake of travellers when inns in the modern sense did not exist: see 3Jn_1:5.
4. Having his children in subjection] more exactly, 'having children (who are) in subjection.'
6. Novice] i.e. a recent convert. A 'bishop' or 'presbyter' must have Christian experience. Lifted up] The young presbyter's danger is the pride which led to the condemnation of the devil, and is the snare laid for him by the devil.
8-13. Fifth charge to Timothy—as to deacons and deaconesses.
8. Greedy of filthy lucre] Part of the office of the deacon was to 'serve tables' and administer relief to the poor, so that he had opportunity for peculation and base gains.
9. The mystery of the faith] the Christian faith, which, having once been hidden, is now revealed: cp. 1Ti_3:16.
11. Their wives] RV 'women': but instructions about women in general would not be thus parenthetically inserted. Both Light-foot and Ellicott translate 'deaconesses.' Such an order, which, it is certain, came into existence at a very early date, was especially necessary in the East owing to the strict seclusion of the female sex, who were thus debarred from the ministrations of men. Deaconesses were admitted to their order by the laying on of the bishop's hands ('Apost. Const.' iii. 15, viii. 19). They were not allowed to marry (Can. 15 of Chalcedon). Their duties were to minister generally to women, to assist at the baptism of women, to stand at the women's door of the church, to act as go-between between the clergy and women ('Apost. Const.' iii. 15, ii. 26, ii. 57, ii. 26). There were 40 deaconesses attached to the great Church of Constantinople in the time of St. Chrysostom. The order practically became extinct in the West, perhaps very gradually, after the tenth century, and lingered on rather longer in the East. But in the West it never completely died out in the Church of France, where to this day Benedictine abbesses receive the ordination of a deaconess. Both in England and Scotland it is now revived, and forms a most wholesome and scriptural channel through which organised women's work can be carried on.
12. Husbands of one wife] see on 1Ti_3:2.
13. Purchase] RV 'gain.' A good degree] RV 'standing,' a high position in estimation and influence.
14-16. Importance of the above charges, for the purpose of instructing Timothy how to act as a minister of God's Church—an institution which God has established to hold up the truth as a pillar supports a roof, and to keep it unshaken as a firm foundation gives security to a building. Were it not for the support and steadiness given to truth by the society of faithful men which maintains it, it would ere now have vanished from the earth.
16. Without controversy] rather, 'as we confess'; and then the Apostle quotes some words of an early confession of the Christian faith: 'He who was incarnate; whose righteousness was made manifest; who was an object of open vision to angels; whom the Apostles preached to the world; whom the faithful believed in; who at the end of His ministry was taken up into heaven.' The reading is apparently not God was manifest (AV), but 'He who was manifest' (RV). Mystery] The hidden secret now revealed in Christ, which is the basis of holiness: cp. 1Ti_3:9.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv9, 15, 16 1Ti 3:16 (See Scofield "Mat 13:11")
mystery
1Ti 3:16 (See Scofield "Mat 13:11")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. The overseer (1Ti 3:1-7)
III. CONCERNING THE HOUSE OF GOD
CHAPTER 3
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1. The overseer (1Ti 3:1-7)
2. The deacon (1Ti 3:8-13)
3. The house of God and the mystery of Godliness (1Ti 3:14-16)
1Ti 3:1-7
As stated before, the Church is viewed in these pastoral Epistles as the house of God. The holiness which becomes this house is to be maintained and expressed in a practical way. The different directions given as to overseers and deacons demonstrate what God esteems highly, and what He expects of those who are saved by grace, and who constitute His House. Paul wrote these instructions to his son Timothy, so that he might know how to behave himself in the house of God (1Ti 3:14-15).
Bishops (overseers) are identical with elders (presbyters). For conclusive proof see Act 20:17; Act 20:28; Tit 1:5; Tit 1:7. In both passages the same persons are called both bishops and elders. It is nowhere taught in the Word of God that a bishop has a place of superior authority in the body of Christ, as head of a diocese, etc. These things as practised in the Romish, Episcopal and other ritualistic churches are according to human ordinances.
The work of the overseer is learned from Paul’s statement in Act 20:28: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood.” The Holy Spirit called them into this work, for He is the great administrator in the church. Each local church had not one overseer or bishop, but a number of them, showing that the authority was not vested in one person only (Php 1:1). If anyone desired the office of an overseer, he desired a good work. It is a good work to exercise loving and patient care over souls which are beloved of God, and so dear to Him, who purchased them by His own blood. Such a desire would be the result of the Spirit of God, who laid the work of an overseer upon the heart. Paul then gives Timothy the qualities which a bishop or overseer must have. He must be blameless, that is as to his moral character irreproachable, with nothing whatever against him. “He must be the husband of one wife.” This has been explained as excluding all who had been married twice. This is incorrect. It may refer to those who were as pagans married to more than one woman, for polygamy was practiced among the heathen in that day, as it is still. Converted to Christianity these pagans were in an unhappy condition, and on account of it could not exercise oversight in a local church.
On the other hand this inspired qualification of an overseer or bishop is a complete and crushing refutation of the celibacy of the Romish priesthood. He also must be vigilant, sober, of a good behavior (modest), given to hospitality and apt to teach (2Ti 2:24). (“Apt to teach” has also been translated “ready to learn.”) Among the other qualifications we point out especially the one “not greedy of filthy lucre,” that is, he must not be a lover of money. This is mentioned several times in the epistles to Timothy and to Titus. And Peter in exhorting the elders also writes, “Feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind” (1Pe 5:2). The Holy Spirit anticipated the corruption of church office and ministry through the love of money. He is also to rule well his own house and have his children in subjection, “For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?”
We see all these are moral qualifications. They are to be men of mature age, who had shown in the government of their own household their fitness for the more blessed work of having oversight in a local assembly. A new convert may begin to give a testimony for the gospel as soon as he has believed, but fitness for oversight, to be an elder, required time and a practical walk in the truth. Therefore Paul writes, “not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into condemnation of the devil.” How often this has been true, that in some assembly a young convert with natural gifts was made much of, and then became lifted up and aspired, like Diotrephes (3 John) to have the preeminence.
1Ti 3:8-13
“Deacon” means “a servant,” one who ministers. The seven chosen in Act 6:1-15 to serve tables were deacons. They were to be occupied with the external affairs of a local church, to serve the bodily need. Without entering into the different qualifications, which need hardly any further comment, we point out only one. “Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers--sober, faithful in all things.” As the deacons had their work in external things, in connection with the family and family life of a local church, there was danger of their wives making mischief and becoming busybodies and tale-bearers; hence the instruction to the wives of the deacons. Nothing was said to the wives of the overseers; theirs was a different sphere.
1Ti 3:14-16
Paul expected to come shortly to be with Timothy, from which we gather that he was not then a prisoner. In the words which follow we have a threefold mention of the church on earth.
1. It is the Home of God. God dwells in it on earth. Its leading characteristic on earth must be holiness. “Holiness becometh Thine house, O Lord, forever” (Psa 93:5). All Paul had written, his solemn charge concerning sound doctrine, a good conscience, prayer for all men, about overseers and deacons, was to teach Timothy and to teach us also, how to behave in the house of God, as on earth. God dwells in the church on earth. And He who dwelt among Israel and said, “I am holy, be ye also holy,” makes the same demand of the house in which He dwells now.
2. The second name is the Church of the living God. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the living God, dwells in the church. She is the habitation of God by the Spirit (Eph 2:22). She is therefore set apart for Himself, not of the world, as He, who is the blessed Head of the body, is not of the world.
3. The pillar and support of the truth. While our Lord was on earth He said, “I am the truth.” He is so still; and His Word is the truth. The church is here to maintain this truth on earth, to contend earnestly for the faith delivered unto the saints. She is the witness for Christ on earth, Christ who is hidden now with God. Therefore the true Church is the pillar of the truth, in proclaiming it. Woe! to the men who meddle with the truth of God, and by their wicked criticism try to undermine the support of the pillar and the house of God. God shall destroy them for their evil work (1Co 3:17). When the Church leaves the earth, then the truth will be abandoned, and complete apostasy has come. As long as the true Church (though it only may be a feeble remnant) the pillar and support of the truth, is on the earth, the complete apostasy cannot come (2Th 2:1-17). From all this we learn that the presence of the living God and the maintenance of the truth are the foremost characteristics of the house of God.
1Ti 3:16 brings before us the mystery of godliness (piety). It is that which the church on earth is to witness to. This mystery is the Lord Jesus Christ ( Col 2:1-23). The first fact of the mystery is, “God was manifested in the flesh.” (The Revised Version on account of textual criticism changed this to “He who hath been manifested in the flesh.” Some would therefore rule out this text as one which speaks of the deity of our Lord. But even if it were positive that the correct reading is “He” instead of “God,” it does not affect the argument. The “He” could not be any one else but the Son of God.) It is the incarnation. God Himself has been manifested in the form of man. The Creator God came to be the Saviour God. He appeared on earth as man. “Justified in the Spirit.” Upon Him, the second Man, the Spirit of God descended. He lived the holy life on earth. The power of the Holy Spirit was manifested throughout His life on earth. And having offered Himself by the eternal Spirit without spot to God, the power of the Holy Spirit marked Him out as Son of God in resurrection. “Declared the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom 1:4). His resurrection, by God the Father and through the operation of His Spirit (Rom 8:11) justified Him as Son of God.
“Seen of angels.” Not only did man see Him as John testifies, “that which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life”--but angels saw Him. The host of angels witnessed His entrance into the world, surrounded Him and were present with Him in His life on earth. He was seen of angels in His resurrection, and seen of angels when He ascended on high to take His place at the right hand of God, far above all principalities and powers, becoming the head over all things, the head of the Church. And to these heavenly principalities and powers there is now made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God (Eph 3:10). “Preached unto the Gentiles.” The good news is preached in the whole world. Jews and Gentiles hear the message, and especially is He preached to the Gentiles. “Believed on in the world.” As a result of the preaching, the hearing of the Word of God, He is believed on, and those who believe on Him constitute the house, the Church of the living God. “Received up in glory.” He ascended to the glory from which he had descended. He glorified God on earth, and now, as the Risen One, God has glorified Him in heaven. And some day all who believed on Him in the world will also be received up in glory, to be with Him where He is. And all this is the truth which is to be maintained and preached in the house of God.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 14 The Office of a Bishop, or Pastor.
The Office of a Bishop, or Pastor.
v. 1. This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
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v. 2. A bishop, then, must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
v. 3. not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
v. 4. one that rules well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;
v. 5. (for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?)
v. 6. not a novice, lest, being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil.
v. 7. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
Here is a very complete table of duties for pastors and all public teachers in the Church, very much like that given in the first chapter of the letter to Titus: Trustworthy is the word, If any one covets the office of a bishop, he desires an excellent work. The doctrine which the apostle here teaches concerning the episcopal office, or ministry, is true, certain, trustworthy for all times. St. Paul here refers to the overseership, to the office of the ministry, in a very casual way, showing that he was not introducing a strange or new order of things. Originally the ministers of the Word and the deacons together seem to have formed the presbytery of the congregations, the former being designated as bishops, or overseers. It was only at the end of the first century that the chairman of the board of presbytery received the definite title of "bishop," which name was later applied only to the highest church officer in a diocese, city, or district. The hierarchical system of the Roman Church and of the Church of England is not based upon any command of the Lord, but is a mere human institution. Paul is speaking of the simple conditions as they obtained at his time when he states that if one aspires to the office of a bishop, he desires an excellent work. The ministry is a work, a labor, a toil which is fine, excellent, precious, good, not on account of the persons engaged in it, but on account of its object, Eph 4:8-12. Both preachers and hearers, however, should remain conscious of the fact that it is a service, a work, a labor, whose obligation and responsibility, not to speak of the actual activity, both mentally and physically, make it anything but a sinecure if it is properly done. The apostle therefore commends such men as aspire to this office, as are willing to take upon themselves the labor which the grace of God imposes upon them in this most glorious of all occupations.
The apostle now enumerates the principal qualifications of a bishop, of a minister of the Gospel: It is necessary, then, that a bishop be blameless. This demand, in a measure, anticipates and includes all the attributes that are named by the apostle. A minister must have a blameless, irreproachable character; he must lead such a life, not that he be altogether sinless, but that he abstain from all conduct which would rightly render him infamous in the opinion of the world. As the first requisite under this heading, St. Paul mentions: the husband of one wife, that a pastor lead a chaste and decent life, confining his attentions to his wife, if he have one, as he normally will, not living in concubinage or bigamy, or rejecting a woman to whom he is lawfully betrothed for another. Furthermore, a pastor should be sober, not only temperate in every form of sensual enjoyment, but filled with spiritual sobriety, and therefore careful, cautious, discreet, able to retain his cool judgment at a time when practically the whole world is swept with a flood of false enthusiasm and of a "Christianity" which is strongly anti-Biblical. A Christian minister and teacher, moreover, must be sound-minded, firm in character, fully master of himself, not a play of his affections and passions; decorous, displaying his spiritual sound-mindedness in his conduct, in his actions, in his speech, in the proper tact toward all men with whom he comes into contact; in short, every pastor should be a refined, courteous, polite gentleman.
These attributes of the person will naturally find their application in the entire life of the minister or teacher. He will be given to true hospitality, not in encouraging tramps or other undesirable loafers, but in showing all love toward strangers, especially those of the household of faith, Rom 12:13: Heb 13:2; 1Pe 4:9. He must be apt to teach, able to impart knowledge to others; there must be either a natural or an acquired ability, for which reason this point is of prime importance in the training of future pastors and teachers. A congregation has a right to expect, to demand, this qualification, for unless a minister is really in a position to communicate the Christian doctrine to his hearers, he will be lacking in an essential point of his office.
The next attributes concern the relation of a pastor not only to his own members, but also to those that are without. He must not be addicted to wine, to the habitual, intemperate use of strong drink of any kind, he must not be a friend of carousals. "his is demanded with all the greater emphasis, since it may result in wanton profligacy as well as in drunken quarrels, in which he is apt to become, as Paul puts it, a striker, a quarrelsome person, always stalking about with a chip on his shoulder, engaged in heated controversy at the slightest provocation. Instead of these vices of recklessness, pride, and selfishness the apostle counsels leniency, bidding the minister be mild, be ready at all times with a conciliatory tone, avoid dissension and quarrels as long as it can be done without denial of the truth, abstain from selfishness, from covetousness and avarice. If these sins take hold of a person, they render him unfit for the glorious work of the ministry and for dispensing its priceless blessings.
The apostle now emphasizes the function of overseer which belongs to the office of the ministry: One able to manage his own house well, keeping his children in subjection by the application of all gravity (but if any one does not know how to manage his own house, how will he take the proper care of the Church of God?). A minister should have the ability to lead, to rule. He must exhibit the dignity and gravity which is conscious of the obligation resting upon him, also in his own home; he cannot be a mere figurehead. His rule and. management of his own house must be in conformity with the office entrusted to him. His children, therefore, must be in a state of submissiveness to him; he must guard his fatherly authority with quiet firmness of character. There may be cases, of course, in which children will go wrong in spite of all the efforts of the father to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But in general it holds true that people may rightly draw conclusions as to a pastor’s ability to be an overseer of the flock by the success of his management at home. If he cannot take proper care of the small house congregation entrusted to him, how much less will he be able to give proper attention to the needs of every member of his larger flock? If he cannot do justice to the responsibility of managing those dependent upon him by nature, how will he do justice to the pastoral care of the children of God in the congregation?
The apostle now concludes his enumeration of the qualifications of a bishop: Not a novice, lest he, filled with conceit, fall into the judgment of the devil. A recent convert to Christianity should not be given the responsible position of bishop. He is still too weak and too inexperienced in spiritual matters; he is not yet able to meet the dangers and temptations of the office successfully. And the greatest danger would be in his own mind, namely, that his elevation to this high office tends to make him conceited, inflated with vanity. Should this condition result, however, then the inexperienced novice would fall into the condemnation of the devil, the judgment which struck Satan on account of his pride, on account of which he was cast out of heaven and met his doom. But just as a person that aspires to the office of a bishop must guard against the sin of pride, so he must use all careful watchfulness against the wary traps of the deceiver: But it is also necessary that he have a good report among outsiders, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil: The apostle does not mean to say, of course, that a Christian pastor should try to please all men, even with denial of the truth in word or deed, but he does demand that the candidate for the ministry shall have such a reputation in the community that criticism as to his moral life shall have no foundation, that nothing really infamous can be laid to his charge. Should public opinion, in such a case, be discredited and defied in a superior spirit, the result may be a discrediting, a reproach which may work harm to the Gospel of Christ. The censure directed against the person of the candidate would then be transferred to his office. In consequence of this not only he himself may fall into the snare of the devil by being driven back into his former sins, but the offense of the occurrence would be used by Satan to work in others an aversion to the doctrine of Christ. The dignity and beauty of the ministry is so great that the greatest care must be exercised in observing the qualifications here enumerated and in selecting such candidates for the pastoral office as measure up to the standard here set.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 11, 14, 16 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul gives some special instructions on how the overseers of the church should act and be.
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a good work
"an honorable task"
husband of one wife
An overseer must have only one wife. It is unclear if this excludes men who have been previously widowed or divorced, or never married.
He must be moderate, sensible, orderly, and hospitable
"He must not do anything to excess, must be reasonable and behave well, and must be friendly to strangers"
He must not be addicted to wine, not a brawler, but instead, gentle, peaceful
"He must neither drink too much alcohol nor like to fight and argue, but instead he must be gentle and peaceful"
a lover of money
"greedy for money"
translationWords
trust
oversee
good
reproach
teach
wine
peace
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 11, 14, 15, 16 3:1-13 The topic shifts to church leadership by elders…
3:1-13 The topic shifts to church leadership by elders (3:1-7) and deacons (3:8-13). Timothy’s role in the appointments is less clear than that of Titus (see 5:17-22; Titus 1:5), possibly because the church in Ephesus was more mature and thus better able to manage the process (cp. Acts 6:2-6). The criteria listed here pertain to character rather than function and are partly a response to the local heretics. Reading this letter in the churches would make the criteria public and demonstrate the unfitness of the heretics for leadership.
3:1 trustworthy saying: See study note on 1:15. • a church leader: The translation assumes that “overseer” and “church leader” (see study note on 5:17-18) are the same office (see Titus 1:5-7). In the Greco-Roman world, an overseer was a religious, civic, or military supervisor.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.