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