Qualifications for Overseers

1Faithful is this word: If anyone aspires to the position of a bishop, he desires a good work.

2It is necessary, therefore, for a bishop to be irreproachable, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, well-behaved, hospitable, skillful at teaching;

3not given to wine, not a bully, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not loving money;

4one ruling his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence;

5(for if one does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?);

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

7Moreover he must have a good testimony among those outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Qualifications for Deacons

8Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not being given to much wine, not greedy for money,

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

10But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being irreproachable.

11Likewise their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.

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

13For those who have served well as deacons obtain a standing for themselves and much boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

The Mystery of Godliness

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

15but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how it is necessary to conduct oneself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.

16And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and was received up in glory.