1 Timothy 3:1-7
1599 Geneva Bible
3 2 He setteth out Bishops, 8 and Christian deacons with their wives, 12 children and family, 15 he calleth the Church the house of God.
1 This [a]is a true saying, [b]If any man [c]desire the office of a Bishop, he desireth a worthy work.
2 (A)A Bishop therefore must be unreproveable, the husband of one [d]wife, watching, temperate, modest, harborous, apt to teach,
3 Not [e]given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre, but gentle, no fighter, not covetous.
4 One that can rule his own house honestly, having children under obedience with all honesty.
5 For if any cannot rule his own house, how shall he care for the Church of God?
6 He may not be a young scholar, lest he being puffed up fall into the [f]condemnation of the devil.
7 He must also be well reported of, even of them which are without, lest he fall into rebuke, and the snare of the devil.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Timothy 3:1 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.
- 1 Timothy 3:1 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.
- 1 Timothy 3:1 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.
- 1 Timothy 3:2 Therefore he that shutteth out married men from the office of Bishops, only because they are married, is Antichrist.
- 1 Timothy 3:3 A common tippler, and one that will sit by it.
- 1 Timothy 3:6 Lest by reason that he is advanced to that degree, he take occasion to be proud, which will undo him, and so he fall into the same condemnation that the devil himself is fallen into.
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
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