1 Timothy 3:1-7 - Qualifications For Overseers

¹ Faithful is the saying, "If any one is eager to have the oversight of a Church, he desires a noble work." ² A minister then must be a man of irreproachable character, true to his one wife, temperate, sober-minded, well-behaved, hospitable to strangers, and with a gift for teaching; ³ not a hard drinker nor given to blows; not selfish or quarrelsome or covetous; ⁴ but ruling his own household wisely and well, with children kept under control with true dignity. ⁵ (If a man does not know how to rule his own household, how shall he have the Church of God given into his care?) ⁶ He ought not to be a new convert, for fear he should be blinded with pride and come under the same condemnation as the Devil. ⁷ It is needful also that he bear a good character with people outside the Church, lest he fall into reproach or a snare of the Devil.