Thematic Bible: Bishop


Thematic Bible





The Presiding-Officer should be a man of blameless character; a faithful husband; living a temperate, discreet, and well-ordered life; hospitable, and a skillful teacher, not addicted to drink or brawling, but of a forbearing and peaceable disposition, and not a lover of money; he should be a man who rules his own household well, and whose children are kept under control and are well-behaved. read more.
If a man does not know how to rule his own household, how can he take charge of the Church of God? The Presiding-Officer should not be a recent convert, that he may not be blinded by pride and fall under the same condemnation as the Devil. He should also be well spoken of by outsiders, that he may not incur censure and so fall into the snares of the Devil.

My reason for leaving you in Crete was that you might put in order what had been left unsettled, and appoint Officers of the Church in the various towns, as I myself directed you. They are to be men of irreproachable character, who are faithful husbands, whose children are Christians and have never been charged with dissolute conduct or have been unruly. For a Presiding-Officer, as God's steward, ought to be a man of irreproachable character; not self-willed or quick-tempered, nor addicted to drink or to brawling or to questionable money-making. read more.
On the contrary, he should be hospitable, eager for the right discreet, upright, a man of holy life and capable of self-restraint, who holds doctrine that can be relied on as being in accordance with the accepted Teaching; so that he may be able to encourage others by sound teaching, as well as to refute our opponents. There are, indeed, many unruly persons--great talkers who deceive themselves, principally converts from Judaism, whose mouths ought to be stopped; for they upset whole households by teaching what they ought not to teach, merely to make questionable gains.


How true is that saying! When a man aspires to be a Presiding-Officer in the Church, he is ambitious for a noble task. The Presiding-Officer should be a man of blameless character; a faithful husband; living a temperate, discreet, and well-ordered life; hospitable, and a skillful teacher, not addicted to drink or brawling, but of a forbearing and peaceable disposition, and not a lover of money; read more.
he should be a man who rules his own household well, and whose children are kept under control and are well-behaved. If a man does not know how to rule his own household, how can he take charge of the Church of God? The Presiding-Officer should not be a recent convert, that he may not be blinded by pride and fall under the same condemnation as the Devil. He should also be well spoken of by outsiders, that he may not incur censure and so fall into the snares of the Devil.