King James Version › 1 Timothy › 3

1 Timothy

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1 This is a true say­ing, If a man de­sire the of­fice of a bish­op, he de­sireth a good work. 2 A bish­op then must be blame­less, the hus­band of one wife, vig­i­lant, sober, of good be­haviour, giv­en to hos­pi­tal­i­ty, apt to teach; 3 Not giv­en to wine, no strik­er, not greedy of filthy lu­cre; but pa­tient, not a brawler, not cov­etous; 4 One that ruleth well his own house, hav­ing his chil­dren in sub­jec­tion with all grav­i­ty; 5 (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) 6 Not a novice, lest be­ing lift­ed up with pride he fall into the con­dem­na­tion of the dev­il. 7 More­over he must have a good re­port of them which are with­out; lest he fall into re­proach and the snare of the dev­il. 8 Like­wise must the dea­cons be grave, not dou­ble­tongued, not giv­en to much wine, not greedy of filthy lu­cre; 9 Hold­ing the mys­tery of the faith in a pure con­science. 10 And let these also first be proved; then let them use the of­fice of a dea­con, be­ing found blame­less. 11 Even so ­must their wives be grave, not slan­der­ers, sober, faith­ful in all things. 12 Let the dea­cons be the hus­bands of one wife, rul­ing their chil­dren and their own hous­es well. 13 For they that have used the of­fice of a dea­con well pur­chase to them­selves a good de­gree, and great bold­ness in the faith which is in Christ Je­sus. 14 These things write I unto thee, hop­ing to come unto thee short­ly: 15 But if I tar­ry long, that thou mayest know how thou ought­est to be­have thy­self in the house of God, which is the church of the liv­ing God, the pil­lar and ground of the truth. 16 And with­out con­tro­ver­sy great is the mys­tery of god­li­ness: God was man­i­fest in the flesh, jus­ti­fied in the Spir­it, seen of an­gels, preached unto the Gen­tiles, be­lieved on in the world, re­ceived up into glo­ry.