Qualifications for Overseers and Deacons
1 Timothy 3This is a faithful saying: anyone who seeks to be an overseer desires an excellent work. The overseer therefore must be without reproach, a one-woman man, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, peaceable, free from the desire for money. They must manage their own household well, having children in subjection with all reverence (for how could someone who doesn’t know how to manage their own house take care of God’s church?), not a new convert, so that they don’t come conceited and fall into the same condemnation as the devil. They must also have an excellent reputation with outsiders, so that they won’t fall into disgrace and the snare of the devil.
Deacons likewise must be reverent, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for sordid gain, holding the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. They must first be tested, then let them serve as deacons if they are blameless. Likewise, the women must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things. A deacon must be a one-woman man, managing their children and their own household with excellence. For those who have served as deacons with excellence gain for themselves an excellent standing and great confidence in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
These things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly, but if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. By common confession, the mystery of godliness is great:
He was revealed in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the ethnic groups, believed on in the world, and taken up in glory.