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1 Timothy

1 Timothychapter 3

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Speaks with:1 Timothy 3×5Titus 1×41 Peter 5×22 Timothy 2×2Ephesians 5×2Titus 3×2

Summary

Chapter summary

If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; not given to wine, no striker, not greedy; patient, not a brawler, not covetous; ruling his own house well. Deacons likewise. Grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit. JFB reads the chapter as the qualification-catechism for office.

Context

Epistle · Paul — 1 Timothy overview

  • A. 1–7 The Overseer: Above Reproach at Home and Outside
  • B. 8–13 Deacons Tested First
  • C. 14–16 The House of God and the Mystery of Godliness

The outline

  1. A.The Overseer: Above Reproach at Home and Outsidevv. 1 to 7

    Read vv. 1 to 7 →

  2. B.Deacons Tested Firstvv. 8 to 13

    Read vv. 8 to 13 →

  3. C.The House of God and the Mystery of Godlinessvv. 14 to 16

    Read vv. 14 to 16 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

The faithful sayings of the Pastorals

Pattern

Five times the Pastoral letters mark a church maxim with the formula this is a faithful saying: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, the desire of the bishop's office, godliness profitable unto all things, if we be dead with him, and the charge to maintain good works.

The formula shows the young churches already carried fixed, quotable teaching while the apostles still wrote. Paul stamps each saying reliable, and the five together run from salvation to office to godliness to endurance to good works.

  1. 1 Timothy 1:15

    Christ Jesus came to save sinners

    The first saying carries the gospel itself, and Paul signs it: of whom I am chief.

  2. 1 Timothy 3:1 you are here

    He desireth a good work

    The KJV reads this is a true saying here; the Greek carries the same formula as the other four.

  3. 1 Timothy 4:8-9

    Godliness profitable unto all things

    The saying holds promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

  4. 2 Timothy 2:11

    If we be dead with him

    The saying runs on: we shall also live with him; if we suffer, we shall also reign with him.

  5. Titus 3:8

    Careful to maintain good works

    The last saying is to be affirmed constantly: these things are good and profitable unto men.

The world behind this chapter

1 Timothy 3
When
After Paul's first Roman imprisonment · c. AD 62–64
Where
The qualifications for the men who would lead house churches across a large city
Who first heard it
A church choosing leaders from among its own members, with no buildings, salaries, or titles to offer

The history

There was no church building anywhere in the empire yet. A congregation met in someone's house or in a rented workshop, so the man who led was usually the man whose household hosted, and his family life was on public display to everyone who came through the door.

Clubs and trade associations across the Greek world elected officers, kept rules, and disciplined members. Everyone knew what an association overseer did. What was unusual here was the list of qualities: almost every item is about character and household, and only one — able to teach — is a skill.

'Husband of one wife' is an idiom, and its sense is argued: a one-woman man in faithfulness, or a man not remarried after divorce, or not a polygamist. In a world where a man's outside affairs were expected and untroubling, any of these readings sets a bar the surrounding culture did not.

Hospitality was a genuine office in that world. Public inns were dangerous and often doubled as brothels, so traveling believers depended on being taken in. The leader's house was, in practice, the church's guest room.

What it meant to them

A congregation used to choosing officers by wealth and connections was handed a different list. The question was not how much a man could give but whether his own household respected him.

The short hymn at the end lifts the eyes off the committee work: the one they belong to appeared in a body, was vindicated, was preached among the nations. Household rules matter because that is true.

Sources cited

  • Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity
  • Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This site records the readings below for this chapter. Spelling and word-order differences that change no meaning are passed over.

  • 1 Timothy 3:16

    "God was manifest in the flesh" — two letters apart

    Older Bibles read "God was manifest in the flesh"; newer ones read "He who was manifested." In ancient Greek capitals the difference is two small strokes, and the deity of Christ does not rest on this verse.

    What the manuscripts read here →

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary and Patrick Fairbairn, The Pastoral Epistles.

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