1Trustworthy is the saying: if anyone aspires to overseership, he desires a noble work.
2The overseer, then, must be beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, sober, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
3not given to drink, not violent, but gentle, peaceable, not a lover of money,
4managing his own household well, keeping his children in submission with all dignity
5(but if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for the church of God?),
6not a new convert, lest, becoming conceited, he fall into the condemnation of the devil.
7He must also have a good testimony from those outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
8Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain,
9holding the mystery of the faith with a clean conscience.
10And these too must first be tested; then let them serve, being beyond reproach.
11Women likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.
12Deacons must be husbands of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.
13For those who have served well acquire for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
14These things I am writing to you, hoping to come to you soon;
15but if I delay, so that you may know how one ought to conduct oneself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
16And confessedly great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in flesh, was justified in spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.
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