New Testament: 1Ti 3.2b–7

To read the Bible in a year, read First Timothy 3 on October 23, In the year of our Lord Christ 2021

By Don Ruhl 

If a man desires to serve his local congregation as a leader, in particular as an overseer, his life has to be blameless, and Paul gives an idea of that blamelessness when he wrote: 

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

– 1 Timothy 3.2–7 

In other words, he should exemplify the kind of life that Jesus would live, if he were in the place of that potential overseer. 

Questions: 

• Men, have you thought about serving the Lord in this capacity? 
• Ladies, do you encourage men to serve as elders? 

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