Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | 1 Timothy 3:2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Timothy 3:2 Now an overseer must be blameless and beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, |
Subject: standards for a preacher/biship |
Bible Note: Hello Victrix, My response here is generally to everyone involved; I tagged it to your post in order to say hello and welcome to the Forum. Welcome! My two cents worth is this. We all have to be careful in our attempts to both interpret and apply the passages in 1 Tim chapter 3. Too often we are quick to point our own crooked finger at the sin of another man, especially when we feel comfortable that his sin is greater than anything we are doing or have done. Here is my point. If having been divorced DISQUALIFIES one from the role of pastor (and I don’t find anywhere in Scripture where that is taught), deacon, elder, etc., then so does not being respected by some; being or having ever been inhospitable; having ever been drunk, having ever expressed violence; having ever quarreled with another, etc. If you find a pastor out there (anywhere at all) who can measure up to this, you have to ask a few more questions. Is he a good teacher? I have witnessed one or two, or three that were not (are they disqualified). Is he above reproach? HUUM. Let’s just cut to the chase- is he BLAMELESS. Well, he’s got to be disqualified. What about the new convert? How to we INTERPRET that? When Paul wrote that, practically everyone in the newly established churches was a new convert (at least in terms of how we might view it 2000 years later). We can’t take one or two of the BIG ones and hold them up and give a pass on the others. They were all given in the same breath so to speak. What we can be sure of is that the love of Christ supersedes all; the mercy of God is incomprehensible and the work of His grace covers a multitude of sins. God bless, Jeff |