¹⁷ Have confidence in your leaders^(A) and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you^(B) as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.

¹⁸ Pray for us.^(C) We are sure that we have a clear conscience^(D) and desire to live honorably in every way.

Taming the Tongue

3 Not many of you should become teachers,^(A) my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged^(B) more strictly.^(C)

¹¹ Therefore encourage one another^(A) and build each other up,^(B) just as in fact you are doing.

Final Instructions

¹² Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard^(C) among you, who care for you in the Lord^(D) and who admonish you. ¹³ Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.^(E)

Qualifications for Overseers and Deacons

3 Here is a trustworthy saying:^(A) Whoever aspires to be an overseer^(B) desires a noble task. ² Now the overseer is to be above reproach,^(C) faithful to his wife,^(D) temperate,^(E) self-controlled, respectable, hospitable,^(F) able to teach,^{(G) 3} not given to drunkenness,^(H) not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome,^(I) not a lover of money.^{(J) 4} He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full^[a] respect.^{(K) 5} (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)^{(L) 6} He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited^(M) and fall under the same judgment^(N) as the devil. ⁷ He must also have a good reputation with outsiders,^(O) so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.^(P)