² Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

⁷ For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;

⁸ Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;

²⁶ Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.

²⁷ For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

²⁸ Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

3 Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work,

³ Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;

⁷ Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?

³ And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

¹⁵ Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

³¹ And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God.