Book of Common Prayer

What manner of man a bishop or priest ought to be, and how his wife and children should be. The qualities also required in a deacon or minister and in his wife.

3 This is a true saying: if a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. ² Yea and a bishop must be faultless, the husband of one wife, sober, discreet, respectable; who is welcoming toward others and giving of shelter; able to teach; ³ not drunken, no fighter; not given to the love of money, but gentle, abhorring quarrels, abhorring covetousness; ⁴ and one who rules his own house well, having his children under obedience with all respectfulness. ⁵ For if a man cannot manage his own house, how will he care for the congregation of God? ⁶ He may not be a young scholar, lest he swell and fall into the judgment of the evil speaker. ⁷ He must also be well reported of among those who are outside, lest he fall into rebuke and the snare of the evil speaker.

⁸ Likewise must deacons be honourable: not double-tongued, not given to much drinking, nor to the love of money, ⁹ but having the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. ¹⁰ And let them first be proved, and then let them minister, if they be found faultless. ¹¹ Even so must their wives be honourable: not evil speakers, but sober and faithful in all things. ¹² Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, and such as rule their children well, and their own households. ¹³ For those who minister well win good standing for themselves, and much trust in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴ These things I write to you trusting to come to you shortly, ¹⁵ but if I am long in coming, so that you may yet have knowledge how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the congregation of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth.

¹⁶ And there is no denying, great is the mystery of godliness: God was shown in the flesh, was confirmed in the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached to the Gentiles, was believed on in earth, and received up in glory.

¹⁸ Then he said, What is the kingdom of God like? or to what shall I compare it? ¹⁹ Is is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden; and it grew, and developed into a great tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.

²⁰ And again he said, To what may I liken the kingdom of God? ²¹ It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three bushels of flour until it was leavened right through.

²² And he went through all manner of cities and towns, teaching and journeying towards Jerusalem.

²³ Then someone said to him, Lord, are there few that will be saved?

And he said to them, ²⁴ Strive with yourselves to enter in at the strait gate. For many, I say to you, will seek to enter in, and will not be able. ²⁵ When the master of the house has risen up and has shut the door to, you all will begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us! And he will answer and say to you, I know you not, where you are from. ²⁶ Then you will begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in your presence, and you have taught in our streets. ²⁷ And he will say, I tell you, I do not know you, where you are from; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity!

²⁸ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out at the doors. ²⁹ And people will come from the east and from the west, and from the north and from the south, and will sit down in the kingdom of God. ³⁰ And behold, there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.