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.

⁴³ But when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he walks throughout dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. ⁴⁴ Then he says, I will return again into my house, the one I came out of. And when he comes back, he finds the house empty and swept and set in order. ⁴⁵ Then he goes his way and gets seven other spirits worse than himself, and so they enter in and dwell there. And the end of that man is worse than the beginning. That is how it will be with this evil nation.

⁴⁶ When Jesus was still speaking to the people, his mother and his brethren stood outside, desiring to speak with him. ⁴⁷ Then someone said to him, Look, your mother and your brethren are standing outside, and want to speak with you. ⁴⁸ He answered and said to the one that had told him, Who is my mother? or who are my brethren? ⁴⁹ And he stretched forth his hand over his disciples and said, Behold my mother and my brethren. ⁵⁰ For whosoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, sister, and mother.