Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

3 The word [is] faithful: if any one aspires to exercise oversight, he desires a good work.

² The overseer then must be irreproachable, husband of one wife, sober, discreet, decorous, hospitable, apt to teach;

³ not given to excesses from wine, not a striker, but mild, not addicted to contention, not fond of money,

⁴ conducting his own house well, having [his] children in subjection with all gravity;

⁵ (but if one does not know how to conduct his own house, how shall he take care of the assembly of God?)

⁶ not a novice, that he may not, being inflated, fall into [the] fault of the devil.

⁷ But it is necessary that he should have also a good testimony from those without, that he may fall not into reproach and [the] snare of the devil.

⁸ Ministers, in like manner, grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not seeking gain by base means,

⁹ holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

¹⁰ And let these be first proved, then let them minister, being without charge [against them].

¹¹ [The] women in like manner grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.

¹² Let [the] ministers be husbands of one wife, conducting [their] children and their own houses well:

¹³ for those who shall have ministered well obtain for themselves a good degree, and much boldness in faith which [is] in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴ These things I write to thee, hoping to come to thee more quickly;

¹⁵ but if I delay, in order that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God's house, which is [the] assembly of [the] living God, [the] pillar and base of the truth.

¹⁶ And confessedly the mystery of piety is great. God has been manifested in flesh, has been justified in [the] Spirit, has appeared to angels, has been preached among [the] nations, has been believed on in [the] world, has been received up in glory.

4 But the Spirit speaks expressly, that in latter times some shall apostatise from the faith, giving their mind to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons

² speaking lies in hypocrisy, cauterised as to their own conscience,

³ forbidding to marry, [bidding] to abstain from meats, which God has created for receiving with thanksgiving for them who are faithful and know the truth.

⁴ For every creature of God [is] good, and nothing [is] to be rejected, being received with thanksgiving;

⁵ for it is sanctified by God's word and freely addressing [him].

⁶ Laying these things before the brethren, thou wilt be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished with the words of the faith and of the good teaching which thou hast fully followed up.

⁷ But profane and old wives' fables avoid, but exercise thyself unto piety;

⁸ for bodily exercise is profitable for a little, but piety is profitable for everything, having promise of life, of the present one, and of that to come.

⁹ The word [is] faithful and worthy of all acceptation;

¹⁰ for, for this we labour and suffer reproach, because we hope in a living God, who is preserver of all men, specially of those that believe.

¹¹ Enjoin and teach these things.

¹² Let no one despise thy youth, but be a model of the believers, in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

¹³ Till I come, give thyself to reading, to exhortation, to teaching.

¹⁴ Be not negligent of the gift [that is] in thee, which has been given to thee through prophecy, with imposition of the hands of the elderhood.

¹⁵ Occupy thyself with these things; be wholly in them, that thy progress may be manifest to all.

¹⁶ Give heed to thyself and to the teaching; continue in them; for, doing this, thou shalt save both thyself and those that hear thee.