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1 Timothy / Qualifications for Church Leaders and the Mystery of Godliness
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Qualifications for Church Leaders and the Mystery of Godliness

1 Timothy 3:1-16

3
Chapter 3
1 The saying is trustworthy: if anyone aspires to oversight, he desires a good work. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. 3 not a drunkard, not a brawler, but gentle, peaceable, not fond of money, 4 managing his own household well, having children in subjection with all reverence; 5 6 not a newly planted one, lest being puffed up he fall into the judgment of the Devil. 7 But he must also have a good testimony from those outside, so that he does not fall into reproach and a trap of the devil. 8 Deacons likewise must be reverent, not double-tongued, not giving attention to much wine, not shamefully gain-seeking, 9 holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. 10 And let these also be tested first; then let them serve, being blameless. 11 Likewise, dignified women, not slanderers, sober-minded, faithful in all things. 12 Deacons must be husbands of one wife, managing their children and their own houses well. 13 For those who have served well acquire for themselves a good standing and much boldness in the faith in Christ Jesus. 14 These things I write to you, hoping to come to you quickly, 15 But if I am delayed, so that you may know how it is necessary to conduct oneself in God's house, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. 16 And confessedly great is the mystery of godliness: Who was manifested in flesh, was justified in Spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among nations, was believed in world, was taken up in glory.