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1 Timothy 3
1This is a faithful saying: someone who seeks to be an overseer a good work.
2The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching;
3not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;
4one who rules his own house well, having children in subjection with all reverence;
5(for how could someone who doesn’t know how to rule his own house take care of God’s assembly?)
6not a new convert, lest being puffed up he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.
7Moreover he must have good testimony from those who are outside, to avoid falling into reproach and the snare of the devil.
8Servants, in the same way, must be reverent, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for money,
9holding the mystery of the in a pure conscience.
10Let them also first be tested; then let them serve if they are blameless.
11Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things.
12Let servants be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.
13For those who have served well gain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the which is in Jesus.
14These things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly,
15but if I wait long, that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
16Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great: God was revealed in the flesh, in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, on in the world, and received up in glory.
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Questions this passage answers
What does the Bible say about money?
Scripture treats money as a real good that God provides and as a rival master that can own a person. It never calls money evil; it calls the love of money a root of all kinds of evil, warns that no one can serve both God and wealth, and directs the rich to generosity and everyone to contentment. Its main question about money is not how much you have but who you are serving with it.
What does the Bible say about contentment?
Scripture presents contentment as something learned rather than felt, grounded in a promise rather than in circumstances. Paul says he learned it in plenty and in hunger, Hebrews grounds it in God's word that he will never forsake us, and 1 Timothy calls godliness with contentment great gain while naming food and clothing as enough.
Why did Jesus come to earth?
Scripture answers this in his own words more than once. He came to seek and to save the lost, to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many, to do the will of the Father who sent him, to bear witness to the truth, to fulfil the law and the prophets, to destroy the works of the devil, and to give life. Not one of those statements is about setting an example only, and every one of them ends up at the cross and the empty tomb.
Can God forgive any sin?
Yes. Scripture repeatedly says that God's forgiveness reaches sins as scarlet, murder, persecution of the church and open blasphemy, provided the sinner turns to him in genuine repentance and faith. The one sin the Bible treats as unforgivable is a settled, final rejection of the Spirit's own witness to Christ, and the very fact that a person is troubled about having committed it is itself strong evidence they have not.