ACC ~ 1 Timothy 3 v1 - 7

OVERVIEW:

Paul sets a high standard for the virtue and uprightness of bishops, but not one that is too high, lest there be insufficient persons to fill this office (CHRYSOSTOM). It is right for appropriate persons, upright and talented, to seek this office, as long as marriage, family life and personal behavior are in good order (THEODORET). Paul highlights the essential importance of the cultivation of virtue in the office of bishop (THEODORET). Being a bishop requires the living of a good life (GREGORY OF NYSSA, JEROME, AUGUSTINE). Only the most responsible persons are worthy of ordination to the priestly and episcopal offices (ORIGEN, PELAGIUS).

3:1 | He Desires a Noble Task

A TERRIBLE TEMPTATION. CHRYSOSTOM: The first of all qualities that a priest or bishop ought to possess is that he must purify his soul entirely of ambition for the office. … The right course, I think, is to have so reverent an estimation of the office as to avoid its responsibility from the start. … But if anyone should cling to a position for which he is not fit, he deprives himself of all pardon and provokes God’s anger the more by adding a second and more serious offense. … It is indeed a terrible temptation to covet this honor. And in saying this, I do not contradict St. Paul but entirely agree with what he says. What are his words? “If a man seeks the office of a bishop, he desires a good work.” What is terrible is to desire the absolute authority and power of the bishop but not the work itself. ON THE PRIESTHOOD 3.10-11.

ADMONITION FOR THOSE TAKING ORDERS. JEROME: Should the entreaties of your brethren induce you to take orders, I shall rejoice that you are lifted up and fear lest you may be cast down. You will say, “if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work.” I know that; but you should add what follows: such a one “must be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, chaste, prudent, well-prepared, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker but patient.” … Woe to the man who goes in to the supper without a wedding garment. LETTERS 14.8.

SOME MUST BE DRAGOONED. AUGUSTINE: But you think that this should not have happened to you because you believe that no one should be forced to do good. See what the apostle said, “If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work,” yet how many are forced against their will to undertake the episcopacy. Some are dragged in, locked up and kept under guard, suffering all this unwillingly until there arises in them a will to undertake this good work. LETTERS 173.1.2.

THE BALANCE OF ACTIVITY AND CONTEMPLATION. AUGUSTINE: Consider these three temperaments: the contemplative, the active, the contemplative-active. A man can live the life of faith in any of these three and get to heaven. What is not indifferent is that he love truth and do what charity demands. No man must be so committed to contemplation as, in his contemplation, to give no thought to his neighbor’s needs, nor so absorbed in action as to dispense with the contemplation of God. The attraction of leisure ought not to be empty-headed inactivity but in the quest or discovery of truth, both for his own progress and for the purpose of sharing ungrudgingly with others. Nor should the man of action love worldly position or power, for all is vanity under the sun, but only what can be properly and usefully accomplished by means of such position and power … of contributing to the eternal salvation of those committed to one’s care. Thus, as St. Paul wrote, “If any one aspires to the office of bishop, he desires good work.” He wanted to make clear that the office of bishop, episcopatus, implies work rather than dignity. THE CITY OF GOD 19.19.

WHEN A SCARECROW GUARDS THE VINEYARD. AUGUSTINE: “I want to be a bishop; oh, if only I were a bishop!” Would that you were! Are you seeking the name or the real thing? If it’s the real thing you’re seeking, you are setting your heart on a good work. If it’s the name you’re seeking, you can have it even with a bad work but with a worse punishment. So what shall we say? Are there bad bishops? Perish the thought, there aren’t any; yes, I have the nerve, the gall to say there are no bad bishops; because if they are bad, they aren’t bishops. You are calling me back again to the name and saying, “He is a bishop, because he is seated on the bishop’s throne.” And a straw scarecrow is guarding the vineyard. SERMONS 340A.6.

RIGHTLY ASPIRING TO A GOOD WORK. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: The office of a bishop is a good work, dearest brethren, as the blessed apostle says, “Whoever wants to be a bishop aspires to a noble task.” Now when “task” is heard, labor is understood. Therefore whoever desires the office of bishop with this understanding wants it without the arrogance of ambition. To express this more clearly, if a man wants not so much to be in authority over the people of God as to help them, he aspires to be a bishop in the true spirit. SERMONS 230.1.

3:2a | Above Reproach

DO NOT DESIRE AN OFFICE IF YOUR ACTIONS DISQUALIFY YOU. CHRYSOSTOM: Blameless: every virtue is implied in this word. If anyone is conscious to himself of any sins, he does not well to desire an office for which his own actions have disqualified him. … For why did no one say of the apostles that they were fornicators, unclean or covetous persons, but that they were deceivers, which relates to their preaching only? Must it not be that their lives were irreproachable? This is clear. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 10.

NOT WITHOUT CRITICS. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: “Without reproach” can scarcely mean “without critics,” since Paul himself had such, but blameless as to living. COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY.

THE ANALOGY OF THE METALSMITH. GREGORY OF NYSSA: When making a vessel of iron, we entrust the task not to those who know nothing about the matter but to those who are acquainted with the art of the smith. Ought we not, therefore, to entrust souls to him who is well-skilled to soften them by the fervent heat of the Holy Spirit and who by the impress of rational implements may fashion each one of you to be a chosen and useful vessel? It is thus that the inspired apostle bids us to take thought, in his epistle to Timothy, laying injunction upon all who hear, when he says that a bishop must be without reproach. Is this all that the apostle cares for, that he who is advanced to the priesthood should be irreproachable? And what is so great an advantage as that all possible qualifications should be included in one? But he knows full well that the subject is molded by the character of his superior and that the upright walk of the guide becomes that of his followers too. For what the Master is, such does he make the disciple to be. LETTERS 13.

3:2b | The Husband of One Wife

GOOD TO BE MARRIED. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Some people run down the law and marriage. To them it is as if marriage were alien to the new covenant and merely a legalism. What do they say in face of this text? Especially those who have such an aversion to sex and childbirth—what have they to say in answer? Paul himself sets it down that leadership in the church should rest with “a bishop who presides successfully over his household” and that “marriage to one wife” constitutes a household with the Lord’s blessing. STROMATA 3.18.

SECOND MARRIAGES. BASIL THE GREAT: The canon absolutely excludes from the ministry those who are twice married. LETTERS 188.12.

ONLY ONE WIFE. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul is not making a hard and fast rule that a bishop must have a wife, but that he must not have more than one. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 10.

WHAT IS FORBIDDEN AND PERMITTED. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: For they [i.e., various interpreters] say that Paul has spoken thus, so that any man who is brought forward to be a bishop and has taken a wife will live chastely with her, being content with her alone as the recipient of his natural desires. Likewise any man who lives on after the death of his first wife may legitimately take a second wife, as long as he lives in the same way with her as with the first, and ought not be prohibited from becoming a bishop. They say that Paul has laid down a canon here. I accept this view, though I am not persuaded that he lays down a specific rule with regard to the second matter, i.e., that of the eligibility of remarried men for episcopal office. COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY.

A DEFENSE OF SECOND MARRIAGE. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: Do not let the once-married set at nought those who have come together in marriage for the second time. For continence is a fine thing and admirable. But folk may be pardoned for contracting a second marriage, lest infirmity end in fornication. CATECHETICAL LECTURES 4.26.

A MEDIATING VIEW. AMBROSE: Therefore, the apostle laid down the law saying, “If any one is without reproach, the husband of one wife.” Whoever, then, is without reproach, the husband of one wife, is included among those held by the law to be qualified for the priesthood, but he who entered a second marriage has not the guilt of pollution, though he is disqualified from the privilege of the priesthood. LETTERS 59.

3:3a | No Drunkard

REASONABLE CONTROL. JEROME: Let your breath never smell of wine, lest the philosopher’s words be said to you, “Instead of offering me a kiss, you are giving me a taste of wine.” Priests given to wine are both condemned by the apostle and forbidden by the old law. … Whatever intoxicates and disturbs the balance of the mind, avoid as you would wine. I do not say that we are to condemn what is a creature of God. The Lord himself was called a “wine-bibber,” and wine in moderation was allowed to Timothy because of his weak stomach. I only require that drinkers should observe that limit which their age, their health or their constitution requires. LETTERS 52.11.

3:3b | Not Violent but Gentle

SMITING THE CONSCIENCE UNSEASONABLY. CHRYSOSTOM: “No striker.” This too does not mean a striker with the hands. What does “no striker” then mean? Because there are some who unseasonably smite the consciences of their brethren, it seems to be said with reference to them. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 10.

REASONABLE CAUSE. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Not striking without reasonable cause, for sometimes this is permitted, if for a good reason and not with undue fierceness. COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY.

VARIED MEANINGS. PELAGIUS: This could range widely in meaning from not delivering blows to the point of death to not striking the consciences of the weak with a bad example. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

3:4-5 | Manage His Own Household

A GOOD STATESMAN. CHRYSOSTOM: The church leader must be “one that governs well his own house.” Even those who are without the church have the saying that one who is a good manager of a house will be a good statesman. For the church is, as it were, a small household. In a house there are children and wife and domestic duties, and some one person has to provide order for them all. So in the church there are women, children, employees and subordinates. As a man has in his wife a partner in power, so does one who presides over the church. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 10.

GUIDANCE TO COUNTER DISBELIEF. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: What is meant by good management, in the case of the children, is that the father is to guide them with wise counsel, such that, if they end up as nonbelievers, it is not his fault. COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY.

TEACHING VIRTUE. THEODORET OF CYR: As a good overseer of his children, the father’s task is not to abdicate to their opinion but to teach them all the virtues, even if he must act strongly to shape their wills. INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRST LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

ONLY BY GOOD SELF-GOVERNANCE CAN ONE GOVERN OTHERS. PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS: Therefore how could we avoid being ashamed as we witness reason harmed by anger and desire, when we see it driven from the authority given to it by God so that in an unholy and unjust manner trouble, discord and disorder are stirred up in us? That is why our blessed and God-given lawmaker proclaimed that anyone who has not put his own house in order is unfit to hold authority in the church of God. For the one who commands himself will command another. LETTERS 8.3.

3:6a | Not a Recent Convert

YOUTHFULNESS NOT THE ISSUE. CHRYSOSTOM: The point is not that the bishop cannot be a young man but that he must not be a new convert. … For if youth only was an objection, why did he himself appoint Timothy, a young man? … But since there were many then who came over from heathen cultures to be baptized, Paul says, “Do not immediately advance to a station of dignity a novice, that is, one of these new converts.” For, if even before he has proved himself as a disciple he is made a teacher, he will soon be lifted up into insolence. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 10.

3:6b | The Condemnation of the Devil

SUBVERTING THE TYRANNY OF PRIDE. CHRYSOSTOM: Indeed, nothing so estranges from the mercy of God and gives over to the fire of hell as the tyranny of pride. … Therefore, let us check this puffing up of the soul, and let us cut out this tumor, if we wish to be pure and be rid of the punishment prepared for the devil. Listen to Paul declaring that the proud must suffer those very penalties: “Not a new convert, lest he be puffed up with pride and incur the condemnation passed on the devil.” HOMILIES ON JOHN 9.2.

LOSING THE BLESSING PROMISED TO HUMILITY. BASIL THE GREAT: His rank should not arouse feelings of pride in the superior, lest he himself lose the blessing promised to humility or “lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the judgment of the devil.” THE LONG RULES, Q.30.R.

CONDEMNED WITH THE DEVIL. AUGUSTINE: What does Paul mean by saying “or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil”? It doesn’t mean he is to be judged by the devil but that he is to be condemned with the devil. The devil, after all, won’t be our judge. He himself fell through pride. Like him, one who has become godless on account of pride will be condemned to everlasting fire. We are to consider carefully, Paul is saying, to whom a position of eminence is given in the church, lest the person being lifted up should through pride fall into the very judgment into which the devil fell. SERMONS 340A.2.

PRIDE INJURES OTHERS. JEROME: Realize how evil pride is from the very fact that there is no excuse for it. Other vices harm only those who commit them. Pride inflicts far more injury on everyone. I am saying all this lest you consider pride a trifling sin. What, in fact, does the apostle say? “Lest he incur the condemnation passed on the devil.” The man who is puffed up with his own importance falls into the judgment of the devil. HOMILIES 95.

3:7a | Well Thought Of by Outsiders

“OUTSIDERS” MEANS CONGREGATIONAL SUPPORT. ORIGEN: Therefore let us see by what order the high priest is appointed. It says, “Moses called together the congregation and said to them, ‘This is the Word that the Lord commanded.’” Although the Lord had given them commands about appointing the high priest and had made his choice, the congregation was still called together. For in ordaining a priest, the presence of the people is also required that all may know and be certain that from all the people one is chosen for the priesthood who is more excellent, who is more wise, who is more holy, who is more eminent in every virtue, lest afterwards, when he stands before the people, any hesitation or any doubt should remain. This is also what the apostle taught when he spoke about the ordination of a priest: “It is necessary to have a good witness from those who are outside.” HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 6.3.1.

TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT WITH OTHER CRITERIA. CHRYSOSTOM: For when St. Paul said, “Moreover he must have good testimony from them that are without,” he does not do away with careful and exact scrutiny, nor does he set up this testimony as a chief sign of assurance about such men. But having listed many requirements already, he added this one afterwards, to show that we must not be content with it alone for this kind of election but only take it into account along with other considerations. For it often happens that popular report is false. ON THE PRIESTHOOD 2.4.

THE RELATIVE VALUE OF POPULAR REPORT. AUGUSTINE: This is not the praise given a man by a few wise and just people but popular report. Indeed, popular report bestows greatness and renown on a man, which is not desirable for its own sake but is essential to the success of good men in their endeavors to benefit their fellow men. So the apostle says that it is proper to have a good report of those that are without. For though they are not infallible, the luster of their praise and the odor of their good opinion are a great help to the efforts of those who seek to benefit them. This popular renown is not obtained by those who are highest in the church, unless they expose themselves to the toils and hazards of an active life. REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICHAEAN 22.56.

LEAVE NO OPPORTUNITY FOR SCANDAL. LEO THE GREAT: The wishes of the congregation and the testimony of the populace should certainly be waited for. The opinions of the nobles and the choice of the clerics should be asked for. These are the procedures ordinarily observed in the consecrating of bishops by those who know the decrees of the Fathers. That would be to preserve in every way the requirement made by apostolic authority which demands that a bishop who is to be in charge of a church must be supported not only by the testimony of his congregation but by a good reputation among outsiders as well. No opportunity for such a scandal should be left. One who is going to be the teacher of peace is himself consecrated in peace and in harmony pleasing to God, through the common efforts of all. LETTERS 10.4.

3:7b | The Snare of the Devil

FALLING BACK. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: This reason is foremost, and in no way weaker than the ones already mentioned, that it is not prudent to entrust the care of others to such a one and to offer such great power so quickly. Why? Because he has not yet given proof of his life and manners, and it is not yet certain as to whether anything is left of his former life, since the devil has many devices to use against him. These are such that he may fall back into old sins. Indeed, because it seems that he has moved away from his former and worse state, he cannot be corrected in the direction of better things, for he is now seen to have had the nurture of others entrusted to him instead. COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY.