ACC ~ 1 Timothy 3 v8 - 13

OVERVIEW:

Paul does not include a separate discussion of the qualifications for presbyteroi (elders, priests), because this order is considered identical with that of the bishops (CHRYSOSTOM, THEODORE, THEODORET, AMBROSIASTER, PELAGIUS). The instructions for women are directed at female deacons (CHRYSOSTOM, THEODORE, THEODORET, PELAGIUS), though it was claimed by some that the ordination of such women was a Montanist aberration (AMBROSIASTER). Deacons serve according to God’s own service to us (POLYCARP).

3:8a | Deacons Likewise

SERVING AS GOD SERVED. POLYCARP: Likewise the deacons should be blameless before the Lord’s righteousness, as servants of God and Christ and not of men; not slanderers, or double-tongued, not lovers of money, temperate in all matters, compassionate, careful, living according to the truth of the Lord, who became a “servant of all”; to whom, if we are pleasing in the present age, we shall also obtain the age to come, inasmuch as he promised to raise us from the dead. LETTER OF POLYCARP 5.2.

3:8b | Not Double-Tongued

NO NEW COMMANDMENT. ATHANASIUS: What Moses taught, Abraham observed. What Abraham observed, Noah and Enoch acknowledged, discriminating pure from impure and becoming acceptable to God. For Abel too in this way witnessed, knowing what he had learned from Adam. This one himself had learned from that Lord, who said, when he came at the end of the ages for the abolishment of sin, “I give no new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which you have heard from the beginning.” In the same way also the blessed apostle Paul, who had learned it from the Lord, when describing ecclesiastical functions, forbade that deacons, not to say bishops, should be double-tongued. In his rebuke of the Galatians, he made a broad declaration: If anyone preach any other gospel unto you than that which you have received, let him be anathema, as I have said, so say I again. DEFENSE OF THE NICENE DEFINITION 2.5.

DECEIT DEBASING. CHRYSOSTOM: Not hollow, or deceitful. For nothing so debases a man as deceit, nothing is so pernicious in the church as insincerity. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 11.

NO DOUBLE TALK. THEODORET OF CYR: “Not double-tongued” means that the deacon is not to be a person who says one thing to one person and something else to another. INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRST LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

THE PARTICULAR INTEGRITY OF DEACONS. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Since the ministry of deacons is at least as much toward the women in the community as the men, their integrity is all the more important. They are to be honorable and sincere in performing the duties assigned to them by the presbyters. COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

3:9 | The Mystery of the Faith

TEACHING ABOUT JESUS. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: The mystery of faith referred to by the apostle here is the teaching about Christ, which he is about to expound in what follows. COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. PELAGIUS: The mystery of faith is the passion of Christ, out of which comes the redeeming process by which our salvation is won. “The clear conscience” refers to the fact that the person who knows this mystery purely is not confounded by the spectacle of Christ’s humiliation, or, it means that this mystery should be preached straightforwardly, piety not requiring anything beyond the statement itself. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

3:10a | Let Them Also Be Tested First

APPROPRIATE CAUTION. CHRYSOSTOM: Would it not be absurd that when a new servant is not entrusted with anything in a house till he has by long trial given proofs of his character, yet that one should enter into the church of God from a state of heathenism and be at once placed in a station of preeminence? HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 11.

ONE STEP AT A TIME. GREGORY THE GREAT: Orders, then, should be risen to in an orderly way; for he courts a fall who seeks to rise to the topmost heights of a place by steep ascents, disregarding the steps that lead to it. LETTERS 106.

3:10b | Blameless

NOT WITHOUT SIN. AUGUSTINE: None could rightly be ordained a minister in the church if the apostle had said, “If any is without sin,” where he says, “If any is without crime”; or if he had said, “Having no sin,” where he says, “Having no crime.” Because many baptized believers are without crime, but I should say that no one in this life is without sin—however much the Pelagians are inflated, and burst asunder in madness against me because I say this: not because there remains anything of sin which is not remitted in baptism; but because by us who remain in the weakness of this life such sins do not cease daily to be committed, as are daily remitted to those who pray in faith and work in mercy. AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS 1.14.28.

3:11 | The Women Also Must Be Serious

WOMEN DEACONS. CHRYSOSTOM: Some have thought that this is said of women generally, but it is not so, for why should he introduce anything about women to interfere with his subject? He is speaking of those who hold the rank of deaconesses. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 11.

WOMEN IN GENERAL. AMBROSIASTER: Paul does not refer here to women deacons, since these are not allowed in the church. It is heretics who have such persons. The reference here is to women in general. COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

3:12 | The Husband of One Wife

DEACONS HELD TO THE SAME STANDARD. CHRYSOSTOM: Observe how he requires the same virtue from the deacons as from the bishops, for though they were not of equal rank, they must be equally blameless, equally pure. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 11.

3:13 | A Good Standing for Themselves

DESERVED ADVANCEMENT. CHRYSOSTOM: “They that use the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree,” that is, heavenly advancement, “and much boldness in the faith of Jesus Christ”; as if he would say, that those who have been found vigilant in the lower degree will soon ascend to the higher. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 11.

A HEAVENLY REWARD. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: A “good reward” refers to a future, heavenly good, since earthly promotion would have required the idea of “better reward.” COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

HELD ACCOUNTABLE. JEROME: Woe to him who, when he has received a talent, has bound it in a napkin; and while others make profits, only preserves what he has received. His angry Lord shall rebuke him in a moment. “You wicked servant,” he will say. “Why then did you not put my money into the bank, and at my coming I could have collected it with interest?” That is to say you should have laid before the altar what you were not able to bear. For while you, a slothful trader, keep a penny in your hands, you occupy the place of another who might double the money. Thus as one who ministers well purchases to himself a good degree, so one who approaches the cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. LETTERS 14.8.

CAREFUL OF HIS OWN SOUL. BENEDICT OF NURSIA: The keeper of the wine cellar for the community shall be chosen out of the community, discreet, mature in his behavior and sober. If a brother chance to demand anything unreasonable of him, he is not to be contemptuous in his refusal but to refuse reasonably and humbly. He is to be careful of his own soul and remember that St. Paul says: “He that has done his duty well, gains for himself a good degree.” He is to show a particular concern for the sick, children, strangers and the poor, as being accountable for them at the day of judgment. RULE 31.