In this passage, Paul addresses specific qualifications for overseers in the church and emphasizes the importance of a man’s character versus his competency, skills, or academic degree. These men must be blameless and above reproach, husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well and thought well of others. He must also not be a recent convert. Not every teacher will be an elder, but every elder must teach. Let us hold our elders up in prayer, remembering that their job is a fine work and one with much responsibility before the Lord our God.
