1st Timothy Chapter 3 verse 4 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 4. - One that ruleth well his own house. The ἐπίσκοπος is one who has to preside over and rule (προίστασθαι) the house of God (1 Timothy 5:17; Romans 12:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:12), as the high priest was called "ruler of the house of God" (1 Chronicles 9:11; Nehemiah 11:11). So in Justin Martyr the bishop is called ὁ προεστῶς τῶν ἀδελφῶν ('Apology,' 11) and simply ὁ προεστῶς, and similarly in Hebrews 13:7 the clergy are οἱ ἡγούμενοι ὑμῶν, "they which have the rule over you." How needful, then, is it that he should rule well his own house, and have his own children in subjection! The testimony given in this passage to a married clergy is too clear to need any comment. In subjection (ἐν ὑποταγῇ); as above, 1 Timothy 2:11, where see note. For the sense, comp. Titus 1:6, which leads us to apply the words, with all gravity (σεμνότητος), the contrary to "riot," ἀσωτία), to the children. The children of the ἐπίσκοπος are to exhibit that seriousness and sobriety of conduct which is in accordance with their father's office, μετά, together with, as in 1 Timothy 1:14.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(4) One that ruleth well his own house.--Paul here again turns to the vein of thought first struck in 1Timothy 3:2 : The life of the officer in the Church of God must be a pattern life for those without, as well as for those within the Church's fold, to copy and imitate. He must be pre-eminent in nobility of life and aims; but the life and the aims must belong to ordinary every day life. His high standard must be no inimitable one; the example must be one that all honest men may follow and copy, if they will. So, first of all (1Timothy 3:2), the Apostle places among the qualities necessary for a governing elder in the Church, the pure home life of the husband; then, after enumerating other points to be sought for in the character of one chosen to rule in the congregation, Paul comes back to this central idea, the home life of the Church official; that home life must present the spectacle of a well-ordered household. This will be at least a good test of a man's fitness to rule the large family gathered together in the form of a congregation, if his own home is gently yet firmly ruled; the wife, a pattern Christian lady; the children growing up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.Having his children in subjection with all gravity.--The Greek word rendered "gravity" occurs in 1Timothy 2:2, where it is translated in the authorised version, not very happily, by "honesty." The word employed in the original Greek denotes that decorum, that propriety of demeanour, which belongs especially to the pure and chaste, and seems to urge that a peculiar reverence and an especial decorum shall be aimed at in all relations with the young. Maxima debetur pueris reverentia. The child life in the families of these ministers of Christ's religion must, too, be an example to countless other homes.