Bible Commentaries
1 Timothy 3

Verses 1-16

1 Each ecclesia in Paul's day seems to have had two distinct classes of officers, if we may so term them. There were the supervisors (sometimes called overseers or bishops), and the servants (or deacons). The supervisors seem to have had a general oversight of the ecclesia and its members, while the servants took a subordinate place, rendering such service as the ecclesia stood in need of. The qualifications for these positions are here given. Young and untested men were not welcome to these responsibilities. Indeed, it seems taken for granted that the supervisor is an elder (Compare Titus 1:5; Titus 1:7). Both supervisors and servants must show their fitness by controlling their own households.

15 In this epistle the ecclesia is the public exponent of the truth. It is called "God's house." Like a pillar in the temple it upheld and manifested the truth of God. In Paul's second letter to Timothy, written after the apostasy had set in, he calls the ecclesia a "great house" in which are utensils both honorable and otherwise. Such is the case today. The church is no longer "the pillar and base of the truth."

16 Not only is the manuscript evidence against the reading "God manifest in flesh", but other considerations force us to the same conclusion. In the typical teaching of the tabernacle the curtain represented His flesh (Hebrews 10:20). Now the veil did not reveal, but rather hid the Divine presence. It could not be said to manifest it. The phrase "justified in spirit" is also inept when applied to Christ. The proclamation among the nations is out of place, as no such ministry was attempted until long after He had been "taken up in glory." The whole passage is concerned with conduct. The secret of devout conduct is traced in its various manifestations in those who are its subjects. It should be manifested in flesh by the ideal acts which it produces, it enjoys justification in spirit, is the subject of angelic inspection (Ephesians 3:10), is proclaimed among the nations, and will be removed from the world before the Lord appears in judgment.