1 Timothy 3:1-16
Aspiring to the oversight (the work of a bishop) must be considered proof of devotion to the assembly. To exercise the office of a bishop (or elder) and of a minister (deacon), it is not a matter of studies or examinations but of moral qualifications. They fall into two categories:
1. a good testimony in the assembly and outside;2. experience acquired in Christian living.In every house there are rules of behaviour, a collective discipline to which everyone is subject. It is the same in God’s house: the assembly (1 Corinthians 14:40). We are in no way free to behave in the church as we wish. It is the pillar on which the name of Christ, the Truth, is written in order to make it known to the whole world. Great is the mystery of godliness because great is the Person on whom our relationship with God is founded. The coming of the Lord Jesus as a man to earth, the perfect righteousness of His whole walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and under the gaze of angels, His Name preached and believed on here below, and finally His ascent into glory form the inseparable components of this intangible mystery entrusted to the church. The latter is responsible before the Lord to uphold and guard all the truth (v. 15).