Oneighty

1 Tim 3:1-7

This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; 3 not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; 4 one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence 5(for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); 6 not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. 7 Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. NKJV

-       James 3:1; Titus 1:7-9

Qualifications of a Bishop

1. Blameless

2. One Wife

3. Temperate

4. Sober-minded

5. Good Behavoir

6. Hospitable

7. Able to Teach

8. Not given to Wine

9. Not Violent

10. Not greedy

11. Gentle

12. Not Quarrelsome

13. Not Covetous

14. Who rules his own house Well

- Children in submission

- If it isn’t working at home don’t export vs 5

15. Not a Novice or new believer

16. Good Testimony or Good reputation.

-         Blameless or above reproach Gen 39:11;

-         As we look, this is a good sized list. Out of the sixteen qualifications that were listed only one of them is a skill. They need to be able to teach, all the rest of the qualifications are issues of character. Our Character is more important than our gifts. I think it is easy to get focused on our gifts, and to work to develop our gifts which is a good thing to develop but it shows that our character is much more important.

-         Lord help us to grow our character. Lord we pray that our character would always be greater then our gifts. We ask that you wouldn’t let our gifts take us where are character can’t keep us.