1This is a faithful saying: someone who seeks to be an overseer desires a good work. 2The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching; 3not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; 4one who rules his own house well, having children in subjection with all reverence; 5(for how could someone who doesn’t know how to rule his own house take care of God’s assembly?) 6not a new convert, lest being puffed up he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. 7Moreover he must have good testimony from those who are outside, to avoid falling into reproach and the snare of the devil.
8Servants, in the same way, must be reverent, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for money, 9holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. 10Let them also first be tested; then let them serve if they are blameless. 11Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things. 12Let servants be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. 13For those who have served well gain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
14These things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly, 15but if I wait long, that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. 16Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great:
God was revealed in the flesh,
justified in the spirit,
seen by angels,
preached among the nations,
believed on in the world,
and received up in glory.
Three groups of people are in view in 2 Timothy 4:3-5. His special interest is for believers and his exhortation for believers is based on the importance of truth. Paul uses this word in 1 Timothy 2:4, 7; 3:15; 4:3, and 6:5. In the short letter of 2 Timothy he does similarly in 2:15, 18, 25; 3:7, 8, and 4:4. This teaching does not only apply to his generation of believers but those of subsequent generations, even to our day ("the time will come"). His command comes from the fact that all Scripture comes from the mouth of God, and that this being true it gives the preacher the authority to teach doctrine, reproof, rebuke, and correct believers.
The second group that the apostle addresses is believers who will not be faithful to the truth taught in the Word of God. He says those who claim to be believers "will not listen to sound doctrine." In light of this lure to stop preaching what is true, Timothy is to "preach the Word." When those who profess Christ are led aside to falsehood by turning "away their ears from the truth, and turn away to fables" (vv. 3, 4), Timothy is to be watchful. He is to be willing to suffer hardship, even as his mentor had done and was still doing while in a Roman prison. Timothy was to tell the good news of Jesus and complete the service that God had for him, even as Paul enunciates he has done in verses 6-8.
The third group are teachers who are willing to forsake the truth at the urge of people that no longer want to hear the truth. These teachers may be even like Demas, mentioned in verse 10, but church history and our modern day has many examples of preachers who know little of the Bible and, thus, the truth, but instead use the ministry largely for their own profit and pride. This is diametrically different from their Lord Jesus, the apostles, and many preachers who have been faithful over the centuries.