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.
Faith (Gk. πίστις, pistis). (2:8; Matt 8:10; 9:2, 21:21, Mark 2:5, 11:22, Luke 7:9, 18:42, Acts 11:24, 24:24; Rom 3:22, 25, 12:3; 1Cor 13:2, 2Cor 5:7, 13:5, Gal 1:23, 5:6, Eph 4:13, Phil 3:9, Col 2:5, 1Thess 1:3, 2Thess 3:2, 1 Tim 3:9, 6:12, 2 Tim 2:18, 4:7, Tit 2:2, Phlm 5, Heb 6:1, 11:6; James 2:14, 1Pet 5:9, 2 Pet 1:5, Jn 5:4, Jude 3, Rev 2:19, 14:12) Strong’s 4102
This word, very common in the NT (243 times), can mean, 1) that which evokes faith, “faithful,” 2) “trust, confidence, faith,” 3) “body of faith, teaching.” It is a noun of action—related to the cognate verb πιστεύω (pisteuo) to “believe. It is hard to overstate the importance of this word to Christian theology, since relationship between humans and God is always dependent on faith. This verse uses the word in the second sense of “trust, confidence, faith.” Here, the reference is to saving faith, which amounts to trust in the person of Jesus (God—John 1:12; Eph 1:15) and the message of the Gospel (Jesus’ death and resurrection—1 Cor 15:1-5). Saving faith depends on knowing certain information, but also necessarily goes beyond believing these things to be true, to placing personal confidence and trust in what and who is known. In this verse, grace is the cause of salvation; faith is the means.