1 Timothy 3:1 Back to Ministry

Jump with me to the heart of the matter. 1 Timothy 3:1 does not teach that only men are to be overseers in the church. Verse 2 does not teach that only married men can be pastors. And verses 4-5 do not teach that men only are to manage the household.

1 Timothy 3:1 offers encouragement to the overseers undergoing retraining by saying, “Anyone aspiring to oversight desires a good work.” However, many people cover over the meaning of the verse. They lard it over with teaching full of imported meaning that is foreign to the text. They make it sound something like this: Here’s an 11th Commandment: "Only men should be overseers!" Surprising departure from the previous meaning I described? It certainly is! What do you think of it?

In the verses that follow verse 1 there are other departures from the meaning of the inspired Greek text. People repeat their error from verse 1 when they teach that verse 2 says that only married men should be overseers in church. 

Then, with regard to life in the Christian family they get wrong verses 4-5 saying that men are the ones who must manage the family unit. The Greek words of 1 Timothy chapter 3 don’t say any of these things. Many translations, sadly, go astray. Let’s correct them as we think again about 1 Timothy chapter 3.

In the passage of 1 Timothy the three times Paul uses the words pistos ho logos. In 3:1, Jesus, the faithful Word, serves as the high point, the turning point of the second section of the letter to Timothy that runs from 1:18 to 3:16. As Jesus is faithful, Jesus in turn makes others faithful, in this case the overseers Paul has been correcting in 2:8-15.

As we arrive at 3:1 we are at a major turning point. Paul turns from “How to correct disruptive wayward overseers” to “How to restore them to ministry.” Keeping this focus on overseers, both female and male, keeps us from going astray in our interpretation and in our practice in church today. 

The Greek words in the rest of 1 Timothy 3:1 are inclusive of both women and men. They are gender neutral. Paul is talking about tis or “anyone,” female or male who aspires to oversight. 

Overseers were among the ones gifted to serve the rest of the body of Christ. Those who received this gift were described in Ephesians 4:11-12. 

In the letter to the Ephesians, only some believers in the body of Christ are called to be apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers. Because Paul is speaking about those who had gone astray from within this group, when he talks about anyone aspiring to oversight in 3:1 the antecedent to the pronoun “anyone” looks back to those people who already had been gifted and called to be overseers. 

The “anyone” in 3:1 refers to those who have already been in public ministry and have been stopped from doing so because they had gone astray and disrupted the church. But these were not without hope. To the contrary they could aspire to such a good work once more thanks to Jesus, the faithful Word.

Have you looked on wayward church leaders this way? Have you seen defrocked pastors, and elders and preachers and teachers treated this way? I have. But not much in the churches in my own country in America. But in other countries where we have served I have seen a fruitful practice of discipline, retraining and restoration carried out.

 The Tru316 Foundation (www.Tru316.com) is the home of The Eden Podcast with Bruce C. E. Fleming where we “true” the verse of Genesis 3:16. The Tru316 Message is that “God didn’t curse Eve (or Adam) or limit woman in any way.” Once Genesis 3:16 is made clear the other passages on women and men become clear too. You are encouraged to access the episodes of Seasons 1-11 of The Eden Podcast for teaching on the seven key passages on women and men. Are you a reader? We invite you to get from Amazon the four books by Bruce C. E. Fleming in The Eden Book Series (Tru316.com/trubooks). Would you like to support the work of the Tru316 Foundation? You can become a Tru Partner here: www.Tru316.com/partner