Survey of the Letters of Paul:  1 Timothy 3:5

1 Timothy 3:5
(For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

Let us pick up in the Barclay Commentary where we left off in our study of verse 4.

THE CHARACTER OF THE CHRISTIAN LEADER

1 Timothy 3:1–7 (continued )

THE Christian leader must be sober (ne¯phalios) and must not overindulge in wine ( paroinos). In the ancient world, wine was used all the time. Where the water supply was very inadequate and sometimes dangerous, wine was the most natural drink of all. It is wine which cheers the hearts of gods and mortals (Judges 9:13). In the restoration of Israel, the people will plant vineyards and drink wine (Amos 9:14). Strong drink is given to those who are ready to perish, and wine to those whose hearts are heavy (Proverbs 31:6).

The quoted verses:
Judges 9:13
And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

Amos 9:14
And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

Proverbs 31:6
Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.

This is not to say that the ancient world was not fully alive to the dangers of strong drink. Proverbs speaks of the disaster which comes to those who look on the wine when it is red (Proverbs 23:29–35). Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler (Proverbs 20:1). There are terrible stories of what happened to people through over-indulgence in wine. There is the case of Noah (Genesis 9:18–27), of Lot (Genesis 19:30–8) and of Amnon (2 Samuel 13:28–9). Although the ancient world used wine as the most common of all drinks, it used it abstemiously. When wine was drunk, it was drunk in the proportion of two parts of wine to three parts of water. Anyone who got drunk would be disgraced in ordinary Roman society, let alone in the Church.

The quoted verses:
Proverbs 23:29-35
29 Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
30 They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
31 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
34 Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
35 They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.

Proverbs 20:1
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

Genesis 9:18-27
18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.
19 These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.
20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.
24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
:27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

Genesis 19:30-38
30 And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
31 And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:
32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
33 And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
34 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
35 And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
36 Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.
37 And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day.
38 And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.

2 Samuel 13:28-29
28 Now Absalom had commanded his servants, saying, Mark ye now when Amnon's heart is merry with wine, and when I say unto you, Smite Amnon; then kill him, fear not: have not I commanded you? be courageous, and be valiant.
29 And the servants of Absalom did unto Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king's sons arose, and every man gat him up upon his mule, and fled.

The interesting thing is the double meaning that both words in this section possess. Ne¯phalios means sober, but it also means watchful and vigilant; paroinos means addicted to wine, but it also means quarrelsome and violent. The point that the Pastorals make here is that Christians must allow themselves no indulgence which would lessen their Christian vigilance or tarnish their Christian conduct.

There follow two Greek words which describe two great qualities which must characterize the Christian leader. He must be prudent (so¯phro¯n) and well-behaved (kosmios). We have translated so¯phro¯n as prudent, but it is virtually untranslatable. It is variously translated as of sound mind, discreet, prudent, self-controlled, chaste or having complete control over sensual desires. The Greeks derived it from two words which mean to keep one’s mind safe and sound. The corresponding noun is so¯phrosune¯, and the Greeks wrote and thought much about it. It is the opposite of extreme behaviour and lack of self-control. Plato defined it as ‘the mastery of pleasure and desire’. Aristotle defined it as ‘that power by which the pleasures of the body are used as law commands’.

The Jewish writer Philo defined it as 'a certain limiting and ordering of the desires, which eliminates those which are external and excessive, and which adorns those which are necessary with timeliness and moderation’. Pythagoras said that it was ‘the foundation on which the soul rests’. The second-century Syrian-Greek author, Iamblichus, said that ‘it is the safeguard of the most excellent habits in life’. Euripides, the Greek dramatist, said that it was ‘the fairest gift of God’. The seventeenth-century churchman Jeremy Taylor called it ‘reason’s girdle and passion’s bridle’. R. C. Trench describes so¯phrosune¯ as ‘the condition of entire command over the passions and desires, so that they receive no further allowance than that which law and right reason admit and approve’. Gilbert Murray, the classical scholar, wrote of so¯phro¯n: ‘There is a way of thinking which destroys and a way which saves. The man or woman who is so¯phro¯n walks among the beauties and perils of the world, feeling love, joy, anger and the rest; and through all he has that in his mind which saves. Whom does it save? Not him only, but, as we should say, the whole situation. It saves the imminent evil from coming to be.’ E. F. Brown, who was a missionary in India, quotes in illustration of so¯phrosune¯ a prayer of the thirteenth-century theologian Thomas Aquinas which asks for ‘a quieting of all our impulses, fleshly and spiritual’. ~Barclay Commentary

Now to the other commentaries on our study now of verse 5

For if a man know not how to rule - This is a beautiful and striking argument. A church resembles a family. It is, indeed, larger, and there is a greater variety of dispositions in it than there is in a family. The authority of a minister of the gospel in a church is also less absolute than that of a father. But still there is a striking resemblance. The church is made up of an assemblage of brothers and sisters. They are banded together for the same purposes, and have a common object to aim at. They have common feelings and common needs. They have sympathy, like a family, with each other in their distresses and afflictions. The government of the church also is designed to be “paternal.” It should be felt that he who presides over it has the feelings of a father; that he loves all the members of the great family; that he has no prejudices, no partialities, no selfish aims to gratify.

Now, if a man cannot govern his own family well; if he is severe, partial, neglectful, or tyrannical at home, how can he be expected to take charge of the more numerous “household of faith” with proper views and feelings? If, with all the natural and strong ties of affection which bind a father to his own children; if, when they are few comparatively in number, and where his eye is constantly upon them, he is unable to govern them aright, how can he be expected to preside in a proper manner over the larger household where he will be bound with comparatively feebler ties, and where he will be exposed more to the influence of passion, and where he will have a much less constant opportunity of supervision? Confucius, as quoted by Doddridge, has a sentiment strikingly resembling that before us: “It is impossible that he who knows not how to govern and reform his own family, should rightly govern and reform a people.” We may remark, also, in this verse, a delicate and beautiful use of words by the apostle to prevent the possibility of misapprehension. While he institutes a comparison between the government of a family and that of the church, he guards against the possibility of its being supposed that he would countenance “arbitrary” authority in the church, even such authority as a father must of necessity employ in his own family. Hence, he uses different words. He speaks of the father as “ruling” over his own family, or “presiding over it” - προστῆναι prostēnai; he describes the minister of religion as “having a tender care for the church” - epimelēsetai. ~Barnes Notes

Now to the Adam Clarke

For if a man know not - Method is a matter of great importance in all the affairs of life. It is a true saying, He that does little with his head must do much with his hands; and even then the business is not half done for want of method. Now, he who has a proper method of doing business will show it in every affair of life, even the least. He who has a disorderly family has no government of that family; he probably has none because he has no method, no plan, of presiding. It was natural for the apostle to say, If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God? Look at a man’s domestic arrangements; if they be not good, he should not be trusted with any branch of government, whether ecclesiastical or civil. ~Adam Clarke

Let us look now at the John Gill:

For if a man know not how to rule his own house - Which is an affair of less importance, and more easy to be done; not requiring so much resolution, prudence, care, and thought:

how shall he take care of the church of God? - preside over it, rule in it, provide for it, and see that everything is in its proper place, and done according to the will of God. The argument is from the lesser to the greater. ~John Gill

The People's New Testament commentary says...

For if a man know not - The order of his own house will show whether he is fit to have a charge in the house of God. The sins of Eli's sons showed that Eli, though a good man, was unfitted to rule. ~People's New Testament commentary

Let us go now to the Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge:

For if a man know not how to rule his own house:

1 Samuel 2:29-30 ...speaking of Eli
29 Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation; and honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people?
30 Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

1 Samuel 3:13  ...speaking of Eli and his sons
For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.

How shall he take care of the church of God?:

1 Timothy 3:15
But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

Acts 20:28
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

Ephesians 1:22
And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

Ephesians 5:24
Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

Ephesians 5:32
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

back to the main page