Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.
The verse belongs to God's stated qualifications and command for deacons as church officers. The qualifications required of deacons are equally essential for elders. The character it requires extends to gospel ministers and to everyone laboring in word and doctrine, and to all entrusted with stewardship in the church, in publishing offices, and in educating students in schools.
Being the husband of one wife and ruling children and house well means diligence, consecration, and faithfulness in home life, where children are educated and trained to take a cheerful part in ministering according to their ability together with their parents. It is God's positive command for order in the deacon's home, requiring a well-disciplined family as an example to the church and the world, in which children are under the control of father and mother while father and mother are under the control of God. That order comes through obedience and order in the household and through educating, training, and disciplining children in right habits and practices, for which both fathers and mothers are responsible. Failure and neglect in this home work is disobedience to God's word that unfits a man to set the church in order and fails the example God requires. Such neglect eclipses his light so it cannot shine in correct example in eating, dressing, and working in right lines, and refusal of this home work blinds a person to the need for obedience in other lines.
In this connection the qualifications call church officers to intelligent, practical self-control, temperance, and living according to the light on health reform, without making diet a test of faith or fellowship. The verse requires great care in choosing people for positions of trust, without repeating past mistakes of placing too much confidence in untested men, especially at the beginning of sanitarium work. Those chosen must understand the will of the Lord, discern what needs to be done, and do it prayerfully. The business manager in particular must daily be managed by the Lord because of his very important place. He must possess dignity and knowledge with a clear sense of how to use authority, reveal Christ in his life, give religious instruction and exert spiritual influence, know how to deal with minds while his own mind is controlled by the Spirit, speak wisdom in words of encouragement, discern and correct mistakes, harmonize with fellow workers, possess adaptability, speak on points of faith as occasion requires, and reveal justice, judgment, and the love of God in words and acts. The standard of practical godliness in the verse sums up the sacredness of God's work and service, to be taught to those newly come to the faith and kept constantly before the church, calling every worker to vigilant heed and to constant striving for more perfect character in preparation for heaven.
The verse belongs to God's stated qualifications and command for deacons as church officers. The qualifications required of deacons are equally essential for elders. The character it requires extends to gospel ministers and to everyone laboring in word and doctrine, and to all entrusted with stewardship in the church, in publishing offices, and in educating students in schools.
Being the husband of one wife and ruling children and house well means diligence, consecration, and faithfulness in home life, where children are educated and trained to take a cheerful part in ministering according to their ability together with their parents. It is God's positive command for order in the deacon's home, requiring a well-disciplined family as an example to the church and the world, in which children are under the control of father and mother while father and mother are under the control of God. That order comes through obedience and order in the household and through educating, training, and disciplining children in right habits and practices, for which both fathers and mothers are responsible. Failure and neglect in this home work is disobedience to God's word that unfits a man to set the church in order and fails the example God requires. Such neglect eclipses his light so it cannot shine in correct example in eating, dressing, and working in right lines, and refusal of this home work blinds a person to the need for obedience in other lines.
In this connection the qualifications call church officers to intelligent, practical self-control, temperance, and living according to the light on health reform, without making diet a test of faith or fellowship. The verse requires great care in choosing people for positions of trust, without repeating past mistakes of placing too much confidence in untested men, especially at the beginning of sanitarium work. Those chosen must understand the will of the Lord, discern what needs to be done, and do it prayerfully. The business manager in particular must daily be managed by the Lord because of his very important place. He must possess dignity and knowledge with a clear sense of how to use authority, reveal Christ in his life, give religious instruction and exert spiritual influence, know how to deal with minds while his own mind is controlled by the Spirit, speak wisdom in words of encouragement, discern and correct mistakes, harmonize with fellow workers, possess adaptability, speak on points of faith as occasion requires, and reveal justice, judgment, and the love of God in words and acts. The standard of practical godliness in the verse sums up the sacredness of God's work and service, to be taught to those newly come to the faith and kept constantly before the church, calling every worker to vigilant heed and to constant striving for more perfect character in preparation for heaven.