1Timothy:3

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Seeker Overlay ON

* These are true words . If a man wants to be a leader of the church people , he seeks a good thing . * For a man to be a church leader , people must speak well of him . He must have only one wife . He must be able to control himself . He must use good sense . He must behave himself well . He must be kind to strangers in his house . He must be a good teacher . * He must not get drunk . He must not fight . But he must be kind . He must not quarrel . He must not love money . * He must be a good leader for his own family . His children must obey him and respect him . * If a man does not know how to lead his own family , how can he take care of the church of God ? * A church leader must not be a new believer . If he were a new believer , he might become proud and set himself up like the devil did . * People who are not church people must also speak well of a church leader , so that he will not fall into the devils trap . * In the same way , the leaders helpers must be men whom people respect . They must not say one thing one time and something different another time . They must not drink too much wine . They must not try to get rich in wrong ways . * They must know Gods plan and what we believe . They must do only what they know is right . * Try these men first . Then let them help the church people if they have done nothing wrong . * In the same way , their wives must be women whom people respect . They must not tell lies about anyone . They must be able to control themselves . They must live so that people can trust them in all things . * The leaders helpers must have only one wife . They must be good leaders for their children and family . * When they have done the work of a helper well , people will respect them . If they do well , they will not fear to tell what they believe about Christ Jesus . * I am writing to you about these matters even though I hope to come to you soon . * Then if I do not come right away , you will know what people should do in Gods family . This family is the church of the living God . The church people hold what is true and keeps it strong . * Gods plan is very great as we all know . Here it is : we saw God as a man ; Gods Spirit proved he was right ; angels saw him ; the nations were told about him ; people of the world believed in him ; God took him up into heaven .

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