Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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?)
5. for if a man know not ] but, the force of the adversative conjunction being, ‘You may think me needlessly particular in requiring this, but a straw will shew how the wind blows, a bad parent will make a bad pastor.’ The negative is to be taken closely with the verb ‘is ignorant.’ There is a preference, especially in later Greek, for the stronger negative where there is an antithesis or where there is special emphasis by the negativing of a single word. Cf. Winer, 55, 2; Jas 2:11; 1Ti 5:8; 2Ti 2:14.
Both the words ‘rule’ and ‘take care’ have an obvious bearing on St Paul’s conception of the ministry as being especially for government. So too what follows.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 – prostenai; he describes the minister of religion as having a tender care for the church – epimelesetai.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For if a man hath a family, and hath showed that he neither hath wit nor honesty enough to govern that little society, which hath his constant presence with it, with what reason can any one presume, that he should be fit to be trusted with the care of the church of God? Which is a larger society, with all the members of which he is not so constantly present, and over whom he hath not such a coercive power, and as to whom a far greater care must be taken.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. ForGreek, “But.”
the churchrather, “achurch” or congregation. How shall he who cannot perform thelesser function, perform the greater and more difficult?
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
If a man knoweth not ( ). Condition of first class, assumed as true.
How to rule (). Second aorist active infinitive of same verb and with means “know how to rule,” not “know that he rules.”
How (). Rhetorical question expecting negative answer.
Shall he take care of (). Future middle of , old compound (, direction of care towards) verb, in LXX, in N.T. only here and Lu 10:34f.
The church of God ( ). Anarthrous as in verse 15, elsewhere with article (1Cor 10:32; 1Cor 15:9; 2Cor 1:1; Gal 1:13). The local church described as belonging to God. No one in N.T. but Paul (Ac 20:28) so describes the church. This verse is a parenthesis in the characteristics of the bishop.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Shall he take care of [] . Only here and Luk 10:34.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For if a man know not how to rule his own house,” (ei de tis tou idiou oikou prostenai ouk oiden) “If moreover anyone perceives not (how) to stand his own house in order,” or rule his own domestics – an hypothetical case, as in personal faithfulness, expressed in Luk 16:10-12.
2) “How shall he take care of the church of God?” (pos ekklesias theou epimelesetai) “How will he take care of an assembly (a local congregation) of God?” This refers to the church government oversight; responsibility of the bishop to. guide, Act 20:28. The overseer is to “take heed to himself” and to the flock of his oversight, feeding, leading, shepherding, and protecting it, 1Pe 5:1-4.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
5 And if any one know not how to rule his own house (61) This argument, drawn from the less to the greater, is in itself manifest, that he who is unfit for governing a family will be altogether unable to govern a people. Besides that it is evident that he is destitute of the virtues necessary for that purpose, what authority will he have over the people, seeing that his own house makes him contemptible?
(61) “The house of a believer ought to be like a little church. Heathens, who did not know what a church is, said that a house is but an image and figure of any public government. A poor man, living with his wife and children and servants, ought to be in his house like a public governor; but Christians ought to go beyond this. Every father of a family should know that God has appointed him to that place, that he may know how to govern his wife and children and servants; so that God shall be honored in the midst of them, and all shall do Him homage. Paul speaks of children; and why? Because he who wishes to discharge his duty as pastor of a church must be like a father to all believers. Now, let us suppose that a man cannot govern two or three children which he has in the house. They are his own children, and yet he cannot keep them in subjection; they are deaf to all that he says to them. How then shall he be able to govern those who are at a distance, and who may be said to be unknown to him, who even refuse to become wiser, and think that they have no need of being instructed? How shall he be able to keep men in dread when his own wife is not subject to him? Let us not, therefore, think it strange if it is required in all pastors, that they be good fathers of a family, and know what it is to govern their own children well. It is not enough to condemn the children, but we must condemn the fathers, when they permit their children to be worse than others.” — Fr. Ser.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?The well-ordered household, the decent, modest behaviour, the reverent, affectionate relations between parents and children, between the master and the dependentsthese things are to be the test of a mans fitness for holding high office in the public community of believers, for, as Theodoret observes, if a man cannot rule decorously a small community (such as a family), how shall he be judged a fit person to be entrusted with administration in a broader spherewith duties which have to do with divine things?
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. House church An argument from the less to the greater: from the man’s own house to the house of God. The passage suggests the relations of the episkopos to his Church; those of paternity, rule, instruction.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘(But if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?).’
Paul clearly rated highly a man’s ability to control with love, and organise, those for whom he was responsible. For those were the gifts that the household of God would need in abundance. (It is difficult to see how a celibate could have his children in subjection or be seen as running a household).
This staccato question is typical of Paul’s style, compare 1Co 14:8; Rom 10:14-15.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Ti 3:5 in a parenthesis gives the reason why a bishop ought to know how to govern his house properly.
] shows that the confirmatory clause is adversative; the conclusion is made a minori ad majus . Bengel: plus est regere ecclesiam, quam familiaim. [120]
] The contrast here made becomes still more forcible when it is observed that in 1Ti 3:15 Paul calls the the .
] The future here, as often with the Greeks, expresses the capability; see Bernhardy’s Syntax , p. 377. The verb has not only the more general meaning of “take care of something” (Luk 10:34-35 ), but also more definitely, “fill an office, be overseer over something,” in which sense it is used here.
For a right understanding of the connection of this verse with what precedes, it is to be observed that the first requisite for a successful superintendence is obedience ( ) from the church towards its superintendent. It is the bishop’s duty so to conduct himself that the members of the church may be obedient to him, not as servants to a master, but as children to a father, that they may show him obedience in love.
[120] Theodoret: , .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
5 (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)
Ver. 5. For if a man know not how ] A very cogent argument from the less to the greater; used also by our Saviour, Luk 16:11-12 . Eli was justly taxed and Augustus heavily upbraided with their domestic disorders, as therefore unfit for government.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Ti 3:5 . The argument is akin to that stated by our Lord, Luk 16:10 . “He that is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, etc.” It is all the more cogent inasmuch as the Church is the house of God. The point is resumed in 1Ti 3:15 . Alf. quotes a sentence from Plato in which both and are used of the government of a family; nevertheless it is not fanciful to suppose that we have here a deliberate interchange of terms, being, as we have seen above, almost a technical term to express Church government; while . expresses the personal care and attention of a father for his family. See the use of the verb in Luk 10:34-35 , and of in Act 27:3 .
is also found in 1Ti 3:15 . occurs nine times in Paul (1 Thess.; 2 Thess.; 1 Cor.; 2 Cor.; Gal.). The omission of the article before is characteristic of the Pastorals. The phrase is found also in St. Paul’s apostolic charge to the episcopi of Ephesus in Act 20:28 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
know. App-132.
not. App-105.
take care of, Greek. epimeleomai. Only here and Luk 10:34, Luk 10:35,
church. App-186.
God, App-98.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
1Ti 3:5. , if a man does not know) Paul intimates that the man who rightly rules his own house will have well-behaved children.-, how) It requires higher qualifications to rule the Church, than a family.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Ti 3:5
(but if a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)-His rule or management of his family is the evidence of his ability to rule the church. If a man cannot manage his own children whom he has reared, and whom he always has under his care, how can he manage the church of God?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
if: 1Sa 2:29, 1Sa 2:30, 1Sa 3:13
the church: 1Ti 3:15, Act 20:28, Eph 1:22, Eph 5:24, Eph 5:32
Reciprocal: Gen 18:19 – command Lev 21:9 – the daughter 1Ki 13:11 – came Psa 101:2 – walk Eze 44:22 – a widow Mal 2:15 – That he Mat 16:18 – my Rom 12:8 – ruleth 1Co 7:34 – careth 1Co 10:32 – the church 1Co 11:22 – or 2Co 7:12 – that our 1Ti 3:12 – General 1Ti 5:17 – rule Tit 1:6 – having Heb 12:23 – the general Heb 13:7 – which
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Ti 3:5. See comments on the preceding verse.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Ti 3:5. For. Literally but, the reason being implied rather than stated in the imaginary case which the apostle puts as involving obvious unfitness.
Take care. The change of words assumes that presiding, the position of authority, involves watchful carefulness over those subject to it. The contest between his own house and the Church of God presupposes the definition of that Church as the house or family of God, which we find in 1Ti 3:15.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
1Ti 3:5 “(For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)”
This verse shows the why of verse four.
The term house may imply, as well as controlling the family as the context speaks of, but also the material things. Many preachers today are deadbeats. This ought not to be so.
Right today I can brag on my kids – they turned out great. Tomorrow I hope to be able to say that. They make decisions and may make poor ones – we don’t know.
There is a real truth included in this qualification that the marriage and marital relationship ought to be proper as well.