I have often read the fifteenth verse of 1 Timothy 3. and have asked myself, What are the things that we are to know in order that we may know how to behave ourselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth? You will oblige by inserting an answer to this in your pages―Gateshead.
“THESE things write I unto thee,” says the Apostle in the previous verse. So evidently the things he wrote were the things that Timothy was to know. From beginning to end the epistle is full of the most important instructions relating to Christian life and conduct, and there is nothing to hinder us from taking these words in the broadest sense as applying to the whole body of instruction conveyed in the epistle.
Reading those words however with careful reference to their immediate context, we believe that they specially refer to the instructions just written as to the qualifications which must mark the bishops and deacons who hold office in the church of God.
There is nothing in Scripture to show that Timothy was a bishop, though he was a man of great spiritual gift. But there was a very simple reason why these instructions as to the behavior which was befitting to bishops and deacons should be guidance to him as to his own conduct — and equally guidance to any and every believer, whether in his day or in ours. It is this, that bishops and deacons held their office as “being ensamples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:33Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. (1 Peter 5:3)). The bishop should display in an exceptional degree the things that should mark every Christian.
Bearing this in mind we can go back and read again the first thirteen verses of 1 Timothy 3, and apply to ourselves every exhortation we find, whether to bishop or to deacon, or to the wives. As we read we can say to ourselves, —if these things are to mark the examples, then they are God’s will for all who are of His household, or in His house.
Having answered your question may we say how glad we are to note that when you read the Scriptures you ask yourself questions as to what you have read. This is a most valuable habit to form. It may not mean that we immediately arrive at an answer to the questions which we mentally raise; yet arrive at an answer we shall sooner or latter. And once arrived at we shall not forget it! By this method our knowledge of God’s mind will be greatly enlarged; and our appreciation of the Bible greatly increased.