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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadEzekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 1 Timothy 3:1 - 3:1
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Ver. 1. Faithful is the saying. If any one seeketh the office of pastor (lit. overseership), he desireth a good work. The saying or word here designated faithful is to be understood of what follows respecting the episcopal or pastoral office, not, with Chrysostom, Theophylact, and some moderns, of the statement made in the preceding context. In designating the office itself, the nearest equivalent in our language now to the original ( ἐðéóêïðῆò ) is undoubtedly that of pastor. The term bishop, which originally bore the same import, has acquired in modem times a different meaning. Alford adopts the literal rendering overseership, justly remarking that “we thus avoid any chance of identifying it with a present and different office, and take refuge in the meaning of the word itself, which at the same time bears an important testimony to the duties of the post.” It labours, however, under the disadvantage of novelty, as a term applied to a sacred function; and as pastorate is substantially equivalent, involving the same general idea of watchful and responsible oversight (hence the epithet Pastoral applied by general consent to these Epistles), it is plainly entitled to the preference.’ By comparing what is written here with the passage in Tit_1:5-7, it is clear that St. Paul uses the terms å ̓ ðé ́ óêïðïò and ðñåóâõ ́ ôåñïò of the same office: for in Titus the words are interchanged, as of one import; and here much the same description is given of the å ̓ ðé ́ óêïðïò which we find given there of the ðñåóâõ ́ ôåñïò . While, therefore, there were two designations, there was but one office; and the designations were two, because they were derived from two different quarters. Presbyteros was of Jewish origin, and was undoubtedly the earlier of the two, having been in use as a term of office in the synagogue for generations before the Christian era, whence it passed over, with little variation, into the Christian church. The term originally had doubtless some respect to the age of the persons who were called to preside over the religious community; they were its seniors, its more experienced and venerated members; but in course of time the etymological was lost sight of in the current official meaning, and the presbyters æְ÷ַðִéí , elders), whatever might be their relative age, were simply the presiding heads of the synagogal communities in the first instance, and then of the Christian church. Partaking, however, as it did so distinctly, of a Jewish impress, it was natural that, in the churches where the Greek or Gentile element predominated, a properly Greek word, of equivalent import as a designation of office, should come into use. Such a term was å ̓ ðé ́ óêïðïò , overseer, the specific or official designation among the Athenians of those whom they sent forth to take the oversight of their subject cities (Suidas on å ̓ ðé ́ ò .; Dion. Hal. Ant. ii. 76); so that, by an easy transference from the civil to the spiritual sphere, the episcopoi of the church were those who had the pastoral oversight of the several churches. Quite naturally, therefore, it is the term employed here, where immediate respect is had to Ephesus, and such like churches in Asia Minor, which were largely made up of converted Greeks; but even in such churches at an earlier stage, when the primary nucleus consisted mainly of converts from Judaism, the name presbyters took precedence of it. So we find this the term employed in respect to the officers set by St. Paul over the churches in his first missionary tour through portions of Asia Minor (Act_14:23); and in the infant churches of Crete, which probably partook as much of the Jewish as the Greek element, the one term was used along with the other.
The sentiment here expressed, then, is, that one who seeks ( ὀñÝãåôáé , stretches forth towards, longs after) the pastoral office, desires to be engaged in what is emphatically a good work. It is not merely a post of honour, or a position of influence; not that primarily at least, or in its more direct aspect, but a work of active service, and one that from its very nature brings one into living fellowship with the pure and good. The seeking here intended, therefore, after such an office, must be of the proper kind, not the prompting of a carnal ambition, but the aspiration of a heart which has itself experienced the grace of God, and which longs to see others coming to participate in the heavenly gift. Other objects of a subordinate or collateral kind may not be unlawful, and may justly enough be allowed a certain share in the motives which draw men to the pastoral office; but if the heart is right with God, and takes anything like a correct estimate of the work of the ministry, it will be that work itself, considered with respect to its own excellent nature, and the blessed fruits that may be expected to spring from it, which ought more especially to awaken the desire and determine the choice. Hence the prominence given in the directions that follow to qualifications of a spiritual and moral kind, in order to its efficient discharge; introduced also by an ïὖí , therefore, as much as to say: The work being so good, there is of necessity required in him who would enter on its functions a corresponding character of goodness.