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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadEzekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 1 Timothy 3:6 - 3:6
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Ver. 6. A further qualification: not a novice, or recent convert ( íåüöõôïí , literally, newly planted). Of course such a qualification must be understood relatively—in some a less, in others a longer period of probation being required, according to circumstances. In quite recently planted churches, such as those of Crete mentioned in Titus, it would not be possible to obtain persons for the presbyterate who had been long established in the Christian faith, though even there also differences in this respect would be found to exist. But in Ephesus, and various other churches in that locality, where for probably not less than twelve or fifteen years there had been Christian communities, there was ample room for the prescription in question; hence it has a place here, while quite naturally it is not found in the instructions given to Titus. And as at Ephesus there were not only numerous adversaries outside the church, but adherents of error also beginning to ply their wiles within, it was of the more importance that those invested with the oversight of the community should be persons of some experience in the divine life—men whose intelligence and solidity of character had been already proved, lest, amid the fermenting of false opinions and the craft of designing hypocrites, they might be betrayed into evil. The specific ground assigned by the apostle is: lest, being carried with conceit, he should fall into the condemnation of the devil. The Authorized Version for ôõöùèåὶò has “lifted up with pride,” but this scarcely hits the exact shade of meaning. The verb (from ôõ ͂ öïò , smoke, mist, cloud) denotes not simply the self-elating spirit which would raise one as to the clouds, but also the senseless, stupid character of such a spirit; its confusing, mystifying tendency acting like a lure to the emotions, and a cloud to the reason. What the apostle feared was, that the too sudden elevation to office might carry the individual off his feet, as it were, and render him an easy prey to the arts of plausible and designing men. The very probable result he expresses by a reference to the fall of the great adversary, as if this in such a case would be repeated afresh; for there can be little doubt that the condemnation spoken of—judgment in the sense of condemnation—is the genitive of object: the judgment passed upon the devil. The supposed neophyte, through his inexperience and undue elation of spirit, first falls into the sin of the old aspiring apostate, and then shares in his condemnation, passing from the sphere of a minister of light into the doomed condition of an instrument of darkness. The lesson, with its attendant warning, is for all times. It tells the church, that as there are temptations and perils peculiar to the ministerial office, so men should not be in haste to enter it, nor should others seek to push them prematurely forward. At the same time, the matter is wisely left in a certain indefiniteness; no precise age or specific term of probation is fixed in Scripture.