1 Timothy 3:11

Even so must their wives be grave.

The pastor’s wife

A good example is the pastor’s first ministry, and Paul associates the wife in this ministry, when he wishes the wives to be “grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.” This has been felt to be so important that in certain churches, those of Hungary, the minister has been made positively responsible for the conduct of his wife. He is everywhere so morally, and the responsibility is a grave one, the ministry may suffer considerably if it is not regarded. How much may the humours and vices of the wife (slander, avarice, negligence, display, etc.), compromise the respectability of the pastor? And conversely: Julian the apostate, observing that one cause of the success of the gospel was the purity in the manners of its followers, and especially its ministers, and wishing to enable paganism to compete with Christianity, ordered the pagan priests to maintain their wives, children, and domestics in the same sanctity of manners. (Vinet.)

Talebearing discouraged

Hannah More had a good way of managing tale-bearers. It is said that whenever she was told anything derogatory of another, her invariable reply was, “Come, we will go and ask if this is true.” The effect was sometimes ludicrously painful. The tale-bearer was taken aback, stammered out a qualification, or begged that no notice might be taken of the statement. But the good lady was inexorable; off she took the scandalmonger to the scandalised, to make inquiry and compare accounts. It is not very likely that anybody ever a second time ventured to repeat a gossipy story to Hannah More. Milton being asked if he intended to teach his daughters languages, replied, “No, one tongue is enough for a woman!” (E. J. Hardy, M. A.)