1 Timothy 3:12

The injunctions of this verse are identical with those laid down before in the case of ἐπίσκοποι; see the notes on 1 Timothy 3:2-3. If a man’s family is disorderly, it constitutes a presumption that there has been something amiss in the methods by which he has governed and ordered his household. It will be remembered that in our Ordinal stress is laid on the due ordering of the family and the home; and candidates for the orders of deacon and priest engage ‘to frame and fashion their own lives and the lives of [their] families, according to the doctrine of Christ.’