1 Timothy 3:5

5 (but if one does not know how to conduct his own house, how shall he take care of the assembly of God?)

1 Timothy 3:5 Meaning and Commentary

1 Timothy 3:5

For if a man know not how to rule his own house
Which is an affair of less importance, and more easy to be done; not requiring so much resolution, prudence, care, and thought:

how shall he take care of the church of God?
preside over it, rule in it, provide for it, and see that everything is in its proper place, and done according to the will of God. The argument is from the lesser to the greater.

1 Timothy 3:5 In-Context

3 not given to excesses from wine, not a striker, but mild, not addicted to contention, not fond of money,

4 conducting his own house well, having [his] children in subjection with all gravity;

5 (but if one does not know how to conduct his own house, how shall he take care of the assembly of God?)

6 not a novice, that he may not, being inflated, fall into [the] fault of the devil.

7 But it is necessary that he should have also a good testimony from those without, that he may fall not into reproach and [the] snare of the devil.