Of one wife. . . The meaning is not that every bishop should have a wife (for St. Paul himself had none), but that no one should be admitted to the holy orders of bishop, priest, or deacon, who had been married more than once.
3:3. Not given to wine, no striker, but modest, not quarrelsome, not covetous, but
3:4. One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all chastity.
3:5. But if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?
3:6. Not a neophyte: lest, being puffed up with pride, he fall into the judgment of the devil.
A neophyte. . . That is, one lately baptized, a young convert.
3:7. Moreover, he must have a good testimony of them who are without: lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
3:8. Deacons in like manner: chaste, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre:
3:9. Holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience.
3:10. And let these also first be proved: and so let them minister, having no crime.