---
title: "1 Timothy 3 — World English Bible | Favorite Scriptures"
description: "Read 1 Timothy 3 in the World English Bible. Free Bible reading, no account needed. Browse books and chapters, then save favorite passages in your personal library."
last_updated: "2026-10-08"
doc_version: "1"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://favoritescriptures.com/bible/1-timothy/3"
---

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World English Bible

# 1 Timothy 3

[1](#verse-1) This is a faithful saying: someone who seeks to be an overseer desires a good work.

[2](#verse-2) The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching;

[3](#verse-3) not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;

[4](#verse-4) one who rules his own house well, having children in subjection with all reverence;

[5](#verse-5) (for how could someone who doesn’t know how to rule his own house take care of God’s assembly?)

[6](#verse-6) not a new convert, lest being puffed up he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.

[7](#verse-7) Moreover he must have good testimony from those who are outside, to avoid falling into reproach and the snare of the devil.

[8](#verse-8) Servants, in the same way, must be reverent, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for money,

[9](#verse-9) holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

[10](#verse-10) Let them also first be tested; then let them serve if they are blameless.

[11](#verse-11) Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things.

[12](#verse-12) Let servants be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

[13](#verse-13) For those who have served well gain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

[14](#verse-14) These things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly,

[15](#verse-15) but if I wait long, that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

[16](#verse-16) Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great: God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, and received up in glory.

[← 1 Timothy 2](/bible/1-timothy/2)[1 Timothy 4 →](/bible/1-timothy/4)

World English Bible · Public domain

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