Bible Strands
1 Timothy 3:5
For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how can he care for the church of God?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul writes to Timothy to establish the qualifications for church overseers, linking domestic responsibility directly to ecclesiastical leadership.
The words — προστῆναι (prostēnai) denotes standing over or managing a household, establishing the practical standard for oversight.
The thread — The text connects domestic accountability to spiritual shepherding, echoing the judgment of Eli’s house in 1 Samuel 3:13, the church’s submission to Christ in Ephesians 5:24, and the charge to oversee the flock in Acts 20:28.
Why it lands — The passage demands that candidates prove their leadership capacity in the private sphere before assuming public authority, making domestic stewardship a prerequisite for church care.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
(For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 3:13 I told him that I would judge his house forever for the iniquity of which he knows, because his sons blasphemed God and he did not restrain them.
- Ephesians 5:24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
- Acts 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.
- Ephesians 5:32 This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church.
- Ephesians 1:22 And God put everything under His feet and made Him head over everything for the church,
- 1 Timothy 3:15 in case I am delayed, so that you will know how each one must conduct himself in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
- 1 Samuel 2:29 Why then do you kick at My sacrifice and offering that I have prescribed for My dwelling place? You have honored your sons more than Me by fattening yourselves with the best of all the offerings of My people Israel.’
- 1 Corinthians 10:32 Do not become a stumbling block, whether to Jews or Greeks or the church of God—