Commentary on Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians Thessalonians Timothy Titus and Philemon John Calvin (continued)
John Calvin strictly enjoins their wives what they ought to be. 1124
First, he demands that the children shall be ``believers;'' whence it is obvious that they have been educated in the sound doctrine of godliness, and in the fear of the Lord. Secondly, that they shall not be devoted to luxury, that they may be known to have been educated to temperance and frugality. Thirdly, that they shall not be disobedient; for he who cannot obtain from his children any reverence or subjection --- will hardly be able to restrain the people by the bridle of discipline.
Titus 1:7-9
Titus 1:7-9
7. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;
7. oportet enim episcopum sine crimine esse sicut Dei dispensatorem non superbum non iracundum non vinolentum non percussorem non turpilucri cupidum
8. But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; 8. sed hospitalem benignum sobrium iustum sanctum continentem 9. Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
9. amplectentem eum qui secundum doctrinam est fidelem sermonem ut potens sit et exhortari in doctrina sana et eos qui contradicunt arguere
7. For a bishop ought to be blameless, as a governor of the house of God He again repeats, that they who aspire to the office of a bishop ought to retain an unspotted reputation; and he confirms it by this argument, that, because the Church is the house of God, every person who is appointed to govern it --- is constituted, as it were, governor of the house of God. Now, he would be ill spoken of among men, who should take a scandalous and infamous person, and make him his steward; and therefore it would be far more base and intolerable to appoint such persons to be rulers of the household of God. The Latin word dispensator (steward or manager) --- employed in the old translation, and retained by Erasmus --- does not at all express Paul's meaning; for, in order that greater care may be exercised in the election, he adorns the office of a bishop within this honorable eulogy, that it is a government of the house of God, as he says to Timothy, ``That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to conduct thyself in the house of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.'' (1 Timothy 3:15.)
This passage plainly shows that there is no distinction between a presbyter and a bishop; for he now calls indiscriminately, by the latter name, those whom he formerly he employs both names in the same sense, without any distinction; as Jerome has remarked, both in his Commentary on this passage, and in his 1124See p. 87.