Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

All right, let's get back into it. This week, we are doing a deep dive into the qualifications

for overseers as described by the Apostle Paul in 1. Timothy 3, 1 through 7. I'll read it again

here. The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble

task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife,

sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but

gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity

keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace into the snare of the devil. Now, today we're going to focus on verses

four and five, but before we get to that, let me remind you the question that you should be

considering all week this week. Do I have what it takes to be an overseer? Again, you're not

evaluating me. You're evaluating you. Do I have what it takes to be an overseer? So back to

verses four and five, he must manage his own household

well with all dignity keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own

household, how will he care for God's church? All right, let's dig right into it here. He must manage his own

household well. So I actually love the way the King James Version puts it. One that ruleth well his own house.

It just feels more regal that way. So guys, you should dust off the King James version every now and then.

But this is actually really a powerful command. It's not a polite suggestion here. An overseer must manage his household well, which for some of you, you think that means that you have,

you know, carte blanche to rule like a dictator, which is not what Paul is saying here. He's saying

that you are to lead, manage, provide for, and protect your household. So you can't do that if you're

an absent father. It's impossible. You can't do that if you're constantly distracted by your hobbies. You can't do that if you're spending every waking moment at work

or thinking about your business. You can't do that if you're a pacifistic, wussy man either.

So back to verse four, with all dignity keeping his children submissive. So this means that your

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