<p>3:1 The picture we get of Timothy is of a young man with frequent health issues, timid, with a spirit of fear rather than of power and a stable mind, easily tempted by &quot;youthful lusts&quot;, easily awed by older, loud mouthed false teachers &quot;let no man despise your youth&quot;, apt to forget what he had learned from his mother and grandmother; and yet with a desire to minister. And Paul gave him the ministry of being the bishop at Ephesus (1:4), with the brief to charge false teachers not to further teach. I speculated in discussing chapter 2 that he faced a powerful group of women in the church who were influenced by the cults of Eve and Diana, who had to be conclusively dealt with. And he was to model good works and encourage the church to likewise do them. The list of qualifications of a bishop are Paul telling Timothy how he should be; and how he should appoint brethren to leadership who met these criteria. We wonder how ever he coped. But we know- because soon afterwards, the Lord wrote to the church in Ephesus, telling them that they had done well in doing good works and in limiting the false teachers. His words were addressed to &quot;the angel of the church&quot;; either Timothy or those whom Timothy had appointed in leadership. So Timothy for all his weakness of character, which we can probably identify with, did indeed rise above all his limitations and achieve the spirit of what Paul is asking here.</p><p><i>Faithful is the saying</i>- As noted on 1:15, there appear to have been inspired 'sayings' which were accepted as genuine by those with the Spirit gift of discernment. These short sayings were doubtless remembered and were valuable in a largely illiterate community.</p><p><i>If a man seeks the office of a bishop</i>- I assume from :14,15 that Paul is writing with Timothy in view as the bishop of the church at Ephesus: &quot;These things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly. But if I am delayed, I write so you may know how you ought to behave in the house of God&quot;. A bishop or overseer was exactly the role Paul gave Timothy- for Timothy was to be in a position where he could charge church members not to teach (1:3). Perhaps timid Timothy in naive youthful zeal desired to be a bishop- and Paul having made him one, is now telling him what it involves in practice. To 'seek' means literally 'to stretch oneself unto'. So it could be that Timothy actually didn't have the ambition to be the bishop in that difficult situation. Rather, Paul thrust it upon him and he stretched himself out to it, he accepted it, although it clearly was a major stretch for Timothy, well outside his comfort zone.</p><p><i>He desires a good work</i>- There is nothing wrong with spiritual ambition. The Greek <i>epithumeo </i>literally means 'to lust'. The noun is used by Paul when later warning Timothy to &quot;flee youthful lusts&quot; (2 Tim. 2:22). We could translate the phrase before us as meaning that if a man seeks / stretches out to the office of bishop, then he must lust after good work. The passions which are part of our nature must be directed into good work rather than for our own sensual pleasure. This redirection of sexual or passionate energy is likewise found in Eph. 5:3,4, where we are told that &quot;fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness&quot; is inappropriate, &quot;but rather giving of thanks&quot;. It seems that Timothy failed to make that complete redirection of passion, because he had to be reminded in 2 Tim. 2:22 about fleeing his lusts. In another figure, we are to draw near to God; fleeing lusts means running towards God. And He will draw near to us.</p>