The Overseer as God's Steward
7 For the overseer must be blameless, as God’s steward, not self-pleasing, not easily angered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain; 8 but given to hospitality, a lover of good, sober minded, fair, holy, self-controlled, 9 holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict those who contradict him.
The overseer manages what belongs to someone else, and the list of qualities is what that fact requires.
Verse 7 supplies the governing image: the overseer must be blameless as God's steward. A steward owns nothing he administers. Everything in the list follows from that — not self-pleasing, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain. Four of the five name a man serving himself with what was entrusted to him, and the fifth is the temper that guards it.
Verse 8 turns positive: hospitable, a lover of good, sober-minded — sōphrōn G4993, a word this letter presses on every group it addresses — fair, holy, self-controlled. Then verse 9 gives the one qualification of skill rather than character: holding to the faithful word as taught, so that he can both exhort in sound doctrine and convict those who contradict. Not eloquence; grip. He must hold something firmly enough that it holds when pulled, which the next verses show is exactly what will happen.
settled What this mark means