LIFE SCRIPTS

Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
1 Timothy 3:2 NIV

Paul highlights the requirements an overseer or deacon must have . One of the characteristics he speaks of is being ‘temperate’ and ‘self controlled’. An overseer or deacon in those days was a person who would encourage the believers and be available to them for counsel and advise. He would interact with diverse needs and meet with diverse people. The task he had was a task involving people. Dealing with people calls for self control and an understanding attitude. Dealing with people calls for shelving ones opinions at times for the sake of being accommodative. Dealing with people calls for anticipating and being very resilient to criticism, arrogance, slander and even being despised. It is definitely not easy to deal with diverse kinds of people especially at individual level. Self control and a temperate personality is golden when dealing with people because strong opinions especially on non essentials repel them away from us. This is the kind of person Paul is talking to Timothy about. This is the kind of person God expects me to be. A person with an attitude that does not stir trouble and quarrels but one that is self controlled before people with differing opinions than mine.