This is a true saying, If a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good work.
All Commentaries on 1 Timothy 3:1 Go To 1 Timothy 3
John Chrysostom
AD 407
The first of all qualities that a priest or bishop ought to possess is that he must purify his soul entirely of ambition for the office…. The right course, I think, is to have so reverent an estimation of the office as to avoid its responsibility from the start…. But if anyone should cling to a position for which he is not fit, he deprives himself of all pardon and provokes God’s anger the more by adding a second and more serious offense…. It is indeed a terrible temptation to covet this honor. And in saying this, I do not contradict St. Paul but entirely agree with what he says. What are his words? “If a man seeks the office of a bishop, he desires a good work.” What is terrible is to desire the absolute authority and power of the bishop but not the work itself.
