Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.
All Commentaries on 1 Timothy 3:6 Go To 1 Timothy 3
John Chrysostom
AD 407
The point is not that the bishop cannot be a young man but that he must not be a new convert…. For if youth only was an objection, why did he himself appoint Timothy, a young man? … But since there were many then who came over from heathen cultures to be baptized, Paul says, “Do not immediately advance to a station of dignity a novice, that is, one of these new converts.” For, if even before he has proved himself as a disciple he is made a teacher, he will soon be lifted up into insolence.
