I don’t encourage ambition, but here Paul talks about people aspiring to the office of overseer. To aspire to overseer, you are supposed develop godly character. That’s a good kind of ambition, to want to be godly.

It’s not something that should be attained easily or quickly. Elders should be elder, at least elder in the faith. One of the tricks of the devil is to puff up those in power. We need humble leaders, those who know their godliness comes from God and that all power belongs to God as well.

Paul lists another trick of the devil, to get leaders into a scandal in the public eye. Leaders should be looked up to for their character even by those in the world.

Deacons are held to the same basic standard of godliness. They are to be blameless.

Those in the household of God are pillars of truth. We know the truth of God having come in the flesh and returned to heaven in His resurrected glory.

Paul says that the Spirit warns that there are those who will follow deceitful spirits who will lead people to forbid marriage and abstain from foods. The only example I know of that currently is the Catholic church forbidding their priests to marry and the long Catholic tradition of not eating meat on Fridays.

When I sought the Lord about eating organic, He used 1 Timothy 4:4-5 to let me know that I didn’t need to worry about such things. Everything was clean to me if I received it with thanksgiving.

Paul tells Timothy to train himself for godliness. We can train. Training the body may have some value, but godliness has value in every way because it’s for eternity, not just the present. Live with an eternal view. What matters for eternity?

Timothy is young, but Paul tells him how to get respect: by faith, love, and purity.

Keep yourself pure. Keep watch on your conduct and your speech. Persevere in doing good and God will save you and use you to bring others into salvation.