1 Timothy 3:5

The verse is parenthetical, and the argument is a minori ad maius. Tacitus has almost the same idea: “A se suisque orsus primum domum suam coercuit (sc. Agricola) quod plerisque haud minus arduum est quam provinciam regere” (Agr. 19). The conception of the ἐπίσκοπος as the οἰκονόμος, and of the Church as οἷκος θεοῦ, the familia or household of which the Master is God, is touched on by St Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:1; Galatians 6:10; Ephesians 3:9; and has its roots in the O.T. (Cp. Numbers 12:7 and Hosea 8:1.) Ability to rule is here represented as an indispensable qualification for the due discharge of the office of an ἐπίσκοπος. See below on 1 Timothy 3:15.

πῶς ἐπιμελήσεται. We find πῶς followed by a future of moral capacity, as here, in 1 Corinthians 14:7; 1 Corinthians 14:9; 1 Corinthians 14:16. The verb ἐπιμελεῖσθαι occurs elsewhere in the N.T. only in Luke 10:34-35; the presidents of the Essene communities were called ἐπιμεληταί (Josephus B. J. II. 8. 6). The ἐκκλησία in question is the local Christian community over which the ἐπίσκοπος is placed. See on 1 Timothy 3:12 and on 1 Timothy 3:15.