Reading 1, First Timothy 3:1-131 Here is a saying that you can rely on: to want to be a presiding elder is to desire a noble task. 8 Similarly, deacons must be respectable, not double-tongued, moderate in the amount of wine they drink and with no squalid greed for money. 10 They are first to be examined, and admitted to serve as deacons only if there is nothing against them. 12 Deacons must be husbands of one wife and must be people who manage their children and households well. 5 One who secretly slanders a comrade, I reduce to silence; haughty looks, proud heart, these I cannot abide.