This is a faithful saying: if a man seeks the office of an overseer{Or, bishop}, he desires a good work.
Faithful is the saying ...  Despite the fact of some scholars applying this remark to the conclusion of the previous chapter it would be more appropriately understood as Paul's emphasis upon the importance of the eldership in church organization.  Full agreement is felt with Stibbs who construed this expression as the mark of Paul's "concern to encourage a proper regard for the task of oversight"[1] of the churches.  This is the second of five times that Paul used this rather peculiar expression; and it seems to have been applied to particularly important or timely truths which had come to be something like proverbs among the earliest Christians.