removing leaders

¹⁰Avoid a man who is a heretic, after the first and second correction,

²When just men are multiplied, the common people shall rejoice. When the impious take up the leadership, the people shall mourn.

¹⁷And if he will not listen to them, tell the Church. But if he will not listen to the Church, let him be to you like the pagan and the tax collector.

¹⁷Obey your leaders and be subject to them. For they watch over you, as if to render an account of your souls. So then, may they do this with joy, and not with grief. Otherwise, it would not be as helpful to you.

¹It is a faithful saying: if a man desires the episcopate, he desires a good work. ²Therefore, it is necessary for a bishop to be beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, sober, prudent, gracious, chaste, hospitable, a teacher, ³not a drunkard, not combative but restrained, not quarrelsome, not covetous; ⁴but a man who leads his own house well, having children who are subordinate with all chastity. ⁵For if a man does not know how to lead his own house, how will he take care of the Church of God? ⁶He must not be a new convert, lest, being elated by pride, he may fall under the sentence of the devil.

¹And, brothers, if a man has been overtaken by any offense, you who are spiritual should instruct someone like this with a spirit of leniency, considering that you yourselves might also be tempted.

²¹And he alters the times and the ages. He takes away kingdoms and he establishes them. He gives wisdom to those who are wise and teaching skills to those who understand.

²⁶It shall not be this way among you. But whoever will want to be greater among you, let him be your minister.

²⁸Take care of yourselves and of the entire flock, over which the Holy Spirit has stationed you as Bishops to rule the Church of God, which he has purchased by his own blood.

²⁰For if, after taking refuge from the defilements of the world in the understanding of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled and overcome by these things, then the latter state becomes worse than the former. ²¹For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of justice than, after acknowledging it, to turn away from that holy commandment which was handed on to them. ²²For the truth of the proverb has happened to them: The dog has returned to his own vomit, and the washed sow has returned to her wallowing in the mud.

²¹Then provide, from all of the people, men capable and fearing God, in whom there is truth and who hate avarice, and appoint from them tribunes, and leaders of hundreds, and of fifties, and of tens,

³Let nothing be done by contention, nor in vain glory. Instead, in humility, let each of you esteem others to be better than himself.

²⁵But Jesus called them to himself and said: “You know that the first ones among the Gentiles are their rulers, and that those who are greater exercise power among them. ²⁶It shall not be this way among you. But whoever will want to be greater among you, let him be your minister. ²⁷And whoever will want to be first among you, he shall be your servant, ²⁸even as the Son of man has not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a redemption for many.”

⁹And so, let us not be deficient in doing good. For in due time, we shall reap without fail.

¹⁴Where there is no governor, the people shall fall. But where there is much counsel, well-being shall be.

⁵For if a man does not know how to lead his own house, how will he take care of the Church of God?

¹⁹Do not be willing to accept an accusation against a priest, except under two or three witnesses. ²⁰Reprove sinners in the sight of everyone, so that the others may have fear.