Attributes of a bishop still unchanged
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The requirements of a bishop today are as they were in the days of Paul, said President Gordon B. Hinckley during the priesthood session of the October 1988 general conference.
He quoted the letter to Timothy in which Paul explained that a bishop is to be "blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach, Not given to wine, no striker (that is, not a bully or a violent person), . . . not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; . . . not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil." (1 Tim. 3:2-6.)
President Hinckley said that in his letter to Titus, Paul added that a bishop "must be blameless, as the steward of God; . . . Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." (Titus 1:7, 9.)
President Hinckley declared: "These words aptly describe a bishop today in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I saw all of those elements in the life of the bishop of the ward in which I grew up. He served for a quarter of a century. The ward over which he presided had more than eleven hundred members, but he seemed to know and love us all. He was our friend, our counselor, our presiding officer, our confidante, our teacher. He knew us boys by our first names and so addressed us. We respectfully addressed him as 'Bishop.' He was no martinet who ruled with a heavy hand. He could laugh with us. He could sympathize with us. He understood us, and we knew it. We knew also that he loved us."
