65. 1Ti_5:23
1 Timothy 5:23, “No longer water.” See 1 Timothy 3:2-3. Titus 1:7-8, “Not given to wine,” “temperate.”
Here Paul mentions the same qualifications for a pastor as those stated in 1 Timothy 3:3, “Not given to wine.” He uses the same Greek word, meeparoinon, compounded of mee, a negative particle, para, a preposition, with or near, and oinon, wine, meaning not near wine, which is a happy apostolic definition of total abstinence. He adds temperate, which, it is pleaded, sanctions moderate drinking. The Greek word here used is enkratees. Donnegan, “Holding firm, mastering one’s appetite or passions”—New Testament Lexicon. “Strong, stout, possessed of mastery, master of self”—Titus 1:8. It is clear that Paul does not contradict himself in this verse: first, by saying the bishop must be a total abstainer—mee, not; para, near; oinon, wine—and then, in the second place, by saying he must be a moderate drinker. What he here means by temperance applies to the mind and not to the bodily habits. Or if it is contended that it does refer to the body, then it means what he says in 1 Corinthians 9:25, where he uses the same word in reference to those contending for the mastery in the games. Such abstain totally from wine and all excitements, or as Horace expresses it, “He abstains from Venus and Bacchus.” See Note, 1 Corinthians 9:25, and Acts 24:25.