Pondering 1 Timothy 3

"It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?), and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. " -- 1 Timothy 3:1-7

This passage has been a passage of some interest to me for quite a while. It is one of the classic passages used to determine the qualifications of a pastor/elder/bishop in the Church. It spells out the clear expectations that God has laid out for those who seek to shepherd His people and lead them in their sanctification and direct their worship of God. There are those who interpret these qualifications more strictly and those who are more loose in their view (almost seeing them as suggestions or guidelines...but keep in mind Paul does not say an overseer should be...but rather Paul states that an overseer must be....) Where I run into a problem, personally, is how the qualifications are applied. Are the qualifications to be "back-dated", as it were, to include things done in the unregenerate state of the candidate before salvation? Or is one disqualified if they were a drunkard given to bar-room brawls before they were saved? Is there something within the passage that implies that all the listed qualifications are to be treated equally (like a check-list)? Or is the list weighted where certain qualifications are more important than others (and who decides the weight)? I am planning on studying this particular passage in a little more depth in the very near future and ask for prayer in seeing God's wisdom in this passage and the related passages I will be looking at. I will be posting what I discover at some point in the future.