Bishop

The UPDV consistently renders the Greek term traditionally translated "bishop" as overseer, and a footnote at Php 1:1 makes the equivalence explicit: "overseers, traditionally rendered 'bishops'." The office is set out in three NT passages — 1 Tim 3:1-7, Tit 1:5-9, and 1 Pet 5:1-4 — addressed to or drawn alongside the elders of a local church, and is then lifted from the human office and applied to Christ himself in 1 Pet 2:25, where he is called "the Shepherd and Overseer" of his people's souls.

The Office and Its Holders

The office is named, almost in passing, in the salutation of Philippians: "Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and servants" (Php 1:1). Overseers stand alongside servants as the recognized officers of a settled congregation.

Paul opens his charge to Timothy with the same posture of welcome: "Faithful is the saying, If a man seeks the office of overseer, he desires a good work" (1 Tim 3:1). The pursuit is not rebuked; the office is a "good work."

In Titus the office sits inside the wider work of putting a Cretan church in order. Paul writes, "For this cause I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave you charge" (Tit 1:5), and then within two verses moves from "elders" to "the overseer" without changing subject: "For the overseer must be blameless, as God's steward" (Tit 1:7). The same person who is appointed an elder in v. 5 is held to the standard of an overseer in v. 7.

Qualifications

The qualification list in 1 Timothy is the longest single statement on the bishop in the UPDV:

"The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach; no brawler, no striker; but gentle, not contentious, no lover of money; one who rules well his own house, having [his] children in subjection with all gravity; (but if a man doesn't know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?) not a novice, lest being puffed up he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have good testimony from those who are outside; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil" (1 Tim 3:2-7).

Titus restates the same standard in compressed form, with two added angles. First, the household test is sharpened: "if any man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, who are not accused of riot or unruly" (Tit 1:6). Second, the steward language is added: "For the overseer must be blameless, as God's steward; not self-willed, not soon angry, no brawler, no striker, not greedy of monetary gain; but given to hospitality, a lover of good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled" (Tit 1:7-8).

Both lists converge on the same shape — character, household, hospitality, sobriety, and indifference to money.

Teacher and Defender of Doctrine

The overseer is also a teacher. 1 Timothy includes "apt to teach" (1 Tim 3:2) in the list. Titus is more explicit and gives the reason: the overseer must be "holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict the gainsayers" (Tit 1:9).

The reason "the gainsayers" need convicting follows immediately: "For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped; men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for greed of monetary gain's sake" (Tit 1:10-11). The overseer's teaching role is, in part, defensive — silencing the men who teach for gain.

Shepherd Imagery

Peter writes to the elders of dispersed congregations and frames their work in shepherd language:

"To the elders who are among you⁺ I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd the flock of God which is among you⁺, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to God; nor yet for greed of monetary gain, but eagerly; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you⁺, but making yourselves examples to the flock" (1 Pet 5:1-3).

The verb is "shepherd," and the participle is "exercising the oversight" — the same root that elsewhere yields "overseer." Three negatives circumscribe the work: not constrained, not greedy, not domineering. Three positives replace them: willingly, eagerly, exemplary.

The motivating horizon is christological: "And when the chief Shepherd will be manifested, you⁺ will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away" (1 Pet 5:4). The elders shepherd under a chief Shepherd to whom they will give account.

Christ as Overseer

The same noun used for the human office is, in 1 Peter, applied to Christ as a title: "For you⁺ were like sheep that go astray; but have now been returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your⁺ souls" (1 Pet 2:25). The pairing is the same one Peter will use of himself in chapter 5 — Shepherd and oversight — but turned upward: the elders' work in 1 Pet 5:1-4 derives from, and answers to, Christ's prior work in 1 Pet 2:25.