Deacons
In the previous article (The Tidings, September 2015) we considered the office of the Bishop. Next we come to the deacons1. Now although we do not have the office of a deacon in our own community, it was clearly an office, and an important office, in New Testament times.
The Epistle to the Philippians opens with these words: “Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.” And in 1st Timothy 3 the office of a deacon is mentioned four times, and the qualifications of a deacon are set down alongside those of the bishop. A bishop must have these specified qualities, and the deacons must similarly be “men of good repute,” and their wives also must be sensible, well balanced people, as I would summarize it.
Now the word deacon originally meant a servant, or a minister. It is the same word, in fact, in the New Testament. When we read “the bishops and deacons” we could perhaps read the bishops, or elders, and “servants” or “ministers,” although it is clear that the office of a deacon was something special, for which special qualifications were required. Jesus actually used this word of himself when he said: “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and give his life a ransom for many” (Matt 20:28).
The word minister is the same as deacon and it carries with it the idea of the more menial tasks, as that of a servant to others. That is what a deacon really was — a servant of the church. In 1st Timothy 3 we have already seen it seems clearly to be an office in the church, with particular qualifications attaching to it. And that takes us back again to Acts 6, when seven men were appointed to look after the day to day running of the ecclesial finances — the “soup kitchen” as we might say — to see that everybody was fed and that the poor were not neglected.
“And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business” (Acts 6:1-3).
There had been complaints that the Greek converts were being neglected in the “daily ministration,” and these seven deacons, or ministers, were appointed to organize matters. Not that they would physically necessarily ladle out the soup, if we may use that expression, but that they would superintend the work, and see that these functions were performed. We notice in passing that though they had these jobs to do, ministering to the membership, it did not mean that they did no other jobs as well. For example, Stephen in Acts 6:8-15 and in Acts 8:5 is seen as an “evangelist” and preacher of the Gospel.
So it means that brethren who have speaking appointments, and may therefore be looked upon as having their primary function as ministers of the Word, may still quite properly be seen in the kitchen doing the washing up at a fraternal gathering, or helping with the cleaning of the hall. There is nothing inferior about any of these tasks. The office of a deacon was a very important office in the early church, but the holders performed a multitude of sometimes “menial” tasks.
We read of Phoebe as a “servant” of the church. “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the church at Cenchre-ae” (Rom 16:1 RSV). Here the word is properly rendered deaconess: it is “servant” in the KJV. You will find the Revised Version margin and the Revised Standard Version, and other newer versions, all concur in translating the word as deaconess. That is to say, they take the view that Phoebe was not just a general “servant” but that she had an office in the church. She was one of those deacons who ministered to the well-being of the members of the church of Christ.
It reminds us, just in passing, that women in New Testament times were sometimes allowed some part in the ecclesial affairs and in ecclesial offices. You may remember that Paul refers to “every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven” (1 Cor 11:5). This would appear to indicate a public office of praying and prophesying on behalf of the church; not praying at a bedside, and certainly not “prophesying” at a bedside. These were elements in the ecclesial worship, and there were sisters of the early church who had this responsibility given to them, just as Phoebe had the office of a deaconess in the church; and it may be that we are losing some excellent service to the ecclesia by our rather rigid and Victorian rule that no woman shall do anything in the ecclesial life except teach the Sunday School and wash up at fraternal gatherings2.
What would be the equivalent, do you think, of deacons in our own organization? It is true that we have no such office today, but perhaps we ought to have, for if we claim to be “apostolic Christianity revived” where are our deacons? I suppose the kind of things that deacons would do, if there were such an office in our ecclesia, would be the serving on Sunday morning of the emblems, (and the word “server” is deacon — it is the very same word — a servant, or a server) — so our serving brethren would be deacons; the hall stewards, the doorkeepers, the visitors of the sick, the hall cleaners, the table attendants — all these would be the kind of functions performed by the deacons of the early church; and the office of a deacon therefore, in the 1st century church, should serve to remind us of the importance of all these ministrations in the ecclesia of today.
Let us never think that they are unimportant offices. Resist the temptation to think that they are jobs to give to somebody as a sop because he is unable to get on to the platform. Let us realize always that these offices of ministration, these servile offices, if you like so to describe them, are in the Apostles’ book very important indeed. Linked up with the bishops are the ministers, or deacons, who would perform the kind of functions of which I have spoken.
Other offices
There are other offices mentioned in the New Testament and I would like to take you now to the words of Paul, where he seems to be saying that when Jesus went to heaven, “when he ascended on high,” (Eph 4:8): it was for the benefit of the church. Jesus himself said something like this in John’s gospel: that if he did not go, “the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you” (John 16:7). And what the Apostle is saying here in Ephesians is, (quoting from Psalm 62.18) “When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.” Now the “gifts” that he gave unto men, the Apostle says, were these officers of the church. “And he gave some, apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph 4:11).
So Paul sees Christ’s ascension into heaven, as it were, releasing these powers that came upon men to enable them to perform these functions in the church, which were Christ’s gift to the particular churches. This was so that some churches needed the ministration of the Apostles, some specially the ministration of prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers and so on. All was supplied, therefore, by the grace of Jesus Christ shedding forth this power, and bestowing on men these various functions — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are those specifically mentioned in the context of Ephesians 4 as above.
Speaking with tongues
In 1st Corinthians 12 we have a slightly different list of offices, and Paul there is enumerating them in order of their importance. You will be aware of the situation at Corinth, that there were some of the brethren there who over-emphasized the importance of the gift of tongues. They seem to have had it in their mind that this was something more spectacular than the other powers, and they aspired to be able to “speak with tongues.” It became quite a problem in the church, because whatever we may understand by speaking with tongues, it is clear that it was not very edifying, unless there was somebody there who could tell the others what the speaker was saying, and so Paul is endeavoring to get the matter in proper perspective.
Paul, in this epistle, sets out for them what are the important gifts, and what they should most of all aspire to attain. “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues” (1 Cor 12:28). Notice that he puts “diversities of tongues” at the very end of the list of importance! And clearly he has in mind to point out to them which are the more important of the gifts. First apostles, secondarily prophets, then teachers, after that miracles and so on, and tongues right down the bottom. So they got their answer on that particular point.
Apostles. I wonder if we can identify some of these offices here mentioned. Apostles, as I have said, would not appear to me to have any relation at all to our own organization, because these were men specially appointed, usually because of their personal acquaintance with the Lord himself3, but they are linked in the Letter to the Ephesians with the second grade, the prophets. Now the prophets were men who spoke the word of God. That is what prophecy really is. We often get all mixed up about this, and think that prophecy is foretelling the future. But this is only a part of the prophet’s work. Primarily, prophecy is the gift of speaking God’s word (forth telling and not foretelling). And if a brother in the twentieth century gets up on the platform and speaks God’s word he may be thought of as a “prophet” in this sense only. Paul says in the context here that the Apostles and prophets are the foundation of the church, which is “built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the chief corner stone,” (Eph 2:20): and it would seem to me reasonable to suppose that Paul here is thinking not of the Old Testament Prophets, but of the New Testament Prophets. Those who preached the word faithfully were second only to the Apostles in importance.
Then there were teachers. I would think teachers would be a more private kind of office; not so much public teachers of the word, but as those like Priscilla and Aquila, who took Apollos home with them and taught him the way of God more perfectly, getting out the Scriptures and discussing it in depth; “apt to teach,” as the Apostle would say, and able to communicate their message to individuals in this way.
The miracles and gifts of healing do not seem to be manifest among us at all today. But such helpers would probably answer to deacons, that is, those who help the work in a practical way, as Paul, for example, had John Mark as his “minister,” and the word again is deacon. He was a man whose function it was to “help” the Apostle with his task. Timothy similarly, later on, was the young man who went about with Paul on his missions as his helper, his servant, his minister, or deacon. The governments, I suppose, would be the office of the elder ship, or the arranging brethren as we should say today. Lastly came the gift of tongues. If you are ever worried about this, (and I suppose we all are from time to time, when we meet people who say we ought to have tongues, or that they have the gift which we do not possess) it is worth remembering and reminding people, that in the list of importance the gift of tongues, even in New Testament times, was put so low, at the end of the list, that it is regarded by Paul as relatively unimportant.
It would seem to me that the Ephesian and Corinthian passages I have referred to above are surveying the whole ecclesial scene; not thinking of the local ecclesias, but of the body as a whole, although several of the offices would operate at local level. Apostles, prophets and evangelists, however, would be superimposed on the normal church organization. The evangelists, who went about from place to place preaching the gospel, were not to be received of the churches without question, although they were endowed with this particular office of being evangelists, yet it was still a duty of the rank and file members to exercise judgment concerning the words that they preached. There were warned: “Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God” (1 John 4:1).
It would appear to me from what we have seen already, that the church in New Testament times was not less well organized than we are, but better organized. There was more direction from the leadership at the top. There was more specialization in the work that they performed. In Hebrews 13 there are three distinct references by the Apostle urging the duty on the church of obedience: “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account” (Heb 13:17). Now it is true to say that our arranging brethren today, or the office of the Recording Brother with the arranging committee of any ecclesia, are not precisely the same as the elder ship and the bishopric of the first century church: but still I would say, let us be aware of this, that even if it is not precisely the same, by and large it is the same office, with a similar responsibility, and depending upon the members of the ecclesia to show loyalty (if we won’t use the word obedience, because we are a democratic society) at least let us say that it is our duty to show loyalty to those who are appointed to the leadership of the ecclesia.
- [Editor]. It is clear that this term came to take on a strictly Christian term in the early church. Although it was based on the term which meant servant, it took on special connotations when associated with Bishops etc.
- [Editor]. I recognize there is a wide range of views on this in our community, and do not believe the opinion of Bro. Len is necessarily correct.
- The Tidings Special Issue in 2014 (August) dealt with “All the Apostles in the Bible”.
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