1 Timothy 3:1-13 This
saying is trustworthy: “If anyone
aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.” An overseer,
therefore, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, self-controlled,
sensible, respectable, hospitable, an able teacher, not addicted to wine, not a
bully but gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy - one who manages his own
household competently, having his children under control with all dignity. (If
anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of
God’s church?) He must not be a new convert, or he might become conceited and
fall into the condemnation of the Devil. Furthermore, he must have a good
reputation among outsiders, so that he does not fall into disgrace and the
Devil’s trap.
Deacons, likewise, should be
worthy of respect, not hypocritical, not drinking a lot of wine, not greedy for
money, holding the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And they must
also be tested first; if they prove blameless, then they can serve as deacons.
Wives, too, must be worthy of respect, not slanderers, self-controlled,
faithful in everything. Deacons must be husbands of one wife, managing their
children and their own households competently. For those who have served well as deacons acquire a good standing for
themselves, and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
Paul
begins and ends this passage with commendations for those who aspire to serve
as elders or has served well as deacons; it is a privilege to serve in either
role. He describes these two roles within the local fellowship of saints, both
having very similar qualifications, but very different roles (which are
explained elsewhere in Scripture). Both are described as servants with
responsibility, not rulers with authority. The Bible has authority in the
church; the men do not.
The
Apostles, forerunner of church elders, were to devote themselves to prayer and
the preaching of the Word; deacons are to tend to the physical needs of the
dynamic and diverse body of Christ. In Acts 6 the people did not vote for who
would serve as deacons; they nominated seven godly men to the Apostles, who
appointed the men to serve. This passage does not show a democracy in action as
many Baptists falsely believe. It shows the active participation of the members,
recognizing the role of those God had appointed to lead them. As the church
matured, the Scripture shows us that elders had oversight on all the church did
and deacons provided much more service than “waiting tables.” As there are
spiritual issues behind every temporal matter a deacon might be called upon to
help with, these men must be qualified and there must be a good rapport between
the deacons and elders, so the body of Christ gets the best care possible.
Deacon. The Greek (diaconos) and English words refer both to one who serves the local
church in this capacity as well as those who are simply known for being
servants to the body of Christ. Deacons are not required to be spiritual
guides, feeders of the flock, or teachers;
they are required to be trustworthy and of moral character as they deal
with matters of temporal importance and the related spiritual foundations. The
health of the church depends on deacons functioning well, which requires the
cooperation of the elders and the people. It is painfully apparent that many of
us have lost sight of the completeness of the wisdom our Lord has provided us
and the reason for it. How we serve Him and one another is be to the glory of
His name and the good of His people.
Robert Boyt C. Howell laments “much
confusion and division of sentiment regarding the nature of the office”; and he
points out how so many miss the Scriptural teachings that describe the role of
those who hold the office of deacon.
Nearly all the churches have made them
ministers of the gospel. In the Roman Catholic church he is an inferior
ecclesiastic, the second in the sacred order, who, with the permission of the
bishop, has authority to preach and baptize. In the English church the Deacons
are clergymen, but of the lowest grade; who can perform all the offices of
priests, except the consecration of the sacred elements and the pronouncing of
the absolution. In the German Protestant churches, when more ministers than one
in the same congregation are necessary, the second, or assistant minister, is
called the Deacon; and if there are two assistants the first is called the
Arch-Deacon. In the Presbyterian church, the office is commonly merged with
that of ruling elder, and, therefore, mostly disused. Where it is still
retained, it embraces, as among Congregationalists and others, merely the
distribution of alms. The Methodist and Episcopal churches in this country
adopt, substantially, the practice of the English church, of which they are
descendants. In the Baptist churches, the Deacons are not ministers who preach,
on the one hand, nor mere distributors of alms on the other, but serve in a
different capacity. They are a board of directors, and have charge of all the
secular affairs in the kingdom of Christ
It is not unusual for Baptist deacons to
have hire & fire authority over elders (a corollary error in this
circumstance is the absence of a plurality of elders). In the end, nobody
escapes unscathed! This all-too-common Baptist practice is blatantly taken from
the modern business world, and puts the lower office of deacon as overseers of
those called of God to be overseers, turning Scripture on its head.
We need to ask, is the Bible so
unclear on the nature and duties of the office of deacon? Brothers, this is not
the case! It is sin that keeps God's people from seeing clearly, not a lack of
clarity in God's Holy Word. We must abide by what the Book reveals, and guard
against traditions not found therein. If Scripture is not our guide, we are adrift
on the sea of man's wisdom; and that is dangerous.
The qualifications of deacons differ from
those of elders on the single requirement of elders, but not deacons, being
able to teach the Word of God. Deacons are to be men of good reputation, full
of the Holy Spirit, holding the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. These
bedrock character traits often neglected when selecting deacons, as people
focus on the man's record of financial giving, business acumen, and abstinence
from alcohol. While those traits can be easily measured, they cannot be found
in the Bible as qualification for this office. The traits found in Scripture
are not so easily quantified. It takes serious thought and hard work to
determine if a man has a good reputation among his neighbors and work
colleagues. It takes time and discernment to see if there be evidence of the
Holy Spirit in a man. Who wants to put a man on the spot and see if he holds
the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience? Can you even explain this
requirement, much less investigate it? Installing men to serve the local church
as deacons is sober work, not to be taken lightly or without serious prayer and
reflection.
A deacon must be the husband of one wife.
The literal meaning of the text is "a one woman man" - which means
that if there was a biblical divorce and subsequent marriage, the man is not
disqualified. If one holds that no divorce is biblical, the on-going sin in a
second marriage becomes an on-going problem within the body. I see 2 reasons in
Scripture wherein YHWH permits divorce, for unrepentant adultery or for
abandonment by an unbelieving spouse. The goal of marriage is for each to last
until death parts the couple. But even redeemed saints can fall into sin and be
stiff-necked for a season; and the One Who knows our frailty has provided a
narrow window - much narrower than in the Mosaic Covenant.
The requirement that deacons be tested
first gives us a hint that we should invest the time and energy in examining
would-be deacons; and not merely assuming these traits be theirs. This testing
also provides the opportunity to see if his wife is sober minded and faithful,
if his children are “managed well”. We must exercise the full measure of the
biblical text to prove the men who would serve as deacons; they are care-takers
of God's sheep and co-laborers with His under-shepherds. This is a high calling
(those who serve well gain a good
standing) and we cannot allow our lazy human minds to rest on our own
wisdom, or the taking of shortcuts or reliance on the traditions handed to us
by other men. Finding men who tithe and do not frequent bars is wrong-headed
and too low a bar for the office our Lord established for the temporal care of
His redeemed.
As we desire our men to provide for their
families, spiritually as well as physically, our deacons are to help families
in each arena, with boundaries in both. Neither the church nor either office
therein can unreasonably meddle with a family. God has established three
spheres in this age, with specific roles and limits. It's been said that to the
state God gave the sword, to the church He gave the keys to the kingdom, and to
the family He gave the rod of correction. We should not cross these boundaries
without a clear biblical basis. Wisdom and care is needed if we are to tend to
God's people without ruling over them as "Gentiles" tend to do.
Healthy church members let their deacons
know ahead of time when they will miss, and explain why. They will be more
inclined to assemble with another local body while away if they properly
understand church membership. This exercise of membership responsibilities is
representative of any number of other earthly matters that deacons are likely
to get involved with, each of which most often reflects the spiritual condition
of the person. Lack of attendance and interest in church life, neglecting to
worship in giving money, and many other concerns can be prompted by earthly
things: illness, loss of work, death in the family, etc. In order to be wise
stewards of the office, deacons must not presume to know the cause without
investigating it, learning from Job who investigated the cause of what he did
not know (Job 29:16). This keeps us from the sin of presumption and all that
tends to follow closely behind.
As
we examine men who would and do serve in our churches as deacons; as we
consider how we determine the role of the office and how we select these men,
let us humbly petition our God for wisdom and grace to do what is right in His
sight - aligned with His scriptures and not resting on our own wisdom.
Elder. This role can only be fulfilled by a
qualified man who is called and equipped by God for this service. There is no
possible interpretation that allows self-identified or unconverted men, or
women to serve in this capacity; and yet many churches do just this. This
latter error is always the first big step to total apostasy for a church,
preferring fallen man's view of order over creator God's declared view.
As mentioned earlier, the only different
qualification for this role is that an elder must be able to teach. In our
English Bibles we see the words Elder/Presbyter, Overseer/Bishop,
Shepherd/Pastor. Each pair of these words comes from one Greek word;
Elder/Presbyter is from presbyteros;
Overseer/Bishop from episkope; and
Shepherd/Pastor from poimen. They are
used interchangeably and they all refer to a single office in the church which
has several important functions, each of which is designed by the Lord to
insure the health of each local church. The terms elder and presbyter refer to
a man’s experience; in the Word and in the church. Overseer and bishop convey
the act of being a spiritual guardian or protector, while pastor and shepherd
refer to the spiritual care and feeding of God’s flock. We see overlap among
these three functions in 1 Peter 5:1-5, where elders are exhorted by the
Apostle Peter to shepherd God's people with the right motive and attitude,
serving as examples for the less mature Christians. In Acts 20:28, elders are instructed
by the Apostle Paul to pay careful attention to themselves and the flock
of God, in which the Holy Spirit made you overseers, to care for the church.
One aspect of being a faithful elder that is implicit in these passages is that
of being among the saints, knowing them as a shepherd knows his flock and being
known as the shepherd is by the sheep. A man who does not live among his church
members, who lives at a higher station of life, who spends all his time with
other preachers is not faithful to his call. The elder must be an able teacher
of the Word (1 Timothy 3:2, Titus 3:1-8) and a diligent servant of God's people
(1 Timothy 5:17 & 18). He must also
be able and willing to rebuke those who contradict the Word of God within the
local church (Titus 1:7-9), and he must be about training others to work
alongside him as under-shepherds of Christ (2 Timothy 2:1-3). One who would hold
this office must lead the church, serving as a proper example (2 Thessalonians
2:11 & 12; 2 Timothy 2:15), and the saints are commanded to submit to them,
not being burdensome for them (Hebrews 13:17). Elders were given to the church,
by God, to equip the saints for the work of the church, bringing them to
maturity and the fullness of Christ so they would not be vulnerable to the
deceptive schemes of the enemy (Ephesians 4:11-14). This means the biblical
elder must feed God's sheep the whole counsel of His Word, not trusting his
opinion or theirs as to what is true nor picking some Scriptures from which to
teach and ignoring others. His teaching is to be tested in light of Scripture;
not accepted nor rejected by personal whimsy or blind friendship. All of these
responsibilities of elders are beyond any man's abilities, so the Bible reminds
us that elders, like the Apostles who preceded them, must be men of prayer
(Acts 6:4).
There is another requirement of the man
who would serve as an elder. While some read 1 Timothy 3:2 to mean a single man
cannot serve as an elder, the view most compatible with Scripture is that an
elder who is married must be in a
biblical marriage and work at keeping it. Elders must be one-woman men, and
they must lead their churches to defend marriage in the face of reprobates. 1
Timothy 3 goes on to say the elder must be sober minded and not quarrelsome;
all the more so in defending God's people from unrighteous men, who by their
unrighteousness suppress the truth (Romans 1:18).
Being God's spokesman is no job for a new
convert, one who is unsure of God's Word, unwilling to proclaim God's Word,
unable to rebuke those who contradict God's Word, or unworthy of being followed
as God's servant. The times in which we live are treacherous, with many
professing Christians embracing abominable sin in order to be well thought of
by those outside the camp of Christ. Christians are never to compromise God's
truth for the applause of men (Galatians 1:10) and elders must be held to a
high standard so that the Lord's name not be disgraced among the pagans and the
local church not be led astray.
Ezekiel 33 & 34 describes watchman appointed by God with
responsibilities to warn, guard, and care for the people of God. In these two
chapters we see a contrast of the watchman with the shepherd: the watchman
warns, the shepherd tends. In each passage, unfaithful watchmen and shepherds
are contrasted with those who are faithful. Ezekiel 34:1-10 describes the
failures of the leaders of Israel, showing what shepherds are supposed to
fulfill. Shepherds are supposed to care
for the flock. These men were feeding
on the sheep; fleecing the sheep. These men had all the appearance of
shepherds, but they were wolves. Pastoral ministry is hard work, not glamorous.
Those who pose as celebrities, living the high life, are not pastors. Pastors
should smell like sheep, walking in the mud and mess, scarred by the teeth of
biting sheep. This is difficult but rewarding work. Every man should aspire to
be a commendable man who leads his family as a shepherd leads the flock. He
must diagnose and treat appropriately – you don't strengthen the stray, you
strengthen the weak; you don't bind up the lost – you search for the lost. Each
spiritual condition requires the correct spiritual remedy. The pastor must know
illnesses and the people, else he cannot properly treat the sheep. Verse 10 in
Ezekiel 34 shows the omnipotent hand of God rescuing His sheep from the teeth
of the wolves. A true pastor will watch the flock like a man who must give an
account to the God who has purchased the sheep with the blood of His own son.
Because that is what God's Word tells us the truth about those who would call
themselves “pastor”.
Even with the best of intentions, we can
go astray from the narrow path of biblical truth. Over time, man has developed
unbiblical structures, imagining that Bishop is more honorific and must carry
more responsibility (by which they mean fame). Most men who preach call
themselves “pastor” regardless of whether they shepherd the flock God has
gathered there or not. One who preaches but does not work to know and care for
the saints the Lord has put under his watch cannot rightly call himself pastor;
he is merely a preacher. These words are not titles by which the men who serve
are to be called, but descriptions of service they provide within the local
church. Because God has given these terms to describe the roles of men He calls
to the office, we must be careful to use them correctly.
Plurality
of elders. Most churches in every denomination and across the spectrum
of Baptists miss the point of Scripture on this point. The Bible repeatedly
shows us that even the early churches that met in houses had two or more men
serving as elders, a plurality of elders.
Acts 14:22&23 – Paul and
Barnabas had traveled to Antioch, Derbe, Iconium, & Lystra, where they strengthened the souls of the disciples,
encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many
tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with
prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
Acts 20:17 – Paul passed by
Ephesus to Miletus. Now from Miletus he
sent to Ephesus and called the elders of
the church to come to him.
James – Was written to the
churches resulting from Saul’s scattering of the saints (1:1), this letter shows
elders in the local church (5:14).
Philippians is addressed (1:1) to
overseers (elders) and deacons in that church, in addition to the entire
congregation.
Hebrews recognizes leaders
(elders) in that congregation (13:7, 17, 24).
1 Tim – Timothy was recognized by
the elders of his church for his
calling as an elder (1 Tim 4:14) and a plurality of elders is seen again in
5:17.
In large and small fellowships,
having only one elder can lead to a kind of “cult of personality” as a solitary
man is seen as the public face and voice of that church. One man alone, coping
with a job, his family, and the ministry is vulnerable to being drawn aside by
pragmatism in what may start as an innocent desire to do all things well and
unto the Lord but which soon go astray. If the saints YHWH has gathered and
gifted in the local church (1 Corinthians 12:4-11) are encouraged to serve the
body, those serving as elders and deacons will have a much lighter load and the
local church will marvel to see the Lord working in their midst!
Having two or more men who preach
and teach provides several benefits, in addition to aligning with the examples
and teachings from Scripture (Acts 11:27-30; 14:21-23; 20:7; Titus 1:5; James
5:14; et. al.). Two or more men can sharpen one another and hold each other
accountable, while the church sees the true Shepherd more clearly when they see
Him work through more than one man. The church will see strengths and
weaknesses in each man and those men will have the opportunity to be examples
of how to serve in unity without letting egos derail the ministry. As they seek
to identify others and train them for this service, more men will have
opportunity to serve the saints in myriad ways. This is part of life in the
body of Christ that is vital and often undervalued. It is not, as one man said
to me, a matter of money. It's a matter of caring for the people of God as He
has shown us.
Baptists used to be known as
"people of the Book." This topic of deacons and elders is one where
many Baptists discard the Book and cling to traditions handed down by men.
Brothers, this should not be so! We are servants with responsibility. The Bible
is our only authority for life and godliness. We are to seek His will, revealed
in Scripture, and not rely on our own wisdom or traditions.
