“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.”
Paul has covered the qualifications of elders, now he is going to move on to the qualifications for deacons. What is a deacon? Other than these verses in 1 Timothy 3, the only other place deacon is mentioned is in Philippians. Paul addresses his letter to Philippi this way: “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus: To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons” (Philippians 1:1). Philippians was written right before he wrote this letter to Timothy. Overseers and deacons were an established position in the church, and Paul knows how important it is, as churches are established, to set the qualifications.
Let’s get back to what a deacon is. There are many descriptions of elders/overseers in the New Testament, but what does a deacon do? The word deacon in Greek is diakonos and it means “servant.” The first time we see this word used is in Acts 6:1-6. This is the passage where men are chosen to help distribute food to widows. Thomas Hale, in The First Applied New Testament Commentary, puts it this way. “Deacons are the second main group of leaders in the church. Their main work is to help people in need and to take care of the property and the financial affairs of the church. By doing these things, the deacons free the overseers and elders for their main work, which is to pray, to preach, and to teach (see Acts 6:1-4).”
I was curious if different denominations used other titles for deacons, because the two churches that I have attended for most of my adult life (my current church and the one I attended for 34 years before that) do not have deacons. I wonder how many churches do still have deacons. Instead, I think many have moved into a lay-leader or ministry-leader model. I found this article at christianstandard.com to be helpful. Where Have All the Deacons Gone? (Part 1 of 3) – Christian Standard One of the points made by the author is that in the volunteer ministry leader model, “… each deacon is appointed to a unique area of responsibility and thereby is leveraged to meet a diversity of needs in the church. Often, those who serve in this model are called ministry team leaders rather than deacons.”
I think we have sufficiently covered what a deacon does so we will move into the qualifications. Paul starts with the word “likewise.” In these first two verses, he lists five qualifications that have parallels to those of the elders but the last one is a little different. He first mentions worthy of respect. An elder “must have a good reputation among outsiders…” (vs. 7) A deacon must not be hypocritical. An elder “must be above reproach” (vs. 2). The deacon must not drink a lot of wine and an elder must not be an excessive drinker (vs. 3).
The next parallel is not being greedy. An elder must not be greedy (vs. 3) and Paul says a deacon must not be greedy for money. I spent some time on why an elder must not be greedy several blogposts ago and it should be obvious why this is necessary for a deacon as well. But let’s go over some verses on this. Paul writes later in this letter, “But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:9-10). Deacons oversee meeting the needs of the people in the church. They may oversee finances. It is important that they are not “greedy for money.”
The last thing that Paul writes in this first part is “holding the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.” This is similar to, but not the same as, an elder’s qualification of able to teach. An elder/overseer must understand the gospel well enough to be able to teach it to others. A deacon’s role is not the same as that of an elder, so he does not have to be able to teach. John Barry writes in The Faithlife Study Bible,” The role of deacons is to carry out, under the elders’ oversight, some of the more menial tasks of the church so that the elders can give their attention to more Important things.” But it is important that deacons understand the basics of the faith so that they are not swayed by the false teachers Paul warned Timothy about earlier in the letter.
The last thing I want to cover in this post is Paul’s choice of the phrase “mystery of the faith.” This is not the first time Paul has described it as a mystery. He ends his letter to the church at Rome writing about this mystery. “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for long ages but now revealed and made known through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God to advance the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles— to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ—to him be the glory forever! Amen” (Romans 16:25-27). In Colossians, he writes, “I have become its servant, according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints” (1:25-26). And in his letter to the Ephesians, he writes about Christ’s work of bringing the Jews and Gentiles together as co-heirs. “The mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have briefly written above. By reading this you are able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. This was not made known to people in other generations as it is now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (3:3-6) As you can see, Paul covers a lot of ground when you he writes about the mystery of the faith. Michael A. Eaton writes in The Branch Exposition of the Bible: A Preacher’s Commentary of the New Testament about the deacons, “They realize that faith is a ‘mystery’. The heretics of the first century loved to talk about secret ‘mysteries’ which were only for certain special people. Paul agrees; the gospel is indeed a mystery. But it is an ‘open mystery’, something God has now revealed in Jesus. Those who have the Holy Spirit know the mystery of the gospel. And it is not for some elite. It is for everyone.”
We will continue with qualifications for deacons in my next blog post.
Grace be with you!
Abundant Joy 