Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their
children and their own households well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
It is always good for us to be considering the kind of men who are called to serve the church, the character of men who are to lead and inspire us in our faithfulness to the Lord
and His people.
But first, in this text we have a picture of the way we, you and I and all Christians ought to deal with disagreements among us and solve problems that come up as we live life
together.
We can’t prevent problems and disagreements but we can certainly handle them better than they are often handled! Notice there is no church split here, no permanent division, no
lasting envy or jealousy or sense of offense. No distraction from great work. The seven weren’t merely deployed to solve a food problem. Food was the occasion, sure, but it wasn’t the real problem. The real problem was a sudden threat to church unity.
(Deacons, 44, 52)
“How could the church beautify the gospel if there were wars within her walls?” How could the church spread the news that Jesus is King and Messiah and that folks were supposed
to join themselves to Him by becoming part of His body, the church…if there were wars within the walls of the church? How could the word of God spread if its people were mired in swamps of bitterness and unforgiveness, envy and jealousy, being offended at
any given slight, or supposed slight…that is a cancer to the people of God.
The church didn’t merely need better waiters; it needed peace and healing…it needed humility and a sense of joy to be mere servants in the house of the Lord. It needed men strong
and wise enough to help mend fractures in the family.
Connected to this is the fascinating fact that all seven names of the men chosen to serve are Greek names, even when the majority of the people were Aramaic speaking Jews. The
answer then for the problem that the Hellenistic Jewish widows were being overlooked, was to put the ministry in the hands of Hellenistic Jewish Christians!
There is a beauty in all of this; They not only trusted their brothers to do what was right, they were concerned more with fixing the problem than they were with protecting their
supposed rights. They cared more for harmony in the church than they cared that no one would short change them, or their relatives or their friends. The gospel was the issue, not what group of people you belonged to!
To put it simply, they trusted the men who they believed God had called to serve them. Imperfect men, fallible men, men who we can assume, didn’t always make the right
decisions, nonetheless, trusting them was trusting the Lord.
Do you remember how David’s son Absalom would sit at the gate of the city and tell people that they were not getting justice with King David? If someone came away from
David feeling that things did not go well, Absalom would tell him, “Oh my…that is not right…My dad isn’t what we had hoped he would be? You were not treated fairly…that was a poor decision by the king and I am so sorry for you…boy…if I were the king I certainly
wouldn’t have ruled that way…”
What was he doing? Planting seeds of distrust…suspicion. And soon enough that distrust was full-flower and rebellion followed. That is why Solomon says that God hates
the sowing of discord.
Brothers and sisters, we must be very wise to this. In our day of the cowardice of social media posts, of the hypocrisy of so many who seem to take pleasure in planting
seeds of distrust and suspicion. Remember what Paul says, warn a divisive man once, warn him twice and then have nothing to do with him.
To be continued…
Prayer: Father, I have heard the words of Jesus many times, that I am to take up my cross and follow Him, and I so desire to do nothing but that: Please give me the
strength of will and the motivation of love to follow Him, wherever He should lead and may I live toward that day when I shall hear Your words to me, Well done good and faithful servant, enter into your rest! In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
Hymn: Lift High the Cross
