Andreas Kostenberger writes something on the validity of women deacons in accordance with Paul’s letter to Timothy. A while ago, I wrote a sermon/article on the role of women as deacons in accordance with Paul’s directives to Timothy. As a result, Wellspring has been blessed to have women deacons to serve the church and will continue to do so. Here is that article concerning deacons in general with a section on women deacons:

Introduction

I grew up in a church context where if you went to church long enough or if you were old enough, you were appointed a deacon. In fact, deacon was equivalent to regular church-goer. How wrong of a concept this is! It has deprived the church of solid biblical leadership. And when you look at the Bible’s definition and understanding of deacon, you can’t help but notice that these are special people, devoted to the Lord, much as the Levites in the Old Covenant were given the task of serving the Temple of the Lord.

So, where exactly does the word “deacon� come from? Well, it originally meant ‘waiter’ [It takes this meaning in Matthew 22:13 and John 2:5, 9]. But the word also expanded generally to one who serves others. Only in our text and in Philippians 1:1, is the word “deacon� used to refer to an office within the church. And I’ll argue later, Romans 16:1 also takes on this meaning as well. Regardless of whether you are talking about a waiter, or an office, or a servant, you cannot get away from the central character of a deacon, that this person is one who joyfully serves. And just like the overseer, who exemplifies Christian ethics and morality and is not some sort of Super-Christian, the deacon exemplifies servanthood, something that every Christian is called to be anyway as Jesus says in Mark 10:43-44: “43Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.�

What Is a Servant?

So we must ask the question, “What is a servant?’ in order to grasp the role and character of a deacon. Paul gives us a marvelous picture of servanthood in Philippians 2:5-8 that I think enlightens our thinking on the character and quality of deacons. Listen to how Paul defines the Divine Deacon, Jesus Christ: “6Who, being in very nature[1] God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature[2] of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross!â€? This servant “made himself nothing…he humbled himself.â€? He puts others above himself. He was humble. Servants are to imitate Christ. Therefore, servants are humble.

Servants are also obedient, “He…became obedient to death.â€? Jesus didn’t want to die. He wasn’t looking forward to the joy of suffering and death, as his prayer on Mt. Gethsemane clearly indicates. But servants know their master and are willing to obey their master, knowing that there is a future reward and joy. Star quarterback Roger Staubach of the Dallas Cowboys finally understood this through his relationship with his coach, Tom Landry. Landry sent in every play. He told Roger when to pass, when to run and only in emergency situations could he change the play (and he had better be right!). Even though Roger considered coach Landry to have a “genius mind” when it came to football strategy, pride said that he should be able to run his own team. Staubach later said, “I faced up to the issue of obedience. Once I learned to obey there was harmony, fulfillment, and victory.”(1) Staubach’s lesson is one for all servants, trusting that the master or coach knows best, especially when that master or coach truly does know best, can only mean victory. Servants are confident of this truth and so they willfully obey.
Lastly, servants are loving. Jesus went to the cross and humbled himself and obeyed His Father because God so loved the world and God demonstrated His own love by dying for us even though we were still sinners. Servants cannot genuinely serve people without loving people, and I’m not talking about hypothetically or theoretically loving people. In a Peanuts cartoon, Lucy challenged Linus about his dreams for the future. She says: “Linus, you can’t be a doctor. You hate mankind!� Linus responds: “Lucy, you don’t understand. I love mankind. It’s people I can’t stand.�(2) All of us who serve the church and Christ, do so because we love people, we love mankind. And yet, all of us who serve the church and Christ, have such hard times loving people. And yes, there are even those occasions, like Linus, when we can’t stand people. But here is where love and obedience really are intertwined together. We love not because we feel like loving, or love because someone has loved us, but we love because we are obeying our God who says to love Him with everything and love others as ourselves. Joe Stowell, President of Moody Bible Institute, is absolutely right when he says: “Love is a choice, not a feeling…[and] seeing love as a choice enables us to minister to all people, even those we may not like. Even those who may not like us.�(3) Servants love in this way.

What Are Servant Deacons?

So if servants are humble, obedient, and loving, then clearly deacons must also be humble, obedient, and loving. Foundationally, deacons are servants and so this basic premise must be established. Paul builds on this premise by listing for us how these servants actually distinguish themselves specifically in the church context. And for your information, deacons are different from overseers. How you might ask? Well…

1. There is a difference in terms, and notice that the meaning of these terms determine the role of the office. The word for elder/overseer both refers to oversight. The word for deacon has a nuance of service.

2. Only the overseer is given the qualification of being “skillful at teaching� (v. 2).

3. Only the overseer is given the qualification to “take care of the church of God� (v. 5).
4. Paul does not limit deaconship to seasoned believers.

5. Paul allows for women to be deacons, as stated in the text itself.

Qualifications of Deacons

Now some of Paul’s qualifications:

The first qualification of the deacon is that he or she must be “dignified� (ESV), “worthy of respect� (NIV), “serious� (NRSV). In other words, what the overseer is to be like in 3:2-3 is summarized by this one word for deacons. And the way Paul defines what it means to be dignified is by showing what clearly is not dignified.

You are not dignified if you are “double-minded� (ESV) or “double-tongued� (NRSV) according to verse 8. The NIV’s word “sincere� doesn’t do justice to the negative emphasis that Paul intended the word to have. The NEB translates the word as “indulging in double talk,� or in other words, someone who speaks out of both ends of the mouth. This person plays political games, is a people pleaser and in the process of trying to please everyone, ends up pleasing no one. He or she basically tells people what they want to hear, not what they need to hear.

Paul also says that you are not dignified if you are addicted or indulge in too much wine. This of course, is the same as the overseer (v. 3) except there is a different nuance, in that the deacon must not “occupy oneself� or be “enslaved� to wine (Tit. 2:3). Nothing should control the deacon other than the Spirit of God.

You are not dignified if you are “greedy for dishonest gain� (ESV, NIV) or “greedy for money� (NRSV). Clearly for Paul, this was one characteristic that had to be adhered to by all in church office, since he mentions it so regularly in the pastoral epistles. A craving for more than you really need, whether it be more money, or a bigger house, or a fancier car, or extravagant clothing, and here I want to stress the craving, the greed, the state that you get into when you feel as though you’re entitled to or desperately need to upgrade your lifestyle, is a danger sign for greed, and yes, a loss of dignity. What a difference from what so much of the church has failed to require in deacons! It almost seems to go against present-day specifications for a deacon which says that the wealthy or elite in the church should be the deacons and elders. But such stipulations clearly go against the Bible. Paul tells Timothy and the church in 1 Tim 6:6 that contentment with resources and material possessions, no matter one’s life situation, was a sign of godliness (reflection of one’s identification with Christ).

So the first qualification was that the deacon must be dignified. The second qualification for deacons is that they must hold fast to the “mysteries of faith.� Faith was once a mystery, God’s plan that was hidden from humanity (Eph 1:9). But now that mystery has been revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The deacon holds fast to that truth throughout his/her life, and that is reflected especially in the way that he/she lives. What makes this faith real and not just some sort of abstraction, is what Paul says in verse 9: “…They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.� Faith cannot remain theoretical or intellectual. The conscience dictates one’s faith to be real or false. George Knight rightly put it this way: “Without the life the profession is empty.�(4)

The next qualification is that deacons are to undergo a testing process according to verse 10: “And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.� While it does not specifically say that the elder should be tested, verses 4-7 imply that the elder undergoes a testing of some sorts. In verse 10, the word “also� or “likewise� implies that the deacon too, is to undergo a test similar to the elder. In fact, Paul warns against a quick appointing of deacons and elders in 5:22 when he says: “22Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands.� There needs to be an appropriate time of observation where the deacon has proven himself/herself to be a person of faith. How is this test to be conducted? First, it must be public since they hold a public office, and Paul’s letter is a public letter laying out qualifications that are held by the whole church. Second, as 5:22 says, it must be done with real prayer and thought, not hastily, and assessing one’s life in the Lord. The end result is that they will have come through the test blameless, and ready to serve God’s people.

The next qualification is in verse 11 which says, “Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things,� which raises an important question that I’d like to tackle first, “Is the office of deacon limited to men only?� To answer this question, of course we need to go to the text. The word that is translated in the ESV as “wives� (also KJV, NKJV, NLT, Phillips, NEB, NIV, TEV) is also translated as “women� in other translations (JB, RSV, NRSV, CEV, REB, NASB). The fact is, the word in the Greek can be translated either way, and the only means by which one can know the meaning of the word in the Greek, is the context.

So a further question that must be asked is, “Is this text referring to women deacons or deacons’ wives?� If it refers to deacons’ wives, then there are some difficulties. First, verse 11 introduces “women� with virtually the exact same phraseology Paul uses in verse 8 to introduce deacons, except this time in response to women. The word “likewise� in both verses provides enough evidence to say that what applies to male deacons, logically applies not to male deacons’ wives, but to female deacons. Second, the same directive is not given to elders’ wives in the previous list of qualifications. Surely, elders’ wives should be given even more of a burden to obey such qualifications. And yet, Paul leaves such a calling out, which would make such a stipulation to deacons’ wives out of place. Finally, while Paul clearly gives qualifications to individuals for their specific role, Paul never gives a qualification (‘likewise their wives must…’) to one’s wife so that the husband could qualify for something.

Another indication that there were women deacons in Paul’s day is his exhortation in Romans 16:1. There it says: “1I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant (diakonontes) of the church at Cenchreae, 2that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.� Paul is sending Phoebe as a representative to the church in Rome, and what would establish her would be her office, which the phrase “of the church at Cenchreae� makes clear. Being a “servant� of the church would not necessarily justify Paul’s exhortation for the church (of which he had never visited) to “help her in whatever she may need from you.� It seems very likely that Phoebe was a deacon. I do not think allowing women deacons though, automatically allows for women overseers, since deacons are not given the 2 responsibilities of overseers, teaching and oversight. We’ll take up this issue at a later date, but for now, I do believe there is enough biblical warrant to allow for women deacons.

Paul then, gives this exhortation to women deacons, that they too must be dignified. They are also not to be “slanderers.� Interestingly enough, in the Greek the word is diabolos or “the devil,� so they are not to be like the devil. Since we know that the primary weapon Satan has is to lie and deceive, women deacons who gossip, who slander others, essentially do the work of the devil. In Titus 2:3 Paul again refers to women and tells them not to slander. Of course, men also have this problem and prohibition, but Paul is specific in bringing this issue to women deacons. Women deacons must also be self-controlled, temperate in alcohol, but really, in all things.

Finally, the woman deacon must be dependable and faithful. She must not be fluttering with each new fad, trend, or wind of change. There is something to a woman who is faithful (well…to all, men and women). But as Proverbs 31 describes the noble wife, “Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.� Godly women, and yes, women deacons, are characterized by their continuing faithfulness and dependence on God, even in trying times.

The final qualification goes back to male deacons in verse 12. Again, since only men are the head of the household, this command is left for the male deacons. He is to be “the husband of one wife� and “manage his children.� As I said when I spoke about the elders, he is to be concerned about absolute purity and marital faithfulness to his wife in action, speech, and thought. He is also to see his responsibility to raise his children as those who would pursue Christ, a necessary qualification for deaconship. This is not a peripheral responsibility. This can disqualify one from being a deacon.

And what is the result of those who qualify and serve as deacons? Verse 13 says: “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.� The final words from Paul on deacons are a closing exhortation, much in the same way Paul began this chapter as an exhortation to elders. It isn’t just serving that gains good standing and confidence in the faith. It is those who serve well, especially in light of the aforementioned qualifications. In other words, you could have worked as a deacon, sacrificed time and energy, and yet, if you do it with grumbling or anger or rivalry or jealousy, it is not a service that is done well, and therefore nothing is gained. These will be the deacons who turn to Jesus on Judgment Day saying they were a deacon doing all sorts of things, and Jesus will say, “Depart from me, for I never knew you.� They will be the oxymoron, a deacon who did not serve. Remember, serving begins with humility, obedience, and love. Such a servant, such a deacon, gains standing by Christ, not by their actions or deeds, but by their faith in Christ. It is the only reason a person can be truly humble, when others are proud, or truly obedient, when there is a cost to that obedience, or truly loving, when someone is either hard to love, or maybe even impossible to love. Only great confidence in the faith, that is in Christ Jesus, can empower one to be like this.

And this is what Scripture lays out for us as we prepare for, what I hope is by next year, to appoint our first set of deacons. Some of you in this room are deacons. You have this heart. Sure you’re still sinful, but your passion is to serve Him in such a way. By this time next year, I want to have this new leadership team where deacons will lead our members, which will in turn lead our church, through their service and their hearts and their desire for Christ. To do so I pray will bring our Lord glory and cause His church to grow in a greater passion to worship Him.

(1) http://www.christianglobe.com/Illustrations/theDetails.asp?whichOne=o&whichFile=obedience.
(2) Joseph Stowell, Shepherding the Church into the 21st Century, (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1994), 152.
(3) Ibid., 153.
(4) George Knight, The Pastoral Epistles, NIGTC, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 169.