Editorial
From the Newsletter of Revesby Presbyterian Church
May 2007
Rev Dr Peter Barnes
Together with Timothy, Paul addressed his epistle to the Philippians to ‘all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons’ (Phil.1:1). The saints were not the super Christians on the way to being canonised but all believers in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. The overseers were those who governed and taught in the church (cf. 1 Tim.3:1-7). This leaves us with the deacons. They are mentioned elsewhere – a list of qualifications they are to fulfil before they can be appointed deacons appears in 1 Timothy 3:8-13. So it seems that when Paul wrote to the church at Philippi, he addressed the people, the overseers (elders), and the deacons, and presumably regarded this as the normal polity for the Church down through the ages.
This does not mean that there is no true church unless there are elders and deacons. At Crete in the first century there seems to have been a community of Christian believers before elders were appointed (Tit.1:5). What defines a true church is not polity but the gospel (see Gal.1:8-9). It would be possible to have a true polity and a false gospel, for example, just as there have been numerous examples of a less than biblical polity supporting a true proclamation of the gospel.
We should be familiar enough with the office of eldership. But what, then, is a deacon (the Greek word is diakonos)? The word occurs some thirty times in the New Testament, where it can have a number of meanings. The servants who looked after the water that Jesus turned into wine at the wedding feast at Cana are said to be diakonoi (the plural of diakonos; see John 2:5, 9). Jesus describes His own ministry in terms of being a servant who serves (Luke 22:27). This becomes the model for His followers (Mark 10:43-45). A Christian is one who serves because his Lord and Master came to serve. If the Lord of glory, who was in the form of God, emptied Himself and became a servant, then we ought to be of the same mind (see Phil.2:5-9).
In the sixth chapter of Acts we read of seven men who were chosen to serve at tables, to see that the widows in the early Church were looked after. In the Old Testament strangers, widows and orphans were to be treated with open hearts and hands (Deut.15:7-10). Vineyards were not to be completely reaped or gleaned so that some of the crop could be left for the poor and the stranger (Lev.19:9-10; Deut.24:17-22). The Lord is described as the God who ‘administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger’ (Deut.10:18).
The believer is to reflect the character of God revealed in His Word written and the Word incarnate. He or she is therefore ‘to visit orphans and widows in their trouble’ (James 1:27). To the ancient Greek mind, the idea of serving was menial and degrading, and Plato considered that it was ‘fit only for a slave’ and ‘not becoming for a free man’. But the Christian Scriptures teach that all the saints are to be equipped for the work of service (diakonia; Eph.4:12). Hence the Hebrew Christians were commended for showing their love to God by ministering (deaconing) to the saints (Heb.6:10). The collection for the brethren in Judea during a famine was taken up in order to send diakonia (‘relief’ or ‘help’) to them (Acts 11:29). In short, Christians are to serve, and deacons are to facilitate that as part of the day-to-day life of the covenant community.
In the history of the Church the idea of the diaconate was often eclipsed as the Church concentrated on other things. In the nineteenth century, Australian Presbyterianism followed the trends of Presbyterianism elsewhere, especially in Scotland. Deacons and managers increasingly came to be regarded as synonymous terms, and so deacons (who essentially looked after people) came to be replaced by committees of management (which essentially looked after property and finance). As late as 1867 the Deacons’ Court in West Maitland, for example, was looking after an aged and destitute member of the congregation. By the following year deacons’ meetings were incorporated into session meetings, and in 1882 a committee of management was elected.
Throughout the twentieth century the diaconate faded from view in much of Australian Presbyterianism.
The revival of the diaconate would do much to revive the full-orbed witness of the Church in the world. In Romans 16:1-2 Paul commends ‘our sister Phoebe’ who is referred to as ‘a deacon (or servant) of the church at Cenchrea’. She is seen to be a woman deacon by many worthy Reformed commentators including John Calvin, Robert Haldane, Charles Hodge, Douglas Moo and Thomas Schreiner. C. E. B. Cranfield even concludes that this interpretation is ‘virtually certain’.
To reinstate the diaconate is not to be equated with preaching the gospel, but it is a step in seeking to establish a fully biblical Church.
Peter Barnes