The qualifications for a deacon

An old deacon who used to pray every Wednesday night at prayer meeting always concluded his prayer the same way: “And, Lord, clean all the cobwebs out of my life.” The cobwebs were those things that ought not to have been there, but had gathered during the week. It got … More

Deacons

Thirteen qualifications are given for deacons (Deacon simply means servant)

1. grave - serious in purpose and worthy of respect (v. 8).

2. not double-tongued - does not speak one thing to one person and the opposite to another (v. 8).

3. not given to much wine - not using strong drink (v. 8).

4. not greedy of filthy lucre -  not a lover of money; does not gain money dishonestly (v. 8).

5. holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience - a man of spiritual depth and quality (v. 9).

6. proved - time and experience has shown his quality in the ordinary activities of life (v. 10).

7. blameless - in his life that Satan or unbelievers could use against him (v. 10).

8. women (or wives) are to be grave - serious in purpose and worthy of respect in conduct (v. 11).

9. women (or wives) are not to be slanderers - not given to find fault in others (v. 11).

10. women (or wives) are to be sober - self controlled; sound in mind (v.11).

11. women (or wives) are to be faithful in all things - trustworthy in everything (v. 11).

12. husband of one wife - a “one-woman” man (not a flirt; not divorced), (v.12).

13. ruling their children and their homes well -good family manager which includes love, discipline, instruction etc (v.12).

Every good Christian should be able to fulfill the above qualifications as it pertains to their age and sex. The original intention for deacons was to help meet the physical needs of the church so that the pastors could “give themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:1-4). 

Application

Lord help me to be able to meet the qualifications of a deacon whether I ever become one or not.

I Timothy 3:8-13 (English Standard Version)


Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to parse RSS file. (Space required at line 39, column 24) in /var/www/html/familytimes/includes/magpie6-1/rss_fetch.inc on line 230

Warning: array_slice() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given in /var/www/html/familytimes/includes/rss/esvLookup.php on line 15

View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway) »