1 Timothy 3:8-13

b. Of deacons and deaconesses, 1 Timothy 3:8-13 .

In regard to the office of deacon we may first remark, that if the Greek word diakonos, with its cognates, were always rendered deacons, we should have deacons in great number in the New Testament. Thus we should have Matthew 20:26, Let him be your deacon; John 2:5, the mother of Jesus said to the deacons; 12 : 26, The king said to the deacons; Romans 13:4, the magistrate is the deacon of God; Galatians 2:17, deacon of sin. From all which instances, and many more, it appears that the true meaning of the word is servitor. The word is not applied to the seventy sent forth by our Lord; nor to the seven in Acts 6:0, save in the verb form serve. It appears for the first time as an unmistakable church officer in Philippians 1:1; there, as here, used by Paul in connexion with the episkopos. Under sanction from these two texts, however, we may, in Romans 16:1, read deaconess in honour of Phebe; and in Romans 12:7, deaconship; and some hold 1 Corinthians 12:28, helps, to mean deaconships.

In regard to this office in the Church we may note two distinctive points: First. It was not, like prophecy, healing, tongues, etc., an extraordinary gift or charism, bestowed at the will of the spirit without the agency of man. The individual was humanly selected according to qualifications, and probably ordained by the imposition of hands. Second. In all cases, both the word and its connexions embrace generically the idea of subordination and service in sacred function. The deacon was subordinate to the apostle and to the episkopos. Hence, while his duties are not very precisely defined in Scripture, yet throughout the history of the Church a sort of semblance has been maintained in this respect. He may assist the bishop or elder in the ritual; he may, in absence of the elder, read a homily; he may catechize the catechumen, keep order in the congregation, see to the poor, and administer to the necessities of the persecuted.

In modern Protestant Churches the same generic idea of servitorship is variously maintained. In Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, approaching nearer to the model of Acts 6:0 than any other Church, the deacon is overseer of the poor, yet leading the conference and prayer meeting in absence of the minister. In the Methodist Episcopal Church the deacon is a subordinate minister, with a few symbolical exclusions from higher functions, an apprentice rather than a servitor in the ministry. In this respect there appears a parallel from the probable fact that in the New Testament Church the deaconship was a reserve from which the elders were likely to be selected. Note 1 Timothy 5:13.