The Qualifications for Deacons (1 Tim 3:8-13)

Welcome & Announcements

In about a month on February 5th during Sunday AM Worship, we will be having a baby dedication—I’m looking forward to it and I’m hoping that you are too. I’m only mentioning it now so that when the service comes along, you aren’t completely thrown for a loop.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the Lord through your giving. To help you give, we have three ways to do so, (1) cash and checks can be given at the offering box. Checks should be written to Grace & Peace; debit, credit, and ACH transfers can be done either by (2) texting 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at www.giving.gapb.church. Of course, everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer for Repentance and Adoration

Preaching of God’s Word (1 Tim 3:8-13)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to 1 Timothy 3:8-13.

While you’re turning there, let me remind you of where we are in the text. Remember that Paul wrote this letter to Timothy to encourage him but also to remind him to be watchful of false teachers and to be firm on what actual worship of the Lord looks like. This idea of proper worship in the church really starts in ch. 2 but then continues in ch. 3 by showing us what we ought to look for in people who serve within the church both in leadership—the elders and by serving officially—the deacons.

Last week we took an in-depth look at the qualification for elders, which I explained wasn’t necessarily meant to be a checklist of qualifications, but rather more of a description of what elders are to be like. I explained that there’s a reason for these descriptions and to overlook one or more qualification just because the person happens to be a good teacher or a good friend is simple foolishness for both the local church and the individual.

This week, we’re looking at qualifications for deacons within the church; and we’re going to follow a similar pattern to how we worked through last week’s section of Scripture, which I’ll explain after we read the text for this evening.

Let’s read 1 Timothy 3:8-13.

1 Timothy 3:8–13 ESV

8 Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. 9 They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. 10 And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. 11 Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. 12 Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. 13 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.

As we study this passage, (1) we’re going to start by discussing the term deacon, which will take us to a couple different passages before (2) we’ll discuss 1 Timothy’s qualifications for Deacons in vv. 8-13. (3) Just before our application, we’ll take just a few minutes to discuss the similarities between deacon and elder qualifications and what the specific role of a deacon is before closing this evening in application. This evening, we’ll learn what the purpose of a deacon is, what their qualifications are, and what exactly all this information means for us, as well.

Prayer for Illumination

What is a Deacon?

Our passage for this evening starts by stating deacons must be dignified, but the passage doesn’t really tell us what a deacon is—so it would be wise and beneficial for us to actually have a good definition of deacon before we continue.

In our modern-day churches, there are all sorts of different understandings of what a deacon is and in most instances, local churches have strayed from what Scripture actually teaches concerning deacons and have turned the office of a deacon into something that it isn’t.

For instance, in most Baptist churches in the United States, the deacon board is a quasi-elder group of people that have more authority in the church than they’re supposed to. They become almost like the bosses to the elders, which subverts the authority structure given by God.

In many other modern-day churches, deacons are quasi-elder groups or they’re almost stripped down to basically nothing—where they don’t really do anything and it’s almost like an honorific title rather than a role within the church.

Of course, there are many of churches that fall between the two extremes, which makes sense because the actual biblical view of deacons falls in-between the two extremes, but I’ll get back to that later.

Deacon is what we call a transliteration, which simply means that unlike a lot of other words, deacon is not translated from a Greek word, it’s essentially spelled in English how it sounds in Greek.

Deacon is transliterated from the Greek word διακονος, which if it was translated, would be translated as servant—and I think that already gives us a pretty good idea of what a deacon is.

Unlike the words utilized for the role of elder, there is only one word for deacon utilized throughout Scripture, in the New Testament, it’s utilized approximately 31 times with almost every use referring to the person who serves another person.

If that’s the case, that deacon is a transliteration that could be translated as servant and if that’s the context that it’s usually utilized in the New Testament, which it is—then what most churches in the United States call a deacon actually isn’t what the Bible says is a deacon.

And that’s a significant problem not just because it means that those churches are misinterpreting Scripture and disobeying the order of the local church according to God.

But also because by disobeying the order of the local church, they actually do significant harm to the church.

When deacons don’t function the way that they’re supposed to according to Scripture, the elders end up pulling double-duty doing both their job and the deacons’ job, which causes the preaching and teaching to suffer because the elders aren’t able to focus on their primary responsibility—the ministry of the Word.

The best example of this is Acts 6 when the first deacons were chosen—we’re told that there were certain widows that were being neglected in the distribution of food.

The apostles flat out state that “it is not right that [they] should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.” And they call the disciples to pick out seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom who will have the ministry of service—to handle the temporal needs of the church.

The apostles state that if they were to handle the jobs that the deacons should handle, they would give up or neglect the job that they were called to do.

The church would’ve suffered.

Now, before we talk about what exactly deacons are to do (since Acts 6 really only mentions the distribution of food), let’s take an in-depth look at the qualifications for deacons that Paul lists in 1 Timothy 3:8-13.

Deacon Qualifications (8-13)

1 Timothy 3:8–13 ESV

8 Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. 9 They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. 10 And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. 11 Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. 12 Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. 13 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.

Notice the word likewise used just prior to giving us the qualifications for deacons.

It might seem like an inconsequential word, but the reality is that it shows us the importance of these qualifications for the role of deacon.

Occasionally, what you see in churches that have been around for a significant amount of time is that the church doesn’t have a plurality of elders, but rather one elder and a plurality of deacons that act like elders.

That’s usually done for a very specific reason—it’s usually because the church didn’t think that those deacons fit the qualification of elders, but they could possibly fit the qualification for deacons.

But the issue with that is that the qualifications are actually similar.

Paul’s use of the word likewise shows us the importance of taking qualifications for both roles utterly serious and to not give or take the roles of elder and deacon flippantly or lightly.

Paul uses the word likewise to show us that the qualifications for deacons are high just like the qualifications for elders.

So much so, that he gives almost just as many qualifications to deacons as he does to elders.

Because it’s a list and I want us to gain as much as we can from this passage, I’m going to state the qualification and then explain what exactly that qualification means:

The first qualification given is that a deacon is to be dignified, which isn’t a word that we utilize often, but really just means that a deacon ought to be worthy of respect.

They ought to carry themselves in an honorable way, so much so that when people see them, they respect them.

It is therefore assumed that deacons would live in an honorable way as well. Meaning, they don’t just look like they’re honorable, but they are honorable in what they do and what they say.

To make it a bit practical—they reflect the fruits of the Spirit, which is precisely what the apostles in Acts 6 told the disciples to look for in a deacon—that he is full of the Spirit.

Not double-tongued is an idea that we don’t usually state in that manner anymore. To be double-tongued means to be devious in your speech—it means that you’re a liar or a manipulator. People don’t know whether you’re telling the truth or not when you talk.

In Charles Gounod’s opera Faust, the character Mephistopheles, who is a messenger of the devil fits the idea of being double-tongued. In Faust the main character decides that he wants to be young again and through Mephistopheles sells his soul for youth. Mephistopheles is someone who is double-tongued—he sounds flattering and charming. He’s manipulative and he tricks and deceives.

If you’re looking for a more modern example—consider The Music Man in which the main character, Harold Hill is a con man who convinced a small town in Iowa to give him all his money to buy their children musical instruments so that they could learn to be in a marching band. Hill is a fast-talking, smooth, flatterer that seeks to trick and deceive—he’s double-tongued.

I think you can tell why someone who is double-tongued shouldn’t be a deacon.

Some translations utilize the word sincere instead of double-tongued and that is a good way to look at this idea—deacons ought to be people that their word is solid and trustworthy.

The Bible says that deacons are to not be addicted to much wine and really the emphasis here is that a person who serves as a deacon isn’t to be a lover of alcohol and truthfully, we can now apply that to much more today than just wine and alcohol.

The idea really is that deacons ought not be addicted to anything whether it’s wine, alcohol, or any other substance that causes harm.

Of course, that isn’t to say that there needs to be a complete abstinence to wine or alcohol—it simply means that the deacon shouldn’t be addicted to wine or alcohol.

Deacons are not to be greedy for dishonest gain—it’s the idea of tipping the scales in your favor.

This can be a temptation for people who have official roles and titles within the church—to utilize their office within the church for their own financial gain.

Now, you might wonder what exactly this would look like—it looks like this: if you need your driveway plowed and you know someone in the church plows driveways and you go to that person and say something like this, “hey, I know that you plow driveways in the winter months and I’d like you to plow my driveway as well—since we go to the same church and I’m a deacon at the church, I think the church would be grateful if you gave me a discount or did it for free.”

Or it could look something more like embezzling or stealing from the tithes and offerings of the church. Either way, it shows greediness and it a spectrum of dishonesty.

The next qualification is something that Paul mentions here and expounds on in next week’s passage. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.

Because Paul speaks of this in a few verses, I don’t want to necessarily dig too deep into what this means, but I do want to clarify what it means because the wording might be confusing.

When the Bible speaks of a mystery, it’s speaking of something that was formerly hidden but is now revealed.

For instance, if you’ve ever watched the cartoon Scooby Doo—every episode had some sort of villain that was doing something terrible.

And the whole point of the cartoon was for the group of teenage mystery solvers to investigate the situation and reveal what was really happening.

That’s what the Bible means when it speaks of a mystery—it’s something that wasn’t quite clear, but has been made clear. In this instance, it’s referring to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel was something that had been hinted at throughout all the Old Testament, but it isn’t until the New Testament that the Gospel is shown in it’s entirety.

This idea of God being manifested in the flesh through Jesus was a mystery—something that was always going to happen, but was hidden from mankind until it actually did happen.

Paul is making the argument that deacons need to hold fast, to stand firm, to find their foundation in the Gospel.

To hold the Gospel with a clear conscience means that the person has no hesitation about the Gospel to the extent that they give continual obedience to God’s truth as revealed in Scripture.

Or in other words, they’re so confident in the Gospel that they obey God’s Word without hesitation.

The next qualification is one that is unique to deacons—elders don’t have this same qualification, but deacons must be tested first.

It is a little vague of a qualification in that it could mean a doctrinal test or it could mean a character test—it’s hard to say.

I personally think it’s a little bit of both—that there needs to be a time for a deacon candidate to show agreement with true doctrine before serving and there needs to be a time for a deacon to show his character before he begins serving.

Now, you might wonder who exactly is to test a deacon candidate and it’s really a combination of two groups of people—the congregation ought to be watching that person to see if their character and doctrine line up properly, but ultimately, it’s up to the elders of the church whether that person is suitable for the role of deacon or not.

At our church, we’ve intentionally built in a waiting period for deacons—deacons at Grace & Peace have to have been a member of the church for at least six months. That six month period gives us time to test the person.

We’re told that deacons are to be blameless, which simply means that the person is to be without fault—though let me remind you, the idea isn’t so much a perfection but rather a general description of a person.

Meaning, the person isn’t going to be absolutely perfect on this side of eternity, but when someone accuses this person of any sort of sin, it should be that the accusation is hard to believe because of the individual’s character.

If you were to accuse this person of being a liar, it should be hard for that accusation to stick against the person.

That qualification applies to any sort of sin—if someone accuses them of being an adulterer, it should be hard for people to believe that accusation or if someone accuses them of being an absolute, mean jerk, it should be hard for people to believe that accusation.

Like elders, deacons are to be the husband of one wife, which is literally translated as a one-woman man.

So, just like the qualification given to elders this doesn’t involve the issue of divorce or the issue of being widowed—depending on the situation, those who are divorced or have been widowed can certainly serve as a deacon (if the divorce was biblical and they didn’t become a widow because they murdered their spouse).

Rather, the idea at hand is that a deacon cannot be a philanderer and he cannot be a womanizer.

What this means is that if the deacon is single—he isn’t trying to date every woman in the church; and if he’s dating or married, he’s faithfully devoted to that one woman.

The last qualification given to deacons is that they are to be able to manage their own households well.

This includes managing the financial situation of the house, managing how things function in the home, and taking care of the children and family.

Now, this doesn’t mean that the husband is required to do all these things himself, but it means that the ultimate responsibility for the household is the husband’s.

Meaning, maybe the wife is a far better financial manager than the husband—it’s perfectly acceptable for the wife to handle the finances.

Or maybe the wife is better at hands-on mechanical work and can fix things better than the husband—it’s perfect acceptable for the wife to do these things.

All this verse is stating is that the ultimate management of these things is the husband’s responsibility. The husband is simply trying to make sure the things that need to be done to make the household function smoothly are done.

Concerning what it means to manage his children well—it’s the idea of being able to lovingly raise the children in the love and admonition of the Lord.

While the children still live at home, it’s the idea of the children being obedient to their parents, of them being cared for by their parents, and of the children growing up in a way that is generally thought of as good by the church and ultimately God.

Of course, they are children and this doesn’t mean that the children of a deacon are to be absolutely perfect in every situation—it just means that in general, the kids are obedient, well-behaved, and are being taught in the love and admonition of the Lord.

Now, in contrast to the elder qualification, Paul gives deacons certain qualifications concerning their wives. In v. 11, we read, “Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things.”

I will say that if you’re particularly careful to read footnotes, you may have noticed that the footnote mentions that “their wives” could also be translated as “the women,” which carry two different connotations.

If it were to be translated as “the women” than the implication would be that this is speaking of women who serve as deacons.

If it were to be translated as “their wives” than the implication would be that deacon’s wives have certain qualifications as well.

In instances like this, the determining factor as to how it ought to be translated is the context itself and I’m going to suggest that this is speaking specifically of deacon’s wives because of the context.

Particularly the qualification for deacons to be a one-woman man. That qualification to be a one-woman man is a literal word-for-word translation of the Greek, which means there really is no other way to say that a deacon is to be a man dedicated to one woman if he’s married.

I think it would be unusual for Paul to talk about a deacon being a one-woman man before stating that woman deacons have qualifications too, but if he’s talking about deacons being one-woman men before stating that their wives have qualifications to fit as well, the verse makes a bit more sense.

Though, let me firmly state that there are good, godly men and women who differ on my thinking concerning men serving as deacons and their wives having certain qualifications as well.

We see that the wives of deacons “must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things.”

We don’t need to unpack what it means to be dignified again—we already did that in the deacon qualifications.

However, let’s talk about what it means to not be a slanderer but rather sober-minded. The Bible utilizes the term slander to refer to gossip that intends to maliciously hurt someone else.

Of course, we know that the Bible condemns gossip in the first place, but slandering refers to the very instance that gossip becomes something shared specifically to hurt others.

It’s interesting to note that in speaking of slanderous speech Paul intentionally utilizes a word that’s often used to refer to devilish work διαβολος.

The idea is that slanderous speech is really devilish speech.

When a deacon’s wife is supposed to be sober-minded and faithful instead—they are to be self-controlled, level-headed, and steadfast on the faith.

Thomas Lea and Hayne Griffin write, “Whoever these women were, their qualifications stand in contrast to those of the women in 5:11-15 and 2 Tim 3:6-7. These women . . . were to have qualifications greatly contrasting with those who were duped by the false teachers . . . Paul’s appeals . . . called for visible, mature, righteous living that commended Christianity to its observers.” (Thomas Lea and Hayne Griffin, 1, 2 Timothy, Titus, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992) 121)

Now, you might ask, “why exactly do the wives of deacons have to meet certain qualifications as well? The answer is really in the role of a deacon, which we’ll come back to in a few minutes.

From this passage, we see not necessarily a promise given, but almost like a proverbial statement to the deacons who serve well. In v. 13, we read “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.

When deacons serve the way that they’re supposed to serve, their reputation is increased and their faith in Jesus grows.

Now, before we dig into application, I want to focus our attention on one more issue and it’s that of the role of a deacon. I’m sure that you probably noticed that throughout this whole message, I haven’t really talked about what it is that deacons do, so let’s talk about it briefly.

The Role of a Deacon (1-13)

Though the Bible doesn’t outrightly tell us the role of deacons in the local church, we are given some details that provide for us some good hints.

For instance, if you read carefully the qualifications between elders and deacons you’ll notice that there are two particular qualifications given to elders that aren’t given to deacons, which show us a little bit of the difference between the two roles.

In 1 Timothy 3:2 at the very end of the verse we see that elders are to be able to teach. And in 1 Timothy 3:6, we’re told that elders cannot be recent converts because the authority given to elders can go to a recent convert’s head.

These two qualifications aren’t mentioned for deacons whatsoever. Deacons don’t need to be able to teach and while deacons are still to be theologically sound and faithful to the Gospel, their spiritual maturity isn’t as much of a concern as it is for elders.

Why do you think this is? Because the role of an elder is different than the role of a deacon—an elder needs to be spiritually mature and able to teach because the elder’s primary function is to minister the Word of God to the congregation—the elder’s primary function is to equip those that believe for the work of ministry. Part of this is done by leading the church.

Deacons on the other hand aren’t required to teach and though they ought to be mature spiritually, there is a little bit of leniency concerning their spiritual maturity because they aren’t the ones teaching and they aren’t leading the church.

Rather, they’re doing something else as their primary ministry or function. What is it that they’re doing?

We see it in the translation for deacon—they are serving. And from Acts 6 we get an impression of what their primary emphasis is—it’s on the temporal needs of the church.

What exactly is the point of a deacon?

The deacons exist to serve the local church particularly concerning temporal needs of the church. Deacons don’t exercise oversight over the church and they’re not leading the church—they’re serving the church in various different ways with the intent of helping the elders so that the elders can focus on leading, preaching, teaching, and prayer.

Benjamin Merkle gives some ideas as to what the duties of a deacon would be, he says, “The deacons could be responsible for managing the church property. This would include making sure the place of worship is prepared . . . similar to what took place in Acts 6:1-6 . . . the deacons may be involved in administrating funds or other assistance to the needy . . . while the elders should probably oversee the financial business of the church, it may be best left to the deacons to handle the day-to-day matters . . . the deacons could be responsible for distributing bulletins, seating the congregation, or preparing the elements for communion . . . deacons should be available to help in variety of ways so that the elders are able to concentrate on teaching and shepherding the church . . . Whereas the Bible charges elders with the tasks of teaching and leading the church, deacons’ role is more service-oriented. That is, they are to care for the physical or temporal concerns of the church. By handling such matters, deacons free up the elders to focus on shepherding the spiritual needs of the congregation. Yet even though deacons are not the congregation’s spiritual leaders, their character is of utmost importance.” (Benjamin Merkle, “The Biblical Qualifications and Responsibilities of Deacons,” 9marks.com, https://www.9marks.org/article/biblical-qualifications-and-responsibilities-deacons/, Accessed January 11, 2023)

What exactly deacons do is contingent on the local church, but I think you can see where the primary responsibilities of the deacon are.

For the past few years, I’ve tried to sum up our church polity in a simple statement—we are an elder led, deacon served, and congregationally affirmed church. Meaning, the elders lead, the deacons help the elders and the church, and the congregation affirms the churches elders.

In our remaining few minutes, let’s take some time to look at specific application and much like our application from last week, I want us to look at it in two ways: (1) from the perspective of someone who is in a church with deacons and (2) from the perspective of someone who has no interest in ever being a deacon.

Application

From the perspective of the average churchgoer—the primary purpose of this text is to show us what exactly we ought to be looking for in people serving or wanting to serve as deacons in our church. It shows us the character of these men and it shows us an idea of what they’re supposed to be doing as deacons.

Of course, those of you that are deacons or have a desire to be a deacon—you should be looking at this list of characteristics and comparing yourself to this list.

Not that you’re going to fit every characteristic without fault all the time, but the truth of the matter is that you ought to look at this list and check your heart and come to the realization that you generally fit the description of deacons in 1 Timothy 3:8-13.

In addition, because Paul gives qualifications for your spouse, you really ought to look at v. 11 and consider whether your spouse fits these qualifications as well. Again, not that they’re going to fit every characteristic without fault all the time, but they generally fit the description of a deacon’s wife found in v. 11.

In a very real sense, you can look at this passage and think, “am I worthy of honor? Am I honest, am I faithful? Am I blameless to the extent that any person can be? Or am I double-tongued, addicted to alcohol (or any substance) greedy, and faithless?

Before even considering being a deacon, you need to check your heart and see if you fit these qualifications—and if you are a deacon, you need to check your heart and be sure to continuously live by the descriptions given here.

Now for those of you that aren’t deacons, this description shows us what our deacons are supposed to be like.

And just like the elder qualifications where I mentioned that it’s not necessarily a checklist to work through but rather a general description, so is this—it’s not necessarily a checklist where we should sit down with Deane and Tom and question whether they fit these attributes or not, but rather a description of what they’re typically like.

Since this describes what deacons are to be like, it is only right that the church holds their deacons accountable to this description.

It’s also only right that whomever desires to be a deacon is held to the same standards given in this passage as well.

Church, we need to take these qualifications seriously because God has taken these qualifications seriously.

Deacons hold yourselves to these qualifications; church, hold them to these qualifications.

From the perspective of someone who will never be a deacon—it could be tempting to read this passage and think, “I’m not a deacon, it doesn’t apply to me.”

But here’s the truth—no one in their right mind would ever do this because the qualifications given here are the result of those who follow Jesus. No one in their right mind could read this passage and think, “because I’m not a deacon I can be dishonest, or I can be undignified, or I can be faithless and filled with sin.”

The reality is that most of what’s here is either part of the fruits of the Spirit or a result of the fruits of the Spirit—so, if you’re already following Jesus than the Spirit of God ought to be working on your heart in such a way that you’re becoming dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain, faithful and blameless.

And if you aren’t growing in that direction you really have to stop and ask yourself if you actually believe in Jesus Christ—and if you find yourself saying, “yes, I absolutely believe in Jesus, but I’m not growing in this way” then my encouragement and exhortation for you would be to figure out what sins your indulging in, repent of those sins, and continue to seek Jesus.

Regardless of if you’re a deacon, this list provides a good understanding of how a believer ought to be—you need to check your heart with this description and repent whenever you don’t quite match up with this description.

Again, not that you’re ever going to perfectly match up to these qualifications all the time, but rather, it should generally describe who you are.

What we learn from 1 Timothy 3:8-13 is that God takes those who officially serve the church so seriously that there are qualifications for the role itself. Church, you need to (1) keep our deacons accountable to these qualifications and when we look for new deacons, keep these qualifications in mind and (2) regardless of your official title here, check your heart against these qualifications and repent when you don’t quite line up.

Pastoral Prayer

Prayer Requests

This is this week’s prayer requests:

The Bubb Family — During this past weekend, their son, Hunter took his life at home. Please be in prayer for the family. Our connection to the Bubb family is through Alice and Neil Miller, who have emphasized a ministry of presence with the family—they’ve been there to offer their support and help, so please pray for the Miller’s as well.

Melissa Bush has requested prayer for the family of her friend’s dad, Walter, who passed into eternity; and her dad’s aunt, who also passed into eternity.

Sean Herbst — Addiction

Pray for Alexus (Tom and Raenelle’s great niece) — Alexus is being sent to Pittsburgh next month to determine if she is a candidate for brain surgery that could potentially help her. Be in prayer through all this.

Caleb Miller — Medical Issues

Alan Wisor — Medical Issues

Pray for the church’s building fund

Pray for Andrew and Meagan Minnick and their family. They just finished moving from Greenville, South Carolina to Edmonton, Canada so that Andrew could teach at a Christian university as a missionary. Please pray for them as they adjust to life in Canada.