Bishops and deacons |
According
to the Scripture, if a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good
thing in the sight of God. However, both he who desires the position of a
bishop and the Church must know the qualifications which those who desire the
office of a bishop must have in order to be ordained bishops. Here is what
Paul says to Timothy: “This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a
bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband
of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to
teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but
patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house,
having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not
how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) Not
a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of
the devil. Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without;
lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil” (1 Timothy
3:1-7). |
From these
words the apostle Paul spoke to the elders of the |
- a bishop
must take care of the sheep of the Lord, keeping watch over them (that is,
protecting them from the savage wolves which, in sheep’s clothing, come in
among the sheep) and giving them the spiritual nourishment they need that
they may be strengthened |
- it is
the Holy Spirit that makes a man bishop so that he may do these things |
- since
Paul called the elders of the church ‘overseers’ or ‘bishops’, the terms
‘elder’ and ‘bishop’ are synonymous. The term elder (which comes from the
Greek word presbuteros) indicates
the age of the believer who holds the office of bishop; while the term bishop
indicates the function of the elder, which is to oversee the flock of the
Lord, for the Greek term translated ‘bishop’ is episkopos which means ‘overseer’. |
Now let us
look closely at the qualifications which a man must fit in order to be ordained
bishop in the Church of the living God. |
A bishop
must be: ‘blameless’, that is, above reproach, irreproachable; ‘the husband
of one wife’, this means that he must be a married man (with regard to this,
I remind you that Simon Peter, who was an elder, was married), and also that neither
a man who was called by God while he was remarried (and his former wife is
still alive) nor a Muslim or a Jew who has more than one wife can be ordained
bishops; ‘vigilant’, that is, temperate, therefore he must not be a glutton
nor a heavy eater (nor a sleepy-head); ‘sober’, that is, self-controlled, a
person who conducts himself wisely toward both believers and unbelievers; ‘of
good behaviour’, that is, respectable, therefore he must not be a man who
entertains the saints with buffooneries and scurrilous jokes; ‘given to
hospitality’, that is, ready to entertain strangers and the brothers of the
church he shepherds; ‘apt to teach’, that is, he must be able to teach the
things which are proper for sound doctrine and, by sound doctrine, both to
exhort and convict those who contradict; ‘not given to wine’, that is, he
must not be a drunkard; ‘no striker’, that is, not violent, therefore he must
not be a person who beats other persons but he must be gentle to all, meek
and slow to wrath; ‘not greedy of filthy lucre’, that is, not a lover of
money, therefore he must not teach for the sake of dishonest gain nor must he
sell himself or the truth to the merchandisers of the Kingdom of God, who
live by extorting money from the saints, but he must be content with what he
has; ‘not a brawler’, that is, not quarrelsome, he must not be a person who
takes pleasure in quarrelling; ‘not covetous’, that is, he must not yearn for
the things belonging to someone else; ‘one that ruleth well his own house,
having his children in subjection with all gravity’, that is, he must have
faithful children not accused of being disobedient to their parents or
fornicators or drunkards, for if he does not know how to rule his family he
will not be able to take care of the church of God as he ought to; ‘not a
novice’, that is, he must not be a recent convert, lest being puffed up with
pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil; ‘moreover he must have
a good report of them which are without’, that is to say, he must have a good
testimony among those who do not belong to the household of God, lest he fall
into reproach (a deserved reproach because of his evil conduct) and the snare
of the devil. |
I want to
remind you that it is written: “Who tends a flock and does not drink of the
milk of the flock?” (1 Corinthians 9:7 – NKJV). This means that the elder who
shepherds the Church of God has the right to refrain from working so that he
may devote himself exclusively to preaching and teaching the Word, thus he
has the right to reap the material things of those whom he teaches, as it is
written: “Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him
who teaches” (Galatians 6:6 – NKJV) and again: “Let the elders who rule well
be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and
doctrine. For the Scripture says, You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads
out the grain’, and ‘the laborer is worthy of his wages” (1 Timothy |
As for
deacons, they are appointed in the church to tend to the needs of widows, of
orphans, of the poor, of strangers, and also of the minister of the Gospel
and of all those who need to be helped among the saints. Also those who
desire the office of deacon must have certain qualifications, which are these. |
Deacons
must be: “grave” (1 Timothy 3:8), that is, they must conduct themselves
seriously and properly; “not doubletongued” (1 Timothy 3:8), that is, they
must be sincere (they must not be like those people who first tell you one
thing and then they tell you a completely different thing); “not given to
much wine” (1 Timothy 3:8), that is, they must not be inclined to drink too
much wine; “not greedy of filthy lucre” (1 Timothy 3:8), that is, they must
not be lovers of money; “Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure
conscience” (1 Timothy 3:9), that is to say, they must keep the faith with a
conscience which is to be pure before God and before men. “Let the deacons be
the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well” (1
Timothy 3:12), which means that neither a man who divorced and remarried
before his conversion (and his former wife is still alive) nor a Jew or a Muslim
who has more than one wife can be a deacon; in addition to this, a deacon
must rule his children and his own house well, therefore he must have faithful
children not accused of dissipation or insubordination and also a faithful
and godly wife. |
“And let
these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being
found blameless” (1 Timothy 3:10); this means that both the candidates for
the office of deacon and those for the office of bishop must be first tested
and then if they are found blameless they are allowed to serve as deacons and
bishops. |
The wives
of the elders and of the deacons must be grave, not slanderers, sober, and
faithful in all things (1 Timothy |
It is
written: “For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to
themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ
Jesus” (1 Timothy 3:13); this means that when the Lord of glory, who is the Master
of the house, appears, those who have served well as deacons in the house of
God, will be praised and rewarded by the Lord Himself for their faithful work
on behalf of the saints. |
According
to what the Scripture teaches, a woman also can serve as a deacon in the |
In
addition to this, I want you to know that it is right that both the elders
and the deacons should be elected by the congregation of the saints, because
this is confirmed by the Word of God which says that after the apostles Paul
and Barnabas had elders elected for the disciples in each church, having
prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had put
their trust (Acts 14:23. – Both in the NIV [in a footnote] and the IBRV we
read ‘had elders elected”. In the KJV we read “when they had ordained them
elders in every church”; however the word ‘ordained”, used for the selection
of elders, literally means ‘to raise the hand’ or ‘to be a voter by raising
the hand’ and thus it indicates the congregation’s participation in electing
an elder); as you can see, in ancient times, the elders were elected after prayer
with fasting because it was considered a very important thing which had to be
taken seriously. As for the election of the deacons there is an example in
the Word of God which shows not only that they were elected by the
congregation of the saints but also that they had to have certain qualifications.
Here is what the Holy Scripture says about the election of the deacons which
took place in |
I conclude
by saying this: as we have seen, according to the Bible, those who are to be
appointed elders must be upright, holy and blameless men. However, today many
Churches don’t consider at all these qualifications. For their elders must
hold a diploma or a degree, have a ‘prestigious’ social status, and an
elegant and expensive wardrobe. In other words, they must be apt to preach
with words of human wisdom, and dressed in fancy clothes, that they may
appear ‘presentable’ in contemporary society. These are the qualifications
that a believer must have in these Churches to be ordained elder!! That’s why
in many Churches there are elders who are free with their hands, violent,
haughty, lovers of money, not apt to teach and who have children who commit
all kinds of sins. These Churches have appointed elders who are ready and
willing to satisfy all their cupidity and lusts, that’s why they are at the
mercy of merciless predacious men who act out of self-interest and whose
glory is in their shame. Thus they are to be rebuked, as the children of
Israel were rebuked by the prophet Hosea for having set up kings, but not by
the Lord, and for having made princes, and the Lord knew it not (Hosea 8:4).
They say with their mouth that they want a revival, yet at the same time they
do not want to submit themselves to the commandments given by the apostles;
they want to elect an elder who has the qualifications they want him to have,
rather than the qualifications that God wants him to have; they say to God:
‘Your will be done’, but they lie to Him because in their heart they have
already decided that the elder must be corrupt like them, he must not be holy
and righteous because they are ashamed to have an elder who is holy and righteous.
Brothers, let no one deceive you; hold fast the sound words of the apostle
Paul and you will prosper. |