Jesus said in Luke 22:25-26"The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called 'benefactors.' "But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves."
In studying for Sundays message on Acts 6 I was looking at the qualifications of a deacon, as laid down in 1 Timothy 3:8-13.
Although we did go through these on Sunday there was a lot of things that I didn't have time to cover. One of these was 1 Tim 3:13 where we are told that:
"those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus."
I found it very interesting that the office of Deacon holds a promise to those who serve well in this position. They:
[1] "obtain for themselves a good standing" - "standing" (Bathmos) literally refers to an elevated state, these people are therefore a step ahead of, or above everyone else.
This seems strange in our 'everyone is equal' culture but the Bible does clearly teach that those who serve in humility will be exalted by God (James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6), and by the church (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13).
Jesus kingdom is not like any other, in that in most kingdoms the one who lords it over everyone else and has others serving him is considered to be the greatest. But with Jesus it is the one who is a servant of all that is considered the greatest.
As Deacons serve and help the needs of the church and those around them they win respect from those very people they serve and bring aid and relief to.
[2] They gain "great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus" - "Great boldness" (Parresia) is most often used of boldness in speech.
From this I would conclude that those who serve God well and see His grace, power and glory operate in their lives will be strengthened with 'boldness' for even greater service.
