1 Timothy Chapter 3 Verse 8

• I love this because Paul begins this chapter with pastors must be blameless and here he says, likewise deacons must be reverent! This is just a recipe for success right here because in truth blameless and reverent aren’t all that much different. This word used by Paul for “reverent” is an interesting one. It simply means honest and greatly respectable.
• Not double-tongued, in others words they speak the truth the first time, every time, with not intent to deceive and every intent to follow-through with what they’ve said. I love the description Paul gives of someone who is not like this…the dilogos, or double-tongued…because what animal silvers about spitting that double tongue? Yup.
• Not given to much wine or greedy for money…notice, and I mentioned this briefly last week, Paul inserts the word “much” here and I think that is interesting because it sets up, at least for me, that the pastor is held to a higher standard as well he should be…

1 Timothy Chapter 3 Verse 9

• Notice Paul doesn’t say “clean” conscience. I think we often default to thinking of keeping a clean conscience but that’s not the thought here. Paul uses a much more powerful word in that he says, “pure.” Clean means simply void of dirt while pure means something so much further than just clean on the outside but rather genuine, authentic, non-contaminated…and that is perceived and desired and captured by a servant and disciple of Christ…

1 Timothy Chapter 3 Verse 10

• See, there is the blameless. Very similar but actually a completely different word than Paul used for pastors. For pastors he used a word that means more of apprehendable…for deacons he uses a word that means more of accusable. We can speculate as to why. It could be that the pastor will be accused…the pastor is an easy target, especially the senior pastor, but a deacon is just a servant. Attack a servant and you get his master…attack a deacon and the pastor, a good pastor, may get a bit in the way…
• Attack a pastor and what defense does he have? Only God. Now a good church and leadership team will rally but ultimately, a deacon being accused will distract the pastor while a pastor being apprehendable will distract the church. And so, let a person be tested…watch them, study them…are they after clean conscience or pure conscience…

1 Timothy Chapter 3 Verses 11 – 13

• Now back to the cultural controversy. HA! You know I have really looked hard into this to make sure that I would rightly divide the word of truth and serve out my ministry purely…and here’s where I’m at. (Brace for impact) In surveying the entirety of scripture, including considering Pheobe in Romans Chapter 16, I cannot conclusively arrive at the statement that women have the formal title of deacon anywhere in the scriptures.
• Pheobe comes the closest in Romans Chapter 16 as Paul says, “I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church of Cenchrea…” And when he calls her a servant, that word is deakonos but here’s the thing…that word simply means servant. Does that mean she was a deacon of the church of Cenchrea? Possibly. 100% conclusively? I just can’t get there…
• And Paul says here that a deacon can only have one wife…I’m not sure…it certainly isn’t worth dividing over…can women lead? Yes! We established that last week, or the week before last. Can women teach? Yes! Are women just as important as men?   Yes! In fact, they’re more important, HA! Because without women there’d be no men! HA! I have a fix for it all. Deakinos simply means servant or slave…why don’t we change all of our titles here to better align with their meanings? Deacons, you will now all be called slaves…there, now not so much controversy, huh. HA!

1 Timothy Chapter 3 Verses 14 – 15

• Don’t miss that! Man this is so important! While we quibble with one another because of our own dumb pride we as a whole fall into the trap, man…because the church is supposed to be without controversy…full of love and submission and pride-less-ness in order to rightfully give the world a front row showing of what God is like…the pillar and ground of the truth!

1 Timothy Chapter 3 Verse 16

• Here is the mystery and the motivation behind it all…the perfect and wonderful gospel of God! This cannot be delayed. It cannot be hindered! Especially not by us who have stepped into leadership at the call of the King! We have the truth man…we have the cure…and we can tell the story of Jesus Christ who has made a way for any person to live forever…live forever, what a radical idea…in a place where nothing is wrong, nothing goes wrong…what if you woke up today in that place? Well one day you will, aren’t you grateful…well face this, that day will never come for some. Doesn’t that just destroy you? Can we get past the pride? Can we get past the self…can you even see it?