Acts 6:1-6 And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews… This short section has much to say, more to suggest, to us. The day of Pentecost had receded no distance whatever into the past; the holy enthusiasm of the days when new-born disciples sold their individual property in order to turn it into common property was literally but of yesterday; and Jerusalem, Christianity's cradle of associations the venerable sacredness of which was now superseded by a new, a young, a surpassing sacredness, had not yet been left of the apostolic missionaries. If other things were to date their "beginning from Jerusalem," things of brighter and more blessed omen, so also the Church's earliest acquaintance with division and strife was to be made and m part provided against within the precincts of that same city, center of cities, and "mother of all." However, the strife was not fierce at present, nor the division malignant in its tyro. Yet, looked at under the light of the centuries that have succeeded, there can be now no doubt of the significance of the symptoms which then appeared. Let us notice in this passage - I. What may be called THE FIRST EFFORT OF THE CHURCH TO PUT ON FORM. Effort though it was, there can be little doubt that it was most unconscious of its nature. The occasion, interesting from a merely historical point of view, is much more so from a moral point of view. Hitherto the brief and wonderful career of the Church had been all "spirit and life" - stem and bough and twig all concealed beneath flower and fruit. Suddenly, however, the rudiments of organization commence to be seen; and it was a consequence of some of the less lovely aspects of human nature. These do not fail to thrust themselves into notice at a time one would have most desired their absence, and while they labor under the rebuke of many a faithful suggestion of Christian feeling and principle. Plainly up to this time the apostles had themselves distributed the offerings that had been laid at their feet (Acts 4:35; comp. with Acts 6:2), availing themselves of just such help as might offer. Inspired apostles could not do everything. Though "murmuring" might not be lovely, and very probably was not so now, yet, as they recognize some foundation for it, they proceed to propose a remedy (cf. Exodus 18:13-26). II. HOW IT WAS GUIDED BY APOSTLES INSPIRED. 1. They summon the whole body of the disciples together, and point out to them the aspects of the case. 2. They throw upon this body of disciples the responsibility of choosing those helpers who shall serve the needs of the occasion. 3. They insist on the moral, nay, more, the high spiritual, qualifications of these. Though they are only "to bear the vessels of the Lord," yet must they in high sense be "pure" and "clean;" for they must be men "of good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom." 4. By a service most simple, of prayer and laying on of hands, they set them apart for what might seem their comparatively humble and business kind of duties. Christian dignity and honor are set upon the work of these men, as dignity and honor belong to it, in the Name of the Master for whom and for whose Church it was to be done. III. SOME SUGGESTIONS OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES ARISING FROM THIS OCCASION. 1. Division of labor is a principle to be observed within the Church as without it. 2. A gradation in importance of work (though not necessarily of the workman) is plainly implied by the words of the apostle (ver. 2). 3. The character of Church organization, whatever of it there might come to be, seems plainly shadowed forth. It is not to be place and office and dignity for the sake of them, or for the show of hierarchy. The offices of the Church are not to be the filling up of an á priori constitution. They are only justifiable in the interests of the use of the Church, and are to be assigned in faithful analogy with the illustrious model-principle of "the sabbath made for man, not man for the sabbath." 4. The possession of the Spirit is the foundation-qualification of every order of Christian workman. Men "of good report, and... of wisdom" may be the manifest qualifications of men of business, whether Church business or not. But the apostles require that those who are "appointed over this business," i.e. "to serve tables," shall be also "full of the Holy Ghost." 5. The discretion of the Spirit is still reserved - unfettered in each order and in each individual. For of these seven "deacons," now elected and with solemn service set apart, we hear no more, except of two of them; and both of these are doing distinguished work, not as deacons, but as "preaching Christ," and doing "great wonders and miracles" (comp. Acts 8:13-15, with Acts 7. and Acts 8:5-8). The conclusion of all may be understood to be that the truest Church will be that which earnestly bids for life and movement, and allows only so much form as the tide of life and the directing of that life may fairly require. - B. Parallel Verses KJV: And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. |
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