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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comAdam Clarke Commentary - Matthew 20:26 - 20:26
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It shall not be so among you - Every kind of lordship and spiritual domination over the Church of Christ, like that exercised by the Church of Rome, is destructive and anti-christian.
Your minister - Or, deacon, διακονος. I know no other word which could at once convey the meaning of the original, and make a proper distinction between it and δουλος, or servant, in Mat 20:27. The office of a deacon, in the primitive Church, was to serve in the agapae, or love feasts, to distribute the bread and wine to the communicants; to proclaim different parts and times of worship in the churches; and to take care of the widows, orphans, prisoners, and sick, who were provided for out of the revenues of the Church. Thus we find it was the very lowest ecclesiastical office. Deacons were first appointed by the apostles, Act 6:1-6; they had the care of the poor, and preached occasionally.