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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 606. The Election
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The Election
1. The work of the Apostles at Jerusalem had been growing so rapidly that they found it impracticable, at length, to give their personal attention to the distribution of charities among needy Christians, which had come to be a large and important responsibility. Many of these were Greek-speaking Jews, as they were called, or Hellenists, who had come from the various provinces around, as distinguished from the native or Palestinian Jews. A fund had been provided toward the support of the more needy converts among both these classes. Some complaint having arisen that there had been unfairness in the distribution by those who had been appointed to the work, that the widows, especially, of the Hellenists or Greek-speaking Jews were being neglected in the daily ministrations, the Apostles took steps not only to remove all grounds of complaint, but at the same time to relieve themselves of the burden of looking after the distribution of alms altogether. They proposed that the Christian people of Jerusalem should select seven men, in whom they had full confidence, to have charge of the whole business, in order that they themselves might be left free to give their undivided attention to the work of preaching the gospel.
In asking the community to make the selection, they insisted upon these qualifications: they must be careful to select only those who were well spoken of for unimpeachable honesty, who combined learning and wisdom with a sound judgment, and who were, as became all who were to hold office in the Church, thoroughly religious-minded men.
The seven elected were Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch. The appointment of these seven, partly because of their zeal and power, and partly because of the great freedom secured for the Apostles, led to marked successes in the progress of the Church. Not only was the number of disciples in Jerusalem greatly multiplied, but even a large number of the priests became obedient to the faith.
The elect are nowhere elected for themselves. They are chosen as handers on of the good gifts to their fellows. No man invents, discovers a thing for his profit alone. He cannot do it if he would. The laws of his own nature and of the world outside him compel him to be a purveyor. His discovery becomes at once the property of mankind. A Newton, a Kepler, explore the heavens, and the new light they draw thence enlightens the world. Watt and Stephenson find the uses of steam as a force generator, and all the continents are covered with railways. Marconi wins the secret of wireless telegraphy, and ships at sea are rescued by it from the devouring fire and the engulfing wave. And the saint, finding in his soul a new experience of God, a glorious access of spiritual power, can keep no movement of it to himself. He becomes to his fellows a centre of warmth and light; the hungry multitude rushes to feed upon the divine bread he dispenses.1 [Note: J. Brierley, Faith's Certainties, 228.]
2. The first and most prominent name in the list of deacons is that of Stephen, of whom it is expressly stated that he was “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.”
Devout expositors of Scripture have recognized in his name a prophecy of his greatness. Stephen is Stephanos, a garland or crown, in the Greek language. Garlands or crowns were given by the ancient Greeks to those who rendered good services to their cities, or brought fame to them by winning triumphs in the great national games. And Stephen had his name divinely chosen for him by that Divine Providence which orders all things, because he was to win in the fulness of time an imperishable garland, and to gain a crown of righteousness, and to render highest services to the Church of God by his teaching and by his testimony even unto death.
Stephen's character and abilities, as indicated in the narrative, were evidently of a high order. Up to this time his name had not occurred in Christian history. Although it is not certain that he was a Hellenist, there seems to be considerable ground for the belief that he was. He must have been a diligent and independent student of Scripture, for when at length he appears for a brief interval upon the stage, it is with fully matured views, which were, in many respects, far in advance of his contemporary Christians.
As the tradition that he had been one of the seventy disciples is valueless, we know nothing of the circumstances of his conversion to Christianity. His recognition, however, of the glorified figure which he saw in his ecstatic vision, as the figure of Him who on earth had called Himself “the Son of man,” makes it probable that he was one of those who had enjoyed the advantage of hearing the living Jesus, and of drawing from its very fountainhead the river of the water of life. We would fain know more of one who, in so brief a space of time, played a part so nobly wise. But it was with Stephen as it has been with myriads of others whose names have been written in the Book of Life; they have been unknown among men, or known only during one brief epoch, or for one great deed. For a moment, but for a moment only, the first martyr steps into the full light of history. Our insight into his greatness is derived almost solely from the record of a single speech and a single day-the last speech he ever uttered, the last day of his mortal life.
Stephen reminds us of a cloud, not specially distinguishable from its companions, which has helped to form the leaden covering of the sky during an overcast afternoon; we had not noticed it, indeed, the sun had set without even touching it; but when the orb of day has passed beneath the horizon, the cloud catches its departing rays, and becomes saturated and steeped with fire. See how it burns with glory! Its very heart is turned to flame! For a few moments the light remains, and it is gone! So Stephen caught for a brief space the glory of the departed Lord, and, reflecting it, was transformed into the same image.1 [Note: F. B. Meyer, Paul, 35.]
The sweetest song was ever sung
May soothe you but a little while:
The gayest music ever rung
Shall yield you but a fleeting smile.
The well I digged you soon shall pass:
You may but rest with me an hour:
Yet drink, I offer you the glass,
A moment of sustaining power,
And give to you, if it be gain,
Whether in pleasure or annoy,
To see one elemental pain,
One light of everlasting joy.2 [Note: A. E., Collected Poems, 265.]