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1Ti_3:8-13
1Ti_3:9. The mystery pure conscience. Here is the same inward connection of faith and conscience as before, 1Ti_1:18; and it is an equally strong proof that the Apostle is by no means content with the mere outward blamelessness of the church officers, if this higher spiritual faith be lacking.— Ôὸ ìõóôÞñéïí ôῆò ðßóôåùò ; a peculiar expression, not occurring elsewhere. The mystery here, as 1Co_2:7, the truth, before hidden, but now revealed (comp. Rom_16:25).—Of the faith; a Genitiv. subjecti, just as, in 1Ti_3:16, ôὸ ìõóôÞñéïí ôῆò åὐóåâåßáò ; a mystery which is the object of faith, and can be understood only by faith. The Apostle presupposes that this mystery is like a treasure in the actual possession of the deacons; and to the question, how it can best be preserved, he answers with this precept: “ Ἔ÷ïíôáò ôὸ ìõóôÞñéïí ôῆò ðßóôåùò ἐí êáèáñᾷ óõíåéäÞóåé .” The pure conscience is the coffer in which the treasure is best deposited. Ἔ÷ïíôáò used here, as often, almost in the sense of êáôÝ÷ïíôáò . Although we must grant that this clause does not directly refer to the diaconate, but is entirely general (De Wette), yet it is obvious that such a life of faith and conscience must be most useful toward even official duty. As teaching and preaching were not the usual charge of the deacons, they must so much the more upbuild others by their action; and without this personal faith and conscientiousness they could not fulfil their difficult task. “Additur pura conscientia, quæ extenditur ad totam vitam, tum vero, ut sciant se Deo servire;” Calvin.
1Ti_3:10. And let these also first be proved. These no less than the presbyters. The Apostle had not, indeed (1Ti_2:1-7), expressly ordered a previous äïêéìÜæåéí for these persons, but it lies in the nature of the case, especially in the restriction, 1Ti_3:5. We are not told by whom this proof was to be made, or to what special points it should extend. It could not have been a public one, before the whole community, since it was already presumed that those called to the diaconate enjoyed a good name and character. It is better to suppose an inquiry by Timothy himself, and the associate episcopi, since the deacons had probably their formal appointment from these last. That it was an examination in the proper sense (Heubner), is as improbable as the notion (Heydenreich) that we are to suppose the “united voices, and questions all around,” from individuals of the congregation. This is surely too official and modern a conception. Far simpler Bengel: “Diaconi debebant prius edere specimen, sui in ipsâ diaconiâ, quam plane immitterentur in munus.” They could enter on their office, after their blamelessness had been proved. This proof was thus, in the main, of a prohibitory character, to keep the unworthy from office.
1Ti_3:11. Even so must their wives in all things. This direction concerning the wives has a somewhat singular place amidst the rules of the diaconate. Were not the passage beyond all critical doubt, we might regard it as an interpolation. The connection does not allow us to think of Christian women in general; nor does the Apostle speak of deaconesses alone, as such, since in chap. 5 this class is distinctly treated of. We are almost unwillingly forced to apply this to the wives of deacons (Matthies); although it is remarkable, again, that the Apostle should give such express precepts for these, yet none for the wives of the presbyters, who had yet higher rank. The reason of this may be found, however, in the fact that the wives of the deacons were entrusted also with the office of deaconess; which compels us to the opinion that, by the word ãõíáῖêáò , must be understood the wives of deacons, in so far as they were deaconesses also, and thus subject to certain rules here suggested beforehand, but more expressly given in chap. 5. These requisites are such as every Christian woman should have, yet they are specially desirable and indispensable to the sisters who would undertake a public office in the church.—Not slanderers, ìὴ äéáâüëïõò ; literally, not devils—which they undoubtedly would be should they be guilty of lying and slander. “Why is it that evil-speaking is so characteristic of women? A woman has no arms, weapons, brute force, like man; her tongue is her weapon; and her natural feeling of dependence makes her more susceptible to envy and rivalry;” Heubner.—This qualification of the deacons’ wives has its relative contrast with the requirement made of the husbands; ìὴ äéëüãïõò , just as the íçöáëßïõò points back to the preceding, ìὴ ïἴíῳ ðïëëῷ ðñïóÝ÷ïíôáò .—Faithful in all things, is a precept indeed for all, but specially for women, who in their allotted sphere must practise this fidelity in little things, and therefore not overlook or despise it.
1Ti_3:12. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife. See 1Ti_3:2.—Ruling their children and their own houses well. See 1Ti_3:4-5. The domestic virtue of deacons must not be inferior to that of presbyters. Care of their own children was doubtless the best preparatory school for care of the poor and sick.
1Ti_3:13. For they that have used, &c. To call forth an earnest attention to his precepts, the Apostle points to the noble reward of the faithful man. Undoubtedly, in his view, they only would deserve it who made such rules their own, and thus fulfilled them.—Such purchase to themselves a good degree, âáèìὸí êáëüí . Âáèìüò , gradus, the Ionic form of the Attic âáóìüò (from âáßíù ), may be understood either in reference to church office, or to the spiritual state. If, in the former view, we see in this phrase a promotion to the presbyterial office (Jerome, Bengel, and others), we must presuppose a kind of hierarchical order, which is quite foreign to the apostolic time. This interpretation is not at all necessary by grammatical rule; indeed, the description of this higher official degree as êáëüí sounds somewhat singularly; nor can we conceive of any connection between such advancement and the ðáῤῥçóßá spoken of just after. We therefore prefer their view who interpret it as a good step in spiritual life, or future blessedness—two meanings which may well be united, and between which to put either—or (De Wette, Huther, and others), we think unnecessary. The Christian life here and hereafter is, in the Apostle’s view, one united whole; and in proportion as we advance here in our spiritual growth, shall we reach undoubtedly a higher degree of blessedness. It has been often said, indeed, but never proved, that Paul knows no degrees in future happiness. The opposite rather appears from 1Co_3:15; 1Co_15:41-42; 2Co_9:6, and elsewhere. A faithful fulfilment of our calling in the Church of Christ is the means blessed of Him to win here, as in eternity, a good degree of growth and of salvation. [It seems most agreeable to our conceptions of justice, and is consonant enough to the language of Scripture, to suppose that there are prepared for us rewards and punishments of all possible degrees, from the most exalted happiness down to the extremest misery, so that our labor is never in vain; whatever our advancement in virtue, we procure a proportionable accession of future happiness; Paley. “Mor. Phil.,” B. 1, c. 7.—W.]—And great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. This second part of the promise expresses the reward which such fidelity will gain from others; as âáóìüò referred to that which the diaconus would gain for himself. Ðáῤῥçóßá , used in this absolute sense, does not mean boldness of faith before God, but boldness of conscience before men, and, indeed, before the church, in whose employment such deacons as breathed this spirit could not have reproach. Bengel joins them both: “Fiducia erga, Deum et homines.” Faith in Christ Jesus does not belong exclusively to ðáῤῥçóßá , but as well to âáèìüò ; meaning the ground in which this confidence is rooted, and on which this degree is built. It is obvious that ðßóôéò must not be taken objectively of Christian doctrine, but subjectively of the personal life of faith. [ âáèìüò is rendered, by Conybeare, position. Alford inclines to this reading, but refers it also, with De Wette and Wiesinger, to the hope of the future, as well as the present life. We cannot, however, see force enough in the above reasoning to reject the generally received idea of an official promotion. Undoubtedly the hierarchical ideas of the day of Jerome, when the deacon was styled a Levite (Ep. 27), do not belong to the church of St. Paul and Timothy. But there is nothing strange in the supposition, that a deacon of excellence in his calling should rise to the rank of presbyter. The custom, as it afterward obtained in the church, although it may have been by no means the rule of that early time, seems to have arisen naturally enough out of just such instances. Why should not such a promotion be êáëüò ? and why should not one who had attained it have greater “boldness in the faith” ? The opposite interpretation seems to us far-fetched and fantastic. See further, Ellicott and Wordsworth in loco.—W.]
2. The offices of deacon, presbyter, &c., in the apostolic church were not immediately ordained by Christ, and as little arranged by human wisdom after a predetermined and measured plan; but they came by degrees into existence, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in the process of circumstances, and were thus the source of rich blessing to many. They had from the first a spiritual character, the diaconate not excepted; for this office is very superficially valued, if we suppose it designed to meet the physical wants of the sick and poor. Here, rather, the beautiful saying is true: “The soul of charity is charity to the soul,” Amalia Sieveking; and, “The service of the poor is the service of God,” Angelus Merula. Hence such an office can be worthily exercised by those alone who are united truly with Christ and the brethren by the spirit of faith and love, and for Christ’s sake ready to meet every sacrifice, every trial, and every opposition.
3. The apostolic directions regarding the office of presbyter and deacon have to the present time been far more truly kept in the Reformed Church than in the Lutheran; whilst in the Roman Church they have been caricatured, and are hardly to be recognized. It is from this common cause that the presbyterate and diaconate, in the life of the church, form, together with the office of preacher and pastor, a circle of working forces, whose rights and duties are still too little understood and prized by many. Compare the “Manual for Elders and Deacons in the Evangelical Church, and those who are to become such,” by G. B. Lechler, Frankfort-on-the-Maine, 1857.
4. “It is beyond doubt that much is given to those who are entrusted with the office of elder or deacon. An office is given them of primitive Christianity, honorable by its antiquity, and at the same time evangelical, Protestant, of needful service for the edifying of the Christian body.”
5. The apostolic rules regarding deacons remain, in spirit and substance, normative for all such officers; and a wholesome corrective for the many deviations from those principles which are seen today in manifold shapes.
6. See further, 1Ti_3:1-7, and 1Ti_5:9 et seq.
Starke: Hedinger: Pure doctrine and pure conscience must always go together. What worth in much knowledge, without self-knowledge? much teaching, without our own conversion?—None can be a true Christian, still less a teacher, who has not faith and a pure conscience.—Starke: How needful proof, trial, experience, evidence, to those appointed to the spiritual office!—The more prominent the place God allots any one, the more blameless should be his life, since many observe him.—When all is well in the clergyman’s home, there is a good example for his people; if not, it is a slaughter-house, where souls are destroyed (1Sa_3:13).—The true servants of God do not mourn over their sweat and toil; if they stay here without further promotion, they will have a degree so much the higher in heaven (Dan_12:3; 1Co_15:41-42).
Heubner: The strictest examination before our appointment to the spiritual office cannot equal the holy claims of the office.—Our whole life is indeed an examination followed by a judgment.—No office has such claim (?) to future honor and blessedness as that of the Christian teacher.—It is a strong spur to higher, Christian competition, when we remember that there are degrees even in salvation.
Von Gerlach: Fidelity in little is the test of genuine fidelity in great things.—Many are seemingly truer in the great concerns of life than in the less, where they constantly offend in their everyday faults, which all can see; and therefore such fidelity in greater things is worm-eaten, done from men-pleasing, from worldly ambition, not love to God and the brethren.—Lisco: The personal traits of the almoner of the church, ad 1Ti_3:1-15.—Characteristics of a good clergyman.—(Synodal Sermon): We have the richest and the hardest office in the communion of the Lord.
[Donne, Sermons: The ministry to the poor. Heaven and earth are a musical instrument; if you touch a string below, the motion goes to the top. Any good done to Christ’s poor members upon earth, affects Him in heaven.—W.]
Footnotes:
1Ti_3:9.—[The Sinaiticus is peculiar here. All the critical authorities read ἐí êáèáñᾷ óõíåéäÞóåé , instead of which it has êáèáñᾶò óõíåéäÞóåùò . Were this the true reading, the sense would be, “holding the mystery of the faith and of a pure conscience.—E. H.]
1Ti_3:15.—How one (wie man). Some authorities—e. g., D., Arm., Vulg., and others—have inserted óå , for the sake, it appears, of explanation, but for the rest, without reason.