What does every Elder & Deacon have to have that Jesus and Paul didn’t? Give up? The answer is a wife. The scriptural qualifications for both offices require “the husband of one wife”. Ever wonder why that is? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:32-33 that the unmarried are free from concern and can serve the Lord without any divided interest but a married man must think about the concerns of his wife. So why would God make the overseers and servants in the church be married? If you want a practical answer, just ask a man that serves in one of these roles. Every deacon and elder has at times needed the support and love of a godly woman in their efforts. She has to be a patient, loving, understanding woman of not only her husband but of the church as well. The wife of a deacon or elder is a unique position for which we often forget to show our support and appreciation. We should never forget the special women and the important role they in which they serve.
Let’s say you travel back in time six hundred years or so. Luckily, you happen across a fellow that speaks English. Upon hearing your tale, he describes you as nice, smart, and handsome. Wouldn’t you feel good? You shouldn’t. As Sol Steinmetz in his book, Semantics Antics , explains; Nice originally meant someone who was foolish, ignorant, senseless, or absurd (middle English 1300). Smart for the first 300 years of its use meant causing pain, sharp, cutting, or severe, a sense that survives in the idiom "smart as a whip.” Handsome wasn’t complimentary. When coined around 1425, it just meant easily handled; it didn’t have its current positive connotation until 1590. You might think he said you were a kind, intelligent, good looking bloke, when in reality he said you were a foolish pain easily dealt with. Words have an annoying habit of changing meaning over time in the same language and it becomes even more compli...
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