Unfortunately that point is often overlooked in debates about church government.  My conviction is that when a church becomes as concerned about maintaining high standards of purity and integrity in leadership as it is about upholding a specific form of government, it will begin to fall more in line with Scripture in every other area as well.

How is the word deacon used in the New Testament?

The New Testament text uses three primary words to refer to deacons: diakonos, which means "servant"; diakonia, which means "service"; and diakoneo, which means "to serve."  The original use of this group of words seems to have been specific, meaning the service of waiting on tables or serving people food.  But it broadened beyond that and came to mean any kind of service.

It is important to understand at the outset that, in a biblical context, the group of Greek words from which we get the word deacon has meanings no more specific than the meanings of their English equivalents.  In biblical usage, diakonia suggests all kinds of service, just as the English word service does.  We might use the word serve to describe anything from the start of a volley in a tennis match to a convicted criminal who "serves" a term in prison.  We use it equally to describe a slave who serves his master or a king who serves his people.

The Greek words diakonos, diakoneo, and diakonia have just as wide a variety of meanings, but in general they refer to any kind of service that supplies the need of another person.  The words are used at least a hundred times in the New Testament, and they are usually translated with variants of the English words serve or minister.  In a few places in the King James Version they are translated differently--diakonia is "administration" in 1 Corinthians 12:5 and 2 Corinthians 9:12, and "relief" in Acts 11:29.  But in those verses, and in every usage of the words throughout the New Testament, the primary meaning has to do with service and ministry.

What kind of service is implied by the Greek word for "deacon"?

Serving food.   The original and most limited meaning of the word diakoneo has to do with serving food.  The account of the wedding at Cana is a good illustration of that: "His mother said to the servants [diakonoi], 'Whatever He says to you, do it'....  When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants [diakonoi] who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom" (John 2:5, 9).  That is clearly a reference to people who actually served tables.  And that is the traditional and original sense of the word deacon.

Luke 4:39 tells us that after Christ healed Peter's mother-in-law, she "immediately got up and waited on them."  The verb form of diakoneo appears there.  Peter's mother-in-law waited on both Christ and Peter, which probably means she served them a meal.  Three other texts in the gospels where the word deacon refers to serving a meal are John 12:2; Luke 10:40; and 17:8.

General service.   On some occasions, diakoneo or one of the related words is used without specifying what kind of service is involved.  In John 12:26 Christ says, "If any one serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if any one serves Me, the Father will honor him."  The meaning of the word is general there and could refer to a number of forms of service.

Biblically, the use of the word diakonos is not limited to describing believers.  Romans 13:3-4 says, "Do you want to have no fear of authority?  Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good.  But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil."  There diakonos, translated "minister," is used twice of a policeman or soldier who isn't necessarily a Christian.

A passage where both the original and the general usage of the word appears is Luke 22:27.  There Christ said, "Who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves?  Is it not the one who reclines at the table?  But I am among you as the one who serves."  In that verse diakoneo is used twice.  The first usage clearly refers to the serving of a meal.  The second speaks of service in a general sense.

Spiritual service.   Looking more directly at the term, we find it used of the believer's role as a servant.  In Romans 15:25 Paul writes, "I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints."  He identified himself as a servant (diakonos).  From Acts 20:19 we learn that he kept busy "serving [diakoneo] the Lord with all humility."

In 2 Corinthians 8:3-4 Paul says of the churches in Macedonia, "I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support [diakonia] of the saints."  The ministry of providing resources for meeting basic physical needs is a form of spiritual service.

In this spiritual sense of diakonos and the related words, any act of obedience done by a Christian should qualify to be called service to Christ.  In the way the words are often used in Acts and the epistles, a believer in any form of ministry could be called the servant, or deacon, of Christ.

First Corinthians 12:5 tells us that "there are varieties of ministries [diakonia], and the same Lord."  All Christians are involved in some form of service.  All who serve the Lord are deacons, or ministers, if not in an official sense, at least in the sense of this general usage of the word.

Other verses that use a form of the word deacon to speak of spiritual service are 2 Corinthians 4:1; 9:1; and Revelation 2:19.  In those and all the verses that we have looked at so far, we have not yet found the word used in reference to the office of deacon in the church.

Does the New Testament speak about the office of a deacon?

Because of the variety of meanings attached to diakonos and the related words, with one or two possible exceptions it is difficult to pin down any clear reference in the New Testament to an office of deacon in the early ecclesiastical government.  Most occurrences of diakonos and the related words use their general meanings and clearly have nothing to do with a church office.  Other passages could be taken one way or the other, but usually the clearest, most natural interpretation calls for the general meanings, not a reference to a special title belonging to a select group in the church.

For example, some say that Romans 12 contains a reference to the office of deacon: "Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly...if service, in his serving" (vv. 6-7).  But is the gift of serving equivalent to the function or office of a deacon?  There is nothing in the text to support that.  The other gifts listed in Romans 12 do not involve offices.  Also, offices are not necessarily related to gifts.  A person who has the gift of teaching, for example, does not have to be a pastor-teacher to exercise his gift.  The gifts are related to callings and assignments, not just offices.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul says, "You know the household of Stephanas, that they were the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves for ministry [diakonia] to the saints" (16:15).  Was Paul saying that the household of Stephanas was a family of officially titled deacons?  There is no way to affirm that on the basis of the terms used or the context--in fact, the most natural interpretation is to take it the way it is translated.

Some suggest that Ephesians 4:12 talks about deacons in the church.  Starting with verse 11, we read, "[The Lord] gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ."  The "work of service" (diakonia) is not the work of the deacons, but rather the work of all saints in being servers.  Paul was talking about Christians in general being equipped for spiritual service, not about the office of a deacon.

Is anyone specified as a deacon in the New Testament?

Paul probably wasn't.   Some believe that Paul was a deacon.  They point to Acts 20:24, where he says, "I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course, and the ministry [diakonia] which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God."  But Paul was saying that he had a specific ministry given to him by Christ; he was not calling himself a deacon or minister in any official sense.  In Romans 11:13 he writes, "I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office [diakonia]" (KJV).  The New American Standard uses the word ministry in that verse instead of "office."  The use of "office" in the King James Version was arbitrary; it seems unlikely that Paul was using the word in reference to an official position there.  His office was that of apostle, which he called "my ministry," or "my service."

In 1 Timothy 1:12 the apostle Paul writes, "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service."  That translation is accurate; Paul is not saying that he was put into the office of a deacon.  Other passages that talk about Paul as a minister or servant are 1 Corinthians 3:5; 2 Corinthians 3:6 and 6:4; and Ephesians 3:7.  In each of those instances, there is no evidence that Paul was assigned the office of deacon.  He was calling himself a servant of God in a general sense.

Paul was an apostle--he spent much of 2 Corinthians 10-12 emphasizing that point.  The apostles' office was the highest of all in the local church, superseding that of the elders and deacons.  In an official capacity, Paul would never have claimed to be a deacon; he was an apostle.

Tychicus probably wasn't.   Paul said to the Ephesians, "[So] that you also may know about my circumstances, how I am doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister [diakonos] in the Lord, will make everything known to you" (Ephesians 6:21).  It could be that Paul was calling Tychicus a faithful deacon.  But Paul also used diakonos in Ephesians 3:7 and diakonia in Ephesians 4:12 as references to general service, and there is no reason to assume he meant differently here.

Epaphras probably wasn't.   In Colossians 1:7 Paul calls Epaphras "our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant [diakonos] of Christ on our behalf."  Then in verses 23 and 25 he writes, "Continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister [diakonos]....  Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit."  Paul used diakonos to describe both himself and Epaphras.  Since we feel certain that the apostle Paul was not calling himself a deacon, it seems highly unlikely that he was referring to Epaphras as one.  Principles of interpretation suggest that a word finds its meaning within the context of a book, and in the context of Colossians, there is no indication that diakonos refers to an office of deacons.

Those mentioned in Philippians 1:1 probably weren't.   Another place that the word deacon appears is Philippians 1:1.  The letter to the Philippians begins, "Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons."

Up to now we have not seen the Greek word diakonos translated as "deacons."  Why did the Bible translators suddenly introduce the word deacon here in an official sense when in virtually every other usage the word is translated "minister" or "servant"?  Granted, the word here could refer to officers in the church, but again, the context does not seem to warrant such an interpretation.

The word in this verse translated "overseers" (episkopos) is not the word normally used to identify elders (presbuteros).  The most natural interpretation of this verse is that Paul was addressing his letter to the whole church.  He seems to be saying, "I write to the whole church, including the leadership and those who follow or serve."  To say that Philippians 1:1 refers to the office of deacon might be correct, but it is an arbitrary choice.  There is not enough evidence to be dogmatic about what Paul is saying.

We have already seen many uses of the Greek words diakonos, diakoneo, and diakonia, but none with a clear reference to a specific church office.

Doesn't Acts 6 talk about deacons?

Many see the passage in Acts 6 as the initiation of the deacon's office.  Verses 1-2 say that "while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.  And the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, 'It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in