Today’s Passage: Acts 6
Growth brings friction, and this chapter opens with a church large enough to strain at the seams. As the number of believers keeps rising, the Greek-speaking widows are being overlooked in the daily distribution of food, and their people begin to grumble. The Twelve will not answer it by abandoning their own calling, for they refuse to set aside the word of God in order to wait on tables. Instead they ask the whole body to choose seven men full of the Spirit and wisdom, and Stephen and six others are set apart for the work. The word spreads, and even a great many priests come to obey the faith. Then Stephen, full of grace and power, draws opposition, and men who cannot answer his wisdom resort to false witnesses and drag him before the Sanhedrin. This is not a later quarrel over church offices read back into the early days, but a simpler and holier thing. Waiting on tables and preaching the word are both sacred, and the word must not be neglected.
As you read, hold this: Word and table are both holy. The word must not be neglected.
Context The world of Acts 6
The believers in this young church did not all share one language or one background. The Hellenists were Greek-speaking Jews of the wider diaspora, while the Hebrews were the Aramaic-speaking locals, and a cultural fault line ran quietly between them inside the one body. The widows were where that line finally showed, for it was their daily care that had been neglected. Notice, then, the tenderness of the remedy: all seven men chosen bear Greek names, a quiet signal of trust held out toward the very group that had been wronged.
Care for widows was no new idea. The law of Moses had long commanded God’s people to protect them (Deuteronomy 14; 24), and the church now inherits that same care and bears it as the fruit of the gospel.
The Synagogue of the Freedmen was most likely made up of the descendants of freed Jewish slaves, with members drawn from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and Asia. That mention of Cilicia is worth marking, for it is Saul’s home province (7:58; 22:3). Vigorous debate was an ordinary custom of the synagogue; bearing false witness was not.
The charges leveled against Stephen echo the ones once brought against Jesus Himself (Mark 14:58), and Stephen will answer them in full when he stands to speak in chapter 7.
Acts 6:1–7 (BSB)
¹ In those days when the disciples were increasing in number, the Grecian Jews among them began to grumble against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. ² So the Twelve summoned all the disciples and said, “It is unacceptable for us to neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. ³ Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men confirmed to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will assign this responsibility to them ⁴ and will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” ⁵ This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, as well as Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. ⁶ They presented these seven to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. ⁷ So the word of God continued to spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem grew rapidly, and a great number of priests became obedient to the faith.
Growth has a way of exposing what was being neglected, and to their credit the Twelve name the problem plainly and without defensiveness. They guard the calling that is chiefly theirs, prayer and the diakonia, pronounced dee-ah-ko-NEE-ah. Strong's G1248, service, ministry, attendance to needs. Diakonia simply means service, and the beauty of this passage is that it uses the one word for both tasks. The daily diakonia of food and the diakonia of the word are each a real ministry, and neither of them stands beneath the other. The apostles will not let go of prayer and the word, so rather than choosing between the two callings they multiply servants to carry the table, and our English word deacon grows from this very root. We should not press this scene into a later argument about church office, for the pastoral epistles are where eldership is settled, and this chapter is not that discussion. What it does show is that even waiting on tables asks for men of proven character, full of the Spirit, and so the work of the table is never second-class. of the word, yet they trust the whole body to choose the men, and the laying on of hands sets those men apart for the task. Then the word spreads, and a great number of priests come to obey the faith, a quiet earthquake at the very heart of Jerusalem’s religious life.
Acts 6:8–15 (BSB)
⁸ Now Stephen, who was full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. ⁹ But resistance arose from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and men from the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. They disputed with Stephen, ¹⁰ but they could not stand up to his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke. ¹¹ Then they prompted some men to say, “We heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God.” ¹² So they stirred up the people, elders, and scribes and confronted Stephen. They seized him and brought him before the Sanhedrin, ¹³ where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. ¹⁴ For we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.” ¹⁵ All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. Being appointed to serve tables does not sideline Stephen from power and signs, for he goes on working great wonders among the people. When his opponents try to out-argue him they fail, unable to withstand his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he speaks, and so they turn to false charges instead, twisting both the words of Jesus and Stephen’s own preaching. The whole council fixes its eyes on him, and what answers their hard stares is a face like the face of an angel, the composure of heaven resting on a man in the dock. Chapter 7 will let Stephen speak for himself.
Study notes Going deeper
Handing the tables to trusted servants did not weaken the ministry of prayer and the word; it protected it, and the fruit was growth rather than decline (6:7). Compassion and proclamation are never rivals when the body shares out its gifts and each servant is left free for the work God gave him.
"What you are doing is not good. You will surely wear out—both yourself and these people with you." Exodus 18:17-18 (BSB)
Long before the apostles, Moses had to learn that no single man can carry the whole weight of God’s people alone, and the apostles need a shared load for the very same reason.
"Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27 (BSB)
Caring for widows in their distress is no lesser errand kept apart from real religion; Scripture calls it religion pure and undefiled, and so the ministry of the table is holy work.
"For I will give you speech and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict." Luke 21:15 (BSB)
Jesus had promised His followers words and wisdom their adversaries could not resist, and in Stephen we watch that very promise come true.