November 15, 2022
Serving Christ in the office of deacon can be one of the greatest joys in life. It is a calling to die to oneself and live to Christ.
Deacons get to love the LORD in heart, soul, and mind as they labor to free their elders for the work of preaching and praying, and they get to love their neighbor as they guard the sheep from the trials of poverty, loneliness and sickness. In a way, this is an office of the greatest commandments.
A hundred years ago, R.C. Reed said a good deacon must be “one who can be patient, who can smile at unreasonable people, and speak a soft word to turn away wrath, one who is willing to give time and take trouble on himself, and make himself ‘all things to all men’ in order to promote the interests of his Master’s Cause.” Reed points toward a special power deacons seem to have: the power of promoting peace in the congregation. This has been seen in action, and every deacon should cherish this power and actively employ it to the good of their congregation.
A deacon who serves not for his own glory but for Christ’s, who daily dies to sin, who loves the saints in deed, and who sits attentively at his Master’s feet, will be a blessed deacon indeed. In this, he will gain a great confidence in the faith and a good standing for himself.
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