The focus of the apostles was to be on the preaching of the Word. And they said, It is not right that we serve tables – and remember that the word deacon is in there. The deacon is the one who serves, or waits, on tables. So it is like the apostles are saying, It is not right that we should give up preaching to do the work of the deacons.

Again, it is not a slam on the deacons, but it is an ordering of the ministry in the life of the church. Without the ministry of the Word in prayer there is no purpose in doing mercy ministry. There is no reason to reach out to others without the Scriptures and without preaching being central in the life of the church. If we had a congregational meeting after this service and just decided that as a church we should really take the focus of the pastor's time away from studying God's Word and have him open a soup kitchen instead of being in the study during the week, that would change the focus of the church in such a way that we would be going down a path even to apostasy.¹

Nathan Eshelman