This desire to serve is not all that there is here. It is a call for the deacon to be a spiritual man. Who is filled with the Spirit of God? Who is one who is spiritual and driven by the Spirit of God in such a way that their Christ-likeness is known and seen? Think about that. Sometimes I go back and forth in my mind concerning the qualifications of a deacon. What I mean by that is that sometimes I look at the practice of the church (not just our congregation, but of the reformed churches as a whole) and I think that the qualifications sometimes seem too high. And then I think that sometimes we are just so pragmatic with the deacons that sometimes it seems low. When I look at Acts 6:1–15, I see that we are to look for one who is filled with the Spirit of God. This is a spiritual office in the sense that as the deacons do their work, they are to do it in the name of Christ, on behalf of Jesus Christ. It is not one where it is merely pragmatics that drive who is in this office. And at the same time, it is not that just the super-spiritual are to be in the office, but one who is driven by the Spirit of God – one who is called to serve the church, to be a waiter in the church, and to be filled with this Spirit, [showing] reliance upon God's Word, trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of sin, repenting of sin as needed. The Spirit of God is to dwell in the deacon and be the driving factor for mercy decisions made in the church.
And this filling of the Spirit leads to wisdom, doesn’t it? We see that in the Scriptures. As one is given wisdom, it is something that is given by the Spirit of God. And wisdom is to be able to take God's Word and to generalize and apply it in such a way that it has value for the situations in our lives. And the deacons need that wisdom to minister in such a way that Jesus is glorified.1
Nathan Eshelman
3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.