Purchasing Great Boldness - Glenn Conjurske

Purchasing Great Boldness

by Glenn Conjurske

“For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (I Tim. 3:13). The office of a deacon exists for the purpose of relieving the necessities of the poor. It was created in the sixth chapter of Acts for that purpose, to relieve the apostles of that work, since it was not meet that they should leave the word of God and serve tables. All of this being so, it may not readily appear how the using of such an office will purchase great boldness in the faith. If we consider, however, what boldness is, and what it will entail to use well the office of a deacon, I believe the connection will be apparent.

It may be that the best way to understand what boldness is will be to contrast it with its opposite. Boldness is the opposite of timidity. Boldness moves men to speak up where the timid are silent. Boldness moves men to address those issues which the timid ignore. Boldness moves men to reprove sin, which timidity allows to pass.

How then does the office of a deacon promote this boldness? Observe that it is those who “have used the office of a deacon well” which purchase to themselves this boldness. Men may relieve the poor without any boldness at all—-and without any testimony at all. This is not to use the office well. Those who use the office well will make use of the opportunities which it affords them to reprove, rebuke, exhort, and testify. And the opportunities which such an office presents will be manifold.

The business of a deacon is to relieve those who are in poverty or distress. Now it often so happens that those who are in this plight are there by their own carelessness or laziness, their own improvidence or neglect. To relieve the wants of such persons without reproving and exhorting them concerning their ways is certainly not to use the office well. It is in fact to use it very ill. To relieve the careless and improvident without any solemn admonition is simply to encourage carelessness and improvidence. And yet to reprove them is a task from which we all shrink. It requires boldness to do so. The good deacon will take up his cross and administer the reproof along with the relief. Each time that he does so will add a little strength to his spirit, to do so again. When he has made a practice of this, he has used the office of a deacon well, and purchased to himself great boldness.

When we see men in need through their own carelessness and neglect, the temptation is strong to give them no help. We are tempted to say, “He made his bed: let him lie in it.” But the fact is, we were all once in very great need, spiritually, through our own sin, and God gave his best, and Christ gave his all, to relieve us. Ought we not to do the same for others? “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need”—-regardless of how he came by that need—-“and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” (I Jn. 3:17). Our great need was wholly our own fault, and yet God took care of that need for us.

Yet observe, God cared for our need in such a way as to cure us of our fault. He saves us from our sins. He saves us upon condition of repentance, and not otherwise. Though there are many who falsely represent God as doing so, he does not forgive us in such a manner or upon such terms as to confirm us in our sins. And neither should we relieve the poor and the distressed in such a way as to confirm them in the vices which brought them to their plight. Our dealings with them ought to reflect the holiness of God as well as his love, and ought to be patterned after God’s own dealings with sinners. This will require a great deal of tenderness and gentleness, and also of firmness and boldness.

The office of a deacon provides peculiar opportunities for this. The man whose business it is to relieve the distressed will find both opportunity and responsibility to reprove their ways. I have never been a deacon, but in some sense we are all deacons. It is the deacon’s business to administer the goods of the church, but to all of us are committed more or less of the goods of the Lord, and we have the same sort of responsibility individually as the deacon has officially. I was once a guest in the house of a brother who was much given to neglect of his responsibilities, and (as such people usually are) much inclined to get something for nothing, or at any rate to get as much as he could for as little as he could. He was committed to write an article for a Christian publication, and when the day arrived on which the article was due, he had not yet started it. The same day happened to be the last day for entering a certain art contest, for a substantial cash prize. He made no move to write his article, but spent the day drawing a picture for the art contest. This was typical of his desire to get something for nothing. So was the manner in which he drew the picture, for instead of producing anything original, he merely copied a photograph from a magazine. When this was finished, his wife read the contest rules, and found that this was not allowed. He therefore started afresh, using the same photograph, only adding something to it to alter it. All of this took the whole day. When the picture was done, he rushed off to get to the store before it closed, in order to buy a frame for the picture, and spent money which he did not have for the frame, writing a check for money which he did not have in his account. He then began to fret about where he was to get the money to cover the check.

I observed the whole process with great grief. Here was a man supposedly engaged in the work of the Lord, whose ways were simply unconscionable. The whole business put me in a hard place. I was a guest at his house, partaking of his hospitality, and therefore felt some obligation to relieve him. At the same time I felt it would be wrong to encourage such ways. I naturally shrank from confronting him concerning the evil of all of this, but I took up my cross, and asked him to go for a walk with me.

I asked him how much money he needed to cover the check. It was fifteen dollars. I gave him that, and no more. I also gave him a solemn reproof for such ways—-for waiting till the last day for both the contest and the article, and for then neglecting his obligation, in order to attempt to get something for nothing. He seemed to take the exhortation well, though he afterwards turned against me, and I am not sure but what that day’s exhortation may have been part of the reason.

But I give this incident as an illustration of the sort of circumstances with which deacons will commonly be called to deal, and of the necessity of boldness in order to use their office well.

But there is more. Most of us are timid about raising the question of salvation with the ungodly. It is almost a foregone conclusion that they do not wish to hear it. It requires a good degree of boldness to be faithful to open our mouths and speak as we ought to speak. The deacon’s office provides him with a wealth of opportunity here. To merely relieve the temporal wants of the poor and distressed, without laboring to save their souls, is certainly not using the office well. It is in fact to throw to the winds one of the greatest opportunities this life will afford us. Solomon says, “A man’s gift maketh room for him.” (Prov. 18:16). The gift brings out the welcome mat, and opens the door. And the gift opens the heart also to the message and testimony of the giver—-and if not that, it will at any rate open the ear to listen to it.

I know a woman who was once living an ungodly and dissolute life. Two men from a Baptist church knocked on her door to preach the gospel. She had no interest—-told them she knew all that already, and didn’t want it. But her evil ways had brought her to want, and this they learned in their brief visit. They returned a few days later carrying bags of groceries. This broke her heart, and she was converted. The deacon who uses his office well will seek out such cases of need, and use them as an opening for the gospel. This will require boldness, and those who use the office well will attain a habit of boldness.

But again, we may all seek out and use such opportunities, without being deacons. A car stalled by the roadside, a car stuck in a snow bank, a man needing a ride—-these and other cases of need call for help, and they are also opportunities to labor to save souls. I have sometimes given the needed help, but been too timid to preach the gospel. This is surely not using such opportunities well. To use such opportunities well we must overcome our natural timidity, and speak for Christ. We may fail to accomplish anything by it. That is, we may fail to move the other person. But the effort is not lost for all that, for by using such opportunities well we purchase to ourselves great boldness in the testimony of Christ.

Glenn Conjurske