The Members and Officers of a Church

Eddie

Some denominations have bishops, pastors, and deacons; other denominations have elders and deacons who are part of a session but not a diocese; yet other denominations have elders in what they call assemblies. Cross Cultured Church has elders and deacons. With such differing church polities, should we hold other churches with a different polity in high suspicion? To what extent should our catholicity stretch our understanding of who is part of the body of Christ?

This morning, we will continue to study Phil 1:1–2. Specifically, we will consider the members and officers of the church.

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This letter is written to the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi. Additionally, Paul recognizes that the church at Philippi has overseers and deacons. This is the only letter of Paul written to a church where he mentions the overseers and deacons. I hope you recollect that Paul left Titus in Crete (Tit 1:5). One of Titus’s tasks was to appoint elders in every town. It appears that by the time Paul wrote to the church at Philippi, they already had overseers and deacons in place. My aim in this sermon is to teach us why there is disagreement about church leadership, how we can be sure of the biblical officers of the church, and how to respond to differing opinions. Under that bigger aim lies a lower aim but a more important one: who are the saints in Christ Jesus, and how should we refer to such?

The Disagreement About Church Leadership

If you ask the leaders of churches who have such a practice whether it is right for a church to have bishops over and above pastors, they will not say that it is wrong. They will tell you that it is an old practice, far older than the Baptist denomination, which surfaced four hundred years ago, and that it has lasted since at least the second century. They would be right; this practice can definitely be traced back to AD 180.[1] The threefold ministry of bishop, presbyter, and deacon was universally accepted throughout the church by this time. In AD 96, Clement, the presbyter of Rome, did not distinguish between bishop and presbyter in his writings. However, in AD 110, just fourteen years later, Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, teaches that bishops and presbyters are separate roles. Why does this change occur? Historian Nick Needham says that “the main issue the Christian community had to decide in the age of the apostolic fathers was the question of leadership: who was to govern and guide the churches now that the apostles were dead?”[2] Ignatius is the earliest unambiguous advocate of the threefold model. In his letter to the Smyrnaens, he says,

“See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Christ Jesus does the Father, and the presbytery as ye would the apostles. Revere ye also the deacons, as those that carry out [through their office] the appointment of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as where Christ is, there does all the heavenly host stand by, waiting upon Him as the Chief Captain of the Lord’s might, and the Governor of every intelligent nature. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize, or to offer, or to present sacrifice, or to celebrate a love-feast. But that which seems good to him, is also well-pleasing to God, that everything ye do may be secure and valid.”[3]

Ignatius taught his readers that the bishop must be honored higher than the king.[4] While we cannot condemn Ignatius’s motives, we can trace this practice back to his writings. Half a century later, his teaching is a universal practice. The practice you see in some churches around you, where the pastor is honored above all, fed first, and waited upon, is an old teaching intended to help people trust the guidance and leadership of the senior pastor. It has eventually changed from a teaching tool to an unspoken law.

Fast forward a few hundred years. The existence of bishops changed the way some bishops read the Bible. For example, John Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople in the fourth century, does not read Philippians 1:1–2 as our English translations do. He reads the text in this way, “to all the saints in Christ Jesus, who are at Philippi, fellow-bishops, and deacons.”[5] For him, a Bishop has the power to lay hands and ordain, while a presbyter does not have this authority.[6] He reasons this because Timothy, a bishop, is told not to lay hands hastily on anyone (1 Tim 5:22). It was not just that it was common practice, and that Chrysostom himself was a bishop, but also that it was slightly hard to read the Bible given these circumstances. What do I mean by “it was slightly hard to read the Bible?” In the fourth century, the NT was still written in all caps with no spaces between words. Take a look at this fourth-century manuscript that contains the end of Ephesians and the beginning of Philippians. Do not gasp, they knew how to read without spaces, just as some of you learned SMS language years ago, and today’s young folk speak the Gen Z slang and understand each other. However, this can sometimes be confusing. Like in the case of our text.

A preposition can be a prefix in a word, like the preposition pre in both preposition and prefix. A preposition can also take an object—before the world, around the house, inside the bucket. Our problem section is here [ΣΥΝΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΙΣ] on this manuscript page. In this verse, if there is a space between the preposition “syn,” then the words overseers and deacons become the objects of that preposition. This is how our Bibles read this verse today. However, “syn” can be the prefix of overseers. If that were the case, then it would read co-overseers or fellow-bishops and deacons. That is how Chrysostom and many others read it. This is just an example of how and why some churches have different church polities or government structures.

The Biblical Officers of the Church

Having said that, is the Bible clear about who the officers of the church are? Yes. It is clear. In 1 Tim 3 as well as Tit 1, there are two set of officers—the elder and the deacon. First, elder is the English translation of the Greek presbyteros, which is transliterated into English as presbyter. Second, the elder is also known by other names in the Bible. The word in Greek episkopos is the word in our passage. This literally means overseer. The Greek episkopos continued in Latin as episcopus. From Latin, it went to Old English, dropping the eh sound, becoming bisceop. In Middle English, this became bisshop. Today, we use the word bishop. Another word for this role in the Bible is the word poimen, which means shepherd. The Latin word for shepherd is pastor. You can see how this is the word we have in English. All this is to say that the office of an elder can be called presbyter, overseer, bishop, pastor, or shepherd. It all refers to the same office. The other office in the Bible is the deacon.

Because there are only two offices in the Bible, scribes identified the word “syn” as a preposition. We have evidence of this as early as the twelfth century, when they began writing in lowercase letters with spaces. So, they added a space in between “syn” and “episkopos.”

In Cross Cultured Church, we have elders and deacons. And no, we do not expect elders to be honored above kings, fed before others have eaten, or given any such honors. Do what the Bible says. The Bible says to love and honor them. “We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work” (1 Thess 5:12–13). Submit to them, not blindly, but to the biblical teaching they dispense. “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Heb 13:17). Bless them when you are blessed. “Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches” (Gal 6:6). The seventeenth-century Baptist pastor, Nehemiah Coxe, says, “If God blesses the congregation with a plentiful portion of this world’s goods, it is their duty to make their minister a party with them in their flourishing condition. Considering the place and employment he is in and the service he attends, it would be extremely unworthy to think you have done enough if [only] his pressing necessities are answered, while you abound in superfluities.”[7]

As Christians, then, we do our best to obey God’s word in keeping with how much of his word, the Holy Spirit helps us understand. By God’s grace, we apply this teaching in our lives and walk according to God’s design.

Responding to Differing Opinions

Now that we have seen that there are disagreements about church leadership structures and also looked at what the Bible teaches, we must turn to our response to those who practice church polity differently from how we understand the biblical teaching. Are those who follow a bishop-pastor-deacon model in serious error? No, they are not. They are wrong, but all wrongs are not equal. Some wrongs, like believing that Jesus is not God, are so severe that the person who believes it will spend eternity in hell. Some wrongs cannot exist in the same church. For example, the bible teaches that believers must be baptized. Those who baptize infants of believers are wrong. But you will find infant baptized believers in heaven. We do not admit infant baptized professing believers into membership at Cross Cultured Church. We believe that they are not baptized. Thus, an evangelistic church can exist up the road that practices infant baptism while we exist here, practicing believers’ baptism, without calling the other church right. We would say they are wrong, and they could say that we are wrong. But we do not claim that they are not brothers and sisters in Christ. We treat them as mistaken brothers and sisters, but brothers and sisters nevertheless. Then there are differences that may be wrong but can exist in the same church. For example, one of you may think that it is not okay to eat meat during Lent or Advent. Some others may not share that belief. The Bible teaches that each of you must practice what your conscience permits without looking down on the other in this matter. So, there are severe errors that, if one believes them, indicate that one is not a brother in Christ. There are other errors that one may believe while being brothers in Christ, but in different churches or denominations.  Finally, there are some differences that brothers in the same church can have while respecting each other. This does not mean both parties are right. But it is a minor issue. Having said that, there are also second-order issues that are not clearly essential to the Christian faith that are dangerous. They attack the foundation of the Christian faith. For example, one can believe that the Bible contains errors. It is not essential to the Christian faith to believe that the Bible has no errors; we do not have any such command. But imagine the damage it can do to the faith to distrust the Bible. Someone who believes this is a brother in Christ, in grave danger of leaving the faith or upsetting the faith of others. We must see if we can convince them to abandon such bad beliefs.

What does all this mean for churches with different forms of church government? It is a secondary issue. They are still our brothers in the Lord. And we must treat them and speak of them with love and respect. It is issues of the first order that are clearly essential to the Christian faith that determine if they are brothers in Christ. This issue alone is insufficient to identify a church as teaching or practicing heresy.

The Saints in Christ

Now that we have considered the church officers and what our response must be toward a brother in Christ, a saint, let us consider what it means to be a saint in Christ Jesus. The word saint is related to sanctification. It means to be set aside for the Lord—consecrated, holy. These are God’s servants who praise him and walk in his ways. They have answered his call to be his children by faith, repenting of their evil ways, trusting in Jesus’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of their sins and for their righteousness. They have been baptized, washed to become saints. Baptism is an ordination service for a believer, making them a royal priest of God. They can now draw near to the throne of grace boldly. They can participate in communion and receive Jesus spiritually. What amazing gifts of grace. The priests of the OT washed themselves, offered the sacrifice, and ate a part of the sacrifice. The NT believers believe that Jesus is the lamb of God, they are washed at their baptism, and they eat the lamb of God who died as the once-for-all sacrifice as priests of old did. As priests must maintain their holiness, so must we. We are called holy. When we sin, we pollute ourselves. In the OT, this would disqualify a priest. In the NT, we go back to the mercy seat and ask to be purified again. What grace that is! Let us not take that grace for granted.

Loving the Church

Finally, friends, how must we respond to the fact that there are other brothers in Christ in churches around us? We love them; we pray for them; we partner with them, now and then, here and there; we rejoice when God adds to their numbers; we seek their good. We do not speak evil of another church when they differ from us in areas that are not against the essential Christian faith. We treat them with respect and love because they are God’s children, bought by the blood of Jesus, just as we were.

We believe in one holy catholic church. The church belongs to Jesus. He is the head of the church. He has purchased the church with his blood. We must love the church not because the church has value in and of itself, but because we value Jesus and his blood. Our love for Jesus should overflow into respect and love for fellow churches.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Coxe, Nehemiah. Biblical Elders and Deacons. 1688. Repr., Pensacola, FL: Chapel Library, 2015.

Needham, Nick. 2000 Years of Christ’s Power: The Age of the Early Church Fathers. Vol. 1. Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2016.

Roberts, Alexander, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds. The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. Vol. 1 of The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Buffalo: Christian Literature Company, 1885.

Schaff, Philip, ed. Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. Vol. 13 of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers First Series. New York: Christian Literature Company, 1889.

[1] Needham, Nick, 2000 Years of Christ’s Power: The Age of the Early Church Fathers (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2016), 1:67.

[2] The Age of the Early Church Fathers, 1:67.

[3] Ignatius of Antioch, ISmyr 8, (ANF 1:90).

[4] ISmyr 9, (ANF 1:90).

[5] John Chrysostom, Hom Phil 1, (NPNF 1/13:184).

[6] Hom Phil 1 (NPNF 1/13:184).

[7] Biblical Elders and Deacons (1688; Pensacola, FL: Chapel Library, 2015), 21.