Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Maturity. Acts 6:3-15
This passage is bringing us to something
of a conclusion to the first part of Acts. The ministry of the apostles in Acts
2-6 is in
So we see the transition that takes place
in chapter six. We are introduced to the problem that occurred in the
Acts 6:3 NASB “Therefore,
brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the
Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.
The word “reputation” in Acts 6:3 is martureo [marturew]
is a present passive participle. It means to bear witness. It is the typical
word for someone who gives testimony in a courtroom. So these are seven men who
have a good testimony from other people. Within the sphere of public life they
are considered to be upright men, having a good reputation both inside and
outside the church. That reputation is then qualified by the next phrase, an
appositional phrase which means that it is saying the previous thing in a
slightly different and perhaps more precise way for clarification. The apostles
are clarifying what they mean by a good testimony. It comes from the source of
the Holy Spirit, not from the source of the individual. He is not simply a good
moral person; there is a spiritual vitality to him, he has grown spiritually.
He is said to be full of the Holy Spirit
and wisdom. What is important is that we look at this grammatically. The two
nouns—“Holy Spirit” and “wisdom”—are equally objects of the adjective. They are
both in the genitive case in the Greek, and generally speaking the genitive is
a case of description. We talk about someone being the son of his father. The
words “of his father” are describing something about the noun “son”; it is who
he is related to. So in a broad sense all genitives are descriptive, all of
them are adjectives. One of the interesting things about a genitive is that it
is often used with some verb or noun relating to content. The noun pleres [plhrhj]
is related to the verb pleroo [plhrow]
which we see in Ephesians 5:18 where it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
But what follows the verb in Ephesians
Here we have this phrase, “full of the
Holy Spirit and wisdom.” It was typical of a generation or two before us to
have taught the principle that if we look at the book of Acts there were many
different fillings of the Spirit. People like C.I. Scofield,
L.S. Chafer and others taught this. They failed to take into account that there
are different words used for being full of the Spirit or being full of the
Spirit—different verbs (pimplemi
rather than pleroo), and in these
case the noun pleres instead of
the verb—and that these are not talking about the same thing that Ephesians
We see this in the order of the words
related to the Holy Spirit. “Full” means to mean the same thing as “full” of
wisdom. Wisdom is a process of growth that takes place over time as one takes
in the Word of God and assimilates it into their thinking and applies it to
every area of life. It is not an absolute concept. For example, when we talk
about being filled by the Spirit, we talk about either being filled or not
being filled by means of the Spirit; we are in fellowship or out of fellowship;
either walking by the Spirit or not walking by the Spirit. Wisdom is a
progressive aspect as a result of spiritual growth. So we don’t say one minute
we are wise and the next second are out of fellowship and foolish; confess our
sins and now are wise. Wise is not a term we would apply to an immature
believer. He can be walking by the Spirit but he hasn’t had enough time of
spiritual growth to be considered wise yet. So by looking at the other
characteristics that are the object of the noun we come to understand that this
has to be a descriptive phrase related to spiritual maturity. And also because
of the task they are going to be appointed to. They are going to be handling
money, so this is going to be related to an aspect of their personal integrity
in being able to be trusted with money.
This phrase, the noun pleres followed by a genitive phrase, is
used in a number of different places in Scripture, so we don’t just have this
one example. We have a similar example in Acts 9:36 NASB “Now in
Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which translated {in Greek} is called
Dorcas); this woman was abounding with deeds [full of
good deeds] of kindness and charity which she continually did.” If “full of the
Spirit” means the same idea as in Ephesians 5:18—in fellowship or out of
fellowship; filled with the Spirit or not filled with the Spirit—then “full of
charitable deeds” means full of them one minute and then the next minute not
full of them; then back in fellowship and full of them. That doesn’t make
sense; it doesn’t fit this kind of a context. So this phraseology of being full
of something is just a way of saying that this person’s life is characterised
so much by these attributes—the attributes of good works, helping those around
her, and gracious deeds to people. That is what she was known for; she did this
so much.
A second verse is Acts 11:24 NASB
“for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith…” This is the
opposite order from Acts chapter six. Some theologians have tried to make an
issue out of the order and they botch it terribly. They try to make one of
these terms a qualification of the other and say, “Full of the Holy Spirit who
produces faith.” That just doesn’t work. There are two genitival nouns that are
the objects of this one other noun, “full of,” and so they have to be treated
the same way. Here in this Scripture again is the fact that this man is full of
the Holy Scripture and faith; his life is characterised by his relation with
the Holy Spirit and his consistent faith and trust in God.
Acts 13:9 NASB “But Saul, who
was also {known as} Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him.”
This is a different word, pimplemi
[pimplhmi],
and it is followed by a genitive so it should be translated “with the Spirit”
but “of the Spirit.” It is talking about the content, not means. Acts
In Acts 6:3 we see a statement: “…to seek
out seven men of good reputation,” i.e. “full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.”
They are characterised by their consistent walk with the Holy Spirit and that
has produced wisdom in their life—a skilful application of the Word in their
life so that they can be appointed over the business.
The first person that came to mind was Stephen,
Acts 6:5, who is described as “a man full of faith and
of the Holy Spirit.” He is full of the Holy Spirit—not that he is in fellowship
all of the time but that he has been in fellowship, has walked by the Spirit,
so that his life the characteristic of spirituality that is spiritual growth
and maturity. Then in verse 8 is another statement about Stephen: “full of
grace and power.” Now there is a new element added. Power wasn’t something that
came or went whether he was in fellowship or out of fellowship. Because of the
position he is in this is something that now characterises his Christian
life.
This is quite a bit different, using this
phraseology as a description of maturity, from what we see in Ephesians 5:18.
In that verse is a contrasted statement. We have the phrase “do not get drunk
with wine.” Wine is in the dative case, indicating an instrument or a means to
an end. “…for that is dissipation, but,” Paul says, and now uses the phrase, en pneumati [e)n pneumati]. en
is the Greek preposition that can be translated “with” or “by,” and in some
case even “in.” It usually indicates instrumentality, something by which
something is done. So we are to be “filled by [or, by means of] the Holy
Spirit.” He is the instrument of the filling, not the content of the filling. When
we get in fellowship, one minute we are not empty and the next minute full up
to the brim with the Holy Spirit, and then when we get out of fellowship it is
all gone and we are constantly up and down. We are not getting more of the Holy
Spirit. When we walk more consistently by the Spirit and we reach spiritual
maturity then that phrase “full of the Spirit” would apply. But here Paul is
talking about the means to an end. We understand that in verse 18 and have to
contrast this to a common erroneous analysis of this passage.
What happens when a person has too much of
an alcoholic beverage is that they begin to lose their inhibitions and act
different than they would otherwise. So often it is
easy to understand drunkenness as an aspect of control. But what happens when a
person is under the influence? We say they are no longer volitionally
responsible. They may be volitionally responsible for getting under the
influence but once they are really inebriated their volition is controlled by
the alcohol. This passage isn’t talking about control, this is talking about
influence. There is a difference. Often commentaries use the word “control” and
they don’t really mean that. If Stephen was controlled by the Holy Spirit then
that would mean that his volition would be completely controlled or overridden
by the Holy Spirit. So what would cause the Holy Spirit to quit overriding his
volition? We still have to make decisions. We still get into circumstances
where we have to decide, am I going to apply God’s Word to this circumstance or
not. God is not going to make that decision for us. That is mysticism, the idea
that I am just going to give up and let God take over. No, we can’t do that
because God doesn’t step into the driver’s seat; He is not going to subvert our
volition.
This idea of being drunk with wine was
significant in
So what Paul was saying here is: Don’t be
drunk with wine, wine is not the key to being close to God. Being filled by
means of the Spirit instead; that is how you become close to God. And the
results that we find in Ephesians that follow that command are very important
to notice: “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
The different terms, whether we are
talking about John 15, “Abide in Christ,” that is remaining in fellowship. Or
there are another passages that talk about walking in
the light. Walking is a metaphor for light. It involves the fact that we are to
live moment by moment, day by day, but we walk in the light, i.e. in the light
of God’s Word in fellowship. Or, if we sin, we are walking in darkness. We are
to walk by means of the Holy Spirit, and the result is that the Holy Spirit
produces fruit in our lives—character transformation.
So this command that they are to be full
of the Spirit and full of wisdom is a statement that they are to be spiritually
mature so that they have a reputation among those not only in the church but
outside the church as being spiritually mature. Then they can be trusted to be
appointed over this business. In contrast the apostles say, Acts 6:4 NASB
“But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
So this is the first time we recognize
that there needs to be a division of labor and
division of responsibility in terms of the leadership of the church. There is
one group whose primary respo9nsibility is to be in the Word—to study the Word,
to teach the Word and to be in prayer. You can’t separate the two. To be in prayer and study; to be in study and prayer. It is
not study and teach, it is pray, study and teach. That
is the threefold mandate for the pastor. That is his primary mission. Is that
all he does? No. As we will see in this description there is a responsibility
given to these seven men toward the administration and distribution of the
funds to help the widows. But we never see Stephen do that. The first thing we
see Stephen do is he is out preaching the gospel. Was he wrong? No. When we
talk about the fact that the pastor’s primary job is to pray, study and teach
that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have other responsibilities. As a person living
life he has many responsibilities. A pastor may be a husband, a parent, may be
involved in other aspects of life because of where he lives or what he does. There
are pastors who do other things on the side to raise money in order to support
their families. They are also citizens in the nation and as citizens they have responsibilities
like every other citizen to be involved in our community.
Within Judaism there is a phrase and a
concept that is drilled into every young Jewish person. Loosely translated it
means to “repair the world.” It comes out of the Abrahamic
covenant. In Genesis chapter twelve when God called out Abraham He gave a
command: “You are to be a blessing to the whole world.” The root of that
command is to recognize that their responsibility before God was to be a
blessing to their neighbours and to those around them. That is why they were to
love their neighbour as themselves. That is part of that, and even though Jesus
ratchets up that command in John 13 and says we are to love one another,
Leviticus is still quoted many times in the New Testament to the church age
believers that we are to love our neighbours as ourselves. We don’t just become
insulated and isolated from the culture around us. We don’t just sit back and
say, I am in the church now, I am in the body of Christ; I don’t like all those
other people who aren’t Christians, I am going to just stay in my own little
tight, insulated community and not function in terms of the broader community.
That is how we are to be engaged. We, too, have that responsibility to do everything,
every area of our responsibility, the glory of God. That means our citizenship,
whatever other functions related to being a father, a mother, a parent, a
grandparent, whatever our job or career might be.
But what we are talking about here is that
within the structure of the church the primary ministry was the Word and
prayer. Later on we are going to learn that that gets refined by the apostle
Paul in the pastoral epistles. Paul tells Timothy who
has the gift of pastor-teacher and not the gift of evangelist that he is to also
do the work of an evangelist. He is to proclaim the gospel.
The pastor’s job is not to represent the
church down at City Hall every time there is a problem in the community. That doesn’t
mean there aren’t going to be occasions when that might be something he has to
do, but that is not his primary job. And if he does it, it is so that he can
get rid of whatever the problem is and get back to doing the thing he is
supposed to be doing—praying, studying and teaching. Sometimes there are
distractions that come into our lives so that we have to go and deal with the
distraction so that it quits being a distraction. That is what happened in Acts
chapter six. They had a distraction and had to deal with it so that they could
get back to doing what they were supposed to be doing.
The word proskartereo
is also used in Colossians 4:2 for prayer. NASB “Devote yourselves
to prayer, keeping alert in it with {an attitude of} thanksgiving.” Make it a
priority to pray.
There is a response in Acts 6:5 NASB
“The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose
Stephen…” This is really important for understanding things that go on later on
in the church. This is a basis later for congregational involvement in the
selection process of church leaders. It is not just something imposed from the
top down. It has its roots in the Old Testament. When Moses received the advice
from Jethro to delegate responsibilities, to divide
up the tribes of
Acts 6:6 NASB
“And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their
hands on them.
What is the result? Acts
6:7 NASB “The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the
disciples continued to increase greatly in
Acts 6:8 NASB “And Stephen,
full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the
people.
Acts