6:2
We then come to the solution, and it is interesting that in what follows there is no direct discussion of the issue itself, i.e. we aren’t told whether or not the Hellenistic Jews actually had a legitimate complaint. At this point it seems that the church was run by the Twelve, i.e. the apostles. As I noted in the previous verse, the issue itself is not the focus of what follows, rather we are given general principles. The first one here is “it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables”. There may have been a call for the apostles to take hold of the matter. There is always a tendency to put more and more duties on leaders. This is a dangerous road to follow. It is the Spirit and the word that are the essential engines of the church, and the devil loves for us to neglect these matters, for they are the means by which the kingdom advances. We see this in many ways in churches. The “one man ministry” is a particular example. In the church of England the bishops these days seem to have very little involvement in spiritual matters, though given the lack of faith among the bishops this is perhaps a blessing! Elderships can become bogged down with administrative matters, and the increasing number of regulations that society puts upon us make this all the more difficult to avoid. Practical matters do matter and we need wisdom in how to handle these without being diverted from our primary purpose.
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