“And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility.”
Acts 6:3 (NLT)
As a result of the apostles’ obedience to Jesus, the effectiveness of the message, and the power consistently on display to back up the message, the believers rapidly multiply. And as is usually the case when believers multiply rapidly, something goes wrong—there is no perfect church.
The minority, the Greek-speaking believers, were complaining that the Aramaic-speaking believers were basically getting more food in the daily distribution. So the twelve apostles call a meeting of all the believers, and they’re wise enough to discern that they should focus on teaching the word of God and not running a food program.
Like the story of Moses being instructed by Jethro, there are elders and others we can appoint that can perform this task. As one body with many parts, we have to put people in positions within the body that they’re designed for. The apostles then say, let’s select seven men who are well respected, full of the Spirit, and full of wisdom.
This is a reminder that being a believer doesn’t automatically mean we’re walking in the fullness of Holy Spirit—there’s an invitation here for all of us. And leaders must be given responsibility—if apostles hold on to all of the responsibility, the church does not multiply or become unified. So today, is there an opportunity to appoint someone with the responsibility you should not be carrying, and is there someone in leadership that needs to be prayed over to receive the fullness of Holy Spirit?